Christopher Brown’s Alphabet of London

Cockney Sparrow

Christopher Brown – the master of the linocut – has created a new Alphabet of London, taking a fresh look at the iconography that characterises our metropolis, yet with one eye upon the venerable precedents too. And it is my pleasure to publish an East London selection of images from the book today. “The pictorial alphabet has always been a great love – it can be anything and everything, ask questions and solve them.” Christopher confessed to me, and his witty, charismatic book of prints will set many puzzling because he has only labelled each one with the first letter of the image depicted. The vibrant contrast of black and white in these splendid cuts recalls the spontaneity of early chapbooks, while the use of flat blocks of colour is reminiscent of the work of the Beggarstaff Brothers in the Edwardian period, and the pervading suave humour is a quality Christopher shares with his former teacher Edward Bawden. Complemented by a memoir of his childhood growing up in London in the sixties, Christopher Brown’s book is a worthy twenty-first century successor to all the gazetteers, panoramas and alphabets of our city that precede it.

Y is for …?

H is for …?

R is for …?

M is for …?

L is for …?

W is for …?

F is for …?

T is for …?

M is for …?

K is for …?

T is for …?

U is for …?

C is for …?

G is for …?

Pictures copyright © Christopher Brown

The Alphabet of London by Christopher Brown published by Merrell is available from all good bookshops

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