London stories

The capital’s cultural calendar is a rainbow of obscure customs, traditions, rituals and ceremonies

An ancient Egyptian obelisk – on the banks of the River Thames

Sun, sand and… the River Thames

A new hospital for Hackney – its patients and staff, needles and blood

The wildest place in the capital?

Roaming rural north London in the late 1800s

Photographer Henry Grant takes us on a tour of these Regent’s Park residents

Fighting the prosecution of gay encounters in the 1980s and 1990s

The writer-composer pair behind the hottest shows in Victorian London

Oversized silhouettes, worn-in denim, political slogans – Hamnett’s designs drove a new London look

The south Londoner who brought a theatrical flair to high-end fashion design

The actors, singers, dancers and entertainers who’ve taken the city by storm

How an all-women clan of career criminals hounded West End department stores

A foggy, shadowy view of the capital in 1909

In the wake of the global financial crisis, anti-capitalist protesters set up a camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral

Liz Johnson Artur captured community, individuality and joy on and around the dance floor

These French refugees worked silk in Spitalfields and silver in Soho, weaving a lasting legacy

Meat pies, alehouse snacks and boiled sheep’s feet sold on the streets