top of page
To receive blog posts and walking tour schedules by email, please subscribe (for free) at the bottom of the home page
Search
The London Silver Vaults: Chancery Lane’s dazzling open secret
A glittering 'Aladdin’s cave' hidden under an office building houses the world’s largest silverware market. The London Silver Vaults In...
London On The Ground
Aug 16, 20257 min read
The RAF pilot, his Hunter fighter-bomber and Tower Bridge
Alan Pollock flew along the Thames in London in a rogue solo flypast for the RAF’s 50th anniversary in 1968. Tower of London and Tower...
London On The Ground
Aug 9, 20257 min read
Nina Bawden: writer for adults and children, inspired by her own experiences
The Islington resident once tried to recruit Margaret Thatcher to the Labour Party . The plaque outside Nina Bawden's former home An...
London On The Ground
Aug 2, 20255 min read
One man and his pug: Hogarth and Trump
18 th century artist William Hogarth was a serial dog owner, whose preferred pooch was a pug. The artist, a life-long Londoner, inserted...
London On The Ground
Jul 26, 20255 min read
Hubert Pragnell’s bombed City of London after World War II
Unpublished drawings of St Paul’s and Blitz-damaged Wren churches in the 1950s and 1960s. St Paul's Cathedral and St Nicholas Cole Abbey,...
London On The Ground
Jul 12, 20256 min read
Oranges and lemons: bells and churches, with a moral to the story
Which are the six London churches mentioned in the nursery rhyme and what is its message? Oranges and Lemons makes references to the...
London On The Ground
Jul 5, 20256 min read
St Mary Aldermanbury: Wren church, Churchill (and me)
A small City of London park with a rich history surprised me with a link to my past. St Mary Aldermanbury Garden St Mary Aldermanbury...
London On The Ground
Jun 14, 20255 min read
City of London Street names: a dozen that don’t mean what you think
More peculiar and varied street names in the Square Mile. The City of London is the oldest part of the metropolis. Because of its...
London On The Ground
Jun 1, 20257 min read
London’s stone column monuments in height order
Nelson’s Column is London’s best known free-standing stone column, but is it the tallest? Duke of York Column - Nelson’s Column -...
London On The Ground
May 26, 20255 min read
The Gentleman at the Gate: the world’s first magazine
'The Gentleman's Magazine' , launched in 1731 at St John’s Gate, Clerkenwell, changed the meaning of the word 'Magazine'. Its proprietor,...
London On The Ground
May 17, 20255 min read
Charles Holden, London's architect
London's most prolific 20th century architect was born 150 years ago. Charles Holden and his Senate House design Charles Holden was...
London On The Ground
May 12, 20255 min read
Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway together in London - new research
The Bard, his wife and a new London address in Trinity Lane? Shakespeare's image on the Queenhithe mosaic, close to where he and Anne...
London On The Ground
May 4, 20256 min read
The Cornhill Carvings: doors into history
On Cornhill in the City of London, carvings on a pair of mahogany doors tell the long history of the area. The doors are at 32 Cornhill,...
London On The Ground
Apr 19, 20255 min read
Dorothy Annan’s “striking and highly distinctive” murals
The 20th century ceramic murals in the Barbican Estate celebrate technological advancement. The Dorothy Annan murals on Cromwell Highwalk...
London On The Ground
Apr 12, 20254 min read
A zebra bolted from London Zoo to Camden Town during an air raid
The World War II story was painted by artist Carel Weight. On a recent trip to Manchester, I came across a four-panel oil painting...
London On The Ground
Mar 22, 20255 min read
Secrets of the gatehouse of St Bartholomew the Great
A medieval arch, a Tudor house and moving memorials to fallen sons The entrance to the churchyard of St Bartholomew the Great from...
London On The Ground
Mar 15, 20255 min read
Cleary Garden: Peonies, Romans, the Tube and hogs
A former City of London bombsite with pretty plants. And hidden secrets. The lower tier of Cleary Garden Cleary Garden is a small park on...
London On The Ground
Mar 2, 20255 min read
Elizabeth Mallet, the first daily newspaper editor
The woman responsible for The Daily Courant, Britain's first daily newspaper in 1702. The launch issue of The Daily Courant was...
London On The Ground
Feb 8, 20254 min read
What the Dickens? In Islington? Not on your Nelly!
When Ellen ‘Nelly’ Ternan first met Charles Dickens, she lived in Islington. What was his interest in her? Dickens’ 13 year relationship...
London On The Ground
Jan 25, 20256 min read
Vagabondiana: street beggars of John Thomas Smith’s London
Scraping a living in the early 19th century: contemporary drawings. John Thomas Smith's artistic eye recorded buildings, streets and a...
London On The Ground
Jan 18, 20258 min read
bottom of page