Mexborough & Swinton Times, October 28, 1939

“Under London”
Former, Mexborough Journalist’s Book
Novel Investigations

Mr. F. I.. Stevens. a distinguished former member of the editorial staff of this newspaper now resident in London and an author whose easy style has been for many of us a high road of enlightenment on several interesting subjects, has written in “Under London” (J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd.) what will certainly be his most popular and successful book.

It is described as “a chronicle of London’s underground life-lines and relics” and tells in a most attractive and diverting fashion of discoveries personally made by the author in the course of a series of excursions under London. Mr. Stevens, who has frequently broadcast in the programmes of the B.B.C., commenced his subterranean investigations on their behalf and his book gives permanence to the theme of an admirable series of talks.

Londoners and those who are interested in London can hardly fail to find these pages irresistibly attractive but such a pleasantly written, well illustrated volume must surely also number among its advocates all who take an interest in those adjuncts of our civilisation which are so frequently taken for granted. Mr. Stevens has wandered into strange places in collecting his data; (all obtained at first hand) waded along the Fleet sewer, walked between the rails of the underground railway penetrated into some of the tunnels, which burrow under the Thames, and found his way into many of the neglected crypts and vaults of the City.

“Under London” provides an extraordinary and novel insight into the honeycomb of galleries, tunnels and tubes which pack almost every foot of the ground on which the capital is built. Nor is this a weary catalogue of statistics, though facts and figures are skilfully woven into the narration. The author’s light yet literary touch invests the subject with a special fascination, and his whimsical observations punctuate the pages with a homely reality which will render the book attractive to young and old alike.

The Rt. Hon. Herbert Morrison, M.P., Leader of the London County Council, pays a deserved tribute to the author in a foreword in which he writes: I regard the present volume as a service to London and its people. It is part of that large and growing literature about London which helps to keep the public mind informed about what is going on in this city of ours.”

Mr. Stevens is the only son of Mr. and Mrs. F. T. Stevens, formerly of Mexborough and now residing in retirement in London.