Blogs-And-Stories

Architecture & Home
Architecture & Home

The Festival of Britain 1951

A nation-wide event with London at its heart, the Festival aimed to boost Britain’s post-war blues

Collections
Collections

Brixton 1981 to BLM: Reflections on Black uprisings

The changing nature of uprisings in Brixton, from 1981 to 2020

Games
Games

Quiz: Which London river are you?

From the currents of the Thames to the secrets of the Walbrook, which river are you most like?

Lifestyle & Leisure
Lifestyle & Leisure

What were London’s pleasure gardens?

For dancing, drinking, glamour and debauchery, there was nothing quite like the pleasure garden

Lifestyle & Leisure
Lifestyle & Leisure

A big night out at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

Discover the exciting new entertainment on offer to Londoners in the 1700s and 1800s

Health & Disease
Health & Disease

How Florence Nightingale shaped London healthcare

Modern nursing has a lot to thank this 19th-century trailblazer for

From our experts
From our experts

Pleasurable relief: Toilets in 18th-century London

Curator Danielle Thom reveals the dark underside of the Georgian and Victorian Pleasure Gardens

Food & Diet
Food & Diet

Pleasure gardens: London’s early restaurants?

London’s thriving restaurant scene has roots in these hedonistic spaces of music and entertainment

Nature & Environment
Nature & Environment

Lost rivers: The Effra

Lambeth’s famous hidden river was once the source of colourful London myths – and frequent flooding

Lifestyle & Leisure
Lifestyle & Leisure

Pleasure gardens: London’s first music venues

Handel at Vauxhall? Mozart at Ranelagh? For 18th-century music fans, these were the places to be

Class & Economics
Class & Economics

How London’s alternative currencies made change

In the past and present, Londoners have experimented with different forms of money

Lifestyle & Leisure
Lifestyle & Leisure

Masquerades in London’s pleasure gardens

Put on your finest costume and join revellers on London’s fashionable 18th-century dancefloors

Architecture & Home
Architecture & Home

Westminster Bridge

A crossing to the heart of government

Death & Disasters
Death & Disasters

West Norwood Cemetery

One of south London’s Magnificent Seven – with a touch of ancient Greece

Architecture & Home
Architecture & Home

Lambeth Bridge

The bridge that put a horse ferry out of business

Trades & Workers
Trades & Workers

Street life & work in 1877

John Thomson’s fascinating photographs reveal the lives of workers in 19th-century London