London noir - Cathi Unsworth

The city of William Blake and Jack the Ripper; the Bow Street Runners and The Krays; Bedlam and Newgate; the Pistols and the Clash ? London is the ancient capital of crime. London Noir is an A-Z of what lies beneath the official city maps. It takes you on a tour from the mythic East End, where modern day gangsters hide behind a political front; to the bohemian West, where priests pray and police prey on their flocks. In the North unearthly sacrifices are taking place to terrible Gods and in the South strange beasts emerge from beneath the concrete walkways. This is a London of dream and nightmare, shadows and fog.
Some of your tour guides have soundtracked the city before; some of them are new voices. All of them are fuelled by the forces of the metropolis, guided by the voices of police and thieves, conmen and pornographers, witchdoctors and clergymen, the great and good and the down and dirty.