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London Under

the Secret History Beneath the Streets
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ColemanRidge
Dec 05, 2011ColemanRidge rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I've read a few books and articles describing hidden parts of big cities, and likely so have you. This one is different in a couple of respects: the writing is quite good, and London was already old when the Romans got there. London is built on sand and clay, so that buildings would sink into the soil. First floors became basements. When buildings collapsed and were built over, as happened repeatedly, they were pressed down till they hit clay too dense to penetrate further, and then crushed. So, as well as walking over underground rivers, forgotten cellars, vaults, catacombs, tunnels, bomb shelters, and switchrooms, Londoners walk over flattened earlier versions of the city. Some of those earlier cities belong underground. They were very much like Hell.