Visit to Turner’s House and Marble Hill House 5 May 2012

A guest post by London Historians member, Jane Young. (@sketchesbyboz on Twitter) On Saturday last, members of London Historians paid a visit to J M W Turner’s country retreat in Twickenham. Built on a plot of land Turner purchased in 1807, Sandycombe Lodge, originally Solus Lodge, was designed by Turner, probably assisted with advice from [...]

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“Ubique”

The motto of the Royal Artillery, meaning “everywhere”, as in “ubiquitous”. As a former gunner, I’m ashamed to say it has taken me 32 years to heft my sorry butt across town to the Royal Artillery Museum in Woolwich, also known as “Firepower”. Last Tuesday a small group of us were privileged to have the [...]

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Boston Manor House Reopens

Boston Manor House, the nearest heritage building to me, reopened today after a year’s closure for repairs. The main building dates from 1623. Given that it has hardly any foundations to speak of and its proximity to the river Brent – less that 100 yards distant – the house is in remarkably good all round [...]

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Arm and Hammer

I like unusual badges and signs, for example the Lamb and Flag, sometimes referred to as Agnus Dei, lamb of God. The picture here is of the Arm and Hammer sign on the side of Goldbeaters’ Hall in Manette Street, next to Foyles in Charing Cross Road. The building itself was the fictitious address of [...]

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Whitechapel Bell Foundry

Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London E1 is Britain’s oldest existing business. Above the door it says 1570, but recent research indicates it may have been operating in the 1420s, and perhaps even earlier. The foundry’s business, quite obviously, is making bells. Church bells and hand bells mainly, but whatever your bell requirements, this is the [...]

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Review: Portrait of London

A new exhibition of old London photographs opens today at the Wandsworth Museum. It’s a combination of historical images of Central London and a selection from the areas in and around Wandsworth, such as Putney, Battersea, Tooting, Balham, Earlsfield. Many of the images are from the Museum of London collection which reminded me of their [...]

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London Sound Survey

Last night at our monthly pub meeting, it was a pleasure to meet Ian Rawes who runs a web site called London Sound Survey. I must thank Matt Brown of Londonist who encouraged Ian to join us. I have spent some considerable time at the London Sound Survey site this morning. It is a quite [...]

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Found in Somerset

Took the opportunity on the Christmas visit to in-laws types various to check out Taunton. Time was limited, so we spent most of it in the newly Heritage Lottery-funded refurbishment of the Museum of Somerset. It was all rather whistle stop, I’m afraid, but well worth it. The early sections are pre-history, the stuff I [...]

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EMI: Another One Bites the Dust

Last month saw the demise of yet another of Britain’s former industrial giants. Sony Corporation and Universal Music Group bought the only remaining shiny jewels off the corpse of what was once the mighty EMI Group, for almost 80 years a world leader the fields of music recording and publishing as well as electronic research, [...]

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“One of the most God-forsaken places I have ever struck”: George Orwell in Hayes

Most Wednesday mornings, Hayes FM are kind enough to have me on to talk about local history. Today we discussed George Orwell’s time in Hayes from April 1932- July 1933. It got me suitably fired up to jump in the car and go for an explore, accompanied by Mark Machado from the radio station. Being [...]

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