1862 saw a new crime trend hit the streets of London. The city was terrified of alleged garrotters – strangling and stealing from victims. One thief grabbed a victim from behind, garrotting them, while the other relieved the breathless person of their belongings. This outbreak of “garrotting” horrified the great and the powerful – especially…
Queen Victoria experienced a very long reign and by 1897 had been on the throne for an astonishing sixty years. She processed through the city of London as part of her celebrations. Vast crowds assembled to see the sovereign drift past in her carriage. The Diamond Jubilee festivities saw dignitaries and soldiers come to London…
Another blog post in my current series on Newgate prison – demolished over a hundred years ago and replaced by the Old Bailey court building By the end of the nineteenth century, if you committed a murder north of the Thames – you would face the hangman at Newgate. If you committed it south of…
Stand at Tottenham Court Road station and let your eyes drift from the Dominion Theatre past New Oxford Street and down Charing Cross Road. Now imagine that this whole stretch of London extending down to St Martin’s Lane and back to Drury Lane was one huge enormous slum. A warren of impenetrable alleyways, wooden houses,…
This is one of a series of blog posts about the once notorious Newgate prison that stood on the site of today’s Old Bailey George Cruikshank was a caricaturist who drew the illustrations for the books of Charles Dickens. He was also vehemently opposed to the death penalty, following something he saw outside Newgate prison….
Behold the Earls Court wheel – forerunner to the London Eye. For just over ten years – 1895 to 1906 – this dominated the skyline at Earls Court in west London. It was a hit with visitors to exhibitions at the nearby large events venue. In one book of photos I have from the turn…
This is the first of a series of blog posts about the notorious Newgate Prison that once stood on the site of the Old Bailey You might assume that hanging people in public had died out in England after the 18th century but in fact, these gruesome events continued right up until 1868. The authors…
There will be many mythbuster moments on this blog and here comes one now! Once upon a time there was a beautiful but delicate lady called Jane. She was the daughter of a Cheapside merchant and married a goldsmith called William Shore when she was just sixteen. He ran his business in Lombard Street and…
In 1660, King Charles II was acclaimed king bringing to an end over a decade of no monarchy in Britain. The experiment of Oliver Cromwell in government with no king came to an end. Contrary to royalist propaganda – not everybody welcomed this. Many people in England for different reasons had no love for the…
