The missing head of Oliver Cromwell
Tony McMahon investigates the disappearance of the head of Oliver Cromwell and the various places it appears to have turned up
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When London Bridge was full of houses!
To look at London Bridge now you see….well…..a bridge with traffic on it. But go back three centuries or more and the bridge was full of houses and some illustrious tenants. During the reign of Henry VIII, the court painter Holbein lived there. Two hundred years later, another artist – Hogarth – was a resident….
The axe and block at the Tower of London
The Tower of London still possesses the axe and “heading block” used for executions right up to the mid-18th century. There’s also a mask that was worn by the executioner. The block is chipped and dented as a result of some considerable use. On this block, the heads of three Scottish rebels – Lords Lovat,…
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…
Taking a dead man’s head to the pub
Londoners do some very odd things but taking a dead man’s head to the pub is probably one of the more unusual. Read on! There’s a monument that many office workers pass under every day that they’d never realise has a ghoulish past. It’s an innocuous old gateway that leads from the front of St…
The Calves Head Club – celebrating a beheaded king!
The Calves Head Club comprised a group of wealthy London traders and merchants who welcomed the beheading of King Charles the first and the rule of Oliver Cromwell. Even after the Restoration of King Charles the second, the executed king’s son, to the throne – they continued to meet in secret. Wealthy people who disliked…