Billingsgate – the early morning market
It’s five a.m. – 5 o’clock in the morning – in a misty Canary Wharf. You can’t see the top of 1 Canada Square and […]
The Blog
The Development Plan for Greater London
Before Abercrombie and Forshaw, with their 1943 and 1944 plans for modernising London , with new ring roads, ‘zoned’ areas and satellite new towns, there […]
Curiocity – a very different type of guidebook
I’ve just done a review of Curiocity for the London Society (which you can read here). If you’ve not seen the book, go and do […]
Bye bye bonfire night
Over 400 years of tradition is coming to an end in London:- the public celebration of Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night. Of course there are […]
The Lloyd’s Building
In 1978, the year after architect Richard Rogers’ Pompidou Centre opened in Paris, construction started on his first major London project, The Lloyd’s Building in Lime […]
Wren’s Monument to the 1666 Great Fire
Climb the 311 stairs today to the top of the Monument and the the 21st century City spreads out around you. To the north the […]
Rock ‘n’ Roll London
One of the shocks of middle age is realising just how old some of the music is that one listens to. Like all right-thinking people, […]
Book review: Up in Smoke by Peter Watts
I have a terrible confession to make, one that will see me shunned by London society, if not drummed out of the city altogether: I […]
Hilda Hewlett – Pioneer Aviator
Men outnumber women on London’s Blue Plaques by over seven to one, so it was good to stumble across this in Vardens Road, just off St […]
Bonnington Square: Rus in Urbe with knobs on
There’s a truism that if you venture off the main street almost anywhere in London you’ll discover something new. I do this a lot, sometimes just […]