People on the Strand: John Nourse and Francis Wingrave, booksellers
Nowadays, tracking down out of print books involves a quick email or checking booksellers’ websites. Two or three centuries ago, anyone hunting rare volumes wrote to booksellers and other collectors although few examples of this correspondence survive. During the 18th century the Strand was a flourishing centre for London’s book trade and associated industries, including…
Read MoreBilly Waters: The Busker of the West End
Thus poor Black Billy’s made his Will, His Property was small good lack, For till the day death did him kill His house he carried on his back. The Adelphi now may say alas! And to his memory raise a stone: Their gold will be exchanged for brass, Since poor Black Billy’s dead and gone.…
Read MoreThe Right to Protest
It’s incredible what you come across on a small walk along the Strand. I was walking towards the Temple tube station after finishing an interview with the India Club’s Phiroza Marker, when I came across a small gathering of 6 people outside a gated building. I didn’t know what the building was or who the people…
Read MoreA Q+A with Ruth Duston, the Northbank BID’s CEO, on the Pedestrianisation Project
Who is The Northbank BID and what is your role within it? The Northbank Business Improvement District (BID) is a business collective working to enhance the area and drive local economic growth. We were officially established in July 2013, after a ballot of the local business community. There are over 70 BIDs in central London…
Read MoreThe Strand’s Arisings
Like many Strandliners I was away from the Strand during Covid-19 lockdowns. A long absence! Seventeen months! What would it be like after so long? On my first day back in London, I thought a stroll along the Strand was in order, to catch a little of the atmosphere of cautious reanimating and contribute to…
Read MoreKingsway’s Ghost Station: London’s first underground tramway
For seventy years now, the once-bustling environment on the platforms of Kingsway Tram Tunnel has been displaced by darkness and disuse. Previously a key transit point connecting north and south London, the tunnel now fades into the backdrop of Kingsway’s ceaseless motor and pedestrian traffic. Opened in 1906, Kingsway’s Tunnel was fully operative for only…
Read MoreTemple Church: Magna Carta and the Knights Templar
The filming location of the Da Vinci Code [2006], survivor of the Fire of London and WW2 bombing, a secret meeting place of a back-stabbing king, the core of the City’s major legal district, and London’s first bank – Temple Church has witnessed milestones in English history. In medieval London there were ‘more churches than…
Read MoreIndigenous actors at the heart of empire: A letter from the Strand to Buffalo Creek
In 1818, seven members of the Seneca nation were in London performing in the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane. The Hartfort Courant, an American newspaper that ran in Connecticut, published a letter they intercepted from the performers to their families and friends. Through the words of the performers themselves, this article hopes to highlight their…
Read MoreVoices from the Strand – Dr. Geoffrey Browell @ King’s College Archives
A week in the life of an archivist I sometimes get asked what an archivist does, exactly? That’s if it’s not confused with the job of an archaeologist or architect! Archivists come in different shapes and sizes depending on the sector and the type of information that they curate: I am a university archivist at…
Read MoreSavoy to Albemarle: The Tale of Wilde’s Demise
The Savoy On the 2nd March 1893, the Savoy Hotel’s adjoining rooms 362 and 361 were checked into by an Oscar Wilde rapidly approaching the apogee of his dramatic career. Soon to be joined by Lord Alfred Douglas – or ‘Bosie’ – to whom Wilde had been introduced some two years earlier, the pair would…
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