The Nation Lottery started in the UK on the 19th November 1994, however, this was not the first nationwide lottery to be run in Britain. “The Lottery” by William Hogarth 1721 showing the two lottery wheels. The first state lottery was the idea of Master of the Royal Mint, Thomas Neale in order to raise… Continue reading ……..AND THE BONUS BALL IS
Category: Uncategorized
“Just a single please”
This is about a very bizarre one way journey that our London Ancestors could have taken during the Victorian period. By the early 1850s, London had a problem with overcrowding. No, not as you would assume with housing or population or traffic, those go without saying. Victorian London had too many corpses and not enough… Continue reading “Just a single please”
A Cock And Pye Story
To make a Peacock Pye. Pick it, and leave the Feathers on the Neck, cut the Neck off close to the Body, skin the Neck close to the Head, and cut it off; put a Stick tight into the Skin up to the Head, dry it in an Oven; cut off the Legs, and keep… Continue reading A Cock And Pye Story
All your (rotten) eggs in one basket
I’m a football fan of a vintage that can remember back to a very ill thought out concept that was run by British Rail, the Football Special. We’re going back to the mid to late 1970s when the scourge of football violence was reaching it’s peak. Whoever at BR thought it was a good idea… Continue reading All your (rotten) eggs in one basket
That Crazy Cat/Dog/ Magpie/ Monkey Lady/Man
Friend Street in Islington is a very unassuming thoroughfare which allows you to cut through from St John’s Street to Goswell Road. Recently while writing a new audio tour I used it as just that, a cut through and didn’t pay it much attention. Over the Christmas period at a bit of a loose end,… Continue reading That Crazy Cat/Dog/ Magpie/ Monkey Lady/Man
A Little Bit of The Pharaohs In Piccadilly
Egyptian House at 170-173 Piccadilly is one of those functional early 20th century buildings that in the next hundred or so years people may well begin to love. It’s a bit of a hybrid, echoes of Georgian and Victorian architecture muddled up with just a glimpse of what was ahead in terms of Art Noveau… Continue reading A Little Bit of The Pharaohs In Piccadilly
You Dirty Boy!
If I asked you to name a famous Miser, I’m sure most of you would plump for Mr Ebeneezer Scrooge, the literary creation of Charles Dickens. It is well known the Dickens created many of his characters from an assemblage of real life people, taking traits and idiosyncrasies from several to created his fully formed… Continue reading You Dirty Boy!
A bird within a bird within a bird
Well after a slightly longer break than I had imagined this week sees me back in harness once again. Through my own ineptitude I started the New Year off with not one, but three new audio tours all clamouring for my attention like noisy children. Well you can’t have favourites can you? The upshot of… Continue reading A bird within a bird within a bird
Thursday Doors
Old Tom’s Tale
Looking back at my last couple of posts they’ve been a bit negative, so I thought I’d relay this short but heart warming Christmas tale of a character well known to Londoners who frequented the area of Gracechurch Street. The street was once described by the historian John Strype as one of the fairest streets… Continue reading Old Tom’s Tale
A LONDON MISCELLANY 