London

THE ORANGE AND LEMON CHURCHES OF OLD LONDON

Oct 7, 2021

buildings, religion, sources

Blitz, burials, citrus fruits, executions, Great Fire of London, Great Plague, Grinling Gibbons, Hardicanute, Harold I, Hugenots, Hugh Lord Dowding, James Boswell, James Gibbs, John Smith, John Stow, Katherine Howard, London, Lord Mayors of London, Nikolaus Pevsner, nursery rhymes, Pocahontas, rugby, Rugby School, Samuel Johnson, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Richard Whittington, St. Clement Danes, St. clement Eastcheap, St. Dunstan’s and All Saints Stepney, St. Leonard’s Shoreditch, St. Martin Orgar, St. Mary-le-Bow Cheapside, St. Sepulchre’s Old Bailey, Thomas Culpeper, Will Somers, William Webb-Ellis

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri sparkypus.com Old London – City of Churches. Bow Church can be seen to the left. Part of the The Visscher Panorama of London, 1616. Image Peter Harrington Rare Books. Orange and lemons say the bells of Saint Clement’s You owe me five farthings say the bells of St Martin’s…
THE MEDIEVAL PRIORY AND CHURCH OF ST MARY SPITAL

Sep 18, 2021

archaeology, buildings, religion

Agas map, Antony van den Wyngaerde, Bishopsgate, Dissolution of the Monasteries, gresham college, Henry VIII, hospitals, London, Museum of London Archaeology, Priories, Robert de la Naperie., Sir robert gresham, St. Mary Spital

REBLOGGED FROM A MEDIEVAL POTPOURRI sparkypus.com Artists impression of how St Mary Spital may have appeared before the Dissolution. Museum of London. Artist Faith Vardy. St. Mary Spital Augustinian Priory and Hospital covered the area known today as Spital Square. Standing outside the city walls it was bordered from the west by Bishopsgate Street…
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…
Guess what? Henry VII invented the London Watch….!

Aug 29, 2021

buildings, law

“Tudor” propaganda, Beefeaters, Henry V, Henry VII, Human Shredder, London, London Watch, policing, renaissance, Richard III, Titulus Regius

“….Watchmen were organized groups of men, usually authorized by a state, government, city, or society, to deter criminal activity and provide law enforcement as well as traditionally perform the services of public safety, fire watch, crime prevention, crime detection, recovery of stolen goods. The streets in London were dark and had a shortage of artificial…
Walking “Tudor” England

Aug 10, 2021

battles, buildings, genealogy, law, religion, television reviews, travel

“Bloody Mary”, “Tudors”, Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, Arthur “Tudor”, Ashdown Forest, attainder, Austin Friars, bear-baiting, Bishops of London, Bridewell Palace, brothels, Cambridge, cannon, Channel Five, Christopher Hatton, Clifford’s Tower, conspiracies, dancing, de heretico comburendo, Dutch refugees, East Midlands, Edmund Bonner, Edward of Buckingham, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, excommunication, executions, exile, fire, Framlingham Castle, Fulham Palace, Greenwich Palace, Grey-Dudley rebellion, Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes, Hampton Court, Henry Earl of Huntingdon, Henry Grey Duke of Suffolk, Henry VIII, Hever Castle, James VI/I, Jane, John Dudley Duke of Northumberland, John Foxe, John Howard Duke of Norfolk, Katherine Howard, Kenilworth Castle, Kenninghall, Kett Rebellion, Leicester, London, Lord Chancellor, Lord Guildford Dudley, Margaret Clitherow, Mary Stuart, Mass, Michelham Priory, naval power, Nicholas Ridley, Northern Earls’ Rebellion, Norwich, Penshurst Place, Pilgrimage of Grace, Pontefract, Portsmouth, recusants, Ripon Cathedral, Robert Aske, Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, royal barges, royal hunting estates, Rushton Triangular Lodge, severed heads, Sir Henry Dudley, Sir John Hawkins, Sir Thomas Tresham, Sir Walter Raleigh, Southwark, St. Mary’s Abbey, Stamford, Suzannah Lipscomb, The Globe, Thomas Howard 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Stafford, tobacco, torture, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Will Kemp, William Cecil, William Shakespeare, Wyatt Rebellion, Yorkshire Museum

Suzannah Lipscomb has just completed another series on Channel Five, this time visiting the sites related to the “Tudors”. In the first episode, she concentrated on Henry VIII and the naval power he inherited from John Howard, Duke of Norfolk. The second was principally about the penultimate “Tudor”, Mary I, as well as Edward VI…
THE ANCIENT GATES OF OLD LONDON

May 7, 2021

buildings

Aldersgate, Aldgate, Anne Sutton, Bastard of Fauconberg, Bethnal Green, Bishopsgate, Cripplegate, Ealdred, Edmund the Martyr, Edward IV, Edward V, gates, Geoffrey Chaucer, Great Fire of London, Henry I, John Stow, London, Ludgate, Moorgate, Newgate Prison, Old London Bridge, past maps, Peter Hammond, Richard III, Southwark, Watling Street

REBLOGGED FROM A MEDIEVAL POTPOURRI THE ANCIENT GATES OF LONDON Old London Map c1572. Franz Hogenberg And so Dear Reader, we are going to take a break from murderous queens, scheming duchesses, bad kings, good kings, missing royal children and silly bishops. We are going to take a look at London’s Old Gates. Where were…
Two thousand years of Southwark Cathedral….

Apr 3, 2021

archaeology, buildings, Events, religion

Cathedrals, islands, London, Ptolemy Dean, Roman Britain, Southwark Cathedral

Southwark Cathedral, although only just across the Thames from St Paul’s and Westminster, has never received the same close attention of its rivals. At least, so it seems to me. Then, at the turn of the millenium, excavations began that led archaeologists back through time. A long time, because the cathedral’s beginnings stretch back over…
Even more “Britain’s Most Historic Towns”

Jan 2, 2021

battles, buildings, law, religion, Science, television reviews

America, Armada, banking, Battle of Lincoln, body snatching, Charles II, Corn Laws, Drake, Edinburgh, Engels, executions, Glasgow, Horatio Nelson, industry, Lincoln, London, Manchester, Marx, medicine, Nicola de la Haie, Osborne House, overdrafts, Plymouth, Portsmouth, rapid expansion, Royal Society, Sir Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkins, Sir Walter Raleigh, theatre, William Burke, William Hare

Alice Roberts has been back on our screens with a third series of the above. This time, she visited (Mediaeval) Lincoln, (Restoration) London, (Naval) Portsmouth, (Elizabethan) Plymouth, (Steam Age) Glasgow, (Georgian) Edinburgh and (Industrial Revolution) Manchester, albeit not in chronological order like the two previous series. There was a focus on Nicola de la Haye…
Dan Jones hits the road …

Dec 17, 2020

archaeology, battles, buildings, humour, law, religion

5Select., Bath, bath houses, Dan Jones, David Starkey, Dere Street, Ermine Street, Exeter, Hadrian’s Wall, Leicester, Leicester cathedral, Lincoln, London, Richard III, Roman culture, Roman invasion, tattoos, Walking Britain’s Roman Roads, Watling Street, York

… Walking Britain’s Roman Roads, in fact. It is quite a good series, in which Jones explores some of the most important of these, together with some aspects of Romano-British Society. The first episode takes him the length of Watling Street, the first part of which is now he M2, during which he visits the…
A pleasant surprise

Sep 19, 2020

television reviews, travel

“Princes”, Avon-Kennet Canal, Birmingham, Bristol, Brunel, canals, centurions, Channel Five, Coventry, Crimewatch, Dan Jones, Edward II, Endeavour Morse, Grand Union Canal, Lancashire towns, Lancaster, Leeds-Liverpool Canal, Liverpool, London, Oxford, Oxford Canal, ports, rainfall, red hot poker, Richard III, Roman roads, The Wench is Dead, trade, transport, Yorkshire

In recent years, Dan Jones’ posing and fanciful Crimewatch-style re-enactments, together with Starkeyesque conclusions formed before he started, has marred quite a few series on mediaeval history. Now he seems to have changed tack completely with this series, covering canal building from the middle of the eighteenth century and – yes – I rather enjoyed…