Gentrification has for several decades followed a familiar pattern. It starts when “artists move into an area with cheap housing and studio space, then developers follow – and longstanding communities are forced out,” the Guardian reported. “Little thought is given to the people who have lived there for […]
For the Daily Mail in 1901 Dorset Street was “the Worst Street” in London.” The notorious stretch in Spitalfields was somewhere that “boasts a murder on average once a month, of a murder in every house, and one house at least, a murder in every room,” it wrote. […]
When the social researcher Henry Mayhew reported on Spitalfields in 1849, the living conditions that he discovered in some people’s homes was shocking. In one weavers’ house in the East London neighbourhood he found “spread a bed, on which lay four…. boys, two with their heads in one […]
Where does the City of London end and the rest of the capital begin? The quick answer can of course be determined by tracing the boundary on maps – or in certain places painted bollards. But for Londoners and visitors alike these official demarcations are meaningless for most […]
When the temperatures sore in the summer months, the Kent, Essex and Sussex seaside resorts within an hour or two of the capital are a popular places for Londoners to enjoy a fun-filled day out. Unfortunately the sun doesn’t always shine in Britain however and a day on […]
Trying to get a good photo of the front of 575 Wandsworth Road is somewhat difficult. The Georgian terraced property is pretty much covered with trees and bushes, so you can only really get a close-up shot of the plain-looking white painted front door. Hidden away from the […]
For design students, William Morris is often regarded as the most influential person of all time. Born in Walthamstow in 1834, he is considered by many the father of the Arts and Crafts, a movement which was also influenced by the writer John Ruskin and architect Augustus Pugin. […]
