A Dickensland Extract: The Haunted Bridge
From vanishing coaching inns and submerged riverside stairs to hidden burial grounds and apocryphal shops… In his new book Dickensland, Lee Jackson traces the…
Victorian London
Palaces of Pleasure- Q&A with Lee Jackson
The Victorians invented mass entertainment. As the nineteenth century’s growing industrialised class acquired the funds and the free time to pursue leisure activities, their…
‘Working Mothers’ – An extract from Bread Winner by Emma Griffin
Escape Into Art, Look Through the Lens of History, Seek Certainty in Science … To help us all keep on reading over the coming…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 29
‘Many myths and ‘factoids’ appear on the web and in print. They are often incorrect…’ Throughout this month, Lee Jackson reveals the background to Dirty…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 26
‘The Lady’s Newspaper, keen to plug a new shopping street, waxed lyrical: ‘the most loathsome of the haunts of vice and infamy … St. Giles converted…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 24
‘They claimed the hint of mud added to the liquid’s vital properties.’ Throughout this month, Lee Jackson reveals the background to Dirty Old London: The…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 23
‘Sewer workers were sent to unblock tunnels clogged with everything from ‘coals, cinders, bottles, broken pots’ to ‘old hats, dead cats, scrubbing brushes’; and…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 22
‘As one contemporary put it, ‘People like to be buried in company, and in good company’.’ Throughout this month, Lee Jackson reveals the background…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 21
‘They built poorly-designed flat-bottomed sewers, prone to clogging and producing miasma.’ Throughout this month, Lee Jackson reveals the background to Dirty Old London: The Victorian…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 19
‘Flanking one side of the yard were a score or so of upreared dustcarts, and on the other side, extending almost from the outer…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 18
‘Fog also crept indoors. Court-rooms, museums, theatres and art galleries could become filled with a choking haze. Perhaps the worst such incident occurred at…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 17
‘Doctors actively explored the worst parts of the capital. They sought out typhus cases and entreated landlords to fix windows (broken sash windows were…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 16
‘Respectable householders and shopkeepers regularly wrote letters to the parish authorities, describing disused doorways or entrances being used as ‘urinals’, citing the offence to…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 15
‘Remember, a filthy person indicates filthy habits; dirty in his apartments, he will be dirty in his mind; profligate in his amusements, unfit for…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 14
‘There was something of the fairground sideshow about this supposedly educational experience.’ Throughout this month, Lee Jackson reveals the background to Dirty Old London: The…
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