Last week I took time out from touring to visit two temporary exhibitions at institutions that have very worthy reasons for visiting and yet understandably might not feature high on the list for foreign visitors. Namely the Kristallnacht exhibition at the Weiner Library and a special exhibition on Thomas Coram at the Foundling Hospital. Thomas… Continue reading Thomas Coram in Boston
Category: London
Posts predominantly related to London
Introducing The Tulip – Londons slightly erotic looking skyscraper
It says something about how much development is occurring in London and also for the longevity of my blog that my 2014 post entitled Looking Up At London is now thoroughly out of date. I’ve written other blogs about the massive reconstruction, just one of the top of my head was the post on Battersea… Continue reading Introducing The Tulip – Londons slightly erotic looking skyscraper
The famous farting lamp of London
Last week I wrote on The Great Stink of 1868. By chance todays post is on a related subject. Many people will be aware that in the Victorian age, much of London was lit with gas lamps and in deed several places still are. Less well known is that some of these lamps were… Continue reading The famous farting lamp of London
The Great Stink of 1858
If like me, you suffered through the blazing London summer of 2018 with seemingly wall to wall sunshine heat and humidity from Easter to the end of September, squashed on your commute in airless tube trains and wondering how you’d ever get to sleep in a bedroom that rarely fell under 30 degrees (90 F)… Continue reading The Great Stink of 1858
An eerie old mortuary from Jack The Ripper and the world’s oldest Police.
Whilst out on one of my walks and whilst taking some photos for Mondays post on The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, I made it my business to hunt out a new (for me) location related to Jack The Ripper. Hidden away in the corner of St George in The East Church, I found this. The derelict… Continue reading An eerie old mortuary from Jack The Ripper and the world’s oldest Police.
The Ratcliffe Highway Murders
It’s Halloween and I’ve done a number of related posts on the origins of Halloween, hauntings, the modern day Enfield Poltergeist and of course the infamous Jack The Ripper. Real life figures such as the Victorian poisoner Mary Cotton and figures that merge myth and reality such as Springheeled Jack. Perhaps more horrendous than any of… Continue reading The Ratcliffe Highway Murders
The ticking timebomb shipwreck that could damage half of London
Every now and then a newly made discovery of a long-lost shipwreck makes the news with everything from RMS Titanic to the lost ship of Captain Cook and everything in between. There are a few shipwrecks however that are well known, even visible to us today. Out of them all, there can’t be any more… Continue reading The ticking timebomb shipwreck that could damage half of London
Ratcliffe Cross Stairs – Where fires raged, explorers set sail and pirates hung
Last week whilst scouting out a new walking tour of just a small part of East London, one of the places I most wanted to visit is the slipway which was once known as Ratcliffe Cross Stairs. The village of Ratcliffe itself is all but forgotten and subsumed by Limehouse which is itself unknown by… Continue reading Ratcliffe Cross Stairs – Where fires raged, explorers set sail and pirates hung
The Kazakhstan art exhibition in a disused London power station
Whilst out and about scouting a new walking tour in the East End of London, I had the good fortune to come across one of those hidden treasures which I still do so regularly even after all my exploration. Going along old Wapping High Street, one of the most unexpected sights you might see is… Continue reading The Kazakhstan art exhibition in a disused London power station
London – The first National Park City in the World
One way or the other, London is famous for many things. Whether it be History, finance, empire, culture or just the weather. One of the things that might not spring to mind when you think of London, however, is just how green it is even though by area, it has by far more green and… Continue reading London – The first National Park City in the World
Stephen Liddell 