Why does a branch of Marks & Spencer have such a strange name? The answer can be found 250 years ago …
Category: <span>Curiosities</span>
The everyday story of the last surviving Thameside warehouse in the Square Mile, featuring tea, Frankenstein, arson, frost fairs, John the pony and Timothy West.
The heyday of real tennis was in the 16th and 17th centuries. I take a look at its physical history, and what there is of a physical present.
How the citizens of the City of London created unique identifiers to help differentiate the 100+ churches in the Square Mile.
Having earlier written a post based entirely on architecture related to cars, I’ve now tried my hand at something similar for man’s best friend.
With tongue at least partially-in-cheek, let me propose three possible post-Covid business opportunities in the heart of the City.
Tales of disaster, shootings and musical comedy – an everyday story of a London corner.
Nothing to do with fleas, nor even the plague. Instead, I describe another two of those administrative curiosities that London seems to specialise in – the Inner and Middle Temples.
Never mind your local supermarket petrol station, London has some architectural gems created in the service of the internal combustion engine.
Mainly through newspaper reports of the time, I tell the story of a vast canteen for the poor, born of philanthropic zeal at the turn of the 20th century.