If you cross the Millennium Bridge in London to the Tate Modern and then turn right towards the Globe Theatre you will encounter a small terrace of red brick buildings. One of them is the house of the title. This book charts its story from before it was built (when there was an Inn on the site) to the present day. The book tells about the people who owned it, including a family of coal merchants and a film star, and lived in it (including Peregrine Worsthorne). There is some fascinating detail about the area and the developments.
I really enjoyed it. It showed me that you can do history about anything and that microhistory can be as fascinating as Kings and Queens. There were some things that irked me slightly. The last few years are rushed over. The maps simply aren't good enough to be able to work out all the things the author talks about (I absolutely must go to Bankside to see the house for myself). And I never found out when or why the local parish church became Southwark Cathedral. But basically it was a surprisingly gripping read.
Jan 2009 247 pages
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