Tag: victorian
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Lady in Red
The history of a garment links three women, a 19th century painter and some beautiful places of rest Be it his Ophelia or Bubbles, the work of Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896) dominates the nineteenth century. An evocative artist whose latter work to soap in the nineteenth century is just important as the image of…
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Apply Some Pressure
A wonderful testing works on London’s South Bank The imposing art deco Tate Modern and its new-ish extension, coupled with the glass severity that is the Blue Fin Building, tower over a nearby testing facility whose custom-made machine is as enduring a memorial as his own gravestone. The entrance to the building is surmounted with…
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Bother the Men! The Grave of Mrs Howard Paul
A prestigious memorial eroded by time betrays the memory of an iconic Victorian woman. Her fine contralto voice was often used to excellent effect in imitating male tenors of the day and she was a master of comedy performance. But Mrs Howard Paul followed the pattern of women adopting their husbands name professionally. Four years…
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The Cedar’s Farewell
Today we mourn an icon. Trees hold a very special place in our hearts and you only have to look at how important the Bethnal Green Mulberry is and its value to the local community to see what imagery and emotion they conjure. Permission was given to remove this historic tree from its current site (being…
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Help Restore The Burdick Grave
Right; roll up sleeves time, people. An accident befell my friends at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park not too long ago; a ruddy great tree decided it was time to collapse and in the process it took out a monument that is now in pieces on the floor. Tower Hamlets doesn’t have the most spectacular tombs…
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Chief of the Clan McSausage
Say the sentence ‘I’m looking for the Sausage King’ and you’ll get responses like ‘I’ve seen him on Grindr’ ‘so am I, dear’ or ‘I like how honest you are’. The one I’m referring to is one of the most eccentric characters of ye olde London, whose story has particular pertinence as recently it’s been…
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The Strongest Man on Earth
An old song drifts through Tower Hamlets Cemetery in October 2017. History is full of old tunes and for our Halloween tour, myself and Pauly Kendrick sang Alec Hurley’s hit ‘The Strongest Man on Earth’ at his graveside. You know the song, don’t you? It was the song everyone was humming in November 1889. But why…
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The Lost Restaurants of London
Log out of TripAdvisor and exit the OpenTable app – we step back 100 years and reveal that there was more to life than Nando’s and GBK Going out in London and you’re usually confronted with the challenge of where you should go if you fancy a bite to eat. Particularly in my age bracket, the choice…
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Soul Cakes
All Souls Cakes – a delicious recipe! One of the most popular parts of our Halloween tours around Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park is our offering of authentic Victorian Soul Cakes! Knocking on doors for soul cakes was the precursor to modern day trick or treating and was often accompanied by a song: “Soul! Soul! Soul cake! Please…
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Do Pokémon Go and Cemeteries Mix? Let’s Find Out…
A smartphone game in which you wander the real world with your eyes glued to your phone screen as you hunt around a Google-Maps style landscape for virtual creatures that you can catch and collect?! You can find them in parks. You can find them in the street. And surprise, surprise – you can find…
Cemetery Club 