A unique evocation of Britain at the height of Margaret Thatcher's rule,A Journey Through Ruinsviews the transformation of the country through the unexpected prism of every day life in East London. Written at a time when the looming but still unfinished tower of Canary Wharf was still wrapped in protective blue plastic, its cast of characters includes council tenants trapped in disintegrating tower blocks, depressed gentrifiers worrying about negative equity, metal detectorists, sharp-eyed estate agents and management consultants, and even Prince Charles. Written half a century after the blitz, the book reviews the rise and fall of the London of the post-war settlement. It remains one of the very best accounts of what it was like to live through the Thatcher years. This reissue includes a new introduction revisiting the book's East End starting point in Dalston Lane, four additional chapters, and an insert of photographs taken in and around Dalston in the year of the book's first appearance.
Going Back to Dalston: Preface to the Oxford Edition Part One: The Undemolished World of Dalston Lane 1. Street-Corner Vision 2. Around the World in Three Hundred Yards 3. All Cats are Grey by Night 4. Down in the Dirt 5. Dalston Lane Becomes a Downland Track Part Two: Brideshead and the Tower Blocks 6. Brideshead Relocated 7. Abysmal Heights 8. Rodinsky's Place 9. An Unexpected Reprieve Part Three: Scenes from the Privatized City 10. The London Bus Queue Falls Apart 11. The Vandalized Telephone Box 12. The Man with a Metal Detector 13. Drinking Water in a Toxic State Part Four: Tales of Conversion 14. The Park that Lost its Name 15. Remembering London's War 16. The Bow Quarter: Six Hundred and Seventy Luxury Flats in an Old Victorian Hell-House Part Five: Visions of the New Dawn 17. Excellence: From Fifth Avenue tl3½
![A Journey Through Ruins The Last Days of London [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/8/1/3/2_1414420.jpg)