Tag Archives: rambling london tours

Mary Fillis and Dido Belle: Black Women You Should Know About

First of three blog posts featuring Black women who have lived in London over the centuries.
Part one looks at Mary Fillis, a sixteenth century servant, and Dido Elizabeth Belle, an aristocrat in the eighteenth century.

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.

5 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Bloomsbury

Amazing women, dystopian strongholds, and aristocratic estates – a few quirky facts with which to impressive your friends and family next time you’re in Bloomsbury.

‘All-Night Gaiety’ at The Caravan Club

Decades before the 1967 Sexual Offences Act partially decriminalised sex between men, some freedom and community could be found in the numerous illegal drinking dens and makeshift private members’ clubs which popped up in and around Soho. One of these was the Caravan Club, which dazzled the streets of Soho in the 1930s, but was unfortunately shut down by police on this day (25th August) in 1934.

The Bells of London Town

On this day (11th July) in 1859, Big Ben rang for the first time because (spoiler alert!) Big Ben is a bell not a tower. I used this anniversary moment to shine a light on some of London’s most exciting bells.

A Little Bit More Lockdown Art

This is Part Two of my jaunt through the Royal Academy, bringing you some beautiful art and its relation to the general lockdown experience.

A Very London Christmas

London has some wacky Yuletide traditions, a few of which I’ll share with you today. So sit back with your glass of mulled wine, put on a Father Christmas hat and some reindeer slippers, and enjoy… (and press play on the Christmas Hits playlist. You know you want to.)

Foundling

Two mothers and two Foundlings. Two strands of a story woven together in eighteenth century London.