Tag Archives: history

The history of 10 Downing Street and a peek behind its famous black door.

Posted on June 3, 2019 by Stephen Liddell

A few weeks ago I posted about a ‘fake’ Number 10 Downing Street and so I thought it would be timely to write about the actual Number 10 Downing Street especially as having written about historic and political situations for … Continue reading →

Posted in history, London, Politics | Tagged 10 Downing Street, Churchill, Downing Street, history, London, Politics | 5 Comments

The Great Beer Flood of London

Posted on May 29, 2019 by Stephen Liddell

Like many ancient cities, London has suffered its fair share of disasters, perhaps unduly so but whilst history is full of fires, wars, pestilence and biblical downpours, few places in the world can have suffered what is known as The … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Life, London | Tagged Beer, Dominion Theatre, Great Beer Flood, history, London, Pubs | 5 Comments

Dead Fish raining down on London at Blow-Up Bridge

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Stephen Liddell

So far on this series of posts on the canals of London, you’ve probably noticed that these days they are mostly tranquil places. It wasn’t always the case and none more so than around 5am on the 2nd October 1874. … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Life, London | Tagged Canals, history, London, Regents Canal, Regents Park | 1 Comment

Now and then on an old London street corner

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Stephen Liddell

A few years ago I did a short series of then and now photos showing how places have changed since the advent of photography I’ve seen the photo below before and still think it is very evocative. This is the … Continue reading →

Posted in Heritage, history, London, Photography, Ye Olde England Tours | Tagged Big Ben, East End, history, Liberty Bell, Photography, Whitechapel, Whitechapel Bell Foundry | 2 Comments

Thomas Coram in Boston

Posted on November 28, 2018 by Stephen Liddell

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in history, London, Religion and Faith | Tagged Bloosmbury, Boston, church, Congregationalist, Foundling Hospital, Foundling Museum, history, philanthropy, Puritan, Thomas Coram | 2 Comments

Æthelflaed – Lady of the Mercians

Posted on October 22, 2018 by Stephen Liddell

Every now and then I like to write a post about one of the important and often overlooked women in history and British history in particular. Sometimes they appear in the most unexpected places such as the Wrestling Mongolian Princess … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged Anglo Saxon Chronicle, Anglo-Saxon, Æthelflaed, England, history, Mercia, Mercians, Queen, Vikings | 12 Comments

A Brief History of the Penny

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Stephen Liddell

As the modern era of a cashless society rolls relentlessly onwards and due to inflation the value of it ever decreasing, the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has raised the prospect that like the half pence in the 1980’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Heritage, history, Life, News | Tagged Bank of England, Cent, Coins, currency, Denarius, history, Money, Penny, Romans | 1 Comment

The London Colosseum

Posted on February 5, 2018 by Stephen Liddell

We’re all familiar with the Coloseum in Rome, one of the architectural wonders of both the ancient world and Italy but though the Colosseum is by far the most iconic, there are actually Roman amphitheatres to be found across North … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, history, Life, London, Travel, Ye Olde England Tours | Tagged Amphitheatre, Colosseum, Gladiator, Guildhall, history, Londinium, Roman | 11 Comments

A drive through London in 1946

Posted on November 4, 2017 by Stephen Liddell

I came across this video today when I was mean’t to be working on one of my worik in progress manuscripts. It shows that traffic has always been bad in London though it seems quiet at first. I really enjoyed … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Life, London | Tagged history, London, Pathe News, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Traffic, Traffic Jams, Video, WW2 | 3 Comments

How did countries get their names?

Posted on November 2, 2017 by Stephen Liddell

Have you ever wondered why your country has the name it has (in the English language anyway)? How did England get its name? There are two reasons and they are possibly linked. As with countless other countries, the name is … Continue reading →