Warringtons Fine Art Album - 401 Views Of London

Ah yes. Warrington’s Fine Art Album – 401 Views of London. Four hundred and one, not 399, not a timid round 400, but the full imperial flourish of 401 — because Edwardian London clearly deserved one extra.

This is a magnificent slab of metropolitan optimism from what I confidently place at circa 1908, and not (as some sellers lazily suggest) 1900. Why 1908? Allow me to justify the meddling confidence.

First, the Underground map included within the album shows the system branded as London Underground Railways and incorporates the Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway and the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway, both of which opened in 1906. That instantly rules out 1900. Secondly, the street scenes — particularly around Hyde Park and Brompton Road — feature a healthy parade of early motor cars: upright, carriage-derived, parasol-topped contraptions that are entirely typical of 1905–1908 Edwardian motoring, when horses were still very much in the argument but internal combustion had begun to clear its throat. Too many cars for 1900; too primitive for 1912. 1908 sits beautifully in the middle like a well-placed bowler hat.

And so here we are: London at the height of imperial confidence. Horse-drawn carriages share the road with ambitious motorcars. The Underground is expanding like an underground octopus. The Brompton Oratory looks newly respectable. Hyde Park Corner is a choreography of wheels, hats, and moustaches. The Empire still assumes it will last forever.

As for condition — let us be honest in the proud tradition of Crappy Old Books.

This copy is Poor. It has lived. It has travelled. It has possibly sat in a damp Edwardian sideboard while somebody described Bombay as “simply marvellous.” The covers show wear. The pages show age. The binding — originally staple-secured in the robustly optimistic manner of early 20th-century mass printing — had begun to protest.

Which brings us to the quiet heroism: I have reinforced the staple binding with waxed thread and glue. Not in a reckless craft-fair way, but in a respectful, practical, preservationist manner. Think Edwardian surgery, not DIY chaos. It is now structurally sound and perfectly serviceable, though nobody will mistake it for a pristine museum copy.

This is not a collector’s shrine-piece. It is a survivor. A large, unapologetic, slightly battle-scarred album containing 401 monochrome arguments for why London considered itself the centre of the known universe.

It is heavy. It is earnest. It is gloriously overproduced. It smells faintly of history and municipal ambition.

Perfect for:
• lovers of Edwardian London
• Underground map obsessives
• anyone who thinks motorcars peaked when they still required goggles
• admirers of large Victorian-Edwardian view albums
• and those who appreciate honest repairs with waxed thread

A century on, it still manages to say, with total sincerity: “Behold London.”

And frankly, one extra view makes all the difference.

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