Historian
Besant also displayed a strong interest in the history and topography of London, the city he lived in. The 1890s saw him publish works on Westminster, and South and East London. An ambitious project to publish a significant multi-volume study of London, based on John Stow's sixteenth-century study, suffered from under-investment and the encyclopaedia was issued posthumously from 1902-1912. The first seven volumes treat the history and topography of the city; the remaining three volumes look at the architecture.
