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.
Revealing a lost Elizabethan theatre in East London
A shabby old 1960s office block and car park has been recently cleared away to reveal the remains of one of London's earliest and little known theatres that dates from Elizabethan times.
Samuel Pepys dinner plate goes on display
This is more significant than it sounds, as it's one of only three items of silver plate known to have belonged to Pepys as part of his personal collection and is now the only one on display in the UK.
Mapped – the dragons that surround London
The ancient City of London is protected by dragons that guard the main roads into the city from perfidious invaders.
30th anniversary of the 10 Downing Street gates
It's exactly 30 years ago that general public access to Downing Street was barred, as permission was given to build the ornate protective gates that now guard the home of the Prime Minister.
The Wallace Collection to be allowed to lend its artwork at last
For the first time in over a century, one of central London's lesser known, but rather wonderful museums, the Wallace Collection is to be allowed to lend its collection of grand master paintings to other venues.
The Bacton Altar Cloth – Elizabeth I’s lost dress is revealed
Imagine if someone from London arrived at your most rural of rural churches and told you that bit of old fabric on the wall is worth a king's ransom?
Find Mendelssohn’s tree stump in the Barbican
In the Barbican is a most curious relic, a stump of a tree which is it claimed, may have regularly shaded the composer Felix Mendelssohn during his frequent visits to where the tree stood.
Was the Northern line nearly named after Tutankhamun?
There is a story that crops up ever so often that during the Tutankhamun mania of the mid-1920s, the Northern line was nearly named the Tootancamden line.
Bromley Hall – the oldest brick building in London
It looks like a fairly ordinary moderately old building next to a dirty noisy main road - but this old building is older than you could ever imagine. It's actually thought to be the oldest brick built building in London - and over 500 years old.
Find the Blackwall tunnel plaque
If you were so minded to pass by and peer over the edge, you might notice that there's an old plaque on the wall in the modern approach roads to the Blackwall Tunnel.
Day trips from London – Tilbury Fort
Today marks the anniversary of a certain Queen giving a rather famous speech to her troops in Tilbury. But why Tilbury?
See vintage films about the River Thames from the BFI archive
A collection of old films about the River Thames has been released from the BFI National Archive showing the Thames at trade, at war and at peace.
Restoration of the Aldgate water pump
A notorious water pump at Aldgate was once praised for its clean clear water yet killed hundreds of Londoners - is currently being restored.
Rare inscribed Roman stylus found in London goes on display
Found under the streets of London, a unique Roman stylus, with the most elaborate and expressive inscription of its kind has gone on display.
Walter Gilbert’s ornate mahogany doors at 32 Cornhill
There is a wooden door near Bank tube station that's worth paying a visit to at weekends, for only then can it be truly admired.
Sir John Soane’s Museum going tickets only from August
It's a compliment of sorts when your museum is so popular that it has to stop allowing people to just turn up and visit.
Visit Europe’s oldest continually used Synagogue
Behind a modern building in the City of London can be found from the outside a rather ordinary building, and yet inside is a heritage that goes back centuries.
The three smallest monuments in St Paul’s Cathedral
A Cathedral packed with monuments, here are the three smallest - military brasses, Solomons temple... and a piece of King Herod's 2nd Jerusalem Temple, maybe.
The car repair shop with horses heads
A street in Bermondsey has a car repair shop with a relic of times when horsepower was measured in low digits - two horses heads on the frontage.
The year St Paul’s Cathedral nearly lost its dome
It's Christmas Eve 1924 and while people are preparing for the festivities, the City of London is busy preparing an urgent notice - they plan to close St Paul's Cathedral.
Three historic documents go on show
Underneath the Guildhall art gallery is a small space that currently has three historic documents on display.
Chatley Heath semaphore tower saved
A tower on the edge of London in danger of ruin has been saved following a campaign, and will be restored and opened to the public.
London’s Grand Designs: Building a Capital City 1675 to 1986
For a few weeks there's a display of some of the grand building projects that defined London as a city. From ancient to very modern, lost and still standing.
Visit Guildhall – London’s oldest non-ecclesiastical stone building
Surprisingly few people know this, but it's possible to visit the City of London's magnificent Guildhall building, the oldest non-ecclesiastical stone building in the City.
