Barbican is like Marmite – you either love the area on the fringes of the City of London or you hate it. There is no middle ground. For some, it is one big brutal concrete monstrosity that is a blot on the landscape and should never have been […]
Thomas Coram had travelled around the world as a sea captain and shipbuilder but, returning to London in 1720, he was shocked to see so many children lying dying on the capital’s streets. At a time when overseas trade was expanding fast, it was estimated that over one […]
For the staff and pupils of a historic Croydon school there has been plenty to celebrate this year. Over the course of 2014, Archbishop Tenison – named after founder the Archbishop of Canterbury – has been marking the tricentenary of its establishment for the teaching “ten poor boys […]
It is somewhat ironic that one of the first things I do after getting off the train at Letchworth Garden City – a pioneering Hertfordshire town founded in 1903 without any pubs serving beer – is stock up on alcohol. At a Sainsbury’s superstore on the edge of […]
William Blake’s reference to ‘dark satanic mills’ in his Jerusalem poem, conjures up negative connotations of the industrial revolution and the impact it had on the lives of ordinary people. Workers toiled away for long hours in dirty factories, with little time for leisure, contemporary commentators suggested. Machines […]
Rochdale appears at first glance like many other former mill towns in the north west of England. Rows of terraced houses greet drivers as they leave the open plains of the Lancashire countryside and enter the suburbs. Then there’s the ring roads which get clogged up in rush […]
Like others in the 19th century, Thomas Barnardo planned to train as a doctor and use his new skills to help the poor on the other side of the world. As a medical missionary, he set his sights on ministering to the needy in China. The fact that […]
26 Chittys Lane looks like many other houses built on British council estates to provide “homes for heroes” following the First World War. But the presence of a Blue Plaque on the front of this Becontree property suggests there is a specific story to tell. It wasn’t however […]
When the late Queen Mother undertook tours of the suburbs she often dropped in on the residents of prefabs, claiming the developments resembled holiday camps. Walking around the Excalibur estate in Catford, south London, this afternoon I could see exactly where she was coming from – proud people […]
Past In The Present 