London Bridge

The oldest Thames boat race….

Aug 1, 2023

anniversaries, culture, sources, travel

boats, Country Life, Doggett’s Coat and Badge, George I, John Stow, London Bridge, races, River Thames, rowing

We all know about the Oxford/Cambridge boat race, but it certainly isn’t the first such race on the Thames. We also have the “Doggett’s Coat and Badge”, which still boasts an unbroken record since 1715. It takes place on 31 July every year. I confess I had never heard of this race, but if…
Digging for Treasure

Dec 8, 2022

anniversaries, archaeology, battles, buildings, religion, Science, television reviews

Abdication, aeroplanes, Anglo-Saxons, Anne Neville, Boudicca, castles, Channel Five, coins, Dan Walker, Digging for Treasure, Fincham, King’s Lynn, Lancaster bombers, Loch leven, London Bridge, Mary Queen of Scots, metal detecting, Michaela Strachan, mudlarking, Norfolk, Northallerton, Portable Antiquities Scheme, Raksha Dave, Scotland, scuba-detecting, Sheriff Hutton, Southwark Cathedral, Wars of the Roses

There are several interesting archaeology series on television and Channel Five has now joined in with an ensemble programme, headed by two familiar personalities (Dan Walker and Michaela Strachan) and a similarly ubiquitous chief archaeologist (Raksha Dave), but with more of an emphasis on metal detecting for the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme, including Roman…
London Bridge and Its Houses c.1209-1761 by Dorian Gerhold – a review.

Jul 2, 2022

art, Book Reviews, buildings, travel

charts, Dorian Gerhold, grocers, Harrods, Hatton Garden, houses, London, London Bridge, Nonsuch House, Peter de Colechurch, shops

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri @ sparkypus.com A view of the bridge from Southwark, c.1630. Note the houses that are standing to the south of the Stone Gate, shown here adorned with heads on pikes, were in fact on the first pier of the bridge. This is one of the few remaining pictures showing the city…
ANOTHER PRECIOUS FIND TO ADD TO THE MIDDLEHAM JEWEL AND RING..

May 13, 2022

archaeology, art, buildings, religion, sources

Anne Beauchamp, Anne Neville, British Museum, Calais, Cheapside, childbirth, Coverham Abbey, Dennington, East Park, esses, gold bible, goldsmiths, Henry IV, Isobel Neville, Jervaulx Abbey, John Cherry, John of Gaunt, Lancastrians, London Bridge, Lord Bardolph, Middleham Jewel, Middleham Ring, Nevilles, Rous Roll, Sheriff Hutton, St. Leonard, St. Margaret, Suffolk, Ted Seaton, York Museum

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri sparkypus.com The Middleham Jewel, AD 1450-1500. Photo Anthony Chappel Ross, Courtesy York Museums Trust. Two metal detectorists have recently had a sumptous litte find. A tiny gold bible beautifully engraved. Which is great. But what makes their find super great is that it is yet another discovery made near the remains…
London’s Greatest Bridges (continued)

Dec 8, 2021

art, buildings, Science, television reviews

Albion Mill, almshouses, arson, Belgium, bribery, Canaletto, cement, Channel Five, Charles II, Company for the Strand Bridge, Company of Watermen, concrete foundations, Cornish granite, craft guilds, Frost Fairs, House of Commons, iron, John Rennie, Ladies’ Bridge, Lambeth, London Bridge, lotteries, Palace of Westminster, Pathe News, Portland stone, protests, River Thames, roads, Rob Bell, Second World War, slum clearances, Southwark, steam power, Strand, Suffragettes, Sutton Hoo, Thomas Page, timber, Waterloo, Waterloo Bridge, Westminster Bridge, windmills, Wool staple

This series finally resumed on Channel Five at the beginning of October, to cover two of the newer structures over the Thames, neither of which are in the original form. As usual, Rob Bell’s enthusiasm is infectious and his programmes are highly informative. Episode Three covered Westminster Bridge. By 1700, the population of London was…
London’s Greatest Bridges (with Rob Bell)

Sep 1, 2021

buildings, Science, television reviews

America, architectural history, bascules, Blitz, bridges, Channel Five, Charles Barry, church of St. Magnus, Claudius, concrete, engineering, Gothic facade, Haberdashers, Henry II, Horace Jones, houses, Isambard Brunel, John Barry, London, London Bridge, Marc Brunel, Parliament, Port of London, River Thames, Rob Bell, Roman Britain, Rotherhithe Tunnel, shops, steel, stone, Tilbury, Tower Bridge, towers, wood

The series began at London Bridge itself. From an engineering perspective, Bell explained that the wooden Claudian bridge was the first across the Thames , built on no fewer than twenty-nine artificial islands, making it very difficult to negotiate. It was replaced with a very similar stone unit by Henry II. The Haberdashers were very…
An early 17th-century view of Windsor Castle….

May 12, 2020

art, buildings

Album amicorum, Hamburg, London, London Bridge, Michael van Meer, Windsor Castle

The image above is not one that I’ve seen before – but that’s just me, no doubt you all recognise it. It’s from the Album amicorum of “a man named Michael van Meer, who seems to have lived in Hamburg and travelled to London around 1614–15”. Unlike imagined reconstructions, this drawing was made of the…
Not all Speakers of the House of Commons left gracefully….

Jan 19, 2020

anniversaries, buildings, law

Edmund Dudley, Edward I, executions, Good Parliament, London Bridge, Palace of Westminster, Richard Empson, Sir John Bussy, Sir Thomas Tresham, Sir William Tresham, Speakers of the Commons, Thomas More, William Catesby

Well, while researching the Painted Chamber of Westminster Palace, with particular reference to the “Good Parliament” of 1376, I couldn’t help imagining today’s House of Commons faced, not with someone like John Bercow (whose birthday it is today and is quite short with a head), but Edward the First! Can you just imagine old…
A corkscrew made from bits of Old London Bridge….

Mar 20, 2019

art, buildings

Arizona, auctions, Colchester, curiosities, Henry II, London Bridge, wool

In 2014, a broken Victorian corkscrew made from pieces of old London Bridge was bought for £40,000 at an auction in Essex, over 100 times its asking price. See this article/, from which the following is taken:- “The corkscrew, the components of which are thought to be up to 800 years old, was bought by…
The Maligned Queen in the Car Park

Jun 22, 2018

anniversaries, archaeology, buildings, religion

Amesbury Abbey, Arthur Plantagenet, car parks, Eleanor of Brittany, Eleanor of Provence, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Henry III, Inigo Jones, London Bridge, St. Melor’s

Added to the list of monarchs and notables found or potentially to be found beneath car parks, tennis courts, and other such mundane places must be the Queen of Henry III, Eleanor of Provence. Buried in Amesbury Priory after her body was kept in ‘storage’ by the nuns for two months while her son, Edward…