CURRENT LITERATURE LITERATURE
LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL SURVEY OF LONDON Volume XVIII : The Strand Students of London topography can- not be too grateful to the County Council for co-operating with the London Survey Committee and thus expediting the great task that it began long ago. The new volumes are not only appearing more frequently but are published at a guinea instead of at a prohibitive price. The latest to appear deals with the diffi- cult and fascinating history of the Strand at its western end, as a second part of the account of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. No part of London has been more com- pletely transformed by rebuilding. The mansions with their gardens on the river have vanished. Northumberland House, which stood to the west of the station till 1874, is shown by plans and photographs to have been a veritable palace. The station itself covers the site of Hungerford Market (1682-1862), which Dickens knew in its most derelict stage. The rise and fall of the Adelphi, the Adams' great gamble, are fully recorded, with many delightful photo- graphs. It is shown for the first time that the interior of No. 12 Buckingham Street is much the same as when Pepys lived there. The historical notes on each property are full and exact, so that
one can identify the famous residents' of each successive generation. The ' 'un- named authors have done their work admirably.
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