Legal London - A Pictorial History
by Mark Herber

Phillimore, £15.99



Not the brightest or most colourful of books, Mark Herber's Legal London presents a visual record of the changing legal landscape of the capital. With over 200 black and white photographs and engravings, plus maps and commentary on both the civil and criminal aspects of the law, he presents a fascinating study of the law at work in a bygone period.



London's importance to the law arose principally from the location there, from Norman times, of the foremost law-making institutions of England - the King's Council, the Houses of Parliament and the Royal Courts, which resulted in many lawyers living in or near the city.



The book looks at not only the great institutions of the English legal profession, such as the Inns of Court and the Royal Courts of Justice, but also other important buildings including the Law Society, Old Bailey, Archbishop's Court at St Mary le Bow, the Bridewell, the notorious Fleet Prison and the Metropolitan Police. The recently-closed Bow Street Magistrates' Court and Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court also feature. Key legal figures as well as other prisons and places of punishment are recalled, in addition to institutions of the cities of London and Westminster.



There are several quirky and unusual photographs, notably those of the Thames Police on patrol by rowing boat in 1839 and Port of London Police Authority members undertaking life-saving practice by jumping fully clothed into the water at the West India Docks.



Mark Herber qualified as a solicitor in 1988 and practised at City firm Allen & Overy until 1996, when he joined the Serious Fraud Office. He has also published two volumes of transcripts of the 18th century marriage registers of the Fleet Prison and the rules of the Fleet, featuring many clandestine marriages.



Catherine Baksi