1. The Hooligan Nights, by Clarence Rook (1899)

    A 'true story' of a young criminal on the streets of 1890s Lambeth, in his own words.

2. London and Londoners in the 1850s and 1860s, by Alfred Rosling Bennett (1924)

    A brilliant, idiosyncratic memoir of life in the mid-century, full of fascinating details.

3. Curiosities of London Life, by Charles Manby Smith (1853)

    A journalist explores the nooks and corners of the capital, from the rise of the pie-shop, to the dastardly trade of dog-stealing.

4. Daily Life in Victorian London : an Extraordinary Anthology, edited by Lee Jackson (2011)

    BESTSELLER! Over 15,000 copies sold of this entertaining anthology of the mundane and the astonishing. Discover how your ancestors really lived.

5. The Seven Curses of London, by James Greenwood (1869)

    A voyage through the low life of London, including prostitution, baby-farming and rat-baiting.

6. Twice Round the Clock, by George Augustus Sala (1859)

    A 24-hour tour of the metropolis, beginning at 4am in Billingsgate, and moving around the city with each passing hour.

7. The Journal of a Disappointed Man, by W.N.P. Barbellion (1919)

    One of English literature's great overlooked diarists, a fascinating slice of Edwardian life, composed by a writer with a fine wit and waspish sense of humour.

8. The Diary of a Murder, by Lee Jackson (2011)

    A murder-mystery set in 1860s Islington - the death of a housewife - the diary of her husband. But who is her killer?

9. The Wilds of London, by James Greenwood (1874)

    Another tour of London's dark underbelly, from a detailed first-hand description of life as a convict, in Newgate and Portland, to the midnight burial of a suicide.