I’d like to share a short story of an incident that happened in 1322. Foster Lane near to St Paul’s Cathedral was at the time known as St Vedast Lane. Today there is a very small and strangely shaped Costa Coffee (other coffee outlets are available) at one end of the street. Just where the… Continue reading Ready, aim, fire!
Tag: Death
The Duke, his magician and a windmill
Old Jewry is a street that runs north to south connecting the Guildhall to Cheapside. In the 1600s an Inn used to stand at the north end of the street known as the Windmill, there is not much known about the building except for its role in a rather bizarre occurrence that happened in the… Continue reading The Duke, his magician and a windmill
“Which service do you require?”
Hopefully, one telephone number that you won’t dial too often will be 999, unless KFC have run out of chicken, as some idiot did during the shortage back in 2018. The number will give you access to the four emergency services, Police, Fire, Ambulance and Search & Rescue. It’s a number that’s ingrained into most… Continue reading “Which service do you require?”
Sunny Saturday morning at Charing Cross
Six Word Saturday
That’s a Moray
In my last post I gave a mention to the church of St Mary le Bow in Cheapside. This is the church that appears in the nursery rhyme, Oranges and Lemons. Post war archaeological digs showed that there was a church on the site in Saxon times. During the medieval period the church was redeveloped… Continue reading That’s a Moray
Queen Rat
As you may have read in my last few posts I’ve been looking at all things subterranean, the London Underground, the sewers and lost rivers of the capital. I came across a rather interesting piece of folklore when researching a post called Where there’s muck there’s brass dealing with the profession of Toshing which I… Continue reading Queen Rat
The Philpot Lane Mice
Question: What is the smallest piece of public art within the City of London? To answer that question let me take you back to the 1860s and the redevelopment of Eastcheap, the street that runs east from the Monument towards the Tower of London. The block adjoining Philpot Lane was demolished and the architect Robert Lewis… Continue reading The Philpot Lane Mice
A baby, but no bath water
Whilst rooting about in A Survey Of The Cities Of London and Westminster written by John Strype in the 1720s for some information, I came across a story by accident that is too good not to tell. The story is set near to the Tower of London and centres around the Churchyard of All Hallows-by-the-Tower,… Continue reading A baby, but no bath water
Off with his head!
A phrase usually attributed the Queen Elizabeth I, but whether she actually said it is anyone’s guess. As far as public beheadings in the capital were concerned the site used was Tower Hill on the north side of the Tower of London. The two earliest record I could find were for a couple of executions… Continue reading Off with his head!
Do two Doves make a Dule?
Dule: Collective noun for a group of Doves. It’s funny how things creep up on you. I’d finished writing my last post about the book printers, Doves Press and the disappearance of the typeface known as Doves some hours earlier and was sitting watching the TV with not a thought for what I had written,… Continue reading Do two Doves make a Dule?
A LONDON MISCELLANY 