''The London Encyclopaedia'', first published in 1983, is a 1100-page historical reference work on the United Kingdom's capital city,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
The first edition of the encyclopaedia was compiled over a number of years by antiquarian bookseller
Ben Weinreb
Benjamin Weinreb (1912–1999) was a British bookseller and expert on the history of London who in 1968 sold his entire stock to the University of Texas. and by the historian Christopher Hibbert, and was revised in 1993, 1995, and 2008. It has around 5,000 articles, supported by two indices—one general and one listing people, each of about 10,000 entries—and is published by Macmillan.
In 2012, an app was developed by Heuristic-Media, and released as ''London—A City Through Time''. Toby Evetts and Simon Reeves, partners in Heuristic-Media, discussed the development of the app with ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' in 2013, describing how 4,500 entries had to be plotted onto a guide map by hand.
Antecedents
The encyclopaedia builds on a number of earlier publications, including:
*''
Survey of London
The Survey of London is a research project to produce a comprehensive architectural survey of central London and its suburbs, or the area formerly administered by the London County Council. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Robert Ashbee, an A ...
Charles Robert Ashbee
Charles Robert Ashbee (17 May 1863 – 23 May 1942) was an English architect and designer who was a prime mover of the Arts and Crafts movement, which took its craft ethic from the works of John Ruskin and its co-operative structure from the soc ...
, adopted first by the
London County Council
London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...