A guest post by London Historians member Laurence Scales. Piles of sacks lie on a London quayside on a misty morning, depicted in a brown old painting hanging in a gallery. A modern caption says that ‘perhaps’ they contain cane or cotton from slave plantations. The visitor might decide for him or herself that they ..read more

A guest post by London Historians Member Jane McChrystal. This bronze sculpture portrays Ada Salter, philanthropist, pacifist and environmental champion. Erected on East Bermondsey Wall, it makes a fitting permanent tribute to a woman who did so much to improve the health and well-being of the residents of Bermondsey and Rotherhithe in the late 19th ..read more

A guest post by London Historians member Stanley Slaughter. This article first appeared in our members newsletter for May 2024. We don’t usually republish so soon, but it’s important we catch the gallery’s anniversary in good time. For the newsletter, please join London Historians here. ____________________________________ Two hundred years ago on 10 May, 1824, Britain ..read more

Review: London: A History of 300 Years in 25 Buildings by Paul Knox. A guest post by London Historians Member Jane Parker. We often read the soundbites on a book jacket and, after buying it, we realise that we have again been duped by clever marketing. Well, not so here. Iain Sinclair’s ‘Incisive and compelling ..read more

A guest post by LH Member Lissa Chapman. This article first appeared in London Historians Members’ Newsletter of February 2017. Anne Boleyn’s coronation was an immensely significant, and highly controversial public event planned to an almost impossible deadline. Through the early spring of 1533 the Royal Court had been rife with rumours that the King ..read more

A guest post by LH Member, Richard Shearman. Part 1 of this article, published in Members Newsletter of September 2020, can be found on this blog here. Henry Rose’s buildings of 1829-1835, together with the court in front of them and the two lodges added in 1839, filled the front part of the Asylum’s site ..read more

A guest post by London Historians member and Dickens aficionado, Jane Young.  Dickensland – The Curious History of Dickens’s London by Lee Jackson Not another book about the life Dickens but rather an exploration of London through his nineteenth century narratives. Whether you like the novels of Charles Dickens or not, there can be few historians ..read more

A guest post by Mike Rendell, aka The Georgian Gent. This article first appeared in London Historians Members’ Newsletter January 2017. ____________________________________________________ February 2017 sees the 200th anniversary of what was termed The Great Re-coinage – an astonishingly complicated overhaul of the entire currency in circulation throughout Britain. It happened in virtual secret, and it ..read more

A guest post by London Historians member, David Gaylard. Review: Denmark Street, London’s Street of Sound by Peter Watts Seemingly truncated by each new development around it, Denmark Street’s 100 metres length, so short it is difficult to fit its name on a street map, carries a celebrity which far exceeds its size. It was ..read more

A guest post by London Historians Member, Jane McChrystal. Entering Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park from Hamlets Way in Mile End, two of the first headstones you see mark the graves of “Dad” and another embossed with “Peace”. Probably the work of a local mason, these rather original memorials are a sign of increased prosperity among ..read more