This is quite simply a book of some of the milestones, street names, bollards, street lamps, public seats, drinking fountains, horse troughs, telephone kiosks, pillar boxes, litter bins, railings, gateposts, animals, coalhole covers, manhole covers, fire hydrants, gates, doors, street and house numbers, fanlights and other doorway details, knobs and knockers, bell-pushes, letter boxes, footscrapers, balconies, windows, drainpipes, air vents, chimneys, rooftops, spires, weather vanes, clocks, sculpture on buildings, heads, statues, lettering on buildings, brick patterns, mosaic tiles, cobbles and setts, grilles and gratings, plaques, trade signs, small buildings, shop fronts, signposts and notices, graffiti and jokes, pub signs and crests of London.

A team of seven specially commissioned photographers took eight thousand photographs, from which the two thousand pictures in this book were selected.

As Sir Hugh Casson says in his foreword the book is 'more like a birdspotter's notebook than a guide - and just as indispensable ... fun for the reader who, eyes sharpened by the treasures so affectionately listed on these pages, will be able to seek our and enjoy new ones for himself.'