The three ships of Great Marlborough Street

Great Marlborough Street runs roughly parallel to Oxford Street emerging into Regent Street. One of it’s most famous confluences is Carnaby Street, the once vibrant centre of 1960s fashionable London. At the Regent street end the street definitely has the retail vibe of the surrounding area, but as you travel eastwards it becomes more non…

Terrorism 17th century style

In the last post, Hide and Seek in Moorgate, I relayed the story of the run up to the English Civil War and how five members of Parliament escaped the clutches of Charles I. One of these five was John Pym at the time the leader of the opposition in the Commons and staunch Puritan.…

Hide and Seek in Moorgate

I’ve had an interest in the English Civil War for some time, but have never really got to grips with it, that is until this Christmas when I received a really good book on the subject. As far as actual battles go, London, or to be exact it’s suburbs only had two. The Battle of…

Ham Yard, an apt setting

Philanthropy at Christmas comes in many forms whether it is sending money to an appeal, donating to a food bank or possibly even volunteering to serve Christmas dinner to those who find themselves homeless. I’m afraid I can only own up to one of these and its not the last one. I came across a…

“Why was the Snowman sorting through the carrots?”

The answer can only be found in one place and that is the inside of a Christmas cracker, for it is one of the many terrible jokes that have become a festive institution. What has the Christmas cracker and a rather hideous drinking fountain have in common? No not another one, this is a fact…

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting…..stolen!

I came across a seasonal tale recently, one that Charles Dickens if he’d been alive at the time might have woven into one of his stories about the metropolis. It’s a tale with a lesson, one that warns against greed during the festive season. It also goes to show that as today Christmas to some…

Seasons Greetings

Not a flake of snow or a plump robin to be seen in the picture above, but this grand building in Chancery Lane is probably the birth place of the modern Christmas card. Whether you like them or not, Christmas cards are a part of the season. They may feel like they’ve been around forever,…

Marguerite Alibert, Maggie Meller, Marguerite Laurent, and Princess Fahmy

This is a story despite the title about one person. Marguerite Marie Alibert was born on 9 December 1890, in Paris to Firmin Alibert, a coachman, and Marie Aurand, a housekeeper. When she was sixteen she gave birth to a daughter, Raymonde, the father unknown and after a few months left the child with her parents…

Political Assassination in Belgravia

Field Marshal Sir Henry Hughes Wilson was one of the most senior British Army staff officers of the First World War and was briefly an Irish unionist politician. Wilson served as Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley, and then as Director of Military Operations at the War Office. He played a large part in drawing up plans to deploy the British Expeditionary Force to France…

Argyll Robertson Pupils

It’s a chilly mid morning in November 1883 and you have just sat down at the table to enjoy a morning coffee in your flat at number ten Greek Street, Soho. The table is next to the first floor window and looks out onto the busy street. Engrossed in the periodical you’re reading you are…