100 Years of TV: Channel Hopping the History
"There's only one place we can go... it's round the corner, in Soho"
Welcome to Londonist: Time Machine’s Friday edition for paying subscribers, with a generous opening sequence for everyone else.
We’re in the second century of television. 26 January 2026 marked precisely 100 years since John Logie Baird gave his first meaningful demonstration of a technology that would change the world. It happened right here in London, above what is now Bar Italia in Soho. I’m not going to tell that story, though; you’ll find it all over the internet. It pops up more regularly than a re-run of Columbo. Instead, I’m going to channel-hop through the early history of television in London, alighting on a few peculiar episodes and angles that you might not have seen before.
That’s for the main section. First, the History Radar…
History Radar
Upcoming events for fans of London history.
🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH: February is LGBT+ History Month, with a wealth of events going on all over the country to mark the occasion. The listings contain more London events than I could manageably list here, but a neat summary is provided here. Look out for free talks, gallery tours, a family festival, and live performances.
👸🏻 QUEEN VICTORIA'S FUNERAL: 125 years since the funeral of Queen Victoria, City Guide Robert Stephenson reveals what her death and burial meant for the country, and around the world. Hear about the role played by London as her body passed through on its final journey. Takes place at Guildhall Library on 2 February.
🔪THAMES TORSO MURDER: The case of the Thames Torso Murderer, a serial killer committing crimes in the capital around the same time that Jack the Ripper was at large, is discussed at Guildhall Library on 3 February. Author Sarah Bax Horton discusses the contemporaneous police investigation into the case — which featured in a recent Lucy Worsley documentary series — based on research for her latest book.
🐼 WILDLIFE TRAILBLAZERS: In its 200th anniversary year, ZSL, the charity which runs London Zoo, offers a free talk on 3 February delving into how wildlife science has changed over that time (and the Zoo’s role). A panel of speakers, hosted by scientist Adam Rutherford, looks at scientific breakthroughs over the past two centuries, followed by a Q&A session.
🖥️ VIRTUAL TOUR: An event even overseas readers can take part in. The busy roads of Aldwych and Kingsway can seem a bit soulless, but did you ever stop to admire the architecture and consider the history? Join guide Richard Watkins online for a virtual tour of these Edwardian streets, which takes in "world trade and diplomacy, newspapers, a prestigious hotel and a flourishing mini theatre-land". 6pm-7pm
🎻 HANDEL AND HENDRIX: Baroque and roll meets gospel and soul in new National Youth Theatre musical Handel and Hendrix, performed at St James's Church in Piccadilly on 4 February. A music super-fan visits Mayfair's Handle and Hendrix Museum, located on the site where they both lived during different periods, and decides to stay forever.
🏳️🌈 GAY CHARTERHOUSE: Clerkenwell's Charterhouse opens its doors on 5 February an LGBTQ+ History Month talk and tour by candlelight. Hear little-known stories of the men, many of whom were gay, who sought sanctuary in the building throughout the centuries, as well as the historic figures who shaped the institution, including George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, post-war architects Seely & Paget, and artist Robert Medley.
🗡️ SHAKESPEARE REIMAGINED: Also on 5 February, Twickenham's Strawberry Hill House stays open late for a candlelit exhibition viewing, drinks, and an expert talk. View current display Henry VIII’s Lost Dagger, about a vanished Ottoman dagger once believed to belong to the Tudor king, before Prof. Robin Simon (UCL) discusses historical authenticity in the theatre between 1700 and 1850, a period when the dagger is believed to have been in the hands of renowned Shakespearean actor Charles John Kean.
🧵 SEWING MACHINE MUSEUM: 7 February is your monthly chance to visit London's little-known Sewing Machine Museum, home to hundreds of the machines, including one that once belonged to Queen Victoria's daughter. Entry is free, but charity donations are encouraged.
🍸 DRINK, DEATH AND DEBAUCHERY: On 8 February, join a Foundling Museum guide for a walking tour focusing on the boozy history of 18th-century London. Begin at Tottenham Court Road and end in Holborn, visiting St Giles, Seven Dials and Covent Garden while learning about the gin craze of the era, which inspired William Hogarth’s Gin Lane, as well as hearing about gallows, plague pits and prostitution.
🍖 SMITHFIELD: Spend your Sunday afternoon (8 February) in Smithfield's Wilderness kitchen, leaning about the area's Monasteries, Martyrs, Meat and Medicine, courtesy of Blue Badge guide Diane Burstein (whom I know to be one of the most dedicated and knowledgeable guides in London). The talk can be prefaced with a £25 Sunday lunch add-on.
100 Years of TV: Channel Hopping the History
This was the moment, on 26 January 2026, when the centenary of television was given official celebration at 22 Frith Street, Soho. It was here, precisely 100 years before, that John Logie Baird first demonstrated his technology to a party from the Royal Institution and a single journalist.
100 years on, and the Royal Institution were back in force, along with considerably more than one journalist, a smattering of televisual celebrities, an elucidation of tour guides, a cavalcade of Soho characters… and me. We cheered, we toasted and we held up smartphones, as Iain Logie Baird (grandson) unveiled a World Origin Site plaque for the anniversary.
I wondered how I was going to write up the story. The history of television, and Baird’s particular contribution, has been covered thoroughly before. So, I’m taking inspiration from the medium itself to “channel-hop” through its origins, lingering only briefly on any one topic, before moving on to something different.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin…
An early vision
"You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?’” - George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah
Baird is usually credited as the fountainhead of TV but, as with any complex invention, its development was heralded by countless other visionaries and tinkerers.
The idea of viewing moving images on a screen was at least 50 years old by 1926. Concepts with unwieldy names such as telectroscopes and telephonoscopes were commonly anticipated by writers and illustrators of the 19th century. Here’s one of my favourite examples, from 1878:
An elderly couple sit before their fireplace in Wilton Place, London, to converse with their badmintonic daughter in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). It’s the whimsy of cartoonist George de Maurier (grandfather of Daphne), and it appeared in Punch in 1878. Yes, it’s more akin to a video call than broadcast television, but all the right elements are there.
Du Maurier was extrapolating from very recent innovations by Bell and Edison, which would soon make voice calls a reality (though calls between London and Ceylon would not be possible for decades). It’s just one of numerous 19th century heralds of the television, which I would love to explore in more detail, but…
Stooky Bill
Of all the celebrities at the 100th anniversary event, the one I wanted to meet the most was this fellow.
Stooky Bill (sometimes Stookie Bill) was a terrifying ventriloquist’s doll, and the first face to be televised. Baird used the wooden bonce during his early experiments because the hot lights of his kit and long-duration tests would be uncomfortable for a real person. Plus, Stooky’s countenance had much more contrast than a natural face.
The grinagog puppet became singed and cracked by its exposure to the lights, to the point where it began to look like something from a horror show. “Well, well, well,” thought Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies, when he first encountered the dummy while working on a programme about the early years of television. Lo and behold, Stooky Bill became the secondary villain of the magnificent 60th anniversary episode of Doctor Who, called The Giggle.
The real Stooky Bill is held at the Science + Media Museum in Bradford. An accurate replica can also be seen at the British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum in Dulwich — a remarkable collection of old broadcasting kit, which can be visited by prior appointment, and on occasional event days. I did consider conducting a mock-interview with the ghastly marionette, but…
A selection of predictions
“I am convinced that it will be possible in six months’ time to sit in a cinema hundreds of miles away and see on the screen the finish of the Derby, transmitted by wireless moving pictures.”
- John Logie Baird, inventor of TV, in January 1924, exactly two years before his successful demonstration.
“I am not sanguine that for a good many years, perhaps a century, anything will be devised that can properly be called television.”
- Sir Oliver Lodge, physicist in January 1924, exactly two years before television was devised.
“There has been a deal of talk lately about television, and some prediction that realisation of it might be expected in the near future. My own belief is that the prospects of television are in the dim future. We view it with as much consideration as we do communication with Mars.”
- Charles J. Pannill, vice-president and general manager of the Independent Wireless Telegraph Company, March 1924, 22 months before Baird’s demonstration. Incidentally, communication with Mars was first demonstrated in 1965 on the Mariner 5 mission, and is now a daily occurrence.
“Within five to ten years from now, it is highly probable that we shall be able to sit in the Albert Hall and actually watch the Derby or a naval review, or a prize fight in America, or, for that matter, a battle. I mean, watch a moving picture of any of these things on a screen at the moment they are happening. Then, a little later, will come exploration pictures. Explorers will carry television cameras with them. They will climb Mount Everest, or penetrate to the North Pole, or stalk big game in Central Africa, or examine the floor of the ocean in submarines, and we sitting in ordinary picture theatres hundreds or perhaps thousands, of miles away, will accompany them step by step as far as vision goes.”
- Professor Fournier d’Albe, another London-based television researcher, March 1924. His vision of explorers with television cameras reached its apotheosis with the 1969 Moon landing.
“He doesn’t know what he is talking about.”
- Anonymous member of the Royal Institution, after seeing Baird’s demonstration on 26 January 1926. As overheard by reporter Bill Fox.
“The possibilities of such an invention are boundless. In war it would be possible to watch an enemy advancing under cover of darkness while they were quite unaware of being seen. Privacy would be non-existent. A combination of wireless-telephony, television, and the infra-red ray would enable a Hampstead enthusiast to watch every waking and sleeping moment of the President of the United States or the King of Siam.”
- Ronald F. Tiltman, future biographer of Baird. January 1928.