Enfilade

From Sandstone Press:

C. J. Schüler, The Wood that Built London: A Human History of the Great North Wood (Sheffield: Sandstone Press, 2021), 368 pages, ISBN: ‎978-1913207496 (hardcover) / ISBN: 978-1914518164 (paperback), £20.

It is hard to imagine that the busy townscape of South London was once a great wood, stretching almost seven miles from Croydon to Deptford or that, scattered through the suburbs, from Dulwich to Norwood, a number of oak woodlands have survived since before the Norman Conquest. These woods were intensively managed for a thousand years, providing timber for construction, furniture and shipbuilding, and charcoal for London’s blacksmiths, kilns, and bakeries. Now they afford important green space, a vital habitat for small mammals, birds, and insects. Drawing on a wealth of documents, historic maps, and environmental evidence, The Wood That Built London charts the fortunes of the North Wood from its earliest times: its ecology, ownership, management, and the gradual encroachment of the metropolis.

Chris Schüler is the author of three illustrated histories of cartography: Mapping the World, Mapping the City, and Mapping the Sea and Stars and co-author of the best-selling Traveller’s Atlas. His most recent book, Writers, Lovers, Soldiers, Spies: A History of the Authors’ Club of London, 1891–2016 was published in 2016. He has also written on literature, travel, and the arts for The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, The Tablet, The Financial Times, and New Statesman.

C O N T E N T S

Foreword by Rachel Licthenstein

Introduction
Measurements, Money, and Other Matters

1  Taming the Wildwood, ca. 8000 BC–1485
2  Surveys, Ships, and Statutes, 1485–1600
3  The World Turned Upside Down, 1600–1700
4  Faith or Science? 1700–1790
5  Industry and Enclosure, 1790–1850
6  The Palace and the Railway, 1850–1910
7  The Home Front, 1910–1945
8  A Design for Living, 1945–1970
9  Save the Woods! 1970–1997
10  A New Millennium, 1997–2021
11  A Tour of the Woods Today
12  Ways through the Woods, 2021–?

Acknowledgments
A Woodland Glossary
Notes
Bibliography