Carolineld

LATEST ARTICLES ( 803 )

• Postman's Park (44): Leigh Pitt

  

  In June 2009, something very special was added to the memorial: the first new plaque for over seventy years.Leigh Pitt jumped into the canal at Thamesmead to... Read more

  Posted on 28 March 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Inside Duck Island Cottage

  

  It's a rustic fantasy in the centre of London: a tiny cottage orné bedecked with porches, trellises, diamond-paned windows and carved bargeboards, Duck Island... Read more

  Posted on 25 March 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Housing Horseless Carriages

  

  Mews... wooden stable doors... We make think we could make a good guess as to what this building's purpose was. However, it never housed horses but is one of... Read more

  Posted on 22 March 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• 155 Old Kent Road

  

  Among the terraced buildings of the Old Kent Road is a detached house, set back from the road and looking a little ill at ease in its surroundings. Read more

  Posted on 12 March 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Postman's Park (43): Memorial in a Memorial

  

  The Watts Memorial is named for its creator but is intended to commemorate the 'heroic self-sacrifice' of others. However, the artist who founded it is not... Read more

  Posted on 08 March 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Books Unbound!

  Two very interesting books are currently being crowdfunded on the Unbound site. If you'd like to see either of them published, you can pledge in return for... Read more

  Posted on 27 February 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Postman's Park (42): PC Percy Edwin Cook

  

  We're nearly at the end of this series, as we look at the final original plaque in the Watts Memorial - aptly, the last to be added. Read more

  Posted on 15 February 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Ghost Signs (120): Alabaster

  

  This sign in Welling, like the previous one in Tottenham Court Road, isn't really a ghost sign as it's not painted onto the wall. Read more

  Posted on 10 February 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Postman's Park (41): the Deadly Thames

  

  Given that the Thames was probably more polluted in the nineteenth century than it is today, its popularity as a place to swim is a testament both to the... Read more

  Posted on 31 January 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• What's in a Sign?

  

  Shaped to fit the corner of a building (if not its drainpipe), a rather fine cast-iron sign complete with finials adorns a house in rural Brittany. Read more

  Posted on 27 January 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Postman's Park (40): Holiday Danger

  

  The nineteenth century saw the beginning of annual holidays for working people. However, such vacations posed their own dangers, not least by taking people to... Read more

  Posted on 24 January 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• At Sixes and Sevens in Skinners' Hall

  

  The Worshipful Company of Skinners represented an industry which was once seen as essential, today as controversial: the fur trade. Read more

  Posted on 20 January 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Postman's Park (39): Saving Adults from Fire

  

  Not only children but also adults at risk from fire have prompted incredibly heroic and determined rescue efforts. We have already seen how Police Constables... Read more

  Posted on 17 January 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• From Bric-a-Brac to Aquarium in Dinard

  

  In 1934, one of France's first aquariums opened in the seaside town of Dinard, Brittany. An upscale resort established in 1858, it was known for its stylish... Read more

  Posted on 13 January 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Crouch End Modernism: Hornsey Town Hall

  

  Hornsey Borough Council, eager to move from its original, outgrown home in Highgate, wanted to use land in Crouch End for its new town hall. (Bought in the... Read more

  Posted on 06 January 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Postman's Park (38): Died Saving Children from Fire

  

  Mr and Mrs Kennedy had a laundry at Edward's Lane, Stoke Newington Church Street. They and their children lived on the premises, made up of two small houses.... Read more

  Posted on 03 January 2016 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Top Ten of 2015

  

  Happy new year! It's time to look back on the most popular posts of 2015 with a top ten of those published during the year, and a top five of all-time... Read more

  Posted on 31 December 2015 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Blitz Remembered

  

  Tonight is the 75th anniversary of the 'Second Great Fire of London', an intense bombing raid on 29 December 1940 which seriously threatened St Paul's Cathedral. Read more

  Posted on 29 December 2015 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Postman's Park (37): Samuel Lowdell

  

  Much about Samuel Lowdell's death follows a familiar pattern for the Watts Memorial cases, but there is also a rather odd feature.Lowdell was a 24-year-old... Read more

  Posted on 27 December 2015 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY

• Season's Greetings!

  

  Enjoy these images of festive Paris! Read more

  Posted on 25 December 2015 CULTURE, DESTINATIONS, HISTORY