Best of Recent Blogs #18

Caroline’s Miscellany has been in blistering form of late with four or five excellent reads, not least a reference to another blog new to us: Bollards of London. Carlton House by Patrick Baty “The Noise of the People” The London Protests before Oak Apple Day by Georgian London Celebrating the noble tradition of defacing London [...]

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“mightily refresh’d, and exceeding hungry”. Robert Hooke on Ganja.

Overshadowed by Wren and Newton, Robert Hooke (1635 – 1703), the Restoration architect and scientist, had one of the most enquiring minds in an age of enquiring minds. Appointed the first curator of experiments of the Royal Society, he gave us Hooke’s Law of Elasticity and our first understanding of capillary action of liquids. A pioneering [...]

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Scientists and Innovators in West London History

A good day for West London. First, the 157th Boat Race showing off our beloved neck of the woods to the world at large. Helicopter’s eye view of wonderful bridges and Thameside sites. It’s surprising how much greenery still exists in these built up areas. The Boat Race organisers no doubt kindly arranged the start [...]

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Bazalgette: London’s Greatest Engineer

A few days ago I discovered that the free Woolwich ferry service was introduced in 1889 at the behest of Sir Joseph Bazalgette (1819 – 1891). That man again. Once one begins to study London’s history in any kind of depth, his name crops up time after time. His dabs are everywhere. And yet, for [...]

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London Historians now on Flickr

We have at last posted some pictures on Flickr which we’ll soon integrate with a gallery section on the web site and maybe here on the blog. Just got to figure out the technology, always a distraction when one simply wants to get on with the history. The job of the Flickr gallery will be [...]

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City Churches: St Andrew Undershaft

After many months of arranging, I finally managed to access St Andrew Undershaft, which is located in St Mary Axe, at the foot of the Swiss Re building, aka The Gherkin. This early 16C church is normally closed to the public, but the good people of St Helen’s Bishopsgate, who administer the building, kindly gave [...]

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Best of Recent Blogs – #17

My blog discovery of the week (thanks to the blogger himself contacting me) is Turnip Rail who writes detailed and interesting posts about the development of the railways. Let’s start with this: Making a Mess of a Station – Extending Waterloo Station in 1878 and 1885 by Turnip Rail Keats House, Hampstead: an architectural and [...]

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Piccadilly Circus: Drowning in Scaffold

Going about my business this morning, I passed through Piccadilly Circus. I noticed that a building that just two weeks ago was shrouded in scaffolding, has been unveiled and looking great. It’s the one on the corner of Haymarket. Unfortunately, as you can see, scaffold has subsequently gone up on the Lillywhites building next door. [...]

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Unlock the Tower!

As many of those attending the inaugural London Historians bash will have seen, the BT Tower was the focus of a brief but impressive firework display early on Tuesday night, marking the start of the 500-day countdown to the opening of next year’s London Olympics. The organisers constructed a special platform for press photographers at [...]

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Fun, Friendship and The Frolick: a Night to Remember

Last night we held our official launch party at the magnificent Georgian HQ of The Georgian Group in Fitzroy Square, London. It may seem odd that we had a launch party six months into our existence. But, to me it didn’t make sense to celebrate this adventure without people to make it a proper celebration, [...]

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