The great London tornado of 1091
In the year 1091 a huge tornado hit the city of London tearing down its famous bridge as Tony McMahon discovers
accident
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When three thousand people died on London Bridge
In the year 1212 London Bridge burned down and according to contemporary accounts it may have claimed the lives of over three thousand people
Houses of Parliament burnt down in massive blaze
On the 16th October, 1834, the old Houses of Parliament were completely burnt down by a huge fire. It took several days to extinguish an inferno that engulfed ancient medieval halls, Georgian houses and most of the palace of Westminster. Westminster Hall – a vast space dating back to the Norman period – was only…
Sir Walter Raleigh catches fire in Islington
This is a curious story about how Sir Walter Raleigh allegedly caught fire and was extinguished by his manservant. Raleigh – swashbuckling adventurer under Queen Elizabeth I (or Queen Bess if you prefer) – and Islington don’t exactly sit together in your mind. But Raleigh and other Elizabethans loved popping over to the village of…
Terrible accident at St Mary-le-Strand
St Mary-le-Strand has been an unloved London church, viewed as a bit of a problem. This wasn’t helped by a terrible accident in the early nineteenth century, which I’ll detail below, caused by its shoddy construction. In 1887, The Daily Telegraph asked: “What is to be done with the internally handsome, externally cumbrous, and obstructive…