History - Archive Articles

London’s Lost Pneumatic Railways – Part 3

Despite having apparently surveyed the plans to great detail and being sure that there were no hidden costs to dismay the investors, it wasn't long before unforeseen problems started to crop up.

London’s Lost Pneumatic Railways – Part 2

"in its present form the pneumatic system is simply an adaptation of the process of sailing to railway; the wind being produced by steam power and confined within the limits of a tube."

WW2 underground shelter exhibition in Westminster

Opened one hundred years ago, Westminster's impressive Methodist Central Hall was one of many buildings commandeered during WW2 for use by military commanders in need of a suitable base near the seat of government.

London’s Lost Pneumatic Railways

In an age of steam locomotives and horse drawn carriages, a group of Victorians tried to build the world's first true tube tunnel railway. A railway that would have also harnessed the power of the atmosphere to propel carriages in a manner that would astound the people of the time.

The ruins of King Edward III’s manor house

Next to the riverside in Rotherhithe, you might come across a patch of neatly maintained turf surrounded by modest houses - and poking out of that turf are the remains of an old stone wall.

25 Years Ago

London Transport during the Blitz

A short blog post about this quite interesting propaganda film made just as the Blitz was starting, and how doughty Londoners carried on regardless. “Filmed after the start of the Blitz, ‘City Bound’ is an exploration of the daily commute…

Egyptian Architecture in London – an Exhibition

London is packed full of various lumps of ancient Egypt cluttering up museums who by various means in the past acquired them, so another display in another museum might seem excessive.

England’s oldest Lych-Gate found in South London

If you approach an old church, mainly in towns and villages rather than cities, you might enter the churchyard through a small wooden gate with a pitched roof.

Support a London Museum this Christmas

Updated for 2023 here. — I am going to make a suggestion. If you are looking for a present to give someone this Christmas, and you want something that they can use all year round – rather than socks and…

Memorial to the Unknown Warrior at Victoria Railway Station

Most of the major railway terminus in London have some sort of memorial to the railway staff who died during the two world wars, but Victoria Station has something really rather special hidden away behind the central block of shops.

A rare chance to see Jeremy Bentham out of his box

180 years ago a man died. A very significant man in life, and who was to become a curious icon in death.

Unbuilt London: Victorian plans to encircle London with a Crystalline Railway

Bend your imagination to thoughts of the grandest of grand Victorian visions, and encircle the centre of our Metropolis with a vast crystal snake.

Go inside the Duke of Wellington’s London Home

In a time when politicians were almost exclusively drawn from the landed gentry, it helped prospective Prime Minister's to have a grand London home to entertain and work from, and one such building can be found at number 149 Picadilly.

Two Churches and Two Stations in Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green sports two Churches with very notable and yet also very different representations of the Stations of the Cross. Both built within 80 years of each other, yet the older is also the younger, thanks to the after effects…

Closed for 130 years, the Duke of York column in central London

In 1834, a tall observation tower was opened to the public near to Trafalgar Square giving people a chance to look down on Pall Mall and overlook St James Park and Whitehall.

Unbuilt London: The City Terminus Railway

Mr Charles Pearson was a City Solicitor, and politician of great ambition for London's railways, but sadly for him at least, very little direct success.

How the first Underground Railway might have run under the West End of London

In 1855, a plan was submitted to Parliament for what could have been the first Underground railway under London – with a route that would have pre-dated the eventual Central and Picadilly Lines by some 50 years. The London Railway…

A lacklustre attempt to tell the story of modern British childhood

A history of how the lives of children has changed since the end of WW2 should be a fantastic nostalia-fest that would appeal to an

Unbuilt London: Victorian Railway Stations that Tried to Span the Thames

Blackfriars railway station has recently become the first station to span right across the River Thames, with entrances on both sides of the river – but it wasn’t the first time that someone tried to put a railway bridge across…

The Victorian gas lamps that sold cups of hot coffee

We are all familiar with vending machines dispensing sugary drinks and confections at various locations around our fine city, but did you know that some of the earliest vending machines were built into the bases of gas lamps?

A scale model of Old London Bridge

If you are the sort of church that has a long association with a famous bridge, it is possibly not that surprising that you might have a large model of said bridge in your building. Such is the church of…

Roman remains excavated just behind the Bank of England

The rebuilding of a city office block just behind the Bank of England has opened up an opportunity for the Museum of London to unpack their trowels and tape measures and have a look at what lies beneath.

Tom Cribb’s snobbish memorial in Woolwich

If you were wandering through a churchyard in Woolwich, you might spy a rather aloof, snobbish even, memorial stuck in a somewhat overlooked corner behind another building.