London has an amazingly wide range of houses regularly open to the public - from Buckingham Palace to modest townhouses, and even farmhouses. All of them are included included in this new guide which reveals their architectural and social history and provides a source of biographical insight into the lives of some famous and some infamous men and women. The book takes in literary houses such as Doctor Johnson's in Gough Square, Caryle's in Chelsea, and the Red House, William Morris's arts-and-crafts residence in suburban Kent. The mansions of the wealthy and powerful - often with inter-connected stories - are here along with modest time capsules such as the Edwardian Linley Sambourne House in Holland Park. 20th-century representatives include modernist architect Erno Goldfinger's own house in Hampstead, while the most recent house included - an ecologically pioneering project in Holloway, is still being built.