Review: The Sugar Girls

I noted last weekend that The Sugar Girls had deservedly made the Sunday Times top 10 for non-fiction. This gave me the poke I needed to knuckle down and read it. So this weekend gone I did just that: it is a very easy read, for reasons I hope I can make clear. “Sugar Girls” [...]

Read Full Post »

“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 [...]

Read Full Post »

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 [...]

Read Full Post »

Guns and Horses: King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery

Today being the Prince of Wales’s birthday, the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery fired a 41 gun salute in Hyde Park. The Troop, dating from 1793, is nowadays a mostly ceremonial unit. It comprises six World War One vintage 13 pounder field guns which are drawn by teams of six horses each. In support of [...]

Read Full Post »

Quoting HV Morton

I first encountered HV Morton in the late 80s. While visiting Rome, my hosts lent me A Traveller in Rome, a quite late work, published in 1957 when Morton was well into his sixties. The perfect travel guide to London’s only rival as the world’s most historical city. I loved it. A few years later [...]

Read Full Post »

Achtung! Schnell! Banzai! Aiieee!

As a chap brought up at boarding school in the 70s in the pre-computer age with no telly and where radios were only illicitly kept, war comics were mother’s milk to most of us. Because of their small format, they were ideal for hiding in text books etc. I still have one in the attic [...]

Read Full Post »

An Antidote Against Melancholy

Long ago, my friends and I at boarding school in Africa used to listen to the BBC World Service, especially on a Saturday afternoon for the football scores: Saturday Special with Paddy Feeny. For expatriates and millions of anglophones worldwide, the “This is London” signature followed by Lilliburlero was a comforting thing and a reminder [...]

Read Full Post »

Direct Hit: the Guards Chapel

On the morning of Sunday 18 June, 1944, the Guards Chapel in Wellington Barracks suffered a direct hit from a V1 flying bomb. The building was all but destroyed. It was packed with worshippers, 121 of whom were killed and a further 141 injured – soldiers and civilians alike. The enemy could not have dreamed [...]

Read Full Post »

Now Showing

I’d like to draw your attention to two new historical plays which are showing in London, but on quite short runs. The Four Stages of Cruelty, presented by the Simple8 Theatre Company is based in 1751 and inspired by Hogarth engravings. It runs until 24 June. £15. More info and tickets here. The King’s Face [...]

Read Full Post »

The Honourable Artillery Company (1537)

Following a tip by IanVisits, a fellow London Historian and I went yesterday to The Honourable Artillery Company’s open evening. It was a great opportunity, since this site is normally closed to the public. The HAC headquarters is in City Road near Bunhill Fields Cemetery. It has its own cricket and rugby field in what [...]

Read Full Post »