A small churchyard in a quiet corner of Clapham has a largely forgotten and sad part in

Britain’s black colonial history. Zachary Macaulay was one of the leading members of the

Clapham Sect, a network of individuals working for the abolition of slavery in the British

dominions. He is remembered by a memorial in Westminster Abbey, a plaque on the site of

his former house just by Clapham Common Tube and a road next to the Common.

Macaulay had worked in the Caribbean and seen slavery first hand and...

Beneath south London there are a series of tunnels. They lie directly under the Northern

Line and those that used them would complain about the early morning rumble of the trains

overhead waking them up. The deep level shelters were originally conceived as much-

needed air-raid shelters and there are sections at Clapham South, North and Clapham

Common station as well as elsewhere on the line.

These were huge tunnels, where bunk beds could house 8,000 people under each station.

They had their own ca...

Hiding in plain sight on Clapham Common are a series of fairly dull-looking brown posts. Anonymous and overlooked, these posts mark a dark bit of the Common's history. The Common, as the name suggests, was common land, people could graze their sheep, collect firewood and get water. 

Now there has always been a bit of tension between Clapham and neighbour Battersea about the rights to these freedoms. This tension was only heightened when during the English Civil War the lord of Battersea suppo...

Clapham Common has a hidden history from Samuel Pepys and Noel Coward to the first successful measurement of the weight of the planet. Not bad for an often overlooked suburb.

One of the hidden features is Clapham’s very own classic temple. From the 17th century onwards Clapham became the place to be, as connections to the City improved and highwaymen decreased, meaning that you could do a day’s work in the dirty, unhealthy commercial centre and return safely to your family in the country ...