Tag: River Thames

A Slippery Tale

London’s relationship with eels is one of those wonderfully slippery stories that wriggles through every era of the city’s past, from medieval tax ledgers to East End pie shops. It began innocently enough for me while digging into the history of Billingsgate Fish Market, where I stumbled on a curious quirk of the 1699 Act… Continue reading A Slippery Tale

The Thames Bridge That Went To Africa

Everyone’s heard the story of London Bridge being shipped off to Arizona, but London has another great disappearing‑bridge tale — one that began at Millbank and ended up in Africa. It sounds like urban myth, but it’s entirely true Back in 1940, with the Blitz underway and the Luftwaffe targeting key Thames crossings, the government… Continue reading The Thames Bridge That Went To Africa

Amongst these dark Satanic Mills

Do you ever get a feeling about a location? It doesn’t have to be something outwardly disturbing, just a nagging notion that something historic at some time in the past might have happened on a particular spot. I know that sound a bit vague, but there is a certain piece of central London that has… Continue reading Amongst these dark Satanic Mills

Ship Ahoy! in Shaftesbury Avenue?

“….that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” I believe is a lyric by Joni Mitchell and very succinct when applied to the rather tatty looking shop premises in the picture. Shaftesbury Avenue, which is where this shop is located slices diagonally through the fringes of Covent Garden, Soho and Chinatown to end… Continue reading Ship Ahoy! in Shaftesbury Avenue?

Mudlarking

I’m actually writing this piece on the train home from London. Today’s date has been highlighted in my diary for several weeks and the anticipation has been steadily building as the days passed, for today I have been down on the Thames foreshore “Mudlarking” A Mudlark is someone who scavenges in river mud for items of value, a term… Continue reading Mudlarking