Category: Curiosities

A Bluffer’s Guide to … Old London Bridge

Everything you need to know - and a few things you don't - about one of the most famous lost bridges in the world

The Shady World of Willy Clarkson

What stories can lie behind a simple blue plaque ... prepare to enter a murky world of blackmail, fraud and wig-making.

How to Talk in the Wild West

If you think the City has always been a well-governed place, think again

A Road By Any Other Name … Part 2

In need of entertainment, I've reached again for my copy of 'Street Names of the City of London'. It hasn't let me down ...

The Gaiety Theatre and the ‘Orchid Girl’ who never was

Surely, facts stated on a commemorative plaque are checked and rechecked before the plaque goes up. Apparently not.

What Treasures Lie Beneath

... at least for the observant historian. Oscar Wilde once said 'We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.' Sometimes, it pays to look more thoroughly at the gutter.

The Pick of London Transport

Time to pay homage to a hero of London's transport system.

London for Heretics

William Kent's slim tome of the same name, published in 1932, has encouraged me to venture back into Saint Paul's and Westminster Abbey - among other places.

A Road By Any Other Name …

... wouldn't be anywhere near so interesting. Here are just a few of my favourite street names from London history.

A Load of Old Bollards

I'm not sure what the collective noun for bollards is, but I do know that there is a fascination shown on the internet for these workhorses of the London street furniture world.
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