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Bacon Mania

Bacon, I’m lead to believe was invented by the Chinese, who salted pork belly to aid it’s keeping around 1500 BCE. Before the Industrial Revolution, Britain’s bacon was generally produced on local farms and in domestic kitchens, pigs were routinely kept in basements and cellars until a law was passed outlawing the practice in the 1930s.… Continue reading Bacon Mania

Tech no logy

I’ll keep this one brief, it’s just an ask on my part to you the reader. Having spent quite a lot of time updating the audio tour website, A London Miscellany Tours, I expected to be able to link in automatically a couple of hundred subscribers for the tour site’s Facebook page. Grrrrrr. It’s not… Continue reading Tech no logy

Pre(sise)ly the place for Royalty

On a roll with this terrible punning (if that’s the proper term for it?) In the last post I possibly hinted at my dislike of a horrendous late 1980s redevelopment in the area of Poultry and Queen Victoria Street, but let’s not get sidetracked or we’ll be here all day. Rather negatively I’ve never looked… Continue reading Pre(sise)ly the place for Royalty

An In(k)spiring Story

Apologies, the terrible pun will be revealed as you read this post. If there’s one part of the City which I personally despise, and I’ve written about it before, it’s the block of hideous late twentieth century buildings that erupted like a huge boil on the area around Cheapside and Poultry Back in the 18th… Continue reading An In(k)spiring Story

It’s not so difficult (possibly)

For the last two weeks spare waking hours, which have been at a premium have been taken up with the overhaul of my A London Miscellany website. For those who hadn’t seen it’s predecessor, how can I describe it? Think convivial evening in your favourite pub. Think of the number of drinks you can consume… Continue reading It’s not so difficult (possibly)

Rotten Luck

It seems to me that it’s a repeated trait of Londoners from the past to corrupt words or places and to put the worse spin possible on them. One name that is said to be a corruption has always puzzled me, and that is Rotten Row. Rotten Row is a broad track which runs along… Continue reading Rotten Luck

Two stories, but which to tell?

Story 1: Too much information It often happens, while researching for my tours sometimes a glut of information turns up for for a location and you find yourself having to make the call about what to use and what to discard. Recently I had this quandary while writing a tour called The Planners Dream Goes… Continue reading Two stories, but which to tell?

Keeping in with the In Laws

Always a must for matrimonial harmony I believe. Life could be rather difficult should you fall foul of your partners parents, here’s a story of marital discord. Today Hind Court is a smallish alleyway, but back in the 1660s this part of Hind Court ran straight down to Fleet Street and was lined with several… Continue reading Keeping in with the In Laws

One lump or two

Looking back at my ramblings I do seem to have written a fair few regarding drinks, whether they be alcoholic or just restorative and this post seems to add to the list. Exmouth Market near Sadlers Wells theatre and a stones throw from Mount Pleasant sorting office has for a long time been a favourite… Continue reading One lump or two

Better than a curate’s egg

Don’t know about you, but my go to in the pub snack department is the good old pork scratchin’, nothing better with a pint. I’ve had a dalliance now and again with Bombay Mix, those little pretzels and even the classic cheese biscuits, but if there’s a crunchy, greasy, salty and sometimes hairy mouthful of… Continue reading Better than a curate’s egg