A Ramble Through Long Forgotten London
Join me on an atmospheric autumn walk through the streets of Spitalfields. Click here to book for THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S TOUR OF SPITALFIELDS
As the dusk gathers, let us go rambling to explore the sights of long forgotten London in the volumes of Walter Thornbury’s London Old & New. It is a shadowy realm, conjured as if from a dream or nightmare.
This was how Londoners of the late nineteenth century looked back upon the city that had gone within living memory, a London that was already vanishing into reminiscence and anecdote in their time – a lost city, only recalled today in dark and dingy engravings such as these.
Golden Buildings, off the Strand
Boar’s Head Yard, Borough High St
Jacob’s Island, Southwark
Floating Dock, Deptford
Painted Hall, Greenwich
Waterloo Bridge Rd
Balloon Ascent at Vauxhall Gardens, 1840
House in Westminster, believed to have been inhabited by Oliver Cromwell
Old shops in Holborn
Mammalia at the British Museum
Rookery, St Giles 1850
Manor House of Toten Hall, Tottenham Court Rd 1813
Marylebone Gardens, 1780
Turkish Baths, Jermyn St
Old house in Wych St
Butcher’s Row, Strand 1810
The Fox Under The Hill, Strand
Ivy Bridge Lane, Strand
Turner’s House, Maiden Lane
Covent Garden
Whistling Oyster, Covent Garden
Tothill St, Westminster
Old house on Tothill St
The Manor House at Dalston
Old Rectory, Stoke Newington 1856
Sights of Stoke Newington – 1. Rogers House 1877 2. Fleetwood House, 1750 3. St Mary’s Rectory 4. St Mary’s New Church 5, New River at Stoke Newington 6. Queen Elizabeth’s Walk, 1800 7. Old gateway
Images courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
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Ah me! Sic transit gloria mundi! Rectory Road, Stoke Newington was part of my childhood stamping-ground. Would that I could see it again!
Wolinski the baker graced the corner with Evering Rd. And in the days of bread rationing it was a rare pleasure to queue along their side-wall and bask in the warmth that seeped through from the ovens. Excellent bread every day and good chollas on Fridays.
Fab engravings.
Who wouldn’t like to invisibly, walk through those streets, ramshackle with no doubt disgusting smells eminating from every surface and probably most people. Topped off with a trip to Vauxhall Gardens to catch the clap from a young lady of ill repute, so I’ve read!
I’ve followed your blog for so many years and enjoyed two wonderful weekend classes. You’ve helped me express myself and create a little personal memoir which is helpful as family members diminish or move on with disinterest!! No point in getting upset about things we can’t control….anyway I wanted to ask you if you were aware of The India Club which is on The Strand inside The Hotel Continental! I absolutely love this little hostel which I discovered on early solo trips to London in 2016? The National Trust have adopted it but it feels like the pressure of property prices will mean its days are numbered. It would make a great article? Apologies if you’ve already made this discovery. Best love – thanks for all your daily kindness! It boosts a girl’s day all the way up here in Dundee!!
Linda
If only the ghosts of old buildings could haunt their former precincts, and if only I could discern them…