Some hidden history of Parliament Square – from traffic lights to Tudor tourneys. We all know the grand Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey but here are five fascinating facts beyond the main sites.
Tag Archives: British History
Old, New, and Wonderful: Greenwich
Something old, something new, and something wonderful to enjoy next time you find yourself in Greenwich! An ancient cemetery, plaque hunting, and stunning Baroque paintings.
Crazy Concepts Women Have Had To Endure In English History
Women have had to put up with some mad things over the centuries… from not being allowed to sit down to being denied university degrees (despite actually attending the university). I’ve listed some of the craziest examples here for your perusal. Feel free to laugh or cry.
A Wander Down Ladbroke Grove
Last week I had my Covid-19 vaccine! Whoop! I’m always saying that you can uncover so much London history if you just scratch the surface a little bit, so I thought I’d put my money where my mouth is and tell you some of the stories I found on my journey to the hospital!
Kathleen Easmon and Florence Mills: Black Women You Should Know About
Two weeks after I promised but it’s here! This time we’re looking at two women who were contemporaries but likely never met. Both creative and inspirational women of the 1920s.
Memoirs of a Londoner: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Recounting the story of one Britain’s most famous composers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was a Croydon local, who went on to study at the Royal College of Music, visited the White House, and conducted his pieces to huge audiences at the Royal Albert Hall.
Noor Inayat Khan
Noor Inayat Khan was a British secret agent during the Second World War. She went into Nazi-occupied France as a radio operator. These operatives, on average, had a life expectancy of only six weeks. Noor managed seventeen.
Memoirs of a Londoner: Olive Morris
It was only today that I learned of the existence of Olive Morris. A campaigner and activist, a radical Black feminist, an inspiring young woman, who fought for racial and social equality in South London in the 1960s and ’70s.
Today would have been her 68th birthday.
