Category: London History
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Knights Templar: London Landmarks
London is a treasure trove of Knights Templar locations. From the solemn splendour of Temple Church to the dark histories of Smithfield, these locations allow visitors to touch the mysterious and somewhat mythologized history of the Knights Templar.
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The Decapitated Heads of London Bridge
For over 300 years, London Bridge was infamous for displaying the severed heads of traitors and rebels, mounted on spikes as warnings to all who dared challenge the crown.
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Thames Mudlarking: Hunting for Buried Treasure
Welcome to the age-old, utterly addictive pastime of mudlarking, where ordinary folks turn into part-time treasure hunters on the riverbanks of London.
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The Isle of Dogs: A Short History
Stand on the river wall at Island Gardens and the Thames curves round you like a sly grin. The Isle of Dogs isn’t actually an island —it’s a peninsula pretending, a little oxbow of ambition and mud. A place that’s been marsh, machine, wasteland, and skyline; a mirror held up to London’s restless desire to…
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The Fireplace That Survived The Blitz: London’s Hidden War Memorial
There’s a fireplace on Vincent Street, Westminster that shouldn’t exist. It stands, brick-red and defiant, half-swallowed by ivy and railings, like the exposed rib of a house that forgot to die. You’ll find it tucked behind modern flats near Hide Place in Westminster — a lonely domestic relic in a city that long ago moved…
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When the City Stood Still: London’s Great Smog of 1952
In early December 1952, London — a city accustomed to its pea-soup fogs — found itself swallowed by something far darker: a wall of toxic, sulphurous smog that lingered for five days and changed the course of urban environmental policy forever. It began, as catastrophes often do, with something ordinary — a winter chill, a…
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Elizabeth “Madam” Cresswell: London’s Bawd Queen
She slips through the misty alleys of London’s memory like a whispered scandal — Elizabeth Cresswell, known in her time as Madam Cresswell, courtesan-entrepreneur, political underworld broker, and lightning rod for moral outrage. To call her merely a “prostitute” is to flatten her into stereotype; she was something more dangerous, more ambitious: a woman who…
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John Archer: Battersea’s First Black Mayor
London likes to think of itself as endlessly modern and progressive, but in 1913, the idea of a Black man becoming a borough mayor sent monocles popping into teacups across the city. That man was John Richard Archer, a Liverpudlian photographer, radical councillor and reluctant trailblazer who became Mayor of Battersea—making him the first Black man to…
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The Boudican Destruction Horizon: London’s First Apocalypse Beneath Our Feet
Londoners live on layers. Tube tunnels snake under Georgian sewers under Tudor vaults under Roman roads. But there is one layer, charred and defiant, that marks the city’s first recorded apocalypse: the Boudican Destruction Horizon. Dig down beneath modern pavements — beneath Pret a Manger, beneath the glass towers of the Square Mile — and archaeologists…
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Priss Fotheringham and Her Infamous “Chucking”
London loves its eccentrics. We carve them into blue plaques, mutter their names in pub stories, and stitch them into the long, messy quilt of the city’s history. Some are kings and reformers; others are bawds and tricksters. Among the latter, few shine brighter—or stranger—than Priss (or Priscilla) Fotheringham, the Restoration sex worker whose “chucking” act…
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The Thames Ferrymen
Stand at Bankside today and you’ll be jostled by tourists photographing the Tate, couples queuing for the Globe, and joggers with expensive earbuds who, if they could, would probably jog straight across the river. What almost no one remembers is that for centuries, the only way to cross at this stretch of the Thames was…
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The Roman Boat Under Guy’s Hospital
Deep below the 14 storey Guy’s Hospital in London are the preserved remains of a Roman boat. The remains of a Roman boat were discovered at te site by London Bridge in 1958 and had been carefully left free of disturbance since that date. In 2009, a proposal was made to construct a 14-storey building…
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The Day a London Bus Jumped Tower Bridge
London has seen its share of moments but few events combine slapstick comedy and genuine peril quite like the morning of 30 December 1952, when a red double-decker bus — Route 78 to Dulwich — made an unplanned and entirely unsanctioned leap across Tower Bridge.
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The Forgotten Fighter of Whitechapel: The Life and Death of Alec Munroe
In the clatter and coal-smoke of Victorian London, amid the swirling soot of empire and exploitation, there lived a man whose story feels ripped from a penny dreadful — if penny dreadfuls had known how to tell the truth. Alec Munroe, born in Kingston, Jamaica, around 1850, was a boxer, a lion tamer, and an…
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London’s Ancient City Walls
The Hidden Skeleton of Roman London London doesn’t shout about its oldest bones. It lets you stumble over them, like an inattentive lover. But beneath the glass exoskeleton of the Square Mile, behind the pints and Pret and pedestrian crossings, runs a wall. Or rather, what’s left of one. It once marked the edge of…
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Charles Ignatius Sancho: London’s Most Extraordinary 18th-Century Gentleman
In a century wracked by empire, powdered wigs, and the polite hypocrisies of Georgian England, Charles Ignatius Sancho did something utterly shocking: he lived. Not merely survived—lived. Fully, richly, inconveniently. He composed minuets. He traded tobacco. He sparred with politicians. He wrote letters with such verve and insight that they were published to wide acclaim. And—most…
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The Night Soil Men of London: When the Streets Ran Brown
Long before London’s sewers became the underground marvel they are today—racing waste away like a shameful secret—there were the Night Soil Men. They were the unsung heroes of Victorian hygiene, the gravediggers of excrement, the midnight muckmen who slipped through the city by lantern light, hauling away what no polite society wished to acknowledge: human…
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The Lady of the Thames: A Medieval Execution
The remains of a woman, dating back some 1,200 years, uncovered on the banks of the River Thames, have revealed the chilling extent of punishment and public spectacle in early medieval Britain. The Thames has seen it all: Viking ships and royal processions, smoggy trades and champagne toasts. But every now and then, it coughs…
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Bartholomew Fair: London’s Raucous Medieval Spectacle
For over seven centuries, Bartholomew Fair reigned as London’s most raucous and dazzling festival, a spectacle that blurred the lines between commerce, entertainment, and indulgence. From its founding in 1133 to its closure in 1855, the fair transformed the streets of Smithfield into a swirling carnival of sights, sounds, and smells, where Londoners from all…
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Ten Paces: The Duelling Days of London
Before Instagram beefs and Twitter spats, there was a more dignified way to settle an insult in London: you got up at dawn, donned your finest frock coat, marched into a misty field with your second, and tried not to get shot. Welcome to the duels of London, a grand and idiotic tradition in which men of…
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Lions, Bears, and Penny Dreadfuls: The Forgotten Spectacle of Shoreditch’s East London Aquarium
Before craft beer and beard oil took over Shoreditch, before the avocadoisation of the East End, there stood—believe it or not—an aquarium with real lions. Yes, lions. And bears. And seals. And a rifle range. Welcome to the East London Aquarium, Menagerie & Wax Work Exhibition: Victorian London’s most gloriously bonkers, ethically questionable house of…
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The Forgotten Sands of Tower Bridge: When London Had Its Own Seaside Beach
If you stand on the banks of the Thames today, squinting past the steely grandeur of Tower Bridge and the relentless scroll of tourists, it’s hard to imagine a time when East End children once built sandcastles in its shadow. But let me take you back to a strange, lovely chapter in London’s past—a time…
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London’s Dustheaps: The Goldmines of Victorian Waste
Once upon a grimy time, long before recycling was a moral obligation and waste disposal was a streamlined municipal affair, London’s refuse had its own peculiar ecosystem—one that was as lucrative as it was filthy. The infamous dustheaps of London, those towering mountains of discarded soot, cinders, bones, and broken pottery, were not merely festering…
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London’s Lost Roman Basilica: The Forgotten Heart of Ancient Londinium
Beneath the bustling streets of modern London lie remnants of a bygone era, whispering tales of a city that once stood as a beacon of Roman civilization. Among these ancient echoes, the Roman basilica of Londinium emerges as a monumental testament to the city’s historical significance. Originally constructed around 70 AD and expanded between 90 and 120…
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10 Riots That Shook London to Its Core
London—grand, historic, and occasionally, absolutely furious. Beneath the city’s polished exterior lies a long history of unrest, with riots erupting over politics, race, inequality, and sometimes, just sheer indignation. From medieval uprisings to modern-day rebellions, here are ten London riots that left a lasting mark on the capital. 1. The Peasants’ Revolt (1381) – When…
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The Mayflower Pub, London: A Pint-Sized Portal to History
Tucked away on a quiet cobbled street in Rotherhithe, the Mayflower Pub is one of London’s most atmospheric watering holes. It’s a place where history isn’t just framed on the walls but soaked into the very wooden beams, where centuries-old maritime tales swirl into your pint, and where you can quite literally drink in the past—preferably with…
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London’s Crossing Sweepers: The Unsung Heroes of the Victorian Streets
In the muck-strewn maze of 18th and 19th-century London, where horse-drawn carriages ruled and street sanitation barely existed, one group of individuals stood ready with broom in hand: the crossing sweepers. Armed with nothing more than brushes, persistence, and a good dose of cheek, these resourceful workers offered pedestrians a way to navigate the city…
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Celebrating The Strand
The Strand is one of London’s grandest roads. This iconic thoroughfare has seen it all: the rise and fall of theatres, the glamour of high society, the musings of literary greats, and even the occasional royal procession. Once a literal “strand” along the Thames, today it stands as a symbol of London’s ever-evolving spirit—a place…
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Pocahontas in London
In 1616, a young Powhatan woman arrived in London, wrapped in the furs and silks of an unfamiliar world, her every movement watched by a fascinated and occasionally skeptical English public. Her name was Amonute, known more commonly as Pocahontas—a name that had already become legend in the Virginia colony. Her journey to England was…
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The Real-Life Inspiration Behind Call the Midwife: The Gritty Truth of East End Midwifery
Call the Midwife, the much-loved BBC drama, has captured the hearts of millions with its portrayal of midwifery in the post-war East End of London. Its mix of heartwarming moments, gritty realities, and a colourful cast of characters has made it a beloved show for over a decade. But behind the drama’s captivating storylines lies…