Behind the high walls of London’s Charterhouse

September 26, 2014February 4, 2019 Caroline19 Comments

Hidden behind high walls, the Charterhouse in Clerkenwell exudes an air of mystery – at least to those who, like me, spend their lunchbreaks wandering around the interesting old places close to their place of work. The Charterhouse is only open to the public for pre-booked guided tours, but a few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the Charterhouse to attend a wonderful lecture about the history of the site by the Charterhouse’s head archivist, Dr Stephen Porter.

P7207517crop — The view from Charterhouse Square

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20th Century · Barnes

Marc Bolan’s rock shrine – a place of modern-day pilgrimage

September 16, 2014February 4, 2019 Caroline15 Comments

Scenes of tragic road traffic accidents are very often turned into temporary shrines – loved ones of the unfortunate individual killed leave flowers and other tributes at the site. Sometimes, these little shrines are maintained for years – in my hometown of Preston I still often go past a regularly replenished floral tribute at a set of traffic lights where a lady was killed in an accident in 2004. One such shrine in south west London has become a permanent fixture and a place of pilgrimage for fans of man it commemorates, the musician Marc Bolan, most famously the frontman of glam rock band T. Rex, who was killed in a car crash on Queen’s Ride in Barnes in 1977.

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17th Century · 18th Century · Wandsworth

Mount Nod: the almost forgotten resting place of Wandsworth’s Huguenots

September 12, 2014February 4, 2019 Caroline26 Comments

Marooned on an island between two busy stretches of road in south west London is a little known burial ground that tells a small part of the long and complex story of London’s immigrants. The name of one of the adjoining streets gives away this connection: Huguenot Place.

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1st-5th Centuries · City of London

A Roman house and baths hidden under the streets of London

September 5, 2014February 4, 2019 Caroline8 Comments

Lower Thames Street isn’t exactly a promising-looking place when it comes to searching for relics of Roman-era London. The wide, busy road cuts through the City, and the buildings that line it are mostly modern, concrete and uninspiring. Yet underneath one of these buildings something wonderful has been preserved: the ruins of a Roman bath house.

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19th Century · City of London

The Postman’s Park and the Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice

August 22, 2014February 4, 2019 Caroline7 Comments

London’s Square Mile is notoriously short of green space. A crowded maze of winding streets for many centuries, the City of London was originally bound by the ancient Roman walls and as the city expanded open spaces became further and further away for those living in the dirty and overcrowded centre of town. Although the Royal Parks of London have a longer history, it was the Victorians who first advocated a wider movement for open spaces in Britain’s industrialising towns and cities. Much of the reasoning behind the parks movement came from the belief that the widespread disease in urban areas came from dirty air – or ‘miasma’ – and parks were seen as a way to improve the health of those who could not afford gardens or country retreats of their own.

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20th Century · City of London

The Barbican: rising from the ashes of old Cripplegate

August 8, 2014February 4, 2019 Caroline20 Comments

It’s quite easy to get lost in the maze of highwalks in London’s Barbican Estate, and to some it may be disorientating to discover a medieval church in the middle of the Barbican’s brutalist sprawl. St Giles without Cripplegate is a rare survivor of the Great Fire – even if it didn’t fare too well during the Blitz – and its name is one of the last remaining references to this ancient corner of the Square Mile.

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19th Century · Nunhead

A hidden gem in south east London: Nunhead Cemetery

August 1, 2014February 4, 2019 Caroline20 Comments

Nunhead is arguably the least well known of London’s “Magnificent Seven” Victorian cemeteries. Like many of South East London’s interesting old sites, it often gets overlooked due to its lack of a nearby Tube station, although it’s actually a short walk from Nunhead Rail station, which is three stops from London Victoria.

The Linden Grove entrance to Nunhead Cemetery.

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18th Century · Mortlake

Skulls, astrologers and the sands of time: a Georgian graveyard in South West London

July 26, 2014February 4, 2019 Caroline8 Comments

One of the best things about living in London is the great potential for discovering wonderful places completely by accident. In this instance, I was required to go to Mortlake to pick up a parcel from the sorting office that had been too big to fit through my letterbox. Whilst walking up Mortlake High Street my eye was caught by some worn old gravestones peeping out through bushes and shrubs.

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20th Century · Westminster

A ghost sign from the Second World War

July 12, 2014February 4, 2019 Caroline1 Comment

Like so many little bits of history, the ghost sign pictured below is something that is so easily overlooked. It can be found on Carlisle Place, SW1, a quiet street close to London’s Victoria Station. But you’ll have to look carefully.

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19th Century · Hammersmith

Fallen comrades: Caroline of Brunswick’s life and death in Hammersmith

July 9, 2014February 4, 2019 Caroline10 Comments

Hammersmith, with its riverside factories and wharves, was badly bombed during the Second World War – but that’s a story for another blog post. Amongst the postwar concrete of the immediate area around Hammersmith tube station, a few older buildings and facades remain: a Georgian building that now houses a Chinese restaurant, rows of 19th Century villas leading down towards the river, and the splendid Gothic church of St Paul, built from a distinctive pinkish stone.

St Paul's Church, Hammersmith — St Paul’s Church, Hammersmith

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