LONDON on the Ground

A visit to Richard Rogers’ “awe-inspiring futuristic" landmark. When the Lloyd’s Building was completed in 1986, to designs by renowned architect Richard Rogers, there was nothing else quite like it. There still isn’t.   I recently had an opportunity to go inside the Lloyd’s Building for the first time. Walks available for booking For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks and tours, please click here . Grade I listing In 2011, the Lloyd’s Building became

Five buildings have successively replaced St Paul’s as the capital’s tallest. St Paul's Cathedral and The Shard Sir Christopher Wren’s St...

Bombed City of London churches and Guildhall through the eyes of an artist in the 1940s. St Paul's Cathedral by Ernest Borough Johnson...

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...

18 th  century artist William Hogarth was a serial dog owner, whose preferred pooch was a pug. The artist, a life-long Londoner, inserted...

Unpublished drawings of St Paul’s and Blitz-damaged Wren churches in the 1950s and 1960s.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,...

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...

More peculiar and varied street names in the Square Mile. The City of London is the oldest part of the metropolis. Because of its...

Nelson’s Column is London’s best known free-standing stone column, but is it the tallest? Duke of York Column - Nelson’s Column -...

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...

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,...

The 20th century ceramic murals in the Barbican Estate celebrate technological advancement. The Dorothy Annan murals on Cromwell Highwalk...

A medieval arch, a Tudor house and moving memorials to fallen sons The entrance to the churchyard of St Bartholomew the Great from...

William FitzStephen wrote the world’s earliest description of ice skating in around 1174. Londoners and visitors enjoying outdoor ice...

An 850 year old document describes a livestock market for swine, cows, oxen and woolly flocks at Smithfield. Smithfield meat market, the...

The Square Mile has a wealth of unusual, colourful and deceptive street names. Many of London's most curious and unlikely street names...

The sculpture on the Monument to the Great Fire of London is rich with symbolism . It illustrates the catastrophe that destroyed...

Ancient London buildings depicted in the 18th century and today. In June, I posted some of John Thomas Smith's engravings of London,...

The City of London office block, Richard Rogers and Sir Christopher Wren. Officially 122 Leadenhall Street, or the Leadenhall Building,...

A mosaic at the ancient harbour illustrates London's history since Roman times. Queenhithe is the only remaining inlet of the Thames in...