I worked in London for eight years, firstly around London Wall, then in Bankside and lastly in Holborn. This is an album of things I have seen, places I have been and the wonderful tales I have collected about this magnificent city.
A children’s nursery rhyme
Here is the text of the children’s poem "Oranges and Lemons", as published in 1774. The Victorians added lots of ...
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Barnard’s Inn
This is the entrance to the Hall of Barnard’s Inn. A beautiful, fascinating little courtyard with old date stones, a ...
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Bloomsbury
There is a connection between these three pictures: the sign in New Zealand near Matamata, Bloomsbury Square Gardens in the ...
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Camden Lock
Strictly speaking, Camden Lock isn’t in our neighbourhood at all, since you can’t walk there and back in your lunch ...
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Crane City
Our neighbourhood is in a constant state of change, and the best indicators of where the change is happening are ...
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Gray’s Inn
The Inns of Court are ancient institutions and as you walk around our neighbourhood you’ll see signs of them: Staples ...
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Justice in London
There are two world-famous landmark buildings in London which represent justice in its two major forms – criminal and civil ...
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Lincoln’s Inn
Lincoln’s Inn is another of the four great Inns of Court that have dominated London for nearly 1000 years. It ...
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London Bridge
From Holborn Circus you can walk, in an hour, to and from each of five of London’s bridges across the ...
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Portobello Road
This isn’t strictly speaking Holborn, either – rather like Camden Lock – but if you take a Central Line Tube ...
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Sir Richard Whittington
There’s a wonderful story about Dick Whittington, isn’t there? The first dramatic presentation of this story was a play in ...
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Sir Thomas More
I’m sure you have heard of Sir Thomas More as part of your high school English theatre studies, if not ...
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Sir William Walworth
This chap was Sir William Walworth. He was lord mayor of London in the late 1300s, during the reign of ...
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Smithfield Garden
London is one of the most beautiful, and powerful cities on Earth with a mixed and fascinating 2000-year history. I ...
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St Giles In-the-fields
St Giles is called In-the-fields because, like St Martins-in-the-Fields on Trafalgar Square, it was outside the City walls. It must ...
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St Mary le Bow
When I was a kid, St Mary le Bow WAS London. We would crowd around the radio (yes, really) in ...
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St Paul’s Cathedral
One thing about St Pauls that always takes your breath away is just how magnificent it is. It’s not just ...
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Staples Inn
Staples Inn is not so much an institution as an experience. It used to be one of the Chancery Inns ...
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Temple Bar
I’ve been wondering for a while why there is a Fleet Street sign on the Old Bank of England building, ...
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The Great Fire
I’m sure you know more about the Great Fire of London in 1666 than I do. It’s as much folk ...
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The Norwegians
The Norwegians arrived in Britain some time after the Saxons (who were invading as the Romans left) but they had ...
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The resurrectionists
There were three great slums in Victorian London, perhaps the worst slums in the whole world; Spitalfields, the Mint and ...
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The Temple
Ever since a very good friend of mine from Waikato University said his family used to be members of the ...
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The Virginians
On 20 Dec 1606, Captain John Smith commanding the Susan Constant, with two other ships, the Discovery and the Godspeed, ...
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TheatreLand
The heart of theatre in London is in Shaftesbury Avenue and the streets immediately off it, including Drury Lane. The ...
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