Since the early 1930s, when Phyllis Pearsall walked the streets of London preparing the first Geographers’ A–Z Street Atlas, the capital has undergone tremendous expansions and transformations. Using the graphic mapping of A–Zs since 1936, Philip Parker first outlines the city’s history, then examines themes that have preoccupied Londoners since the 1930s, including public housing, transport and cultural diversity; and looks at eleven locations, among them Canary Wharf and Nine Elms, that have changed dramatically.