Powerful pictures evoke city's maritime past

Landing page image: the old Woolwich Jetty in east London

Although not solely a maritime book, Abandoned London could still make a good Christmas gift for the seafarer in your life, as it features some fascinating glimpses of a lost industrial world along the River Thames.

Beautifully presented in a large coffee table format, the work features intriguing and often rather lovely photographs of London's 'wasted, unused spaces' that have not yet felt the hand of gentrification.

Some of the photographers' subjects were captured just before demolition or radical redevelopment, such as Lovell's Wharf in Greenwich, which would have been a familiar sight to crew members on vessels handling scrap metal before the decline of the trade in the 1990s.

Still waiting for a benefactor to take it on is the former Mersey ferry Royal Iris, which is pictured rusting away in Woolwich, long after it closed as a floating nightclub.

Nautical relics like these take their place in the book alongside abandoned Underground stations, disused offices and haunted hospitals, reminding the reader of London's long history as a maritime city – and perhaps inspiring us to bring past glories into the present day.

Abandoned London: Discover the hidden s0ecrets of the city in photographs
By Katie Wignall
Amber Books, £19.99
ISBN: 978 18388 60202