Some years ago I came across a wonderful resource that I have occasionally dipped into when on my wanderings around London – and that is a list of all the alleys and courtyards in Central London.
The website hadn’t been touched since 2004, but being hosted by GeoCities it lingered on untouched, until last week when Yahoo decided to shut down the Geocities service at last and the site ceased to exist.
Fortunately, I had taken a copy of the site (although I curse myself for missing another website!) but I haven’t been able to contact the author, Ivor Hoole. However, although I don’t have formal permission, I think the information is so valuable, that I will upload the website and host it here for those who would find such things useful – at least until the author does emerge to slap me on the wrist.
Although the last update was in 2004, it seems that most of the pages were originally created in 1996 – so expect some (many?) changes in the real world.
I have put the website at http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/london-alleys/.
Enjoy!
There’s always Reocities and the Wayback Machine for finding dead sites.
Thanks,
A fascinating resource that has been saved from the cyber-bin!
Well Done
Rob
Thanks for this – one of my old favorites, and it never occurred to me that it was at risk.
After a bit of Googling it looks like Mr Hoole may have passed over in 2005. So this truly is this archives last chance.
RIP
Ah this is amazing. Thanks!
Are the second and third Temple pages missing?
It would be interesting to see these on a Google Maps (I’m from the lazy Internet generation, I know).
Thanks for rescuing that, Ian.
We’ve mapped many of them (and additional ones) over on Londonist, as part of our ‘back passages’ series.
Here’s the map:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&om=1&msa=0&msid=108141424606183365830.00000111dfd76362bf295&ll=51.511841,-0.118961&spn=0.024465,0.059395&z=14
And typical post:
http://londonist.com/2009/01/londonists_back_passage_51_wardrobe.php
I didn’t find Ivor’s site until I’d done around 10 of these passages, but it was a constant aid thereafter. Very glad to hear it’s been saved.
What a relief, one of my favorites, only realised it had gone missing the other day. Hope you can keep hold of it for us
excellent! well done! a wonderful resource, and good thinking!
I agree with Michael, this is just begging for Google maps!
Thank you for rescuing this site. I used to enjoy it over at Geocities. A while back I wrote to the author and asked if he would publish it in print, but never received an answer. I’m so glad you preserved his work.
Thanks! I didn’t know about this site before but as a newly qualified City of Westminster Guide I know it will be useful.