On 9 January 1806, Lord Horatio Nelson was buried. On 21 October 1805, Nelson had engaged in his final battle, the Battle of Trafalgar, fought off the coast of Spain. As the two fleets moved towards engagement, he then ran up a thirty-one flag signal to the rest of the fleet which spelled out the famous phrase “England expects that every man will do his duty”. After crippling the French flagship Beaucentaure, the Victory moved on to the Redoutable. The two ships entangled each other, at which point snipers in the rigging of the Redoutable were able to pour fire down onto the deck of the Victory. Nelson was one of those hit: a bullet entered his shoulder, pierced his lung, and came to rest at the base of his spine. Nelson retained consciousness for some time, but died soon after the battle was concluded with a British victory. The Victory was then towed to Gibraltar, with Nelson’s body on board preserved in a barrel of brandy. His body was shipped to Britain and then travelled in state throughout the land. Upon his body’s arrival in London, Nelson was given a state funeral and entombment in St. Paul’s Cathedral. According to urban legend, the rum used to preserve his body was illicitly half drunk by the time it reached London. This may be related to the nickname given to Naval rum rations later, “Nelson’s Blood”, a possibly deliberate echo of the Communion ritual.

Maple Cross
Maple Cross is a village in Hertfordshire straddling the modern M25.

Maple Cross is thought to be a contraction of Maypole Cross and the village was once a place where maypole dancing took place. The nearby village of Mill End is on record as having complained to the lord of the manor about the noise of the dancing in 1588. The village stands on the western edge of the River Colne flood plain with the river a third of a mile to the east. The village has no churches, historically it lacked the population to support one and its residents were part of the parish of St Thomas’s West Hyde a mile to the south. Until the Second World War, Maple Cross consisted of an inn, a blacksmith’s shop and a few cottages. After WW2 it was intentionally developed as a dormitory for workers in the nearby towns and at the new sewage treatment plant by the river. Today there are around 800 postwar council houses with some of these have been sold into private ownership. The ancient route known as Old Shire Lane runs in a north south direction at the summit of the rising high ground half a mile to the west. It is at least of Saxon age as it designated the boundary between the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia. Today it forms the boundary between the counties of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Parts of it take the form of a hollow way from centuries of use embedding the path into the earth.

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.

Child’s Hill: Harrow in the Distance – (1825) The painting shows the view northwest along what is now Cricklewood Lane, with Harrow on the Hill visible beyond. Collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum.

John Constable

Video: Oyster
Getting around London with Oyster

On 9 January 1806, Lord Horatio Nelson was buried. On 21 October 1805, Nelson had engaged in his final battle, the Battle of Trafalgar, fought off the coast of Spain. As the two fleets moved towards engagement, he then ran up a thirty-one flag signal to the rest of the fleet which spelled out the famous phrase “England expects that every man will do his duty”. After crippling the French flagship Beaucentaure, the Victory moved on to the Redoutable. The two ships entangled each other, at which point snipers in the rigging of the Redoutable were able to pour fire down onto the deck of the Victory. Nelson was one of those hit: a bullet entered his shoulder, pierced his lung, and came to rest at the base of his spine. Nelson retained consciousness for some time, but died soon after the battle was concluded with a British victory. The Victory was then towed to Gibraltar, with Nelson’s body on board preserved in a barrel of brandy. His body was shipped to Britain and then travelled in state throughout the land. Upon his body’s arrival in London, Nelson was given a state funeral and entombment in St. Paul’s Cathedral. According to urban legend, the rum used to preserve his body was illicitly half drunk by the time it reached London. This may be related to the nickname given to Naval rum rations later, “Nelson’s Blood”, a possibly deliberate echo of the Communion ritual.

Warlingham
Warlingham is a village in the Tandridge district of Surrey.

The village lay within the Anglo-Saxon administrative division of Tandridge hundred. Warlingham Manor was assigned by William de Watevile in 1144 to Bermondsey Priory, which held it until the dissolution of the monasteries, subject to certain retained rights to the de Watevile, later de Godstone family. Immediately after, in 1544, Sir John Gresham, who had made large loans to the state, was granted the whole estate. Later the manor descended to Rev. Atwood Wigsell of Sanderstead Court in the 18th century and remained in that family until at least 1911. A notable Warlingham resident of the Victorian period was Sir Joseph Swan, inventor of the incandescent light bulb. Warlingham gave its name to the large psychiatric hospital that was opened on the borders of Warlingham and Chelsham in 1903. Originally called the Croydon Mental Hospital the institution was renamed Warlingham Park Hospital in the 1930s. The buildings, apart from the water tower, were demolished and the site redeveloped as a private housing estate called ’Greatpark’ in the early years of the 21st century. Lead singer of The Clash, Joe Strummer moved to Warlingham after his diplomat father and family returned to the UK. Reggae singer and instrumentalist Smiley Culture also lived in Warlingham.

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.

“Suburbia” (1929) This painting/sketch was based upon Girton Road and Tannsfeld Road, Sydenham, SE26

Stanley Roy Badmin

Video: Flying into LCY
A simulated flight into LCY courtesy of Google Earth Studio.

On 6 January 1066, following the death of Edward the Confessor, Harold Godwineson, head of the most powerful noble family in England, was crowned King Harold II. On his deathbed, Edward supposedly designated Harold the royal heir, but this claim was disputed by William, duke of Normandy and cousin of the late king. In addition, King Harald III Hardraade of Norway had designs on England, as did Tostig, brother of Harold. King Harold rallied his forces for an expected invasion by William, but Tostig launched a series of raids instead, forcing the king to leave the English Channel unprotected. In September, Tostig joined forces with King Harald III and invaded England from Scotland. On 25 September 1066, Harold met them at Stamford Bridge and defeated and killed them both. Three days later, William landed in England at Pevensey. On 14 October 1066, Harold met William at the Battle of Hastings, and the king was killed and his forces defeated. According to legend, he was shot through the eye with an arrow. On Christmas Day, William the Conqueror was crowned the first Norman king of England, and English language and culture were changed forever.

Petersham
Petersham is a place in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the east of the bend in the River Thames.

Petersham appears in Domesday Book as being held by Chertsey Abbey. The village was the birthplace in 1682 of Archibald Campbell, later 3rd Duke of Argyll who went on to found the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1727. The explorer George Vancouver retired to Petersham. In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge to John, Earl Russell, 1st Earl Russell. Lord Russell’s grandson, Bertrand Russell, spent some of his childhood there.

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.

‘Piccadilly Circus, London’ (1960)

L.S. Lowry

Video: Oyster
Getting around London with Oyster

On 6 January 1066, following the death of Edward the Confessor, Harold Godwineson, head of the most powerful noble family in England, was crowned King Harold II. On his deathbed, Edward supposedly designated Harold the royal heir, but this claim was disputed by William, duke of Normandy and cousin of the late king. In addition, King Harald III Hardraade of Norway had designs on England, as did Tostig, brother of Harold. King Harold rallied his forces for an expected invasion by William, but Tostig launched a series of raids instead, forcing the king to leave the English Channel unprotected. In September, Tostig joined forces with King Harald III and invaded England from Scotland. On 25 September 1066, Harold met them at Stamford Bridge and defeated and killed them both. Three days later, William landed in England at Pevensey. On 14 October 1066, Harold met William at the Battle of Hastings, and the king was killed and his forces defeated. According to legend, he was shot through the eye with an arrow. On Christmas Day, William the Conqueror was crowned the first Norman king of England, and English language and culture were changed forever.

Beddington
Beddington is a suburban settlement in the London Borough of Sutton on the boundary with the London Borough of Croydon.

The settlement appears in the Domesday Book as Beddinton(e) held partly by Robert de Watevile from Richard de Tonebrige and by Miles Crispin. Its Domesday Assets were: 6 hides; 1 church, 14 ploughs, 4 mills worth £3 15s 0d, 44 acres of meadow, woodland worth 10 hogs per year. It rendered: £19 10s 0d per year to its feudal system overlords. The village lay in Wallington hundred and until the 19th century was in secular and ecclesiastical terms a large parish in its own right. Wallington was for centuries a manor in Beddington parish and although known as a shorthand for the area stretching from Cheam to Addington and from Chaldon to Mitcham . The name ’Wallington’ superseded Beddington’s former area almost completely in the early 20th century. The local name ’Hackbridge’ was in the 13th century shown on local maps as Hakebrug, and named after a bridge on the River Wandle. The locality has a landscaped wooded park at Beddington Park – also known as Carew Manor; and a nature reserve and sewage treatment works in the centre and to the north of its area respectively. The population of Beddington according to the 2011 census is 21,044.

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.

Mansion House Engraving by J Woods based on a work by Hablot Browne and R Garland.

J Woods

Video: You Can’t Always Get What You Wanstead
Jago Hazzard went to the far reaches of the Central Line

On 5 January 1998, Sonny Bono, age 62, was killed after crashing into a tree while skiing at a resort in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Bono, formerly married to entertainer Cher, had become active in politics following their breakup. He had served as the mayor of Palm Springs, California, and a congressman. The pop duo Sonny and Cher had several big hits, including “The Beat Goes On” and “I’ve Got You, Babe”.

Somers Town
Somers Town is a district close to three main line rail termini – Euston, St Pancras and King’s Cross.

Historically, the name Somers Town was used for the larger triangular area between the Pancras, Hampstead, and Euston Roads, but it is now taken to mean the rough rectangle bounded by Pancras Road, Euston Road and Eversholt Street. Somers Town was named after Charles Cocks, 1st Baron Somers (1725–1806). The area was originally granted by William III to John Somers (1651–1716), Lord Chancellor and Baron Somers of Evesham. In the mid 1750s the New Road was established to bypass the congestion of London; Somers Town lay immediately north of this east-west toll road. In 1784, the first housing was built at the Polygon amid fields, brick works and market gardens on the northern fringes of London. The site of the Polygon is now occupied by a block of council flats called Oakshott Court. The Polygon deteriorated socially as the surrounding land was subsequently sold off in smaller lots for cheaper housing, especially after the start of construction in the 1830s of the railway lines into Euston, St Pancras and King’s Cross. In this period the area housed a large transient population of labourers and the population density of the area soared. By the late 19th century most of the houses were in multiple occupation, and overcrowding was severe with whole families sometimes living in one room, as confirmed by the social surveys of Charles Booth and Irene Barclay. When St Luke’s Church, near King’s Cross, was demolished to make way for the construction of the Midland Railway St Pancras Station and its Midland Grand Hotel, the estimated twelve thousand inhabitants of Somers Town at that time were deprived of that place of worship, as the church building was re-erected in Kentish Town. In 1868 the lace merchant and philanthropist George Moore funded a new church, known as Christ Church, and an associated school in Chalton Street with an entrance in Ossulston Street. The school accommodated about six hundred children. Christ Church and the adjacent school were destroyed in a World War II bombing raid and no trace remains today, the site being occupied by a children’s play area and sports court. Improvement of the slum housing conditions, amongst the worst in the capital, was first undertaken by St Pancras Council in 1906 at Goldington Buildings, at the junction of Pancras Road and Royal College Street, and continued on a larger scale by the St Pancras House Improvement Society (subsequently the St Pancras & Humanist Housing Association, the present owner of Goldington Buildings) which was established in 1924. Further social housing was built by the London County Council, which began construction of the Ossulston Estate in 1927. There remains a small number of older Grade 2 listed properties, mostly Georgian terraced houses. During the early 1970s the neighbourhood comprising GLC-owned housing in Charrington, Penryn, Platt and Medburn Streets was a centre for the squatting movement. In the 1980s, some council tenants took advantage of the ’right to buy’ scheme and bought their homes at a substantial discount. Later they moved away from the area. The consequence was an influx of young semi-professional people, resulting in a changing population. Major construction work along the eastern side of Somers Town was completed in 2008, to allow for the Eurostar trains to arrive at the refurbished St Pancras Station. This involved the excavation of part of the St Pancras Old Churchyard, the human remains being re-interred at St Pancras and Islington Cemetery in East Finchley. Land at Brill Place, previously earmarked for later phases of the British Library development, became available when the library expansion was cancelled and was used as site offices for the HS1 terminal development and partly to allow for excavation of a tunnel for the new Thameslink station. It was then acquired as the site for the Francis Crick Institute (formerly the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation), a major medical research institute.

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.

The Strand frontage of Northumberland House (1752) The Percy Lion is atop the central façade and the statue of Charles I at right survives to this day The pedestrianised area in the foreground became the site of Trafalgar Square – back then it was the Royal Mews

Giovanni Canaletto

Video: Oyster
Getting around London with Oyster

On 5 January 1998, Sonny Bono, age 62, was killed after crashing into a tree while skiing at a resort in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Bono, formerly married to entertainer Cher, had become active in politics following their breakup. He had served as the mayor of Palm Springs, California, and a congressman. The pop duo Sonny and Cher had several big hits, including “The Beat Goes On” and “I’ve Got You, Babe”.

Cottenham Park
Cottenham Park is a district in the London Borough of Merton named after the 1st Earl of Cottenham (1781–1851), who served as Lord Chancellor.

Prospect Place was a grand mansion on Copse Hill. Its estate was created just after 1800 by James Meyrick when he bought Prospect Place and added to it all of the land between Copse Hill and Coombe Lane. The grounds was landscaped by Humphrey Repton and a model farm built. In 1831 the estate was bought by Charles Pepys. When he died in 1851, Prospect Place was broken up – 40 acres were acquired by St George’s Hospital. Developers bought most of the rest of the estate in 1851 after the death of Charles Pepys, now entitled 1st Earl of Cottenham. New roads were laid out and given aristocratic names that had associations with the estate. Few building plots were bought before the 1890s, except those along Copse Hill and Richmond Road. Development of the area did not get underway in earnest until after 1891 with the extension of Worple Road to Raynes Park and the coming of the trams in 1907. By the start of the First World War and thriving new residential area had sprung up. In the 1920s and 1930s, the rest of the area was built up on the land of the still-surviving Cottenham Park Farm. Cottenham Park is also home to a recreation ground with the same name. The park was opened in 1897 under the name Melbury Gardens.

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.

View of the junction of Howard Street and Norfolk Street (1880)

John Crowther

Video: Flying into LCY
A simulated flight into LCY courtesy of Google Earth Studio.

On 4 January 1954, young truck driver Elvis Presley recorded a ten-inch acetate demo at the Memphis Recording Service, an open-to-the-public business run by Sun Records owner Sam Phillips. The two songs Presley recorded were Casual Love Affair and I’ll Never Stand in Your Way. It was Presley’s second visit, and the first time he met Phillips, his future producer. The previous summer he had recorded another demo, My Happiness and That’s When Your Heartaches Begin, only one copy of which now exists. According to reports, Presley recorded it for his mother. The two songs so impressed Phillips that he had Elvis record his first professional sides for Sun Records the following August.

Pollards Hill
Pollards Hill straddles the boundary of the London Boroughs of Croydon and Merton between Mitcham and Norbury.

Most of the woodland in the area was cleared in the Middle Ages and this became New Barns (Galpins) Farm. In 1905, Tooting Bec Golf Club bought the farm and 100 acres. The club cleared what was left of the woodland on Pollards Hill. The golf club was succeeded by the Pollards Hill Golf Club. The site was later occupied by the Harris Academy Merton. Pollards Hill itself is 65 metres in height. The hillside slopes sharply in the west. Ena Road, which descends the slope is one of the steepest streets in Greater London. The streets were designed differently according to each borough, leading to two distinct styles. Recreation Way divides the two areas into east (Croydon) and west (Merton). Some of the Croydon side was developed at the end of the nineteenth century but the hill was left undeveloped and given to the council in 1913 by former Croydon mayor Sir Frederick Edridge. Mitcham Borough Council in the west of Pollards Hill had helped to meet the post-World War II housing shortage by building prefabricated ’Arcon’ bungalows at Pollards Hill in 1946. Four landmark maisonette blocks were built by the Council on Yorkshire Road (1950), Westmorland Square (1950), Hertford Square (1953), Berkshire Square(1953) and Bovingdon Square in 1956. Many of the prefabs remained until the mid 1960s. They were then demolished to make way for a new, high density, low-rise scheme that was constructed by the London Borough of Merton and Wimpey Homes between 1967 and 1971. These were based around a series of squares, bounded by Recreation Way. The Pollards Hill estate stretches to Mitcham Common. Four of the maisonette blocks have now been demolished. In the eastern Croydon side, covering the sides of the hill, are larger houses. The roads are lined with pollarded lime trees. Covering the crown of the hill is Pollards Hill Park, an open area of just over 3 hectares, managed by the London Borough of Croydon.

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.

Wyldes Farm is a Grade II* listed former farmhouse in North End, Hampstead. The Wyldes estate, and the farmhouse, were purchased by Dame Henrietta Barnett and others, with part of the estate becoming an extension to Hampstead Heath with the further area being developed as Hampstead Garden Suburb. The designer of the garden suburb was the architect and town planner Raymond Unwin, who lived in Wyldes until his death in 1940, using the barn as his office. During his time he welcomed to Wyldes many distinguished guests including Edwin Lutyens, Jan Smuts and Paul Robeson.

Helen Allingham

Video: Oyster
Getting around London with Oyster

On 4 January 1954, young truck driver Elvis Presley recorded a ten-inch acetate demo at the Memphis Recording Service, an open-to-the-public business run by Sun Records owner Sam Phillips. The two songs Presley recorded were Casual Love Affair and I’ll Never Stand in Your Way. It was Presley’s second visit, and the first time he met Phillips, his future producer. The previous summer he had recorded another demo, My Happiness and That’s When Your Heartaches Begin, only one copy of which now exists. According to reports, Presley recorded it for his mother. The two songs so impressed Phillips that he had Elvis record his first professional sides for Sun Records the following August.

Victoria Park
Victoria Park is a large open space that stretches out across part of the East End.

The park was laid out by notable London planner and architect Sir James Pennethorne between 1842 and 1846. Reminiscent of Regent’s Park – the latter was designed by Pennethorne’s teacher, John Nash – it is considered as the finest park in East London. It is bounded on two sides by branches of the Regent’s Canal. Two alcoves – the only two surviving fragments of the old London Bridge demolished in 1831 – are located at the east end of the park where they were placed in 1860. Alcoves such as these would have been important for pedestrian safety – the roadway was very narrow and the risk of being run down very high. Victoria Park’s reputation as the ’People’s Park’ grew as it became a centre for political meetings and rallies. The biggest crowds were usually drawn to ’star’ socialist speakers such as William Morris and Annie Besant. The tradition of public speaking in the park continued until well after the second world war, and was still later reflected in politically oriented rock concerts, such as those held by Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League in the 1980s. During the Second World War, Victoria Park was largely closed to the public and effectively became one huge Ack-Ack (anti-aircraft) site, also including a POW camp for, at first, Italian, then German prisoners. The gun emplacements straddled the path of German bombers looping northwest after attacking the docks and warehouses further south in what is now Tower Hamlets. The Victoria Model Steam Boat Club, founded in the park on 15 July 1904, is still active today and holds Sunday regattas. The first Regatta is traditionally held on Easter Sunday and the Steam Regatta is always held on the first Sunday in July.

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.

A Friday Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution; Sir James Dewar on Liquid Hydrogen (1904)

Henry Jamyn Brooks

Video: You Can’t Always Get What You Wanstead
Jago Hazzard went to the far reaches of the Central Line

On 3 January 1911, three anarchists who had killed policemen were besieged at 100 Sydney Street, London, by authorities and killed in the early afternoon. This was initiated by an attempted robbery of a jewellery shop. Two of the anarchists fled to a house in Sidney Street where they held armed police and soldiers at bay for over six hours. The Home Secretary, Sir Winston Churchill, was present at the scene and ordered a field gun to be brought. The anarchists realised the hopelessness of their situation, set fire to the building and perished in the blaze.

Queensmead
Queensmead, a detached part of Wraysbury, is the only part of Berkshire to lie within the M25.

The area, just north of the Thames and west of Staines is dominated by the Queensmead Lake reservoir, which is 1.84 kilometres in width and covers 6.9 hectares. Two islands lie along the Queensmead section of the River Thames – Holm Island and Hollyhook Island.

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.

The Limehouse Barge-Builders (Narrow Street from the river). This painting can be seen in the South Shields Museum and Art Gallery.

Charles Napier Hemy (1841-1917)

Video: Oyster
Getting around London with Oyster

On 3 January 1911, three anarchists who had killed policemen were besieged at 100 Sydney Street, London, by authorities and killed in the early afternoon. This was initiated by an attempted robbery of a jewellery shop. Two of the anarchists fled to a house in Sidney Street where they held armed police and soldiers at bay for over six hours. The Home Secretary, Sir Winston Churchill, was present at the scene and ordered a field gun to be brought. The anarchists realised the hopelessness of their situation, set fire to the building and perished in the blaze.

Elstree and Borehamwood
Elstree (and Borehamwood) station, constructed in 1868, has undergone a series of name changes.

On 22 June 1863, the Midland Railway (Extension to London) Bill was passed: “The London and Midland Junction Railway Bill is here referred to as providing for a new line of Railway into the metropolis. It commences from the Midland Railway at Hitchin, passes by St. Albans, Elstree, Edgware, Finchley and Highgate, and terminates by a junction with the Metropolitan Underground Railway at King’s Cross, previously throwing out a Branch to the Cattle Market at Copenhagen Fields.” Situated north of the Elstree Tunnels, the station was built by the Midland Railway as simply “Elstree” in 1868 when it built its extension to St Pancras station. By the 1920s, it had been renamed Elstree and Boreham Wood station. It was modernised in 1959. The station was renamed from Elstree & Borehamwood to Elstree on 6 May 1974, but reverted to Elstree & Borehamwood by mid 1988. The station building has been on three different sites – first in a small lane off of Allum Lane, then atop the Allum Lane railway bridge and finally (and aptly) in Station Road.

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.

Palace of Westminster (1859) Henry Pether’s view follows the River Thames from Millbank (slightly above Lambeth Palace on the opposite side of the river) and looks towards the Palace of Westminster, which was completed in 1859, the same year he made this work

Henry Pether

Video: Flying into LCY
A simulated flight into LCY courtesy of Google Earth Studio.