The latest strands
EXPERIENCES, MEMORIES AND REFLECTIONS
The Eleanor (Charing) Cross
By Paul Guhennec | | Charing Cross, design, eleanor cross, medieval, medievalism, monument, neo gothic, neo-medieval, public art, statue
The story of the Eleanor Cross begins with the death of Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I, on 28th of November 1290. A series of twelve crosses marked the resting places of the funerary cortège which began in Nottingham, where Eleanor died, and made stops at towns between Lincoln and Westminster Abbey. Charing Cross was the last step. Medieval ...
Read more The York Watergate
By Paul Guhennec | | Architecture, Charles I, design, Embankment, Inigo Jones, Villiers
When the Duke of Buckingham ordered his York House (approximately located at present day 38 Strand) to be modernised in 1623, “it was customary for nobility to be conveyed by water” [1] while the less convenient carriages were preferred for state purposes. This made the building of private watergates by the river very common in noblemen’s houses, “and stairs led ...
Read more King’s College London Chapel Preservation Project
By Ben Barber | | Architecture, archive, Chapel, church, design, digital, digitalisation, digitise, Gilbert Scott, KCL, King's College London, London, preservation, scanner, strand, University, virtual reality, VR, Westminster
K/PH1/9/1 [1859] Print of an engraving showing the proposed design for the King’s College London Chapel by George Gilbert Scott produced by J Frayton Wyatt. King's Archives.At King’s College London Archives our remit is to preserve and provide access to the material in our care. This project is an experiment in how we might apply that philosophy to digitally preserve ...
Read more Let’s All Go Down the Strand – For the Age of Brexit
By Hannah Clayton | | brexit, modern music hall, music hall, MyStrand, protest, remix, song
One night half a dozen toffs met together in Westminster A severing from the continent was planned Empathy and sense were summarily banned ‘Let’s inflame irrational nationalism! It won’t hurt us when it backfires’ Decorate a bus in lies Lie some more when they ask why And then dance around the union’s funeral pyre Let's all go down the Strand ...
Read more Twinings and Lloyds Intertwined
By Heather Tweed | | Ancestry, Coffee Houses, family, History, lloyds, tea, Tweed, Twinings
Part One Twinings has long been associated with fine teas but the company actually sprang from Tom’s Coffee House. This blog explores a little of that early history and links to Tweed family members who lie within my own ancestral tree. Thomas Twining, 1675-1741, by William Hogarth Walking along the Strand in 1706 a waft of aromatic coffee and stimulating ...
Read more The Mau Mau Case: Post-Colonial Justice on the Strand
By Théophraste Fady | | government, Legal London, London, Mau Mau, strand, trial, Westminster
“This is a historic judgement today, which will have repercussions for years to come” - Leigh Day Prosecution team. The Mau Mau insurgency, also known in Britain as the 'Emergency Period', was an eight year span of violence in colonial Kenya (1952-60). In 2012, the British High Court of Justice, inside the Royal Courts of Justice, was the site of ...
Read more Monet’s Pied-à-terre
By Théophraste Fady | | art, Fairmont Hotel, History, Hotel, impressionism, impressionist, London, London history, Monet, National Gallery, painting, Savoy, Savoy Hotel, solar geometry, Visit London, Waterloo Bridge, Westminster
"I find London lovelier to paint each day" - Claude Monet. Monet's link to London Monet fell in love with London in 1870-71, while in exile from France, during the Franco-Prussian war. After his return to France he vowed to revisit London, which he did in 1899, 1900 and 1901. In each of these three later visits, he stayed in ...
Read more Streetkind UK on Southampton Street
By Francesca Allfrey |
‘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 Ijlal and the busy team ...
Read more A Smoking Rebellion at the Savoy?
By Théophraste Fady | | cigarettes, class, fin de siecle, gender, Savoy Hotel, Smoking, social history, Social Norms, strand, turn of the century, Victorian, Women
The Savoy hotel is a treasure trove of weird and intriguing events over the last century of Strand history. In 1896, per the Fairmont Hotel Group blog, the Duchesse de Clermont-Tonnerre was the first woman to smoke in public and did so at the Savoy. “The Duchesse de Clermont-Tonnerre, the first woman to smoke in public, chose The Savoy as ...
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