To go under London is to penetrate history, and Ackroyd's book is filled with the stories unique to this underworld: a hydraulic device was used to lower bodies into the catacombs in Kensal Green cemetery; the door in the plinth of the statue of Boadicea on Westminster Bridge leads to a huge tunnel packed with cables for gas, water, and telephone; sulphurous fumes waft through the Underground's Metropolitan Line. Peter Ackroyd tunnels down through the geological layers of London, meeting the creatures that dwell in darkness and excavating the lore and mythology beneath the surface.
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