A fascinating selection of images, giving a unique perspective on the people and streets of London in the fifties and sixties.

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice A Telegraph Editor’s Choice An Evening Standard “Best Books about London” Selection In popular imagination, London is a city of fog. The classic London fogs, the thick yellow “pea-soupers,” were born in the industrial age of the early nineteenth century. Christine L. Corton tells the story of these epic London fogs, their dangers and beauty, and their lasting effects on our culture and imagination. “Engrossing and magnificently researched...Corton’s book combines meticulous social history with a wealth of eccentric detail. Thus we learn that London’s ubiquitous plane trees were chosen for their shiny, fog-resistant foliage. And since Jack the Ripper actually went out to stalk his victims on fog-free nights, filmmakers had to fake the sort of dank, smoke-wreathed London scenes audiences craved. It’s discoveries like these that make reading London Fog such an unusual, enthralling and enlightening experience.” —Miranda Seymour, New York Times Book Review “Corton, clad in an overcoat, with a linklighter before her, takes us into the gloomier, long 19th century, where she revels in its Gothic grasp. Beautifully illustrated, London Fog delves fascinatingly into that swirling miasma.” —Philip Hoare, New Statesman

A photographic journey through the history of this epic city Samuel Johnson famously said that: “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” London’s remarkable history, architecture, landmarks, streets, style, cool, swagger, and stalwart residents are pictured in hundreds of compelling photographs sourced from a wide array of archives around the world. London is a vast sprawling metropolis, constantly evolving and growing, yet throughout its complex past and shifting present, the humor, unique character, and bulldog spirit of the people have stayed constant. This book salutes all those Londoners, their city, and its history. In addition to the wealth of images included in this book, many previously unpublished, London’s history is told through hundreds of quotations, lively essays, and references from key movies, books, and records. From Victorian London to the Swinging 60s; from the Battle of Britain to Punk; from the Festival of Britain to the 2012 Olympics; from the foggy cobbled streets to the architectural masterpieces of the millennium; from rough pubs to private drinking ♣ from Royal Weddings to raves, from the charm of the East End to the wonders of the Westminster; from Chelsea girls to Hoxton hipsters; from the power to glory: in page after page of stunning photographs, reproduced big and bold like the city itself, London at last gets the photographic tribute it deserves. Photographs by: Slim Aarons, Eve Arnold, David Bailey, Cecil Beaton, Bill Brandt, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Anton Corbijn, Terence Donovan, Roger Fenton, Bert Hardy, Evelyn Hofer, Frank Horvat, Tony Ray-Jones, Nadav Kander, Roger Mayne, Linda McCartney, Don McCullin, Norman Parkinson, Martin Parr, Rankin, Lord Snowdon, William Henry Fox Talbot, Juergen Teller, Mario Testino, Wolfgang Tillmans, and many, many others. For die-hard lovers of Paris, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, and New York, TASCHEN introduces the Portrait of a City Art Edition series. For each edition, limited to only 500 copies, a legendary local fashion designer is invited to design a bespoke fabric to line the cover, and a large signed and numbered print of one of the images from the book is included. Paul Smith has designed the fabric cover for the Art Editions of London: Portrait of a City, and the print Traffic Policeman was taken by photographer Elmar Ludwig. Art Edition B - No. 501-1,000 Traffic Policeman, 1960s Fine art print on archival paper 52 x 68 cm (20.5 x 26.8 in.) (Frame not included) Also available in another Art Edition (No. 1-500)

A fascinating insight into Berlin in a key period of the Cold War.