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London History

Woburn Walk: A Pocket of Georgian London in Bloomsbury

Woburn Walk is a gorgeous pocket of Georgian London you can still see in Bloomsbury today.  There aren’t many bits of King’s Cross that feel beautiful but you’ll certainly find one pocket of pretty at Woburn Walk – a pedestrianised street just across the road on the Bloomsbury/ King’s Cross divide across from Euston Station. …

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Carreras Cigarette Factory: A Curious Reminder of London’s Egyptian Art Deco Craze

Carreras Cigarette Factory is one of London’s most curious buildings. Discover the spot where Egyptian Revival architecture meets Art Deco in Mornington Crescent.  You may not know it, but London in the 1920s gave birth to a rather curious architectural subset of the Art Deco movement – Egyptian Revival Architecture.  The world had gone gaga …

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Have You Spotted The Golden Boy of Pye Corner?

Standing well above eye level on the corner of Cock Lane (*giggle*) and Giltspur Street on what used to be a rather unpalatable part of the City of London, there’s a statue of a curiously fat golden boy, arms crossed and staring petulantly into the distance.  This is the very spot where the Great Fire …

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Have You Spotted London’s Sewer Gas Destructor Lamp?

Ensconced down a small side street off of The Strand near Covent Garden, Carting Lane is home to one of the 19th century’s most bizarre inventions.  On the face of it, it looks like the other gas lamps dotted around the area, but the Patent Sewer Ventilating Lamp is anything but.  To understand the lamp, …

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The Broad Street Pump: Tracing the Tale of John Snow in Soho

Any walk through Soho throws up all kinds of oddities, from noses plastered against the walls to the seedy sex shops. Still, there’s one that often flies under the radar and it’s located outside The John Snow pub on Broad Street: the Broad Street Pump.  Why does the pump exist? More importantly, what’s the story …

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Weird and Interesting Nicknames for London… and The Stories Behind Them

London – we all know it. That massive heap of buildings, parks and weird (but wonderful) people who can’t look at each other on public transport. No wonder London has attracted a fair few nicknames over the years.  I’ll wager you’ve heard of some of London’s nicknames – like The Big Smoke – but maybe …

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32 Fascinating Facts about the Houses of Parliament I’ll Bet You Never Knew

Want to find out about parliament’s numerous history and oddities? Here are 32 cool and interesting facts about the Houses of Parliament.  The Houses of Parliament shape the lives of every single citizen in the UK, but how much do you really know about it?  I recently visited Parliament on a tour and was fascinated …

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