"The book is a belter. What we call in my house a Velvet Underground - a great Loo Read"

"Author, Paul Talling, prowled the metropolis for five years photographing the wretched,

the ramshackle, the tumbledown and the downright sinister. From the forlorn suburban

terraces on the North Circular Road to the creepily prison-like, rat-infested Ferrier estate

in Kidbrooke, from the closed-down rock pubs of Soho to the vast disused granary (as

featured in Ashes to Ashes) of the Millennium Mills in Royal Dock, it offers a moving

chronicle of living spaces that died and, for the moment, are not being revivified."

Derelict London - the book (published by Random House): www.rbooks.co.uk

"a wonderful catalogue of the capital's social history. Shots of the old Crystal Palace, the ill-fated

Tobacco Docks development and Victorian pubs giving way to Starbucks are richly evocative."

Available in all bookshops inc Waterstones, Foyles, WH Smith plus on the web

From the decaying houses on the North Circular, to the faded glory of the Tidal Basin Tavern in Royal Victoria

Dock, via Battersea Power Station and the Hoxton Theatre, this is an extraordinary record of

often wonderful London landmarks that are now prey to neglect, vandalism and the developer's demolition crew.

Paul Talling has been recording ramshackle London for several years, and here he looks at the cream of the

down-at-heel, blending photographs with accounts of how particular buildings and sights fell into disrepair

and what is likely to happen to them. The Victorian Concrete House in East Dulwich, for example – a once

magnificent example of an early concrete-built house but now a shell. Palmers in Camden Town, formerly

the most famous pet shop in London, where Ken Livingstone bought his newts. Strand Tube Station, which

featured in films as diverse as Battle of Britain, Superman IV and An American Werewolf in Paris. To mention

only a few of the myriad houses, pubs, cinemas, bomb shelters, cemeteries and shops meticulously recorded

If you've ever peeped curiously through a gap in a boarded-up window or wondered why the building you pass

every day is looking distinctly the worse for wear, this is very definitely the book for you.

"There's nothing shabby about Derelict London, a thoughtful compendium of unloved and

forgotten buildings, the necrotic ulcers in London's hidden underbelly. Photos from the

author, some taken in locations where we wouldn't want to risk an expensive SLR, are

backed up with illuminating research and tip-offs from fans of his web site."