Dan Cruickshank

Spitalfields - the history of a nation in a handful of streets.

Religious strife, civil conflict, waves of immigration, the rise and fall of industry, great prosperity and grinding poverty, the handful of streets that constitute modern Spitalfields have witnessed all this and much more.

Now long-time Spitalfields resident Dan Cruickshank tells the story of his neighbourhood, from Roman times to the present day, explaining how its streets evolved, what people have lived there, and what lives they have led.

En route, he tells the story of the Huguenot weavers who made Spitalfields their own after the Great Fire of London. He recounts the experiences of the first Jewish immigrants. He evokes the slum-ridden courts and alleys of Jack the Ripper's Spitalfields.

He describes the transformation of the Spitalfields he first encountered in the 1970s from a war-damaged collection of semi-derelict houses to the vibrant community it is today.

This latest book, to be published in October, is a fascinating evocation of one of London's most distinctive districts. At the same time, it is a history of England in miniature.

Dan Cruickshank is an architectural historian, celebrated author and television presenter. He has written and presented many programmes for the BBC since the early 1990s, including Around the World in Eighty Treasures and The House Detectives.

More recently, he presented a six-part series, The Country House Revealed, to great acclaim.

Dan has written and co-authored dozens of books, including The Secret History of Georgian London, The Rape of Britain with Colin Amery and Dan Cruickshank's Bridges: Heroic Designs that Changed the World.