A Tall Story, but a good one.

There’s not a more evocative street name in London than “Bleeding Heart Yard” nearby to the jewelry district of Hatton Garden. Charles Dickens knew it well, using it as the home and workshop of the impoverished plasterer Mr Plornish and his family in Little Dorrit, but there’s a more sinister and evil tale connected to… Continue reading A Tall Story, but a good one.

Ship Ahoy!

I tend not to labour on a subject for too long when writing this blog, but I seem to be on a bit of a roll with the 1893 OS map of London. As described in an earlier post, Cartophilia told how the Cartographers that put the map together had the insight to add inscriptions… Continue reading Ship Ahoy!

Quantity not quality

I’ve just received a copy of the 1937 edition of Ward Lock’s London, a quirky little 7 x 5 inch tourist guide. Ward, Lock & Co. was a publishing house that started as a partnership and developed until it was eventually absorbed into the publishing combine of Orion Publishing Group. Ebenezer Ward and George Lock starting a… Continue reading Quantity not quality

Cartophilia

I’m a Cartophile loud and proud and don’t care who knows it. Sound dramatic, but actually its only the love of maps. Old or new I can spend long periods of time perusing them without any plan in mind. If you can have such a thing, one of my favourites and an item I would… Continue reading Cartophilia

Three London Friars, Two Without Shoes

Six word Saturday Before the Henry VIII and his right hand man, Thomas Cromwell embarked upon the Dissolution more than thirty monasteries, convents, priories and hospitals jostled for room within the City’s ‘square mile’ or sheltered outside in the shadow of the still surviving Roman wall. Two of these orders that are commemorated with statues… Continue reading Three London Friars, Two Without Shoes