Animal London: A Spotter's Guide

by Ianthe Ruthven

Dragons guarding gateways, elephants in parks, sea monsters on gables—this quirky guidebook introduces the animals that hide amidst the iconic London landscape London is full of animals. They are hidden in crumbling graveyards, daubed in canal-bank graffiti, and perched atop rooftops, but in the hustle-and-bustle at street level they are all too often overlooked. This guidebook full of gorgeous photography brings to life the animal artworks that give London its unique character. From rabbits, owls, dogs, and cats to tortoises, dolphins, sharks, and gorillas, a menagerie of creatures inhabits every corner of the city from Tobacco Docks to Crystal Palace, Bankside to Hackney. They span both ancient and modern monstrous medieval gargoyles lurk down damp alleyways, while in a modern urban wasteland there lives a "mechanosaurous" made out of car parts by scrap merchants. From the moment a reader spies one in the undergrowth

Genres: Animals, London, Nonfiction

174 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 2011

Reviews

[Carole Tyrrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent review of animals on sculptures and accompanying statues and with good notes and reserach. Lovely photos too.
I wante dthis when it first came out but finding a lone copy in a pound shop at Christmas was real luck.