 
The Underground Map Added: 8 Dec 2020 00:24 GMT |
Othello takes a bow
On 1 November 1604, William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello was presented for the first time, at The Palace of Whitehall. The palace was the main residence of the English monarchs in London from 1530 until 1698. Seven years to the day, Shakespeare’s romantic comedy The Tempest was also presented for the first time, and also at the Palace of Whitehall.
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Linda Webb Added: 27 Sep 2021 05:51 GMT |
Hungerford Stairs
In 1794 my ancestor, George Webb, Clay Pipe Maker, lived in Hungerford Stairs, Strand. Source: Wakefields Merchant & Tradesmens General Directory London Westminster 1794
Source: Hungerford Stairs
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Reg Carr Added: 10 Feb 2021 12:11 GMT |
Campbellite Meeting
In 1848 the Campbellites (Disciples of Christ) met in Elstree Street, where their congregation was presided over by a pastor named John Black. Their appointed evangelist at the time was called David King, who later became the Editor of the British Millennial Harbinger. The meeting room was visited in July 1848 by Dr John Thomas, who spoke there twice on his two-year ’mission’ to Britain.
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Jeff Owen Added: 20 Mar 2021 16:18 GMT |
Owen’s School
Owen Street is the site of Owen’s Boys’ School. The last school was built in 1881 and was demolished in the early 1990s to make way for the development which stand there today. It was a ’Direct Grant’ grammar school and was founded in 1613 by Dame Alice Owen. What is now ’Owen’s Fields’ was the playground between the old school and the new girls’ school (known then as ’Dames Alice Owen’s School’ or simply ’DAOS’). The boys’ school had the top two floors of that building for their science labs. The school moved to Potters Bar in Hertfordshire in 1971 and is now one of the top State comprehensive schools in the country. The old building remained in use as an accountancy college and taxi-drivers’ ’knowledge’ school until it was demolished. The new building is now part of City and Islington College. Owen’s was a fine school. I should know because I attended there from 1961 to 1968.
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Scott Hatton Added: 11 Sep 2020 19:47 GMT |
Millions Of Rats In Busy London
The Daily Mail on 14 April 1903 reported "MILLIONS OF RATS IN BUSY LONDON"
A rat plague, unprecedented in the annals of London, has broken out on the north side of the Strand. The streets principally infested are Catherine street, Drury lane, Blackmore street, Clare Market and Russell street. Something akin to a reign of terror prevails among the inhabitants after nightfall. Women refuse to pass along Blackmore street and the lower parts of Stanhope street after dusk, for droves of rats perambulate the roadways and pavements, and may be seen running along the window ledges of the empty houses awaiting demolition by the County Council in the Strand to Holborn improvement scheme.
The rats, indeed, have appeared in almost-incredible numbers. "There are millions of them," said one shopkeeper, and his statement was supported by other residents. The unwelcome visitors have been evicted from their old haunts by the County Council housebreakers, and are now busily in search of new homes. The Gaiety Restaurant has been the greatest sufferer. Rats have invaded the premises in such force that the managers have had to close the large dining room on the first floor and the grill rooms on the ground floor and in the basement. Those three spacious halls which have witnessed many as semblages of theatre-goers are now qui:e deserted. Behind the wainscot of the bandstand in the grillroom is a large mound of linen shreds. This represents 1728 serviettes carried theee by the rats.
In the bar the removal of a panel disclosed the astonishing fact that the rats have dragged for a distance of seven or eight yards some thirty or forty beer and wine bottles and stacked them in such a fashion as to make comfortable sleeping places. Mr Williams. the manager of the restaurant, estimates that the rats have destroyed L200 worth of linen. Formerly the Gaiety Restaurant dined 2000 persons daily; no business whatever is now done in this direction.
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Bruce McTavish Added: 11 Mar 2021 11:37 GMT |
Kennington Road
Lambeth North station was opened as Kennington Road and then Westminster Bridge Road before settling on its final name. It has a wonderful Leslie Green design.
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MCNALLY Added: 17 May 2021 09:42 GMT |
Blackfriars (1959 - 1965)
I lived in Upper Ground from 1959 to 1964 I was 6 years old my parents Vince and Kitty run the Pub The Angel on the corner of Upper Ground and Bodies Bridge. I remember the ceiling of the cellar was very low and almost stretched the length of Bodies Bridge. The underground trains run directly underneath the pub. If you were down in the cellar when a train was coming it was quite frightening
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Tom Added: 21 May 2021 23:07 GMT |
Blackfriars
What is, or was, Bodies Bridge?
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Richard Roques Added: 21 Jan 2021 16:53 GMT |
Buckingham Street residents
Here in Buckingham Street lived Samuel Pepys the diarist, Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling
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Jude Allen Added: 29 Jul 2021 07:53 GMT |
Bra top
I jave a jewelled item of clothong worn by a revie girl.
It is red with diamante straps. Inside it jas a label Bermans Revue 16 Orange Street but I cannot find any info online about the revue only that 16 Orange Street used to be a theatre. Does any one know about the revue. I would be intesrested to imagine the wearer of the article and her London life.
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Added: 27 Jul 2021 14:31 GMT |
correction
Chaucer did not write Pilgrims Progress. His stories were called the Canterbury Tales
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| LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT |
John Neill Added: 25 Nov 2021 11:30 GMT |
Sandringham Road, E10 (1937 - 1966)
I lived at No. 61 with my parents during these years. I went to Canterbury Road school (now Barclay Primary) and sang as a boy soprano (treble) in the church choir at St Andrew’s church, on the corner of Forest Glade.
Opposite us lived the Burgess family. Their son Russell also sang in my choir as a tenor. He later became a well-known musician and the choirmaster at Wandsworth Boys’ School.
Just at the end of WW2 a German rocket (V2) landed in the grounds of Whipps Cross Hospital, damaging many of the houses in Sandringham Road, including ours.
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Tim Stevenson Added: 16 Nov 2021 18:03 GMT |
Pub still open
The Bohemia survived the 2020/21 lockdowns and is still a thriving local social resource.
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STEPHEN JACKSON Added: 14 Nov 2021 17:25 GMT |
Fellows Court, E2
my family moved into the tower block 13th floor (maisonette), in 1967 after our street Lenthall rd e8 was demolished, we were one of the first families in the new block. A number of families from our street were rehoused in this and the adjoining flats. Inside toilet and central heating, all very modern at the time, plus eventually a tarmac football pitch in the grounds,(the cage), with a goal painted by the kids on the brick wall of the railway.
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STEPHEN ARTHUR JACKSON Added: 14 Nov 2021 17:12 GMT |
Lynedoch Street, E2
my father Arthur Jackson was born in lynedoch street in 1929 and lived with mm grandparents and siblings, until they were relocated to Pamela house Haggerston rd when the street was to be demolished
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Sir Walter Besant Added: 11 Nov 2021 18:47 GMT |
Sir Walter adds....
All the ground facing Wirtemberg Street at Chip and Cross Streets is being levelled for building and the old houses are disappearing fast. The small streets leading through into little Manor Street are very clean and tenanted by poor though respectable people, but little Manor Street is dirty, small, and narrow. Manor Street to Larkhall Rise is a wide fairly clean thoroughfare of mixed shops and houses which improves towards the north. The same may be said of Wirtemberg Street, which commences poorly, but from the Board School north is far better than at the Clapham end.
Source: London: South of the Thames - Chapter XX by Sir Walter Besant (1912)
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Added: 6 Nov 2021 15:03 GMT |
Old Nichol Street, E2
Information about my grandfather’s tobacconist shop
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tom Added: 3 Nov 2021 05:16 GMT |
I met
someone here 6 years ago
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Fion Anderson Added: 2 Nov 2021 12:55 GMT |
Elstree not Borehamwood
Home of the UK film industry
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Alsatia Alsatia was the name given to an area lying north of the River Thames covered by the Whitefriars monastery. City Temple The City Temple is a Nonconformist church on Holborn Viaduct. City Thameslink City Thameslink is a central London railway station within the City of London, with entrances on Ludgate Hill and Holborn Viaduct. Fleet Market The Fleet Market was a market erected in 1736 on the newly culverted River Fleet. Lisle’s Tennis Court Lisle’s Tennis Court was a building off Portugal Street in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London. St Andrew The Church of St Andrew, Holborn stands within the Ward of Farringdon Without. Staple Inn Staple Inn is London’s only surviving sixteenth-century domestic building, situated on the south side of High Holborn. Temple Bar Temple Bar is the point in London where Fleet Street, City of London, becomes the Strand, Westminster, and where the City of London traditionally erected a barrier to regulate trade into the city. Thavie’s Inn Thavie’s Inn was a former Inn of Chancery, associated with Lincoln’s Inn, established at Holborn, near the site of the present side street and office block still known as Thavies Inn Buildings. Aldwych, WC2B The name Aldwych derives from the Old English eald and wic meaning ’old trading town’ or ’old marketplace’; the name was later applied to the street and district. Andrews Crosse, EC4A Andrews Crosse stood on the site of the courtyard of the former Andrews Crosse Inn. Ashentree Court, EC4Y Ashentree Court was named after the ashen trees formerly located here at the Whitefriars’ monastery. Bear Alley, EC4A Bear Alley is one of the streets of London in the EC4A postal area. Bell Yard, EC4A Bell Yard is a small lane off the Strand where the Bell hostel once stood. Bolt Court, EC4A Bolt Court is one of the streets of London in the EC4A postal area. Bouverie Street, EC4Y Bouverie Street is named for the Pleydell-Bouveries, Earls of Radnor, who were landowners in this area. Brick Court, EC4Y Brick Court is one of the streets of London in the EC4Y postal area. Bride Court, EC4Y Bride Court is one of the streets of London in the EC4Y postal area. Bride Lane, EC4Y Bride Lane is one of the streets of London in the EC4Y postal area. Carmelite Street, EC4Y Carmelite Street continues south from Whitefriars Street, which itself is just off Fleet Street. Chancery Lane, WC2A Chancery Lane has formed the western boundary of the City of London since 1994, having previously been divided between the London boroughs of Westminster and Camden. Dorset Rise, EC4Y Dorset Rise is one of the streets of London in the EC4Y postal area. Essex Court, EC4Y Essex Court is one of the streets of London in the EC4Y postal area. Falcon Court, EC4Y Falcon Court is a courtyard off the south side of Fleet Street between Chancery Lane and Fetter Lane. Farringdon Street, EC1A The building of Farringdon Street is considered one of the greatest urban engineering achievements of the 19th century. Fetter Lane, EC4A Fetter Lane is corrupted from ’Fautre’ which was the name for a spear rest - spears were made close by. Fleet Place, EC4M Fleet Place is one of the streets of London in the EC4M postal area. Hare Court, EC4Y Hare Court is one of the streets of London in the EC4Y postal area. Hare Place, EC4Y Hare Place is one of the streets of London in the EC4Y postal area. High Holborn, WC1V High Holborn was part of the old road from Newgate and the Tower to the gallows at Tyburn. Hind Court, EC4Y Hind Court is one of the streets of London in the EC4A postal area. Holborn Circus, EC1N Holborn Circus is a junction of five highways in the City of London, on the boundary between Holborn, Hatton Garden and Smithfield. Holborn Viaduct, EC1A Holborn Viaduct is a road bridge in London and the name of the street which crosses it. Hood Court, EC4Y Hood Court is one of the streets of London in the EC4Y postal area. John Carpenter Street, EC4Y John Carpenter was town clerk of the City of London in the fifteenth century, and founder of the City of London School. Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2A Lincoln’s Inn Fields is the largest public square in London, laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder William Newton. Magpie Alley, EC4Y Magpie Alley marks the position occupied by the dorter (dormitory) of the Friary of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel, commonly called the Whitefriars Monastery New Court, EC4V New Court is one of the streets of London in the EC4Y postal area. New Square, WC2A New Square is one of the streets of London in the WC2A postal area. Norfolk Street, WC2R Norfolk Street ran from the Strand in the north to the River Thames and, after the Victoria Embankment was built (1865–1870), to what is now Temple Place. Old Square, WC2A Old Square is one of the streets of London in the WC2A postal area. Pemberton Row, EC4A Sir James Pemberton was Lord Mayor of London in 1611, and a member of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Playhouse Yard, EC4V Playhouse Yard is named after the Blackfriars theatre which stood here in Shakespeare’s time and where his play’s were performed. Pump Court, EC4Y Pump Court is one of the streets of London in the EC4Y postal area. Red Lion Court, EC4A Red Lion Court forms part of labyrinth of little passages behind the shops on the north side of Fleet Street. Shoe Lane, EC4A Shoe Lane is one of the streets of London in the EC4A postal area. Snow Hill, EC1A Snow Hill is one of the streets of London in the EC1A postal area. Southampton Buildings, WC2A Southampton Buildings marks the site of the house of the 4th Earl of Southampton, son of Shakespeare’s patron. St Brides Avenue, EC4Y St Brides Avenue is a narrow alley which leaves Fleet Street almost opposite Shoe Lane. Star Yard, WC2A Star Yard is one of the streets of London in the WC2A postal area. Surrey Street, WC2R Surrey Street was built on land once occupied by Arundel House and its gardens. Tallis Street, EC4Y This street honours Thomas Tallis, composer whose name is engraved on the façade of the nearby former building of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Temple Pier, WC2R Temple Pier is one of the streets of London in the WC2R postal area. The Strand, WC2R The Strand is one of the streets of London in the WC2R postal area. Tweezer’s Alley, WC2R Tweezer’s Alley probably got its name after the tweezers used by smiths to heat items in the forge that stood there.
Victoria Embankment, EC4Y Victoria Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment scheme of 19th-century civil engineering that reclaimed land next to the River Thames. Watergate, EC4Y Watergate is one of the streets of London in the EC4Y postal area. Cella Karaoke Lounge This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. Dado 54 This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. El Vino Blackfriars This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. Grand Union This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. Harrild and Sons This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. Inn of Court This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. Jamies This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. Kanaloa This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. Knights Templar This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. Magpie & Stump This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. Pegasus Bar This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. Penderel’s Oak This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. Punch Tavern This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. Slug and Lettuce This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. St Brides Tavern This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. The Albion This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. The Blackfriar This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. The Bridewell Theatre This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. The Draft House This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. The Fable This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. The Hack & Hop This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. The Harrow This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. The Hoop & Grapes This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. The Old Bell Tavern This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. The Seven Stars This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. The White Swan This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. Tipperary This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so. Ye Olde Cock Tavern This pub existed immediately prior to the 2020 global pandemic and may still do so.
The City of London constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, but the conurbation has since grown far beyond its borders.
As the City's boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, it is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of Greater London, though it remains a notable part of central London. It holds city status in its own right and is also a separate ceremonial county.
It is widely referred to as 'The City' (often written on maps as City and differentiated from the phrase 'the city of London') or 'the Square Mile' as it is 1.12 square miles in area. These terms are also often used as metonyms for the United Kingdom's financial services industry, which continues a notable history of being largely based in the City.
The local authority for the City, the City of London Corporation, is unique in the UK and has some unusual responsibilities for a local council, such as being the police authority. It also has responsibilities and ownerships beyond the City's boundaries. The Corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, an office separate from (and much older than) the Mayor of London.
The City is a major business and financial centre, ranking as the world's leading centre of global finance. Throughout the 19th century, the City was the world's primary business centre, and continues to be a major meeting point for businesses.
The City had a resident population of about 7000 in 2011 but over 300,000 people commute to it and work there, mainly in the financial services sector. The legal profession forms a major component of the northern and western sides of the City - especially in the Temple and Chancery Lane areas where the Inns of Court are located, of which two—Inner Temple and Middle Temple - fall within the City of London boundary.
