A Victorian Advent Calendar – 11th Dec
Considering the regular complaints about the commercialisation of the modern Christmas, I decided to have my own Advent Calendar this month – made from adverts that were printed in Victorian newspapers. Each day I will display an advert from my…
A Victorian Advent Calendar – 10th Dec
Considering the regular complaints about the commercialisation of the modern Christmas, I decided to have my own Advent Calendar this month – made from adverts that were printed in Victorian newspapers. Each day I will display an advert from my…
A Victorian Advent Calendar – 9th Dec
Considering the regular complaints about the commercialisation of the modern Christmas, I decided to have my own Advent Calendar this month – made from adverts that were printed in Victorian newspapers. Each day I will display an advert from my…
A Victorian Advent Calendar – 8th Dec
Considering the regular complaints about the commercialisation of the modern Christmas, I decided to have my own Advent Calendar this month – made from adverts that were printed in Victorian newspapers. Each day I will display an advert from my…
A Victorian Advent Calendar – 7th Dec
Considering the regular complaints about the commercialisation of the modern Christmas, I decided to have my own Advent Calendar this month – made from adverts that were printed in Victorian newspapers. Each day I will display an advert from my…
A Victorian Advent Calendar – 6th Dec
Considering the regular complaints about the commercialisation of the modern Christmas, I decided to have my own Advent Calendar this month – made from adverts that were printed in Victorian newspapers. Each day I will display an advert from my…
A Victorian Advent Calendar – 5th Dec
Considering the regular complaints about the commercialisation of the modern Christmas, I decided to have my own Advent Calendar this month – made from adverts that were printed in Victorian newspapers. Each day I will display an advert from my…
A Victorian Advent Calendar – 4th Dec
Considering the regular complaints about the commercialisation of the modern Christmas, I decided to have my own Advent Calendar this month – made from adverts that were printed in Victorian newspapers. Each day I will display an advert from my…
A Victorian Advent Calendar – 3rd Dec
Considering the regular complaints about the commercialisation of the modern Christmas, I decided to have my own Advent Calendar this month – made from adverts that were printed in Victorian newspapers. Each day I will display an advert from my…
A Victorian Advent Calendar – 2nd Dec
Considering the regular complaints about the commercialisation of the modern Christmas, I decided to have my own Advent Calendar this month – made from adverts that were printed in Victorian newspapers. Each day I will display an advert from my…
A Victorian Advent Calendar – 1st Dec
Much of our modern Christmas traditions date from the Victorian era, including the advert calendar – and like the Christmas Tree, it is also German in origin. Although the first known Advent calendar can be traced back to 1851, the…
75th Anniversary of the Destruction of the Crystal Palace
Today marks the 75th anniversary of the great fire that destroyed the Crystal Palace, an ill fated “shopping center” that had long since fallen on hard times and finally met its knackers yard in a blazing inferno. Although set up…
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…
A New Asylum for Idiots
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…
A Declaration of War
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…
Repairing the Fleet Sewer
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 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…