London stories
Explore the stories of the world's greatest city and uncover the hidden treasures of our collections.
All stories

Why Charles I was executed
A tale of religion and Parliament which ends abruptly in 1649

The candid street photography of Margaret Monck
Capturing the energy of 1930s Londoners

Christabel Pankhurst: Suffragette leader
An inspiring leader whose radical tactics intensified women’s fight for the vote

The murder of Thomas Becket
An event that shocked medieval Europe – and a cult that's lasted centuries

Kitty Marion: Actor & Suffragette
Battling for the vote with fire and hunger strikes

How Mary Quant revolutionised 1960s fashion
This champion of super short hemlines influenced how a generation dressed

Millicent Fawcett: Suffragist, not Suffragette
Meet a leader of the law-abiding votes for women campaign

Who was the Suffragette Emily Davison?
After running onto a racecourse, this votes for women campaigner lost her life for the cause

Inside the Big Biba department store
Open for just two years, the 1970s flagship shop for this fashion label was a shopper’s paradise

Princess Diana: A London look
The 'people’s princess' was a 20th-century celebrity whose image was tightly linked to her hometown

The Festival of Britain 1951
A nation-wide event with London at its heart, the Festival aimed to boost Britain’s post-war blues

The history of London's Newgate Prison
London’s longest-running prison was home to high-profile criminals, common thieves and the condemned

Who was Charles Dickens?
19th-century London’s most celebrated writer gave us Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol

Thomas Rowlandson’s satirical London drawings
Laughing at life in the 18th and 19th century

Wenceslaus Hollar’s etchings of fashion & fire
A 17th-century recorder of women’s clothes and London's skyline

Oliver Cromwell: The man who could have been king
Cromwell’s victories in the Civil Wars took him to the very top


Graham Sutherland’s eerie Blitz drawings
This south London-born artist recorded the carnage of the Second World War