workers
Stranded Series: Sotiris Polyzopoulos
The pandemic has undoubtedly emptied out London streets, all its buzzy hangout spots, workplaces and cultural epicentres. As essential workers continue to uphold the skeleton of the city and restaurants endeavour to provide the necessary sustenance (still managing to fit in a hello to the customers, often half in, half out, of alignment with the…
Read MoreShops on the Strand: women in business in early modern Westminster, 1600-1740
In October I began work in earnest on a new research project, which will illuminate the lives of women in business on the Strand in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. I am particularly looking forward to uncovering all sorts of material on the myriad shops in this location, whether at street level or in…
Read More#MyStrand: Carol and Jenny Pham
One of the things I’ve missed the most during lockdown is grabbing lunch from one of the small businesses on the Strand. I drop in on Co’m In Vietnamese Cafe at 69 Strand every few weeks for a baguette or soup. Craving a bánh mì, I found myself scrolling on Co’m In’s instagram @comin_vietcafe, and…
Read MorePeople of the Strand: Alice and Kimberley at Two Temple Place
Like many people, I have been enjoying the virtual offerings of museums and galleries during lockdown. For this post, I’m grateful to Two Temple Place for letting Strandlines share excerpts from their blog ‘Voices from Two Temple Place’. I can’t recommend the blog enough, and applaud the blog’s mission to be an ‘inclusive online platform…
Read MoreLife and Work on the Tower RNLI Lifeboat Pier
Anyone who has crossed the Waterloo bridge might have noticed the Royal National Lifeboat Institution Pier, on the north side of the Thames. This is the busiest lifeboat station in the United-Kingdom. I spoke to Stan Todd, a full-time helmsman on the station, and looked over archive materials, to find out more about how the…
Read MoreDan Kirmatzis: Strand series
The Strandlines team periodically check in on photos tagged to the Strand (and surrounding areas) on Instagram and Twitter. We came across Dan Kirmatzis’s work on Instagram. A huge thanks to Dan for so generously sharing his photographs and insights into his inspiration and processes. “Although I take many photos in the street genre…
Read MorePeople of the Strand: Jonathan Sisson (1692 – 1749)
Jonathan Sisson established a scientific instrument making business at the corner of Beaufort Buildings in the Strand, London. The attic rooms included an observatory, the exterior visible in a drawing by the freemason, Thomas Sandby.[1] Sandby was the architect of the first Freemasons’ Hall on Great Queen Street, which was completed in 1766. For many…
Read MoreProtests: spring 2020
Workers, students, and anyone visiting the Strand can’t have missed the picket lines, teach outs, and rallies taking place outside the King’s and Courtauld campuses over 14 days in March. Workers from across the both universities on the Strand – including cleaners and library staff as well as teachers – were joined by students and…
Read MoreStreetkind UK on Southampton Street
‘For several years my sister always came out and gave out little care packages for people sleeping rough’, Ijlal explains, ‘but we had our first outreach in March and then it’s been once a month every month since’. It’s 2:30pm on what, for many visitors to the Strand, is a regular relaxed Sunday. However, for…
Read MoreEighteenth-century lives in Devereux Court
Micah Anne Neale is a 3rd-year PhD student at Royal Holloway, University of London, and volunteered for Layers of London in Summer 2019. Her thesis topic is the musical lives of eighteenth-century domestic servants in Britain, and her research interests include early modern social and cultural history, the history of work and the history of…
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