Google Street View has just announced that the Shambles in York is Britain’s Most Picturesque Street (link to the Shambles on Google Street View). But what are The Shambles? The Shambles is a street in York, in the county of Yorkshire, where the upper rooms of the late-medieval buildings jut over the narrow cobbled street. It [more...]
Madame Tussaud’s in London, is world famous for its waxworks of politicians, movie stars, musicians, television celebrities, and sports stars. But what would you have seen in their exhibitions in the 19th century? Madame Marie Tussaud came to Britain from France in 1802 and travelled around the country with her exhibition of effigies of royalty and [more...]
Execution Dock is in Wapping, London, and it is here that many criminals were executed for piracy and murder. Under the English legal system, the Admiralty Court dealt with all crimes committed on the high seas, and for at least 500 years, Execution Dock was where its capital sentences were carried out. So that it was [more...]
In 1867, Regents Park, one of the ‘Lungs of London‘, contained a Zoo, a range of gardens, avenues for riding, and an ornamental lake with an area for boating. In very cold winters when the lake froze over it became a popular venue for skaters. The beginning of January 1867 was intensely cold throughout Britain and [more...]
The ‘Lungs of London’ are said to be the many parks and squares in London, and it conveys the idea of their importance to the well-being of its inhabitants. It was first attributed to William Pitt (1708 – 1778) Earl of Chatham, by Lord Windham in a speech in the House of Commons on 30 [more...]
While researching the National Trust and the acquisition of their first property of the Clergy House in Alfriston, Sussex, I came across many claims on the internet that the Trust’s symbol was inspired by a carving of an oak leaf to be found in the Clergy House. Image on Wikipedia. I thought I would look into [more...]
The National Trust safeguards the heritage of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It has now over 350 historic properties, gardens, and ancient monuments, as well as miles of countryside under its care. National Trust properties are visited by millions of people each year. But what was their first property? The Trust was founded in 1895 [more...]
In the early days of aviation before the First World War, the Daily Mail a British newspaper was keen to promote its paper and encourage the development of aviation, so it sponsored a number of air races. These were a novelty and each of them were covered in great detail in its pages and by [more...]
In the Victorian period, competing railway companies built a number of railway stations in the City of London and in London. Since then all the stations have undergone substantial redevelopment, but many still remain their original architectural features including impressive roof spans. London Bridge – Opened in 1836, London Bridge was first station to be built [more...]
The British Parliament is steeped in history and tradition, and parliamentary debates in the House of Commons are often very lively and noisy with Members of Parliament calling out to the opposition party, waving order papers, exaggerating laughter or deriding the speeches of the opposition members. Critics liken it to a bear pit or a [more...]
The home of the President of United States was officially named the White House in October 1901. Construction of the building started in 1792, and the John Adams was the first President to occupy the building in 1800, even though it was far from finished. During the 19th century it was variously known as the Residence, [more...]
The Department of Transport (D of T) in the UK produces detailed annual reports on traffic accidents where a person has been injured. When investigating a traffic accident, police will take report any contributory factors which contributed to the collision. Not every accident will have a contributory factor reported, and some may have more than [more...]
Samuel Gilbert Scott, b.c.1813 in Philadelphia, became famous in Britain for his daring act of high-diving and other stunts until he met his accidental death in his show. Before his arrival in Britain, he was a former sailor who worked on American and British frigates and became very adapt as a top-man working in the ship’s [more...]
In this time of financial constraints, the aviation industry is finding things rather tough. However, one part of the industry is flourishing, and that is aircraft recycling. Airlines are disposing of aircraft which are old, or aircraft which for financial reasons cannot be maintained within their fleet and kept flying. Or where the airline has already [more...]
The news that EMI are selling the Abbey Road Studios where the Beatles recorded the majority of their records, led me to do some research on the history of the building in which the studios are located. Number 3, Abbey Road, St John’s Wood, London, was built in the 1830s. Number 3 was called Agnes Villa. [more...]
The Victorian period in Britain saw a peak in the numbers of servants employed in households. All upper class houses had several servants, and most middle class households aspired to have at least one or two servants. In 1871 over 4% of the population was employed ‘in service’, the vast majority of them women. What servants [more...]
Frank Sinatra once sang a line from the Coffee Song which goes ‘They’ve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil’. Is that correct? Which countries are the largest coffee producers in world? According to the International Coffee Organisation, the crop year of 2009 saw a world harvest of 123.7 million bags of coffee. This followed [more...]
The next UK census is to be conducted on 27 March 2011. Already there are many people complaining of the intrusive nature of the questions and indicating they may refuse to provide the information. In the last census of 2001 there were 38 prosecutions for non-compliance, and there were at least 6,000 cases where some [more...]
The patriotic song Rule Britannia proclaims “Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves; Britons never will be slaves.” But contrary to the song, there was a time when Britons had been made slaves. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Barbary Pirates, also referred to as Turkish or Moorish Pirates, raided the English coast, attacking ships and raiding [more...]
The River Thames flows through London and there are two tunnels which you can walk through between the south and north banks. First, a little about the history of foot tunnels under the Thames. The first foot tunnel constructed under the Thames was the Thames Tunnel opened in 1843. Construction had started in 1825, but flooding, [more...]