This Week In London’s History Monday – 30th June 1894: Tower Bridge is opened by the Prince of Wales. It would become an iconic symbol of London, and arguably the most well-recognised ‘bascule bridge’ in the world (even if tourists do sometime mistake it for London Bridge). Tuesday – 1st July 1858: Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection is presented at the Linnean Society at Burlington House, Piccadilly. Wednesday – 2nd July 1865: One-time......

SS Robin, with the Canary Wharf skyline in the background (photo by Dean Nicholas) While the Cutty Sark and HMS Belfast are well-known icons of Britain's marine history, London's only other National Historic Ships Register Grade I-listed vessel was, until recently, in serious danger of being scrapped. The SS Robin, built at Bow Creek in 1890, is the world's oldest working steamer, and hauled raw materials all over Europe during the Industrial Revolution. Bought......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 9th June 1958: Queen Elizabeth II flies into a revamped Gatwick to officially open London’s second biggest airport. Tuesday – 10th June 2000: The Millennium Footbridge opens, spanning the Thames between Bankside and the City. It would initially suffer from ‘synchronous lateral excitation’ (a.k.a. wobbliness), necessitating its closure and the fitting of dampers. Wednesday – 11th June 1988: The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute (a.k.a. Mandela Day......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 2nd June 1953: The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II takes place in Westminster Abbey. Tuesday – 3rd June 1982: Israeli ambassador to Britain, Shlomo Argov, is shot in the head outside the Dorchester Hotel in London. He would survive the attack, but be left permanently paralysed. Three men would be convicted of attempted murder. Wednesday – 4th June 1762: A newly installed peal of ten bells at......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 19th May 2004: Security at the House of Commons is breached, as two protesters from the ‘Fathers 4 Justice’ campaign group throw condoms filled with purple flour at Prime Minister Tony Blair as he addresses the House. Tuesday – 20th May 1609: London publisher Thomas Thorpe publishes Shakespeare’s Sonnets for the first time, possibly without The Bard’s permission. Wednesday – 21st May 1853: The Aquatic Vivarium, the......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 12th May 1967: Pink Floyd stage their ‘Games for May’ concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank. The concert is notable for being the first ever live performance to use a quadraphonic sound system. Unfortunately, the use of bubbles and daffodils during the performance stain the carpets and seats, resulting in the band being banned from the venue. Tuesday – 13th May 1966: Alison......

London's history has been told many, many times. Such is the volume of literature on the subject, it can't be long before someone writes a history of all the history books available. So we were curious what Historic London by Stephen Inwood might add to the mix. And yes, at first glance, this looks like another scholarly account of our city's 2000 year adventure, weighing in at some 400 pages with additional photographic plates.......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 28th April 1801: Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, is born at 24 Grosvenor Square. He would become a noted politician and philanthropist, whose works would be commemorated by the construction of the Shaftesbury Memorial (a.k.a. ‘The Angel of Christian Charity’, a.k.a. ‘Eros’) in Piccadilly Circus. Tuesday – 29th April 1745: Cowper Thornhill, keeper of the Bell Inn in Stilton, Cambridgeshire, rides from the inn to Shoreditch......

Announcing the fifth Londonist guided walk. When: Friday 9 May - walk leaves at 7pm. What: Troglodyte pigs and syrup of figs. Herds of feral swine, a well hung Italian, giant dogs, huge rats and the ghost of the pig nosed princess. What’s not to like on this stroll around Blackfriars? Along with the folklore there’s literature, politics and the law, and remember that underneath your feet is the Fleet. Walk lasts ninety minutes......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 21st April 1509: Henry VII dies in Richmond Palace, supposedly as the result of a ‘broken heart’ following the deaths of his son and wife several years before. Tuesday – 22nd April 1925: George Cole is born in Tooting, and given up for adoption. He would become a successful film and television actor, arguably best known for his role as used car dealer Arthur Daley in the......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 14th April 1471: During the Wars of the Roses, the Yorkists defeat the Lancastrians in the Battle of Barnet, allowing Edward IV to resume the throne. Tuesday – 15th April 1755: Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London. Wednesday – 16th April 1889: Hollywood great Charlie Chaplin is born in Walworth, South London. Thursday – 17th April 1999: ‘London nailbomber’ David Copeland......

Just as concern about our disaffected youth seems to be getting absurdly out of control and becoming a despairingly permanent fixture on our news radar, along comes a media friendly academic to reassure us that it has ever been thus. Yes, yootful human nature has always inclined to disturbing the peace with covered heads according to Professor Robert Bartlett of St Andrews whose expertise in Medieval history confirms that the teenage apprentice boys of London......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 7th April 1779: The Reverend James Hackman follows Martha Ray, a singer and the mistress of the 4th Earl of Sandwich, to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. When she leaves the theatre after the performance, Hackman shoots her dead, seemingly out of jealousy. Tuesday – 8th April 1908: Edward VII appoints Herbert Asquith as Prime Minister, following the resignation of his predecessor, Henry Cambell-Bannerman, due......

You've laboured (either lovingly or reluctantly) over his serialized novels, you've likely quaffed in some of his favourite pubs, and now, you can sit at his desk. And by "you" we mean those rabid Dickens fans that can spare around £100,000. Charles Dickens's writing desk and chair are to be auctioned off at Christie's in June. All proceeds will go to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, of which Dickens was a serious patron and......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 31st March 1990: Violence erupts as hundreds of thousands of anti-poll-tax protesters take to the streets in the West End. An estimated £400,000 of damage is caused to property as cars are overturned and set alight. Hundreds of arrests are made. Tuesday – 1st April 1965: The administrative area known as Greater London is formed, amalgamating and consuming parts of central London and the home counties. Wednesday......

Those Knights Templar that everyone rabbits on about - what did they ever do for us anyway? Apart from fuel a controversial trash novel and inspire a million visits to Temple Church by Da Vinci Code tourists? Now the Knights of St John - the Hospitallers - there's a useful order. With history reaching back as far as the Knights Templar but with a tangible, helpful and enduring legacy today - those knights of......

Scientists at the Natural History Museum who have been analysing big cat skulls excavated from the Tower of London in the 1930s have today confirmed that there were Barbary Lions from North Africa with magnificent dark manes resident at the Tower of London Royal Menagerie as far back as 1280 AD. This makes them the earliest confirmed lion remains in the British Isles after the extinction of the Pleistocene cave lion at the end......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 17th March 1984: The Boat Race is postponed after the Cambridge boat crashes into a moored barge less than an hour before the race’s scheduled start. Tuesday – 18th March 1496: Mary Tudor is born at Richmond Palace. She would become ‘queen consort of France’ due to her marriage to Louis XII. Wednesday – 19th March 2005: As many as 200,000 protesters march through central London on......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 10th March 1906: The Baker Street & Waterloo Railway opens, running between Baker Street and Elephant & Castle stations. It would soon become known as the Bakerloo Line. Tuesday – 11th March 1692: The Royal Chelsea Hospital is founded by Charles II. Designed by Christopher Wren, the hospital would also become the model for Greenwich’s Royal Navel Hospital. Wednesday – 12th March 1988: The Bank of England......

The year was 1959, and in an often overlooked corner of Hackney, one of the world's most recognisable Hollywood beauties was bringing just a touch of Californian colour to a peculiarly English affair: a budgie show. Jayne Mansfield, living in London while making the film Too Hot To Handle, was invited to the All Saints church in Haggerston in September 1959 to help judge the East London Budgerigar and Foreign Birds Society show. Michael......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 3rd March 1982: The Barbican Centre is opened by the Queen. After 15 years of construction, at a cost of £161 million, the centre would become the largest performing arts centre in Europe (as well as being voted the ugliest building in London). Tuesday – 4th March 1882: Britain’s first electric trams go into operation in Leytonstone, East London. Wednesday – 5th March 1856: The second Covent......

It's officially Spring and by Pisces it's lovely out there in the sunshine. Crocuses have been spotted in Highbury Fields so our biggest recommendation for expenditure light trips this week is get to the parks and into the gardens and witness the miracles of the changing seasons. If you're in need of more artificial stimulation, however, and are squirrelling all your spare cash into your ISA before the end of the tax year then......

‘It’s new and it’s bloody scary,’ says the tourist blub. ‘C’est nouveau et terriblement effrayant,’ it repeats in French. Well, you try sounding menacing in that language. ‘Eine neue, unheimlich gruselige Sensation.’ That’s more like it. We prefer the German, especially as ‘die London Bridge Experience’ carries an apt definite article. London’s new tourist attraction beneath guess-which bridge opened its doors yesterday. (After two days of PR misery when power failures scuppered the media......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 25th February 1900: The first tube station to be known as ‘Bank’ is opened, effectively replacing the old ‘City’ station and providing a link between the Waterloo & City Railway and the newly extended City & South London Railway (now part of the Northern Line). At the same time, nearby King William Street station is closed. Tuesday – 26th February 1797: The Bank of England issues its......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 18th February 1996: An IRA bomb explodes on a double-decker bus on Aldwych, killing the bomber and injuring eight members of the public. Tuesday – 19th February 1960: Prince Andrew is born in the Belgian Suite of Buckingham Palace. Wednesday – 20th February 1913: Two suffragettes set fire to the tea pavilion at Kew Gardens at around 3am, destroying it completely. Thursday – 21st February 1946: Alan......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 11th February 1826: The University of London is founded. It would later be known as University College London (or UCL). Tuesday – 12th February 1554: Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley are executed at the Tower of London. Wednesday – 13th February 1247: A major earthquake causes considerable damage to London. Curiously, it is reported that the quake was preceded for three months by......

Happy February, FOBGs. Another healthy serving of book groceries awaits you this week. Stick to a well-rounded book diet, and you’re sure to stave off a winter cold. We have no actual data to support this contention – we’re book geeks, not science nerds – but it certainly sounds promising. So eat your greens, drink your grains, and check back later this week for a bonus edition of the Book Grocer especially dedicated to......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 4th February 1915: Norman Wisdom is born in Marylebone. He would become a very successful entertainer, as well as (bizarrely) a cult film icon in Albania. Tuesday – 5th February 1924: The Greenwich Time Signal pips are broadcast on BBC Radio for the first time. (Lots more geeky detail on this is available in our post from this time last year.) Wednesday – 6th February 1875: The......

SFist worried over drugstore chain Walgreens celebration of Black History Month.Gothamist was surprised that apparently New York City is the fourth most miserable city in the country, after Detroit, Stockton, CA, and Flint, MI.Shanghaiist finds out what the Chinese think of Hilary and Obama.It was with a healthy amount of schadenfreude that Phillyist reported that former Eagle, and now Cowboy (ew), Terrell Owens owes the Eagles a significant wad of cash.Torontoist is two weeks......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 28th January 1807: The gas lamps on Pall Mall are lit, making it the first street in the world to be illuminated in such a fashion. Tuesday – 29th January 1976: Twelve IRA bombs explode in the area around Oxford Street, injuring a taxi driver and starting several small fires. Wednesday – 30th January 1969: The Beatles perform live for the last time ever, on the roof......