Edgware Road

The first book to tell the history of the Edware Road. Has there ever been a road so short, so colourful? The mere 10 miles of London's Edgware Road take some beating for social history in Britain. They have seen invaders, public hangings, highway men, a civil insurrection, murderers and gangsters, bombings, the birth of a sport, the roots of modern aviation and a naturist 'riot.' Plus a workhouse so cruel that those nearby referred to their town as something else rather than risk the association. Every nation on earth has settled along the road. Arab immigrants and their successors post signs in gorgeous curling writing outside their shops. The Irish came to build roads and houses, to find themselves exploited and ruined, to fight in the street and 'to work 'til you're dead for a room and a bed.' The Jewish population built the nation's largest synagogue. Mosques dot the length of the road. Sikhs built gurduwaras and Hindus their temples. From Romans at one end to Romanians at the other, with homes fit for heroes in between, this is the Edgware Road. AUTHOR: Leo Woodland is a former journalist and BBC Radio 4 and World Service producer and presenter. He has an MA in History from the University of Birmingham. He is a prolific author of books on cycling history (his encyclopaedia of the Tour de France was one of the Independent's books of the year), sound recording and exploring Britain. He has had full-length features in the Guardian, Times and Independent. Now living in France, he grew up on Watling Avenue, near Edgware Road. 20 b/w illustrations