Neighbourhood news, features, and comment
local history, family history, research, streets, surveys, archaeology
A history of Mortimer Street and its artistic connections will be uncovered in a talk this month given by a curator from the Museum of London. Mortimer Street in Fitzrovia has a hidden artistic history. The streets around Mortimer Street in Fitzrovia became the base for figures as diverse as Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Karl …
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As reported previously, The Survey of London has published its latest volume, for the first time devoted to a single thoroughfare -- Oxford Street. The Survey, founded in 1894, is a research project to produce a comprehensive architectural survey of central London and its suburbs. In this second look at the publication, we focus on …
Continue reading "Oxford Street – from Perry’s Place to Wells Street"
The Survey of London has published its latest volume, for the first time devoted to a single thoroughfare -- Oxford Street. Survey of London, Oxford Street. Oxford Street in 2018. To the left, the former Lyons Oxford Corner House at Nos 14–24. Composite image. Survey of London, Oxford Street. Chris Redgrave. Historic England Archive. The …
Continue reading "The 200-year-old cosmopolitan and architectural allure of Oxford Street"
By Robert Cunning I first met Harry Jonas in the early 1980s. I was a volunteer with Islington social services, and a message came in to help an ageing artist, who thought he was the best painter in Britain. Harry Jones lived at 35 Maple Street (with arched window). Photographed in 1969. Source: London Metropolitan …
Continue reading "The artist Harry Jonas – ‘Last of the Fitzrovians’"
The Colony Room in Dean Street W1 was a living-room-sized drinking club for members only, above an Italian restaurant up a long dirty staircase. It was at the heart of a post-war Soho packed with pubs, clubs and restaurants full of people wanting to get off their heads on drink or drugs, debate, argue, and …
Continue reading "Soho’s lost post-war living room of badly behaved bohemians"
The barbarous and cruel treatment of slaves, described by Mary Prince from her own experience, greatly helped the campaign for abolition. Mary Prince. Illustration by Clifford Harper. She was working as a charwoman at 4 Keppel Street (opposite Store Street) in 1829 after fleeing her slave owner John Wood (1783-1836) of Leigh Street, Bloomsbury. Wood …
Continue reading "The barbarous treatment of slaves was for the benefit of local gentry"
An early campaigner to preserve the Georgian and Victorian buildings in Fitzrovia was artist Harry Jonas, who lived at 35 Maple Street. Our attention was drawn to this recently from a reader who is researching the life of artist Harry Jonas (1893-1990) and wanted to know if we had any information on the campaign to …
An archaeological investigation at the Middlesex Hospital Annex and former Strand Union Workhouse site has recovered 55 intact human burials dating from 1780 to 1853 from three test trenches dug into the ground. The findings are revealed in a report by Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) which concludes that "archaeological deposits survive extensively across the …
Life on the edge, both geographically and socially, is the theme of this book. Colourful examples come from fake antique dealers, dodgy second hand car salesmen, and a variety of villains. Many honest and underpaid workers in the furniture trade, the clothing industry, show business, and restaurants are also included. And a rich mix of …
The Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre, which will be closing in June, was a product of its time and was one of several community advice centres being established across Camden and other inner London boroughs in the 1970s. The opportunity arose as a result of funding provided by the Home Office to tackle inner city problems. This …
Continue reading "The life and changing times of the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre"
The recently restored London Rangers Cenotaph in Chenies Street will be rededicated at a wreath-laying ceremony at this year's Remembrance Sunday, the one hundredth anniversary of the Armistice. The memorial has been restored as part of Camden's West End Project and will form an end piece at the northern end of a new public open …
Two fundraising guided walks to support international LGBT activists will take place in September and uncover the hidden sexual history of some familiar surroundings. London-based activist Richard Cohen is leading the guided tours, in affiliation with the Amnesty International Mayfair and Soho group, showcasing the fascinating heritage of London’s LGBT community. The walks take in …
Continue reading "Guided walks explore London’s history of sexual diversity"
Human remains from an historic burial ground at the former workhouse building in Fitzrovia are very likely to still exist and would have to be removed before any redevelopment of the site says a report from Museum of London Archaeology. The report is a desk-based analysis and draws together evidence from historical records and the results …
Continue reading "Human remains ‘should be anticipated’ at former workhouse site"
Did you know that Doris Lessing lived in Holbein Mansion, Langham Street from 1958 to 1962? She rented a flat from her publisher, Howard Samuels, for £5 a week. Doris Lessing (1919 – 2013) was one of the foremost post-war British novelists, the author of some fifty novels, plays and volumes of poetry and autobiography. She …
Continue reading "Why is there no blue plaque for Doris Lessing in Langham Street?"
An excavation between Rathbone Place and Newman Street in Fitzrovia has uncovered a number of interesting and unique finds according to an archaeology fieldwork report. The investigation carried out between November 2014 and March 2015 found a series of post-medieval walls, drains and brick-lined pits, constructed on the site in the late 18th century, as well as 19th century …
Continue reading "Excavation reveals post-medieval pits and potential Civil War fort"
In the last quarter of the 19th century Charlotte Street and the surrounding area became home to many of those who had fled Paris after the defeat of the Commune. Today writer Lydia Syson will do a book signing and lead a guided walk as part of the Fitzrovia Festival visiting the sites of the …
Continue reading "In the footsteps of the Paris Commune in exile"
Just to the west of the lower end of Tottenham Court Road only a few buildings in Stephen Street and Gresse Street survived the huge redevelopment of the Gort Estate in the mid-1970s. In the foreground on the left hand side of the picture below are the Stephen Buildings, and in the mid-ground on the left is …
Continue reading "Gresse Street and Stephen Street before redevelopment in the 1970s"
The southern part of Tottenham Court Road is again undergoing large scale change with redevelopment of the Central Cross building on the west side and on the east side the former Time Out building has now been completely demolished. Another chapter in the story of the road that originally led to Tottenhall Manor House. This was what …
Continue reading "Tottenham Court Road before redevelopment in the 1970s"
Wreaths were laid today at the Chenies Street war memorial near the former headquarters of The Rangers regiment. Three wreaths were placed at the base of the memorial for Remembrance Sunday and as part of commemorations marking the centenary of the start of the First World War. The Chenies Street monument is in memorial to The Rangers …
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What do singer Freddie Mercury, philosopher Jeremy Bentham, a leper, a brewery worker, two nurses, a German officer and a bewhiskered butler have in common? Their ghosts have all been reportedly seen in the area. Freddie Mercury's ghost was seen by several people at the Dominion Theatre, 269 Tottenham Court Road, during the run of …
