When a committee of MPs investigating the state of the country’s gaol’s visited the Marshalsea debtor’s prison in Borough in 1729 the conditions they reported were appalling. Wards were “excessively Crowded, Thirty, Forty, nay Fifty Persons having been locked up in some of them not Sixteen Foot Square”. […]
Oxford Street once boasted London’s best shops, but many would agree that it lost its way long ago. While it isn’t today struggling to pull in the crowds, the outlets on offer are far from imaginative – chain stores you could find anywhere, fast food joints and stalls […]
When the first copies of the Daily Mail hit the newsstands 120 years ago, prime minister Lord Salisbury dismissed the new newspaper as “run by office boys for office boys”. But it was an immediate success, selling nearly 400,000 copies on the first day and it soon would […]
When Francis Russell licensed the development of land in Covent Garden he declared that it needed to be “fitt for the habitacions of Gentlemen and men of ability.” It was most ambitious of West End projects in the first half of the 17th century, with Inigo Jones being […]
If you live in London and have plenty of spare cash to buy a wedding or engagement ring, the wares on offer at Hatton Garden will not disappoint. Most of this street is lined with jewellery shops, with diamonds glistening in the window displays. It’s here many celebrities […]
It’s Sunday, a little after the midday, and people are flocking through the revolving front doors of the Savoy Hotel for afternoon tea. The distant sounds of piano music can be heard as they pass through the fine, wood-panelled lobby, with chequered black and white marble floor tiles […]
Travellers have long craved familiarity when they travel the world. And the Indians who moved to Southall, west London, from the 1950s were no different. They set up shops and other businesses which were familiar to communities back home, making this corner of Britain’s capital particularly distinctive today. […]
For the last three weeks, I’ve posted a series of blogs focusing on the lasting legacy of some of Cambodia’s sometime extremely dark history, namely the Khmer Rouge, as well as more ancient times during the Khmer Empire. The country continues to face problems and progress is blighted […]
Sunrise at Angkor Wat is a spectacular sight that’s worth getting up for. As the rose over the largest religious building in the world, monks could be heard chanting in the distance. Sitting on some steps at the edge of a lily pond, with the towers of the […]
For what was once a city of ghosts, Phnom Penh has undergone a rapid transformation in recent years and is today a bustling metropolis. Tuk tuks can whisk visitors through the busy traffic to restaurants serving cuisine from pretty much any country in the world. Happy hour rings […]
Past In The Present 