The London Daily Newsletter Thursday 15 June

On 15 June 1919, Captain John Alcock (pilot) and Lt. Arthur W. Browne (navigator) successfully completed the first, non-stop, transatlantic, aeroplane flight. They flew from Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland in 16 hours 12 minutes and won the prize offered by the London Daily Mail. Their aircraft was a Vickers Vimy (which was originally designed as a bomber to be used during WW I.) They faced many problems. Their radio broke down shortly after take off. Fog and drizzle prevented the fliers from seeing anything for much of the journey. They aimed to land in a green field but instead it turned out to be a bog. The plane suffered some damage when it hit the ground and sank into the bog. Both Alcock and Brown came away unhurt.

Claigmar Vineyard
The Claigmar Vineyard produced Middlesex grapes – and maybe wine.

Remembered in a few local street names such as Vines Avenue, but otherwise long buried under suburbia, the Claigmar Vineyards was begun by the Kay family in 1874. In 1845, Kay leased an acre in Ballards Lane for flowers and fruit. In 1878 it was owned by Peter and Susan Kay and a second nursery, called Claigmar, had been started in 1874 in Long Lane by Peter Edmund Kay. During the 1890s the Ballards Lane nursery closed and Claigmar was extended until in 1899 Kay had 18½ acres. Equally large nurseries were opened east of Squires Lane until at their greatest extent the Kay nurseries, between Long Lane and the High Barnet railway line, stretched from Duke Street eastward to Green Lane. It not only produced 100 tons of grapes per year but also a quarter of a million cucumbers. Peak production was in the 1890s with 161 greenhouses involved. The site continued as glasshouses into the 1920s before it was finally built over.

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