Jessie Matthews and the Brontosaurus

Probably best I explain from the beginning, Jessie Matthews was an actress, dancer and singer of the 1920s and 1930s, whose career continued into the post-war period. Following a string of hit stage musicals and films in the mid-1930s, Jessie developed a following in the USA, where she was dubbed “The Dancing Divinity”. The studio…

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…

Who Me? No I’m just fat

Six Word Saturday Once the private drinking establishment of the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, now open to the public. The name was spawned by their 1970s advertising campaign.

Clerkenwell

Today’s Clerkenwell is popular with creative firms and dotted with smart apartment blocks in converted warehouses. It has many good restaurants and a great street food market held in Exmouth Market. Clerkenwell is quite a large area, running from Pentonville in the north to Smithfield Market in the south. So for this piece, I’m going…

A tale of two halves

Do you sometimes get that feeling? The one where you know something is just not quite right, but you can’t put your finger on why. It happened to me last week while wandering the streets. I was out doing some research on a project I’ve undertaken, to catalogue all the pubs within the City boundaries…

Greek Street, Then and Now

I’ve always found Greek Street in Soho to be a bit of an oasis, if a slightly shabby one when compared to some of it’s more garish neighbours. With the relative tranquillity at its northern end of Soho Square it’s always struck me as a street that’s a bit more laid back, perhaps not as…

Wrapped up just like a parcel

Six Word Saturday The Hoop and Grapes was built in 1721 on part of the historic burial grounds of St Bride’s Church. As an inn, it gained notoriety as a location for illegitimate Fleet weddings. In the 1990s, it underwent several changes and was eventually closed down and scheduled for demolition. However, as the last…

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail

I’ve just added the City of London Schedule of works and road closures website to my favourites. Not exactly bed time reading, but as I found out this week invaluable if you don’t want to waste valuable time and disrupt your plans and schedules. This all came about because this week despite all the warnings…

Summer

One Word Sunday

The Duke, his magician and a windmill

Old Jewry is a street that runs north to south connecting the Guildhall to Cheapside. In the 1600s an Inn used to stand at the north end of the street known as the Windmill, there is not much known about the building except for its role in a rather bizarre occurrence that happened in the…