On June 26, 1830 – one of the most unpopular monarchs of England died. King George the Fourth breathed his last. And it seems that nobody particularly cared. This was possibly the worst royal funeral ever! Goodbye to a hated king! The Times published an astonishing commentary referring to George as a “pompous and secluded…
On 29 January 1820, King George III died bringing an end to a very long reign of sixty years, long surpassed by Queen Elizabeth II who was on the throne for seventy years. George III was Elizabeth’s great-great-great-great-grandfather. Because of intermarriage, they’re related in other ways too. Unlike the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, that of…
One of the greatest unsolved English murder cases is The Merstham Tunnel Mystery that happened in 1905. The body of 22-year-old Mary Sophia Money, 22, was found in a railway tunnel on the South-Eastern Railway line south of London. Mary was a bookkeeper employed at a dairy in Lavender Hill where she lived with the…
In 1820, a group of English radical activists plotted to kill the entire British government while they were sat down to dinner in central London. The Cato Street Conspiracy – so-called from the place where they met to plot – was uncovered and the ringleaders executed in a public and grisly manner. One of those…
Beneath what is now the London School of Economics lies the remains of a “molly house” – a gay bar basically – once located in the long demolished warren of streets that made up Clare Market. The White Swan pub was on the corner of Vere Street, which you can no longer find. This drinking…
It’s hard to believe today but if you went back to the 13th century – you would have found something very different at Hampton Court Palace. No magnificent complex of Tudor and Stuart buildings but a medieval manor run by the Knights Hospitaller – under the direction of the Priory at Clerkenwell, which was the…
I’m an avid collector of old – and I mean very old – newspapers. From the year 1766, I own a copy of The London Chronicle with the most extraordinary front page article. It recounts the story of a “female husband” – a woman who donned male apparel and lived openly as the ‘husband’ of…
London is famous for royal palaces like Windsor, Buckingham Palace, and St James’s Palace. But what about those royal palaces long lost to history? Take for example, Kennington Palace. Yes, such a place did exist. The home of the legendary Black Prince. Go there now and you’ll find a post-war office block. Ditto Baynard’s castle…
LGBT life in London during the Bridgerton era was surprisingly open but dangerous as a court case from the time reveals
The death of Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe remains a mystery – was he murdered or was his death faked? Tony McMahon investigates
