The Port of London. By John Herbert. (Collins. 5s.)
THIS, the latest addition to " Britain in Pictures," is not among the most successful contributions to the series. Vital as the Thames is to the port the two are not the same thing, and too many of the pictures which form so prominent a feature of the volume (e.g., Canaletto's famous "The Thames from Richmond House," still more sketches of Chiswick Reach or Cheyne Walk) bear no relation to the port at all, even though the Port of London Authority exercises control from Teddington to the Nore. Mr. Herbert's narrative, moreover, ivhile adequately instructive, is essentially undistinguished, whether he is treating his theme geographically or historically or devoting a surprisingly disproportionate amount of space to the projects of the Thames Barrage Association. His information, moreover, seems sometimes imperfect, for in discussing various schemes for passenger transport on the Thames he omits all reference to the service which the London County Council ran, to the satisfaction of Londoners as citizens and their detriment as ratepayers, for several years in the first decade of this century. On the whole the Port of London lends itself to better treatment, by both pen and pencil, than this.
Previous page
