Gobbets of the week #23

Posted on 12 September 2015 by HistoryLondon

It’s been a big week for anniversaries. While the USA remembers the tragedy of 11 September 2001, in London this week marks the anniversaries of the Great Fire, a Zeppelin raid and the start of the Blitz. And of course in ‘other news’ there has been the small matter of the Queen becoming Britain’s longest serving monarch.

1. My City of Ruins: Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn recount the aftermath of the Great Fire.

2. The centenary of the 3rd Zeppelin raid on London.

3. On 7th September 1940: a survivor recounts the bombing of Columbia Road Market.

4. Peter Watts recounts the Legacy of the Blitz

5. Long to Reign Over Us: the Queen’s latest milestone celebrated by St Paul’s Cathedral and the Telegraph. And an explanation of the Crown’s relationship with the City of London.

6. C S Forester and South London

7. Lost London – the Great Conduit

8. Down House: Charles Darwin’s Forever Home.

9. Cries of London: the curious legacy of Francis Wheatley.

10. Spirit of Soho Mural: celebrating the history and characters of Soho.

Gobbets of the week #22

Posted on 6 September 2015 by HistoryLondon

Here are links to the 10 gobbets of London history I liked best this week. It’s been a great week, with much to choose from, and I had to leave out some fascinating articles. Hope you’ll enjoy these as much as I did:

1. Astonishing detective work and a poignant story brilliantly told: a River Thames mudlarking find brings to life a World War I soldier.

2. The Blitz families who built a city underground.

3. Gruesome but absolutely fascinating: ‘I hung out with Jeremy Bentham’s severed head, and this is what I learned’!

4. At Billingsgate Roman bathhouse with the Spitalfields Life blog.

5. Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London. ‘Like walking in to the Crown Jewels’.

6. In Lambeth, the spectacular Tradescant Tomb: ‘a world of wonders in one closet shut’.

7. The Regency Sex Trade.

8. The theatres of Regency London.

9. A tour of the Cabbies’ Shelters.

10. Will it soon again be possible to die ‘from a surfeit of lampreys‘? Seems so, according to the Guardian.

And finally, thanks to Kitty Pridden for sharing this beautiful picture of the approach to Old London Bridge, which makes a great introduction to my post on ‘Magnus, the Monument and Mice eating Cheese’. Thanks Kitty!