If you’ve ever had lunch in one of the excellent restaurants or the interesting street food stalls in Exmouth Market, you might wonder how the street got its name. After all, the Islington street is a lot nearer Sadler’s Wells Theatre than it is the little Devon seaside town of Exmouth. The answer involves a daring raid to rescue 3,000 people from slavery in 1816.

Viscount Exmouth was born as Edward Pellew in 1757 and he joined the Royal Navy at the age of 13. Due to his bravery fighting ...

Up a narrow 52-step spiral staircase and in the attic of the early eighteenth-century church of the old St Thomas' Hospital is the oldest surviving surgical theatre in Europe. Predating anaesthetics and antiseptics, this atmospheric museum offers a unique insight into the history of medicine and surgery. The original timber framed Herb Garret was once used to dry and store herbs for patients' medicines and in 1822 an operating theatre was included. The Old Operating Theatre Museum has a sp...

The squirrels you see in London are grey squirrels. They were introduced into the UK in the 1800s which is quite apt since this cheeky fella upstaged me on my Georgian London tour. As cute as these squirrels are, they can be damaging to woodlands and has contributed to the decline of the stunning red squirrel.

Did you know?

Grey squirrels are renowned for their agility, adept climbing and cunning - they can crack open bird feeders and run along tight-rope wa...

It is said that it is bad luck to leave your Christmas decorations up past Twelfth Night. But when is Twelfth Night?

One of the biggest surprises for those on my Victorian Christmas Walk is that at the beginning of the 19th century Christmas was hardly celebrated. It’s hard to imagine that many businesses did not even consider it a holiday and for most it was simply yet another working day. Instead Twelfth Night was the big event in the calendar associated with parties and drinking....

Cartwright Gardens is a graceful crescent of brick buildings with stuccoed ground floors. The first floors facing the street have finely wrought iron balconies and the top, fourth floor is marked off from the lower levels by a heavy white lintel. Otherwise, the facades are plain with recessed sash windows picked out in white.

The effect is of restrained classical elegance. It lies just south of Euston Road in Bloomsbury, and features in our King’s Cross Walk. The buildings a...

Whilst out with a lovely group on my Georgian London tour in North Clerkenwell we were lucky enough to come across the BBC filming. When I asked the crew, and after being told they were filming Jeremy Kyle the movie I was informed they were filming a new miniseries of Howards End. 

Back in February 2017 the BBC announced an all-star cast for Kenneth Lonergan's adaption of Howards End for BBC One. This is to be Academy Award® nominated screenwriter and playwright Lonergan's first TV screen ad...

Today is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. Wellington Arch is an English Heritage property which has an interesting exhibition about the battle and reveals a few details which are missed from the English history class rooms.

Wellington Arch now sits at Hyde Park Corner, where Kensington Road meets Piccadilly near its junction with Park Lane, and where the Kensington Turnpike Trust had its tollgate. As a result, Hyde Park Corner became thought of unofficially as the new entrance...

On Saturday many tour guides provided guided walks in London based on the theme of the Georgians for Local London Guiding Day 2014.

Luckily in Clerkenwell & Islington we are spoilt for choice as to what to include in an hours walk. The problem then is to decide what to include. Each guide designed their own walk around particular stops. Mine included Islington Tunnel, the Angel Inn, George Cruikshank and a young Charles Dickens as well as middle class houses and Georgians shops. No Georgian...

Hampstead Village has a rich history of intellectual and artistic associations and, of course, Hampstead Heath. With Hampstead having attracted the rich and famous over the last two centuries it's not surprising there are plenty of historical plaques which show a glimmer of its glamorous inhabitants.

This guided walk starts at Hampstead Tube station (Northern Line). There will also be a post walk drinks option too. The terrain does have a few inclines (Hampstead is on a hill you know). Ther...

Where does the name Barnsbury come from?

The name ‘Barnsbury’ comes from the de Berners family, which owned the medieval manor that occupied the site until the early C16th. The Manor of Barnsbury (also called Bernersbury or Iseldon Berners) was held in 1086 by Hugh de Berners.

Who owned The Manor of Barnsbury?

The Berners family retained the manor until 1502 when it was sold to a Merchant, Thomas Fowler. He passed the manor on to his son Edmund (d 1560) who left it to his son Sir Thomas (d 1...

Only one of Queen Anne's seventeen pregnancies produced a potential heir, William, Duke of Gloucester (1689-1700). His death in July 1700 at the tender age of eleven caused Parliament to institute the Act of Settlement making Electress Sophia of Hanover heiress presumptive. Electress Sophia died two months before Queen Anne.

In 1714 Queen Anne died and was succeeded by her second cousin, Georg Ludwig, Elector of Hanover. Georg was an appealing c...

Christie's is the world's oldest fine art auctioneer and has sold fine art, furniture, jewellery and wine since 1766, when James Christie conducted the very first sale in London. Since then, Christie's has continued to build its reputation as the perfect backdrop for the sales of the world's finest collections and greatest works of art before their auction. 

It was in 1823 when Christie's moved to its global headquarters at 8 King Street, St. James's, which remains to be its London headquarter...