While planning my recommendations for the 2022 Open House Festival, one listing quite literally made me hop on the next train to Mortlake. It's a surviving Air Raid shelter in St Leonard's Court. St Leonard's Court was built 1934-38 by Mr FG Fox, a local builder...
I've come to expect that there's nearly always an historic reason behind things you spot in London. From street names to sculptures, there's always a story! Such is the case with this curious brickwork on the Peabody St John's Hill Estate. On the face of it,...
In celebration of Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee, I’m working with Art of London to put together a special ‘Royal Warrants’ tour of historic businesses with Royal connections in the West End. Art of London brings together the UK’s biggest cultural institutions and showcases art in...
Oxford Street has a bad rep from Londoners, but there’s a surprising among of fabulous history if you know where to look. From a hidden little oasis to the more gruesome reminders at Tottenham Court Road and Marble Arch, often you have to look up...
I’m constantly surprised by the wonderful doors that have opened since starting this blog back in 2015. A case in point was that a few weeks ago I wrote about the extraordinary history of Crosby Hall; the Medieval Mansion that was moved 5 miles across...
If you look up along Ranelagh Gardens, atop the railway viaduct for Putney Bridge Tube Station, you can spy a curious WWII Relic; a Pillbox. The view from Ranelagh Gardens, looking up This concrete pillbox was erected in 1940 across Britain, a final line of defence should...
Look up at 22 Endell Street in Covent Garden, and you’ll see the striking facade of a former stained glass studio. Built in 1859 and designed by Robert Jewell Withers, between the multi-coloured decorative brickwork you can make out the proclamation in stone; Lavers and Barraud,...
The London Museum - formerly Museum of London - is scheduled to open for a mini festival in 2025 then fully as a museum in 2026. So you can imagine my excitement when I was invited to get a special look around the building site...
Along Vestry Road in Walthamstow there’s a huge Ionic Capital which looks very out of place. It’s the last piece of the General Post Office Building and once stood 7 miles away in the City of London. The General Post Office Building Although the history of a national...
Poor old Westminster Cathedral, forever being confused with Westminster Abbey and even once being mistaken for a mosque, it's well worth admiring this stripy brick beauty set back from Victoria Street Built on the site of a prison and still incomplete after over 100 years, Westminster...