The London Daily Newsletter Tuesday 8 August The London Necropolis Railway was opened in 1854 as a reaction to severe overcrowding in London’s existing graveyards and cemeteries. The magic of the old Covent Garden Market is evoked through Clive Boursnell’s photographs, taken over the course of numerous visits to Covent Garden in the 1960s and 1970s.
The London Daily Newsletter Tuesday 8 August The Hungerford Stairs were the entrance point to Hungerford Market from the River Thames. They are now the site of Charing Cross railway Station. Photographer Luke Agbaimoni created the Tube Mapper project allowing him to be creative, fitting photography around his lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute.
The London Daily Newsletter Tuesday 8 August The Hungerford Stairs were the entrance point to Hungerford Market from the River Thames. They are now the site of Charing Cross railway Station. Photographer Luke Agbaimoni created the Tube Mapper project allowing him to be creative, fitting photography around his lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute.
The London Daily Newsletter Monday 7 August A local West Hampstead builder, Thomas Potter, constructed Cedars in 1878. The magic of the old Covent Garden Market is evoked through Clive Boursnell’s photographs, taken over the course of numerous visits to Covent Garden in the 1960s and 1970s.
The London Daily Newsletter Monday 7 August Leytonstone is an area of east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest . Photographer Luke Agbaimoni created the Tube Mapper project allowing him to be creative, fitting photography around his lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute.
Limehouse Limehouse is a National Rail station, also connected to the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) network. Limehouse station provides regional services connecting to and from Fenchurch Street, as well as light metro services offered by the DLR, linking to Tower Gateway or Bank. Limehouse station is situated approximately 2.8 km away from Fenchurch Street on the main line, with the next station being West Ham. On the DLR, it is positioned between Shadwell and Westferry.
The station was originally opened by the Commercial Railway, later known as the London and Blackwall Railway, in 1840 under the name Stepney. During that time, the Commercial Railway operated another station called Limehouse, located one stop to the east of Stepney. In 1923, Stepney was renamed Stepney East, and in 1926, the other Limehouse station was closed down.
In 1987, Stepney East changed its name to Limehouse shortly before the introduction of the DLR.
TUM Book Club: Tube Mapper Project Photographer Luke Agbaimoni created the Tube Mapper project allowing him to be creative, fitting photography around his lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute. The Underground is the backbone of the city of London, a part of our identity. It’s a network of shared experiences and visual memories, and most Londoners and visitors to the city will at some point have an interaction with the London Underground tube and train network. Photographer Luke Agbaimoni gave up city-scape night photography after the birth of his first child, but creating the Tube Mapper project allowed him to continue being creative, fitting photography around his new lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute. His memorable photographs consider such themes as symmetry, reflections, tunnels and escalators, as well as simply pointing out and appreciating the way the light falls on a platform in an evening sunset. This book reveals the London every commuter knows in a unique, vibrant and arresting style.
Georg Giese from Danzig, 34-year-old German merchant at the Steelyard, painted in London by Hans Holbein in 1532
Marble Arch Marble Arch is a 19th-century white marble faced triumphal arch. The structure was designed by John Nash in 1827 to be the state entrance to the cour d’honneur of Buckingham Palace; it stood near the site of what is today the three-bayed, central projection of the palace containing the well known balcony. In 1851 it was relocated and following the widening of Park Lane in the early 1960s is now sited, incongruently isolated, on a large traffic island at the junction of Oxford Street, Park Lane and Edgware Road.
Historically, only members of the Royal Family and the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery are permitted to pass through the arch; this happens only in ceremonial processions.
Nash’s three arch design is based on that of the Arch of Constantine in Rome and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in Paris. The triumphal arch is faced with Carrara marble with embellishments of marble extracted from quarries near Seravezza.
John Flaxman was chosen to make the commemorative sculpture. After his death in 1826 the commission was divided between Sir Richard Westmacott, Edward Hodges Baily and J.C.F. Rossi. In 1829, a bronze equestrian statue of George IV was commissioned from Sir Francis Chantrey, with the intention of placing it on top of the arch.
Construction began in 1827, but was cut short in 1830, following the death of King George IV. The rising costs were unacceptable to the new king, William IV, who later tried to offload the uncompleted palace onto Parliament as a substitute for the recently destroyed Palace of Westminster.
Work restarted in 1832, this time under the supervision of Edward Blore, who greatly reduced Nash’s planned attic stage and omitted its sculpture, including the statue of George IV. The arch was completed in 1833.
The white marble soon lost its light colouring in the polluted London atmosphere. In 1847, Sharpe’s London Magazine described it as “discoloured by smoke and damp, and in appearance resembling a huge sugar erection in a confectioner’s shop window.”
Buckingham Palace remained unoccupied, and for the most part unfinished, until it was hurriedly completed upon the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. Within a few years the palace was found to be too small for the large court and the Queen’s expanding family. The solution was to enlarge the palace by enclosing the cour d’honneur with a new east range. This facade is today the principal front and public face of the palace and shields the inner facades containing friezes and marbles matching and complementing those of the arch.
When building work began in 1847, the arch was dismantled and rebuilt by Thomas Cubitt as a ceremonial entrance to the northeast corner of Hyde Park at Cumberland Gate. The reconstruction was completed in March 1851. A popular story says that the arch was moved because it was too narrow for the Queen’s state coach to pass through, but, in fact, the gold state coach passed under it during Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953.
Three small rooms inside the rebuilt arch were used as a police station from 1851 until 1968.
The arch gives its name to the area surrounding it, particularly the southern portion of Edgware Road and also to the underground station.
TUM Book Club: Old Covent Garden The magic of the old Covent Garden Market is evoked through Clive Boursnell’s photographs, taken over the course of numerous visits to Covent Garden in the 1960s and 1970s. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Clive Boursnell, then a young photographer, shot thousands of photographs of the old Covent Garden, documenting the end of an era before the markets moved out of central London. Boursnell captured these last days of the market over a period of six years, from 1968 until the market’s closure, in a series of beautiful portraits of the feisty life of a city institution.
Charing Cross Bridge (1902)
Charing Cross Bridge is part of a series of oil paintings by French artist Claude Monet. The paintings depict a misty, impressionist Charing Cross Bridge.
Monet worked on the series from 1899 to 1905, creating a total of 37 paintings depicting the bridge.
Walbrook Wharf Walbrook Wharf is an operating freight wharf located in the City of London adjacent to Cannon Street station. It is used as a waste transfer station owned by the City of London Corporation and operated by Cory Environmental. Refuse from central London is transferred onto barges for transport to the Belvedere Incinerator in the London Borough of Bexley.
Walbrook Wharf was formerly arranged as a dock, but modern containerised loading has resulted in the infilling of the dock. The wharf is the point where the ancient stream, the Walbrook fed into the Thames, a location also known as Dowgate.
TUM Book Club: Tube Mapper Project Photographer Luke Agbaimoni created the Tube Mapper project allowing him to be creative, fitting photography around his lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute. The Underground is the backbone of the city of London, a part of our identity. It’s a network of shared experiences and visual memories, and most Londoners and visitors to the city will at some point have an interaction with the London Underground tube and train network. Photographer Luke Agbaimoni gave up city-scape night photography after the birth of his first child, but creating the Tube Mapper project allowed him to continue being creative, fitting photography around his new lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute. His memorable photographs consider such themes as symmetry, reflections, tunnels and escalators, as well as simply pointing out and appreciating the way the light falls on a platform in an evening sunset. This book reveals the London every commuter knows in a unique, vibrant and arresting style.
Georg Giese from Danzig, 34-year-old German merchant at the Steelyard, painted in London by Hans Holbein in 1532
Hans Holbein
Video: Flying into LCY A simulated flight into LCY courtesy of Google Earth Studio.
On 23 May 1618, the Defenestration of Prague took place. This was an event central to the initiation of the Thirty Years War. The Bohemian aristocracy was effectively in revolt following the election of Ferdinand, Duke of Styria and a Catholic zealot, to rule the Holy Roman Empire, which included Bohemia. At Hradcany castle, a number of them took two Imperial governors (Martinitz and Slavata) and threw them out of the castle windows; neither of them was severely injured.
The Thirty Years War occurred for a number of reasons, although it was principally a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics. The Defenestration of Prague, although relatively trivial in itself, was to become a defining moment. The will for the preservation of the Habsburg empire is also central. The war started in 1618 and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
The election of Ferdinand of Styria as King of Bohemia caused the Bohemian Protestants to fear for their religious freedom.
Had the Bohemian rebellion remained a purely Eastern European affair, the Thirty Years War would have been over in months. However, the weakness of both Ferdinand and of the Bohemians themselves led to the spread of the war to Western Germany. Ferdinand had been compelled to call on his cousin, King Philip IV of Spain for assistance. The Bohemians had called on the Calvinist Frederick V, Elector Palatine to be their King.
The Battle of White Mountain, near Prague in 1620 was a serious blow to Protestant ambitions in the region. The rebellion effectively collapsed, and widespread confiscations of property and suppression of the Bohemian nobility ensured that the country would return to the Catholic fold after more than a century of Hussite and other heresy. The Spanish, seeking to outflank the Dutch in preparation for the soon-to-be-renewed Eighty Years’ War took Frederick’s lands, the Rhine Palatinate.
Christian V of Denmark lead an army against the Holy Roman Empire, fearing that Denmark’s sovereignty as a Protestant nation was being threatened. The Danes were unsuccessful, and from 1629-1630, more land was subjugated by the Catholics.
In the period 1630-1635, the Swedes, lead by Gustavus Adolphus, attacked the Holy Roman Empire. The Swedes also feared Catholic aggression against their Protestant country. From 1630-1634, the Swedes drove back the Catholic forces and regained much of the occupied Protestant land. In 1634, Gustavus Adolphus died and the Swedes stopped fighting.
In the period 1636-1648, the French, sensing that internal conflict had weakened the Holy Roman Empire, attacked. Many battles commenced but neither side gained a clear advantage. In 1642, Cardinal Richelieu died, followed in 1643 by the death of Louis XIII of France. Louis XIV came to power at 4 years of age and Cardinal Mazarin, a peace lover, was his regent. Hence, in 1648, the war ended with the Peace of Westphalia.
Brandon Estate, SE17 Brandon Estate is a social housing estate in London Borough of Southwark. Situated to the south of Kennington Park, the Brandon Estate was built in 1958 by the London County Council, to designs by Edward Hollamby and Roger Westman.
The estate’s initial development included six 18-storey towers – at the time, the tallest in London – a new square and other lower buildings, and the rehabilitation of some Victorian terraces.
The estate is named after Thomas Brandon, a gardener, who obtained permission by Act of Parliament to let land within the Walworth manor on building leases for 99 years in 1774.
TUM Book Club: Old Covent Garden The magic of the old Covent Garden Market is evoked through Clive Boursnell’s photographs, taken over the course of numerous visits to Covent Garden in the 1960s and 1970s. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Clive Boursnell, then a young photographer, shot thousands of photographs of the old Covent Garden, documenting the end of an era before the markets moved out of central London. Boursnell captured these last days of the market over a period of six years, from 1968 until the market’s closure, in a series of beautiful portraits of the feisty life of a city institution.
Tube Rain (2015)
John Duffin is a print maker and painter well-known for his striking prints focusing on great architecture, depictions of modern life in urban environments and city streets at different times of day.
On 23 May 1618, the Defenestration of Prague took place. This was an event central to the initiation of the Thirty Years War. The Bohemian aristocracy was effectively in revolt following the election of Ferdinand, Duke of Styria and a Catholic zealot, to rule the Holy Roman Empire, which included Bohemia. At Hradcany castle, a number of them took two Imperial governors (Martinitz and Slavata) and threw them out of the castle windows; neither of them was severely injured.
The Thirty Years War occurred for a number of reasons, although it was principally a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics. The Defenestration of Prague, although relatively trivial in itself, was to become a defining moment. The will for the preservation of the Habsburg empire is also central. The war started in 1618 and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
The election of Ferdinand of Styria as King of Bohemia caused the Bohemian Protestants to fear for their religious freedom.
Had the Bohemian rebellion remained a purely Eastern European affair, the Thirty Years War would have been over in months. However, the weakness of both Ferdinand and of the Bohemians themselves led to the spread of the war to Western Germany. Ferdinand had been compelled to call on his cousin, King Philip IV of Spain for assistance. The Bohemians had called on the Calvinist Frederick V, Elector Palatine to be their King.
The Battle of White Mountain, near Prague in 1620 was a serious blow to Protestant ambitions in the region. The rebellion effectively collapsed, and widespread confiscations of property and suppression of the Bohemian nobility ensured that the country would return to the Catholic fold after more than a century of Hussite and other heresy. The Spanish, seeking to outflank the Dutch in preparation for the soon-to-be-renewed Eighty Years’ War took Frederick’s lands, the Rhine Palatinate.
Christian V of Denmark lead an army against the Holy Roman Empire, fearing that Denmark’s sovereignty as a Protestant nation was being threatened. The Danes were unsuccessful, and from 1629-1630, more land was subjugated by the Catholics.
In the period 1630-1635, the Swedes, lead by Gustavus Adolphus, attacked the Holy Roman Empire. The Swedes also feared Catholic aggression against their Protestant country. From 1630-1634, the Swedes drove back the Catholic forces and regained much of the occupied Protestant land. In 1634, Gustavus Adolphus died and the Swedes stopped fighting.
In the period 1636-1648, the French, sensing that internal conflict had weakened the Holy Roman Empire, attacked. Many battles commenced but neither side gained a clear advantage. In 1642, Cardinal Richelieu died, followed in 1643 by the death of Louis XIII of France. Louis XIV came to power at 4 years of age and Cardinal Mazarin, a peace lover, was his regent. Hence, in 1648, the war ended with the Peace of Westphalia.
Stonebridge Stonebridge was named after a stone bridge built in the late 17th century (when most bridges were of wood) over the River Brent. The exclusive Craven Park Estate, consisting of large houses, was built in the Stonebridge area during the 1860s, along with the construction of the Dudding Hill Line by the Midland Railway. The estate failed to become an up-market suburb due to the general expansion of London, increasing industry, and the building of low-quality, cheap housing. As a result, Stonebridge became a low-income area, and in the 1960s and 1970s, the Stonebridge Estate was built, consisting of more than 2000 mostly high-rise units.
Some improvements were made in the early 1990s as a result of government funding, but the area continued to face significant social issues. The most significant improvements occurred after 2000, with the comprehensive redevelopment of the 1960s and 1970s housing, resulting in a traditional street layout of two- and three-story houses, often with four-story flats around street junctions.
Stonebridge is geographically adjacent to the Park Royal industrial estate, but it is mostly cut off from it by the West Coast Main Line railway tracks.
TUM Book Club: Tube Mapper Project Photographer Luke Agbaimoni created the Tube Mapper project allowing him to be creative, fitting photography around his lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute. The Underground is the backbone of the city of London, a part of our identity. It’s a network of shared experiences and visual memories, and most Londoners and visitors to the city will at some point have an interaction with the London Underground tube and train network. Photographer Luke Agbaimoni gave up city-scape night photography after the birth of his first child, but creating the Tube Mapper project allowed him to continue being creative, fitting photography around his new lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute. His memorable photographs consider such themes as symmetry, reflections, tunnels and escalators, as well as simply pointing out and appreciating the way the light falls on a platform in an evening sunset. This book reveals the London every commuter knows in a unique, vibrant and arresting style.
Rainham Rainham is on the edge of Rainham Marshes which border the Thames. Archaeological findings in the area surrounding the village reveal evidence of continuous settlement from the Bronze Age through to early Saxon times, including remains from the Neolithic, Iron Age, Romano-British, and Anglo-Saxon periods. It is believed that the name “Rainham” may originate from the Saxon term “roeginga-ham,” meaning “settlement of the prevailing people.” River crossings to Kent predate the Roman occupation, and over time, numerous long and short ferries have been introduced. One such ferry, the “short ferry” from Erith in Kent to Rainham Ferry, was established in the 12th century.
During medieval times, Rainham was one of the fourteen parishes of the Chafford Hundred, occupying its south westerly corner adjoining the Liberty of Havering. As a small port for coastal shipping, Rainham Creek was utilized as a means of ferrying out livestock (there was extensive grazing on the marshes) as early as 1200. Local trade and employment continued to be linked to the intensive river traffic, with a focus on the creek and its wharves, providing work for shipwrights, watermen, and lightermen.
Prior to the 1860s, the growth of the village was minimal. By 1670, there were only 44 houses in the parish, and the village remained relatively small until the advent of industry and the railway, which led to subsequent suburban expansion. As a result, the population of the village grew from 868 in 1868 to 3,897 in 1931. The introduction of industry and the establishment of the village as the nucleus of a dormitory suburb was a significant factor in this growth. The population almost doubled again after World War 2, reaching 7,666 in 1951.
The road pattern in the village remained relatively unchanged from medieval times to the late 19th century. Settlement in the Middle Ages was concentrated around the church, but the church is the only surviving medieval building. By the 17th century, the wharf and ferry across the Thames were well-established, and there were several public houses. Today, hardly any buildings from this period remain, except for the late 12th-century church, which is the oldest surviving building in the borough. The earliest surviving buildings are probably Nos. 2-8 Upminster Road, a group of timber-framed cottages dating back to around 1700, and the vicarage, a late 17th-century house that was encased in brick in 1710.
From the early 18th century, trade in the area saw significant growth, leading to the construction of several prominent houses, including Rainham Hall and Lodge, and Redberry House (also known as Redbury House). These houses were built using the profits from trade at the wharf, which was owned by John Harle in the early 18th century. He also built Rainham Hall in 1729. The wharf was eventually replaced in the early 20th century, and remained in use under different ownerships until 1969.
In 1854, the London Tilbury and Southern Railway opened a railway line as far as Tilbury, with a station in Rainham. The railway line rendered the “long” ferry route obsolete, but pleasure steamers continued to call. When the line was electrified in 1961, a new station was built. Housing growth in the later 19th and early 20th centuries was mainly to the east of the village centre, with a new shopping parade built in Upminster Road South in 1907. Three public houses were rebuilt in the village during this period.
Unfortunately, some later public buildings and offices built in the 1970s had utilitarian designs that did not fit well with the historic setting of the village. The construction of a Tesco superstore and a public car park on the outskirts of Rainham changed the way people accessed the village centre, with a footpath connecting the car park to Upminster Road South.
TUM Book Club: Old Covent Garden The magic of the old Covent Garden Market is evoked through Clive Boursnell’s photographs, taken over the course of numerous visits to Covent Garden in the 1960s and 1970s. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Clive Boursnell, then a young photographer, shot thousands of photographs of the old Covent Garden, documenting the end of an era before the markets moved out of central London. Boursnell captured these last days of the market over a period of six years, from 1968 until the market’s closure, in a series of beautiful portraits of the feisty life of a city institution.
Fox Hill, Upper Norwood by Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
Camille Pissarro was born in St Thomas (then a Danish possession) in the West Indies but lived and worked mainly in the Paris area. He was an Impressionist and mainly painted landscapes.
He visited London in 1870-71 and painted London views.
Watford Watford is the largest town in Hertfordshire, situated 17 miles northwest of central London. Watford, a town located in the northern home counties, boasts several notable features such as Cassiobury Park, which was previously the manor estate of the Earls of Essex, and Watford Football Club, a professional team.
The town’s origin dates back to an Anglo-Saxon settlement situated between a ford of the River Colne and the intersection of two ancient tracks. St Albans Abbey claimed rights to the manor of Cashio, which included Watford. The construction of the parish church of St Mary the Virgin in 1230, along with stalls for a weekly market, took place on the same site as an earlier Saxon church.
Watford’s growth was modest until the 17th century, when the 17th-century houses of Cassiobury and The Grove were developed, primarily assisted by travellers en route to Berkhamsted Castle and the royal palace at Kings Langley. The Grand Junction Canal’s introduction in 1798, followed by the London and Birmingham Railway in 1837, enabled the town to develop more quickly. Paper mills, such as John Dickinson and Co. at Croxley, had a significant impact on printing’s evolution in the town, which continues today.
Two industrial-scale brewers, Benskins and Sedgwicks, flourished in the town until their closure in the late 20th century. Currently, Watford serves as a major regional centre for the northern home counties, with Hertfordshire County Council designating it, along with Stevenage, as its major sub-regional centre. Additionally, the town contains several national companies’ head offices.
Watford became an urban district under the Local Government Act 1894 and was granted municipal borough status by charter in 1922. As of the 2011 census, the borough had 90,301 inhabitants. The urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District separates the borough from Greater London to the south.
Watford Metropolitan Line station is located at the end of a branch of the London Underground.
TUM Book Club: Tube Mapper Project Photographer Luke Agbaimoni created the Tube Mapper project allowing him to be creative, fitting photography around his lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute. The Underground is the backbone of the city of London, a part of our identity. It’s a network of shared experiences and visual memories, and most Londoners and visitors to the city will at some point have an interaction with the London Underground tube and train network. Photographer Luke Agbaimoni gave up city-scape night photography after the birth of his first child, but creating the Tube Mapper project allowed him to continue being creative, fitting photography around his new lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute. His memorable photographs consider such themes as symmetry, reflections, tunnels and escalators, as well as simply pointing out and appreciating the way the light falls on a platform in an evening sunset. This book reveals the London every commuter knows in a unique, vibrant and arresting style.
Reflections on the Thames, Westminster, London (1880)
John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836–1893) was an English Victorian-era artist best known for his nocturnal scenes of urban landscapes. Today, he is considered one of the great painters of the Victorian era.
John Atkinson Grimshaw
Video: Flying into LCY A simulated flight into LCY courtesy of Google Earth Studio.
Uxbridge Uxbridge, a Middlesex market town, lies at the end of the Metropolitan and Piccadilly lines. The origin of the name “Uxbridge” can be traced back to the “Wuxen Bridge,” which was believed to be located near the current site of the “Swan and Bottle” pub on Oxford Road. The Wuxen tribe, a Saxon group from the seventh century, gave the area its name.
Today, the town centre is home to major retail outlets and office buildings, including the main European offices of several international companies. Brunel University is also located in Uxbridge, and it serves as the civic centre of the London Borough of Hillingdon. The civic centre is an award-winning building that was designed in the 1980s, during the postmodernist architectural trend. RAF Uxbridge is located nearby, and it was instrumental in controlling much of the Battle of Britain through its 11 Group command centre.
During the construction of the new shopping mall, The Chimes, archaeologists discovered Bronze Age remains dating back to before 700 BC and medieval remains. Paleolithic remains have also been found two miles away in Denham.
Although Uxbridge is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of the 11th century, St Margaret’s Church was built a hundred years later. The existing pub, “The Queens Head,” depicts Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII, on its sign. The pub was previously called “The Axe” and possibly dates back to the 1540s. The pub is connected to the church by a tunnel. A cemetery with an archway is located at the bottom of Windsor Street, and it was the site where three heretics were burned to death in 1555 for denying the trinity. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs identifies the heretics as John Denley, Robert Smith, and Patrick Packingham, while other sources call the last one Patrick Rockingham.
During Elizabeth I’s reign, Roman Catholics were subject to severe constraints, and Catholic priest Edmund Campion was trained in Douai to give covert support to Catholics. He travelled around England on horseback, giving secret sermons and pretending to be a diamond merchant. In 1580, he came to Uxbridge and hid for a couple of weeks in a house owned by William Catesby. In 1581, Campion was caught, and he was hanged, drawn, and quartered in London. The 40 or so Catholics who died during this period are called the “Douai martyrs,” and the name is also used for the local Catholic secondary school in Ickenham.
In 1605, the Gunpowder Plot was uncovered, and its flamboyant leader, Robert Catesby (son of William), escaped and hid in his house in Uxbridge. He was later shot. Negotiations between Charles I and the Parliamentary side took place in Uxbridge from January 30 to February 22, 1645, and are commemorated in the name of a local pub and restaurant, the Crown and Treaty. The pub is located on the A4020 Oxford Road, where it leaves the town, at the canal overbridge.
The covered market in Uxbridge was built in 1788, but the previous building was about twice as big, which created significant traffic problems.
The former Grand Junction Canal, which is now known as the Grand Union Canal, passes immediately to the west of Uxbridge and forms the borough boundary. The first stretch of the canal was built in the late eighteenth century from Brentford to Uxbridge. Uxbridge Lock is further upstream, and a nearby flour mill belonging to Allied Mills was purchased in the nineteenth century by a Mister King, who named it “Kingsmill.” The brand name is still one of the best-selling bread-makers in the UK. For about 200 years most of London’s flour was produced in the Uxbridge area.
In the early 19th century, Uxbridge had quite an unsavoury reputation. The jurist William Arabin said of it residents “They will steal the very teeth out of your mouth as you walk through the streets. I know it from experience.”
In the 1930s George Orwell was a teacher at Frays College, now Frays Adult Education Centre. His novel A Clergyman’s Daughter was based on his experiences there.
There were breweries in Uxbridge but the last one was closed down in the 1930s. Near here, Ellen Terry – the Shakespearean actress – spent her final years, as a pub landlady.
There were once three railway stations – Uxbridge Vine Street (originally just Uxbridge Station), Uxbridge High Street, and Uxbridge Belmont Road. All three have now closed. The line formerly to Belmont Road now terminates at the present station, Uxbridge, fronting the pedestrianised High Street, and is served by the Metropolitan and Piccadilly lines from Rayners Lane.
TUM Book Club: Old Covent Garden The magic of the old Covent Garden Market is evoked through Clive Boursnell’s photographs, taken over the course of numerous visits to Covent Garden in the 1960s and 1970s. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Clive Boursnell, then a young photographer, shot thousands of photographs of the old Covent Garden, documenting the end of an era before the markets moved out of central London. Boursnell captured these last days of the market over a period of six years, from 1968 until the market’s closure, in a series of beautiful portraits of the feisty life of a city institution.
“London Bridge from the Old Swan” by the Irish painter Hubert Pugh (1780)
Shooting the tidal rapids at old London Bridge was dangerous; many passengers preferred to get off at the Old Swan, and walk.
Immediately across the river in the painting is St Saviour’s Church, now Southwark Cathedral.
Hillingdon Hillingdon is an area within the London Borough of the same name. Hillingdon was an ancient parish, and had within it the chapelry of Uxbridge, which became a separate civil parish in 1866.
Eventually part of Uxbridge Urban District Council, under the London Government Act 1963, Hillingdon became the name of the westernmost borough of Greater London in 1965.
The Metropolitan Railway (Harrow and Uxbridge Railway) constructed the line between Harrow on the Hill and Uxbridge; this was opened on 4 July 1904, with an intermediate station at Ruislip. At first services were operated by steam trains, but electrification was completed on 1 January 1905.
Development in north Middlesex after the First World War led to the opening of additional stations on the London Underground Uxbridge branch. Hillingdon was the last of these to open, on 10 December 1923, with Metropolitan and District line services. In 1933, the District line service was replaced by the Piccadilly line.
The A40 Western Avenue was redesigned in the early 1990s to run slightly north of its original route to avoid a bottleneck at Hillingdon Circus. Hillingdon station was demolished in order for the new road to be constructed, and a new station was opened further south along the line in 1994.
TUM Book Club: Tube Mapper Project Photographer Luke Agbaimoni created the Tube Mapper project allowing him to be creative, fitting photography around his lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute. The Underground is the backbone of the city of London, a part of our identity. It’s a network of shared experiences and visual memories, and most Londoners and visitors to the city will at some point have an interaction with the London Underground tube and train network. Photographer Luke Agbaimoni gave up city-scape night photography after the birth of his first child, but creating the Tube Mapper project allowed him to continue being creative, fitting photography around his new lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute. His memorable photographs consider such themes as symmetry, reflections, tunnels and escalators, as well as simply pointing out and appreciating the way the light falls on a platform in an evening sunset. This book reveals the London every commuter knows in a unique, vibrant and arresting style.
Epping Epping, situated in the Epping Forest district of Essex, is a market town and civil parish. Epping is located three miles northeast of Loughton, five miles south of Harlow and 11 miles northwest of Brentwood. It enjoys a picturesque setting surrounded by Epping Forest and working farmland.
The town is characterised by its collection of ancient buildings, many of which hold Grade I and II listings. Preserving its historical traditions, Epping still hosts a weekly market dating back to 1253, which takes place every Monday.
Although the renowned Epping Butter, sought after in the 18th and 19th centuries, is no longer produced, Church’s Butchers, a local institution operating since 1888, continues to craft the equally famous Epping sausages at their long-standing premises.
In 1856, the Eastern Counties Railway introduced a double-track railway line connecting Stratford and Loughton, with a subsequent extension to Ongar in 1865. Responding to its popularity, the track between Loughton and Epping was doubled in the 1890s. During its prime, the line offered a robust service with 50 daily trains operating between London and Loughton, an additional 22 continuing to Epping, and a further 14 reaching Ongar.
On 25 September 1949, the section from Loughton to Epping became part of the London Underground Central Line. This transition left the single-track line from Epping to Ongar as the final steam-operated segment. British Railways operated the service until 1957 when the line was electrified and incorporated into the Central Line. However, as the services were not integrated with the rest of the Central Line network, passengers traveling beyond Epping had to change platforms at that station. Epping station remained the transfer point for the single-track line to Ongar via North Weald and Blake Hall stations until 30 September 1994.
Since 1981, Epping has been twinned with Eppingen, a town in north-west Baden-Württemberg, Germany, fostering cultural exchange and friendship between the two communities.
TUM Book Club: Tube Mapper Project Photographer Luke Agbaimoni created the Tube Mapper project allowing him to be creative, fitting photography around his lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute. The Underground is the backbone of the city of London, a part of our identity. It’s a network of shared experiences and visual memories, and most Londoners and visitors to the city will at some point have an interaction with the London Underground tube and train network. Photographer Luke Agbaimoni gave up city-scape night photography after the birth of his first child, but creating the Tube Mapper project allowed him to continue being creative, fitting photography around his new lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute. His memorable photographs consider such themes as symmetry, reflections, tunnels and escalators, as well as simply pointing out and appreciating the way the light falls on a platform in an evening sunset. This book reveals the London every commuter knows in a unique, vibrant and arresting style.
London Omnibus (1914)
Chevalier Fortunino Matania (1881–1963) was an Italian artist noted for his realistic portrayal of First World War trench warfare and of a wide range of historical subjects.
Fortunino Matani
Video: Flying into LCY A simulated flight into LCY courtesy of Google Earth Studio.
