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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Juicy Dates

On Facebook earlier this week, History Today drew attention to an article in the Daily Mail where Professor David Abulafia of Cambridge University bemoans the lack of British history key event teaching at GCSE level, suggesting 31 which he thinks every child shud kno. I Tweeted the url and a fairly lively discussion followed, as [...]

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History in the Pub III: London Recorded Sound

A reminder if you haven’t spotted it on our Events page, that we have History in the Pub tomorrow evening, upstairs at the Bell in Spitalfields. If you came to either of our events last September and November, you’ll know what a great evening out it is: learning about London’s History after work over a [...]

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Best of Recent Blog Posts #34

Astounded to note that the last one was a month ago, and that happened then too. The fact of the matter is that there are so many great London bloggers out there, many of whose productivity is on the up and up, that it’s getting more difficult to keep up and get around to them [...]

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Afternoon Yomp

Yesterday afternoon’s project was to replenish our leaflets at some of our august institutions, including Museum of London, National Portrait Gallery and the Foundling Museum. For various reasons, I left home later than planned and forgot my A-Z. It was a glorious warm and sunny afternoon, so once in town, I was disinclined to travel [...]

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Sue Bailey

It was with great sadness that I learned last week of the death of Sue Bailey on 12 August. Sue was a London Historians member and ran the superb blog, London Cemeteries. I never met Sue and knew her hardly at all apart from some emails we exchanged towards the end of July. And the [...]

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“Sorry I forgot your Newsletter”: In Praise of the London Topographical Society

In the hallway about an hour ago I found a parcel in a clear plastic bag. With it was a hand-written note, in pencil, on a scrap of paper. It read: Mr Paterson. Sorry I forgot your Newsletter. I shall post it. Ric. This item had been hand-delivered. The contents were Seven lovely plans of [...]

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History in the Pub

History in the Pub is a new event that we are hosting on Wednesday 21st September after work at The Bell in Spitalfields. The idea is that it is a bit like comedy club insofar as instead of comedians, we have historians. Stand-up history, if you like. This is actually the brainchild of London Historians [...]

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Best of Recent Blogs #27

Lots of lovely stuff from Caroline’s Miscellany of late, so I shall just direct you there. Tottenham: op-ed on the riot by Georgian London, which was republished on Guardian web site. At Frying Pan Alley with Jack London by Spitalfields Life As the Light Fades… by Silver Tiger The Looooooooooooong 18th Century by The Dustshoveller’s [...]

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National Archives Bookshop

I must share. Have been doing some research this past week at the National Archives in Kew, about two miles from here (how lucky am I?). While the excellent staff were digging out the stuff I requested, I killed time by browsing their bookshop. It’s almost exclusively stocked with history, architecture and ancestry type titles [...]

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