Nights in the Big City: Paris, Berlin, London, 1840-1930

This elegantly written book describes the changes in the perception and experience of the night in three great European cities: Paris, Berlin and London. The lighting up of the European city by gas and electricity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought about a new relationship with the night, in respect of both work and pleasure.

Nights in the Big City explores this new awareness of the city in all its ramifications. Joachim Schlör has spent his days sifting through countless police and church archives and first-hand accounts, and his nights exploring the highways and byways of these three great capitals. Illustrated with haunting and evocative photographs by Bill Brandt and André Kertész, among others, and filled with contemporary literary references, Nights in the Big City has been acclaimed as a milestone in the cultural history of the city.

This new edition features a Preface by Matthew Beaumont, author of Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London (Verso, 2015).