Galleries, Palaces & Tea is a lot of facts at over 400 pages long. Yet while there is a lot of good information in this book it feels like reading an academic reference tome and, therefore, isn't very accessible.

I felt I could trust the information yet I would describe it rather like trying to read the dictionary: While you know the information is good, battling through takes away the joy of reading.

The book is billed as "An Illustrated Guide to London" so I was surprised at the lack of illustrations and would definitely have expected more. There are a lot of maps at the back of the book but the grid system is too confusing and not user-friendly at all. And with no key I have no idea what each of the 50+ maps was trying to tell me so couldn't use any of them.

This certainly isn't a tourist guidebook but is aimed at the reader who enjoys the eccentricities of London. It has lots of short chapters, which could work well, but it seems to skip around too much to keep your attention.

It took me ages to work out the words in capitals at the end of each entry referred to the names of other chapters as the whole book could do with better organisation. And I struggled to see how some of the entries were connected to the chapter 'theme'.

Keeping with that reference book style, each entry ends with a location (full address), further reading references and a website address. But with all this jumping around within the book to check more the facts may well work better as an interlinked website.

Some of the references made me smile though as www.blood.co.uk (official Give Blood website) is the web reference under an entry about Vampires. And after an entry about Tim Berners-Lee it simply has: Websites: All of them. Every last one.

While I've been quite harsh with my review I will say I learnt some new facts about London such as how rubber tree seeds taken from Brazil and given to Kew Gardens were then shipped around the world and ended the Brazilian wild rubber market.

And some taxi driver slang terms such as 'Dead Zoo' for the Natural History Museum.

There's an interesting section on palaces that are no longer and unusual ceremonies at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

But the book refers to Wellington Arch as Constitution Arch which rather dates the author. 

In conclusion, I'm not sure this book is ready to be recommended. While it feels like a reference book it's so complicated to use I won't be referring back to it. 

Book Title: Galleries, Palaces & Tea
Author: David Backhouse
Publisher: Curll Press
First Published: 2014

As is common in the travel industry, the writer was provided with a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes. While it has not influenced this review, About.com believes in full disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest. For more information, see our Ethics Policy.