Author: endean0

Hi, I'm Steve, a London tour guide and owner of A London Miscellany Tours, a guided walking tour company who specialise in small number tours of the greatest city in the world!

All is not as it seems

Six word Saturday The hazards of walking London’s streets. If it’s not bumping into fellow pedestrians, lamp posts, tripping up kerbs and dodging the traffic, it’s falling masonry! Despite the jeopardy it presents this pile of falling concrete offers no danger. “Square the Block” by Richard Wilson was installed in 2009 on the corner of… Continue reading All is not as it seems

Milestones

While poking around Smithfield recently I had occasion to take a break in a local hostelry and over a pint started reading an old guidebook. First thing I learnt was that the Great North Road that links London to Scotland and was the main route of travel from medieval times until the 20th century begins… Continue reading Milestones

Humumm’s

On the south east corner of Covent garden was an area in the 17th century that was known as the “Hummums“ The term crops up in several different places, diaries. letters etc from the 18th & 19th centuries and at first I thought it was the name of the people who owned the establishment that… Continue reading Humumm’s

Stumped!

Ok, so not the most inspiring photo, but as they say, “Every picture tells a story”. What you’re looking at here was the proposed site for the London terminus of the Great Central Railway in the 1890s. An enterprising businessman, Frank Crocker somehow got wind of these proposals and realising that the terminus would need… Continue reading Stumped!

Bucolic Bonnington Square

Bonnington Square in Vauxhall was built during the 1870s. Only a “six” away from the Oval cricket ground it comprised compact neat rows of London brick houses surrounding a central double terrace primarily used to house railway workers who were employed at Nine Elms Goods Yard close by. Booth’s map has the square marked as… Continue reading Bucolic Bonnington Square