The Ghosts of Piccadilly

Description

The Ghosts of Piccadilly by G. S. Street is not a spooky ghost story – it is simply an entertaining and well-written collection of biography fragments, pieces of gossip and letters by and about people who once lived in one of London’s oldest districts, as well as stories of buildings in the area, some of which no longer exist.

The book was first published in London, then in New York, in 1907, and it attracted interest immediately due to its interesting, but light topic and also due to Street’s characteristic, humorous, satiric, often cynical, but also sympathetic style. Some fragments of the book had been previously published in The Monthly Review, while others appeared in Putnam’s Monthly, but some of the pieces were written for this book and were never published anywhere else before.

The Ghosts of Piccadilly is practically a personal history of the street and the square – the author pays tribute to the great men and women who used to live in the old houses. The collection tells the interested reader about Lord Byron, Emma Hamilton and other famous people who lived on Piccadilly, and their lives are recounted not only in terms of their relationship to Piccadilly – we see them in flesh-and-blood, very much alive, being driven by ambitions and affected by sufferings like any human being . He also tells the stories of the buildings, at times mentioning them only by their number. We learn about the shops, the taverns and the church, as well as about Some Other People and Some Other Houses, in separate, dedicated chapters.

The book comes with an extensive, detailed and accurate Index section that can be used to find information about a house or a person quickly, making the book a valuable document of local history and a great read at the same time.
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