by Caroline If you peek through the railings near one of Hyde Park’s entrance lodges, you’ll see something quite unexpected – a little cemetery in the lodge’s back garden. The space is filled with rows of tiny gravestones. This is one of Hyde Park’s little-known secrets – a pet cemetery dating from the late Victorian […]
Read More Exploring Hyde Park’s Hidden Pet CemeteryStill visible from the platforms of the Hammersmith & City line terminus at Hammersmith is the last, sad remnant of what was once one of West London’s most popular entertainment venues. First opened in 1919, the Hammersmith Palais was for most of its life primarily a dance venue. The building was actually a tram shed […]
Read More The Ghosts of Hammersmith PalaisOne suspects that William Hogarth would chuckle bitterly at the irony – his home in Chiswick, once his peaceful country retreat, now backs onto a hellishly busy road and a concrete road junction named the “Hogarth Roundabout”. It’s an incongruous backdrop to the quiet elegance of Hogarth’s house, which today is home to a lovely […]
Read More William Hogarth and his neighbours in a Chiswick churchyardby Caroline To call Sir Richard Francis Burton an adventurer is, really, a huge oversimplification. He was an explorer, a translator, a linguist, an ethnographer, a diplomat, a spy, a poet and a soldier – one of the most eccentric, fascinating and controversial of Victorians. He’s buried in an otherwise unassuming churchyard in Mortlake, South […]
Read More The Burton Mausoleum: an adventurer’s tomb in a quiet suburb
