Your guide to London's culture and transport news and events taking place across the city.
Your guide to London's culture and transport news and events taking place across the city.
Latest news articles about London’s long history.
The underground crypt in the City of London
Lurking in a tiny side alley on a small side street near Fleet Street in the City of London lies one of the city’s less well known bits of heritage – the remains of the Whitefriar’s Crypt. To find the…
The Nature Study Museum in Stepney
The Nature Study Museum, near Shadwell DLR station was very notable when it opened as it was the first in London to feature live exhibits to show to local residents who might not otherwise see living exotic animals and was…
The Isle of Dogs Declares Independence from the UK
Following on from the rather dubious Mayoral election yesterday in Tower Hamlets, some people living on the Isle of Dogs (well, probably just me) might be wondering if we can be cut free from the rest of the Borough and…
An early drawing of Tower Bridge
The below drawing might not look that unusual, albeit fairly obviously from an older time when the riverside was still a major port and industrial centre, but at the time it was printed - in 1886 - it was quite radical.
The Aldwych Tube Station Blitz Experience
First things first, as they say. Tickets to this event sold out yonks ago. However, if you don’t mind the risk of getting nothing after a day of hanging around, and consuming vast quantities of coffee while you wait, then…
Visiting The Conservative Club in St James
The exterior may look suitably anonymous to the average passer-by, but inside number 74 St James lurks not only an impressive interior, but also hosts an important aspect of the history of the modern Tory Party. The building was the…
Visiting Roman ruins hidden under a London street
Hidden away from sight in a side room next to an underground car park is one of the more important remains of the old London Wall that actually dates from before the wall was built.
The Destruction of London’s Newgate Prison
We are at war with the Catholics, we have always been at war with the Catholics. In a move which would impress George Orwell, the politicians of 1780 were seeking to change the above statement so that the British were…
The Queen’s Speech and a Coalition Government – of 1854
On this day, marking the first Queen’s Speech delivered by a coalition government to Queen Elizabeth II, I take time to reflect on an earlier Queen’s Speech, when there was not so much a Coalition Government as a single-party state.…
A Panorama of New York City in 1855
Accepting that this isn’t really about my usual topic of London, I still think the below panorama drawing of New York City as it was in 1855 is still rather impressive to look at. Whether, as predicted in the news…
The Wellington Testimonial Clock-Tower in Southwark
In 1854, the good peoples of Southwark wished to demonstrate their appreciation towards the Duke of Wellington, who had died only a few years earlier, and chose to construct some form of memorial to him. As detailed below, an original…
Job vacancy – an Ale Taster for Spitalfields market
London’s Old Spitalfields Market has announced it’s looking for a candidate to resurrect the ancient role of Ale Taster – a revival of one of the earliest forms of consumer protection to check that the ales sold by inns were…
Another snippet from my collection of the Illustrated London News – this time of March 1854 detailing the fund raising efforts of an educational charity that wanted to offer specialised education to “idiots”, or those we would today tend to…
The Victorian Panopticon in London’s Leicester-Square
In the days prior to the development of the mass-market cinema, one of the most popular forms of morally suitable entertainment was to visit a site of ephemeral entertainments in the cities. These “fun fairs” would promote themselves as displays…
You may recall that just a few weeks ago I attended the formal reading of the Proclamation for the Dissolution of Parliament as it was read on the steps of the Royal Exchange in the City of London. Such a…
Probably the most famous of the “lost rivers” under London is the river Fleet, an increasingly polluted river through the City which was slowly buried to hide its contents from surface dwelling folk as its contents became increasingly putrid. I…
When there were icebergs in the River Thames
Although most readers will be familiar with the tales of the Frost Fairs, when the River Thames was completely frozen over, changes to the climate and river structures made such an event almost impossible in the 19th century – and…
Croydon’s Experimental Atmospheric Railway
Long term readers may recall my on/off researches into a tube railway that would have linked
A Destructive Fire at East Greenwich
Another snippet from my collection of the Illustrated London News – this time from 8th March 1845, detailing a conflagration that nearly destroyed a major factory in what we would probably today more commonly refer to as the Greenwich Peninsula.…
Pictures of the Digging of the Fleet Sewer
Another extract from my collection of the Illustrated London News of 1845 – this time a short item on the enlargement of the earlier sewer system running under Fleet Street. As subterranean structures are a long running passion of mine,…
The Proclamation for the Dissolution of the Present Parliament
With the traditional cry of Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!, the Cryer read out the formal document, written in that wonderfully old fashioned language that never changes.
The Myth of Wren’s Masterplan for London
I recently had the great pleasure of acquiring a copy of a report commissioned by the City of London in 1944 for ideas about the rebuilding of the City when the war eventually finished. Although very speculative in ideas as…
The Original Hungerford Bridge
When the Millennium (aka, Wobbly) Bridge was opened by the Tate Modern, it was heralded as marvel partly for its construction, but also for being devoted solely to pedestrians. This was not the first pedestrian only bridge over the Thames…
A Tunnel Deep Under Trafalgar Square
Did you know there is a tunnel running deep under Trafalgar Square? Nope, neither did I as it happens!
