Three London Friars, Two Without Shoes

Six word Saturday Before the Henry VIII and his right hand man, Thomas Cromwell embarked upon the Dissolution more than thirty monasteries, convents, priories and hospitals jostled for room within the City’s ‘square mile’ or sheltered outside in the shadow of the still surviving Roman wall. Two of these orders that are commemorated with statues

Morning sun rays on Gresham Street

Six Word Saturday Weekend Sky#30 7.58 am outside St Lawrence Jewry on Gresham Street. In the distance are the buildings of 22 Bishopsgate (known as Twentytwo) and 122 Leadenhall Street (known as the Cheesegrater). As usual with the pace of change in the City both of these buildings will at some point be dwarfed by

The Noted House For Paper Bags

Part of Six word Saturday I’d always put 46 Crispin Street down as a trendy piece of gentrification in the heart of Spitalfields, however it seems that I was wrong. Jeremiah O’Donovan came to London from Dublin in the 1830s, and the business selling paper bags to the city’s thriving markets was set up in Crispin

The Mercers Maiden and her moustache

Posted as part of six word Saturday The Mercers Maiden is a small piece of stone relief carving that is on the wall of Corbet Court quite near to Leadenhall market. The Maiden has thought to have inhabited the area of the court since 1669 and is the emblem of the “Worshipful Company of Mercers”

Then suddenly out of the blue

For someone who spends a lot of time walking the streets of the City of London in search of interesting and obscure facts and objects, I must admit I was slightly taken aback during my last walk. I came upon this City of London Police Call Post (Not a box, like the Tardis). It made

A dog licking a cooking pot

This fine piece of street art stands just yards away from Southwark underground station in south London, but what does it mean? It is a replica of a shop sign that used to hang outside of an Ironmongers that plied it’s trade on the corner of Blackfriars Road and Union Street. It was first displayed

A Bedouin and his three camels

looking slightly incongruous on the old City of London thoroughfare, Eastcheap, a Bedouin and his camel train head eastward presumably towards Dover on his way back to the desert. The building was once the home of Peek & Co who were tea importers during the Victorian era. This quartet was the brand logo of the

The Giant Grasshopper Of Lombard Street

Thought I’d have a go at Six Word Saturday Lombard Street was known for its signs as well as its financial institutions. There were 138 signs hanging in the street in 1800. This is the sign of Merchant and Financier Thomas Gresham and appears on his coat of arms.