Almost nothing in the middle of London stands on the ground London began with.
Dig down through a City pavement and you pass cellar fill, burnt debris from the Great Fire, medieval rubbish and a Roman street before you reach natural gravel. Engineers call it made ground: soil that people put there. This book argues that London is built from its own leftovers, and that the real protagonists of its story are the clay, the tide, fire and depth, not the kings.
Follow a Roman wall that survives in office basements. See why the Great Fire was really a legal and financial problem, solved by a special court and a tax on coal. Watch a summer stench force Parliament to build the sewers that still serve the city. Find out why docks are just holes with gates, and why the Tube is more a feat of geology than engineering.
Written for curious readers, not specialists, Made Ground is short enough to finish and specific enough to change how you see a street. The final chapter is a field guide, with checklists and walks that let you read London's brickwork, slopes and street names yourself.
Pick it up, then go and look down.
