The London Daily Newsletter Wednesday 1 February

On 1 February 2003, the US space shuttle Columbia broke up as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere killing all seven astronauts on board. It was the first time there had been an accident on landing in the 42 years of space flight. President George Bush told a nation in shock: “The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors.” Six of the seven astronauts were US citizens. They were Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, and female astronauts Laurel Clark and Indian-born Kalpana Chawla. The seventh – fighter pilot Colonel Ilan Ramon – was Israel’s first astronaut and was carrying with him a miniature Torah scroll of a Holocaust survivor. Columbia disintegrated just 16 minutes before it was due to land at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Laleham
Laleham is a village beside the River Thames, immediately downriver from Staines-upon-Thames in the Spelthorne borough of Surrey. Until 1965 the village was in Middlesex.

The name Laleham” probably derives from lael meaning ’twig’ and ’ham’ meaning homestead. Iron Age spearheads from the 5th century have been found in the River Thames at Laleham Ferry. The Middlesex section of the Domesday Book of 1086 records the village as Leleham. The manor was held partly by Fécamp Abbey from Robert of Mortain and partly by Estrild, a nun. The manor of Laleham was later held by Westminster Abbey. In the 13th century Westminster Abbey had a grange and watermill on the banks of the Thames near the site of Laleham Abbey. The Church of England parish church of All Saints dates from the 12th century but was largely rebuilt in brick about 1600 and the present tower was built in 1780. Today, Laleham has a Church of England primary school, an archery club and Burway Rowing Club. The poet Matthew Arnold (1822–88) lived here, dividing his time between Laleham and Rugby School.

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.

Battersea Power Station

Robert Lowry/Wandsworth Museum

Video: Oyster
Getting around London with Oyster