History - Archive Articles

The forgotten era of Light Reflectors in London’s alleys

A visitor to Victorian London who found themselves in its many narrow alleys would have seen large numbers of wooden shutters reflecting sunlight into the offices.

50 years since London Underground switched to decimal currency

This Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of when London Underground changed over to a decimal currency -- a day earlier than the rest of the country.

St James’s Palace – from lepers to royalty

A nearly 500-year-old Tudor palace in the heart of London, built on the site of a leper hospital, and today the senior royal palace in the UK.

Georgian Group’s journal made available for free online

The Georgian Group, an organisation the promotes and conserves Georgian era architecture has put most of its Journal archive online - for free.

The year a “railway” ran inside Westminster Abbey

For a few months in 1953, railway tracks could be found running through the middle of Westminster Abbey.

The “Trump Baby” blimp is coming to the Museum of London

A giant orange balloon of Donald Trump in a baby nappy is to become part of the permanent collection at the Museum of London.

It’s the 700th anniversary of Leadenhall Market

This year marks the 700th anniversary of London's Leadenhall Market, the ornate market in the City of London.

London womens museum seeks funding

When the proposed women's history museum in Shadwell turned out to be a Jack the Ripper tourist trap, plans were set up to create an actual woman's history museum.

There was once a hospital underneath St Pauls’ Cathedral

The grand staircase in front of St Paul's Cathedral once had underneath it a small hospital staffed by volunteers in the days before the NHS.

The year Little Chef opened a cafe in Regent’s Park

Little Chef, a famous chain of basic roadside cafes once had a restaurant in the middle of a Royal Park, about as far from the usual roadside cafes you could expect.

The mystery of Dick Whittington’s stone in Highgate

Up on Highgate Hill can be found an old stone, Dick Whittington's stone, surrounded by an old fence, with a cat sitting on top.

New revelations about the “Spitalfields Roman woman”

A 30-year project to uncover the secrets buried beneath Spitalfields has finally come to a conclusion with new revelations about a Roman burial.

Strange old Christmas cards

It's the season to compare how many cards you have with your erstwhile friends, and while today most cards tend towards the cute and twee, in the past they were rather odder.

The memorial to the founding of the Labour Party

A modern office block in Farringdon has three old metal plaques on the side - for this is the place where the Labour Party was founded.

TfL releases WW2 archive online

The actions of London's transport during WW2 are being highlighted by TfL's corporate archives for the next few months.

Take in a virtual tour of the Brunel Museum

While it's closed, the Brunel Museum has released four digitised tours of the great shaft that used to take people down to the railway beneath.

When the Lord Mayor’s show took place on the Thames

This Saturday's Lord Mayor's show will be a huge event on the streets of London, with large numbers of floats and people marching, but it wasn't like that in 2020*, and it never used to be like that either.

Victoria station marks the centenary of the arrival of the Unknown Warrior

A pop-up exhibition has opened at Victoria station to commemorate the anniversary of the arrival of the Unknown Warrior at the station a century ago.

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs and St Paul’s Cathedral in latest grants awards

A total of 18 organisations across Greater London have been recipients in the latest round of pandemic funding grants.

Signs to defend against evil found along the HS2 railway

Marks carved into the wall of a medieval church that were thought to deter evil spirits have been found along the path of the HS2 railway.

The chess frontage of Simpsons in the Strand

Have you ever wandered down Strand and noticed two large hanging chess pieces outside a famous restaurant?

British Library releases 18,000 maps and views for free

The British Library has released a huge archive of nearly 18,000 maps that have been digitised and are available for free - with no copyright restrictions.

The world’s largest archive of magazines – is in South-East London

You'd never guess it from the outside, but an old building in the former military arsenal at Woolwich contains the world's largest repository of magazines.

London’s dead to be moved to Brookwood for HS2

The huge numbers of dead bodies that were removed from a gravesite behind Euston station to clear it for HS2 are to be reburied at Brookwood Cemetery, in Surrey.