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.

Illustrated London News

Latest news, articles and photos

Illustrated London News - Latest news, articles and photos

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!

Apr
08
2010

How the railway telegraph helped arrest a murderer in 1845

Not long after the New Year festivals of 1845 had died down, the news media of the time was much occupied with the tale of a murder in Slough. The story was notable for quite a few reasons, thanks to

Apr
07
2010
Map of London and its Toll Gates from 1857
Map of London and its Toll Gates from 1857

Map of London and its Toll Gates from 1857

Another drawing from my collection of the Illustrated London News - this time of the then vexatious issue of toll-gates around the city that charged people a fee every time they passed through.

Mar
27
2010
The Patent Elevator and Observatory – of 1856
The Patent Elevator and Observatory – of 1856

The Patent Elevator and Observatory – of 1856

An interesting article from a copy of the Illustrated London News of October 1856 that I recently acquired – on a mobile elevating platform that would have been used to peer over the walls of a city being besieged by

Mar
02
2010

Dr Scott’s Electric Hair Brush – from Oct 1882

Whenever a new energy or force was discovered in the past, it wasn’t long before someone tried to see if it could be used as a medical treatment. As most things can treat something though, it wouldn’t be long before

Feb
23
2010

Bird’s Eye View of the London Docks in 1845

Picked up another issue of the Illustrated London News to bolster my collection – and this one had a few drawings of the London Docks including a quite famous picture of the docks shortly after the completion of the new

Dec
20
2009

Homocea – The Victorian cure for both ends of your body?

As regular readers may recall, one of my hobbies is collecting old copies of the Illustrated London News, partly for the news and partly for the adverts. A delivery of more newspapers arrived, and these two adverts practically leapt off

Oct
22
2009

The Sanitas Fumigator

As sold by a firm based in London’s Bethnal Green, and topical for today’s news items.

Apr
30
2009

Tanks can’t run on toasters

Due to metal shortages for the war effort during World War Two, GEC ran this advert in the Illustrated London News reminding people why the modern “electric toaster” was no longer available. But worry not – for once the war

Apr
29
2009

The Electropathic Belt

A boon to weak men; A blessing to delicate women; It restores impaired vitality – It cures Hysteria. It has cured thousands of sufferers. Available from 52 Oxford St., London (which now seems to be a travel agents). Another advert

Apr
28
2009
The arrival of Big Ben at Westminster in 1858
The arrival of Big Ben at Westminster in 1858

The arrival of Big Ben at Westminster in 1858

I have a small hobby of collecting old copies of the Illustrated London News – a venerable newspaper which was first published n 1842. I acquired a few more copies last week and scanning through the collection this weekend, came

Apr
26
2009