Come share in London’s history…
A conversation with Oscar Wilde
Courtesy of Wikipedia. A Conversation with Oscar Wilde" by Maggi Hambling, Charing Cross, London. Author Luke McKernanHidden away on Adelaide Street at the back of St Martins in the Fields is one of London’s weirdest statues. It’s of Oscar Wilde, the poet and author,...
The last remaining Watergate in London
By Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)., CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11327676It's always great when you can show people remnants from the past that conjure up an image of London from a previous age. The York Watergate in...
Poor Jenny – a haunted underground street
Courtesy of Wikipedia. Past and Present, no. 3 Despair , by Augustus Egg, 1858, set in the Adelphi ArchesThe term ‘Dickensian’ conjures up an image of London during the times of Charles Dickens that is dark, dingy and even downright dangerous, which to be honest,...
Strand Tube Station – a ghost station
Courtesy of Wikipedia. Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net).Have you ever wondered where they film all those scenes on London’s underground in movies like James Bond’s Skyfall? Well, the answer is here, at one of London’s disused tube stations. At first glance,...
London’s fanlights – a nightmare for postmen
By Yoho2001 at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6769190Okay, I admit it. I love fanlights. I’m talking about the fanlights you see above Georgian townhouse doors like the ones on Buckingham Street near the...
The Watch Tower and the resurrection men
This modest looking watch tower with its grim purpose firmly embedded in the past, was built to deter the grisly practice of body snatching from the adjoining St Sepulchre Church graveyard. As the science of human surgery developed in the late 18th century, there was...
Cleopatra’s Needle – bursting with secrets
Courtesy of Wikipedia. Author Mrs Ellacot. 17 September 2014. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.Most people know that Cleopatras Needle on Victoria Embankment is pretty old - it dates from about 1450BC – but...
The Clerk’s well – now a cool neighbourhood
Three views on one plate of the Priory of St John of Jerusalem, in Clerkenwell," etching, by the Czech-British artist and printmaker Wenceslaus Hollar. 325 mm x 380 mm. Courtesy of the British Museum, London.I find place name origins fascinating, especially when they...
Saffron Hill – a great Dickens connection
Courtesy of Wikipedia. Image by Edward Betts 19th April 2006Hidden away down Saffron Hill just off Faringdon Road, is one of those London pubs with a great literary secret. Saffron Hill gets its name from the herb that originally grew here in local gardens. Sounds...