4 Updates, 2 Things You Should Do and a Pub Date

An historical buffet.

Welcome to Londonist: Time Machine, the newsletter for London history.

Something wicked this way comes… see Doin’ the Lambeth Walk, below. Image: Matt Brown

Bit of a twist of format today. Instead of writing a new feature, I’ve got a bevy of updates about previous stories from the newsletter, as well as a few other historical tidbits I’d like to share. Oh, and a date for our next subscriber drinks. That’s all after the History Radar:

History Radar

Upcoming events of interest to London history fans.

⚓️ EAST INDIA COMPANY: Short notice, but if you’re free on 21 June, then consider “A London Lark Rising". This walking theatre performance explores the history of the British Empire through the lens of the East India Company. Walk the streets in the company of actors and Indian musicians, recounting events where they actually occurred.

🇯🇲 IMMIGRATION: Windrush Day — 22 June — marks the anniversary of the docking of the HMT Empire Windrush in Tilbury in 1948, an event that has become symbolic of Afro-Caribbean immigration into the UK. As ever, there’s loads going on around town to mark the anniversary, rounded up here.

🔔 MUSIC IN CHURCHES: It's the second (and final) week of this year's Summer Music in City Churches, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: live music in historic churches around the City of London. Highlights include string quartets by Haydn and Mendelssohn performed at St James Garlickhythe (23 June) and a celebration of the life and loves of Claude Debussy at St Giles Cripplegate (24 June).

🏳️‍🌈 PRIDE AT STRAWBERRY HILL: Head to Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham on 25 June for an LGBTQ+ house tour to celebrate Pride. Learn about the correspondence between Strawberry Hill creator Horace Walpole and his network of friends and acquaintances, to get an insight into his sexuality. Ticket includes a drink before the tour begins.

4 Updates, 2 Things you Should do, and a Pub Date

This newsletter is coming up to its second birthday. We’ve published hundreds of stories over those two years, from a Victorian entertainer who made a cameo on a Beatles album to a map of every location mentioned in every Dickens novel. Usually, we publish and move on to the next story. But I think, just occasionally, it’s worth taking stock and giving a few updates on previous features. To that end, here are four updates, two things you should do, and (scroll to the end) a pub date.

Update: The First Traffic Island

Last week, we looked at the legend of London’s first traffic island, reputed to be the refuge at the top of St James’s Street. The trivia books tell us that this was the idea of a Colonel Pierpoint, who was subsequently struck by a cab and killed while admiring his handiwork.

It sounded too ironic to be true, so I got stuck into the archives. I discovered that the island was indeed initiated and paid for by the Hon Philip Pierrepont (though not a Colonel). I also found that he’d died the same year the island was unveiled, but I couldn’t establish the cause of death.

I’d like to thank two readers who took the trouble to acquire the information from the death certificate (I’m living in the past, and assumed you still had to send off by mail for a death certificate, but apparently not).

John Westbrooke and Richard Ifft were both kind enough to send me the following record:

As you may be able to read, Philip Sydney Pierrepont died from ‘disease of the kidneys’, not an affliction that is associated with road-traffic accidents.

So, myth busted. The guy who inspired the first traffic island was NOT killed by a cab. Whether or not is *was* the first traffic island is open to debate.

Something you should do: History as Promenade Theatre

I’ve been on a few guided walks in my time. I have never been on one like Doin’ the Lambeth Walk (Oi!), conceived, written and performed by Minimum Labyrinth.

Historical entities have been sighted in the old village of Lambeth. Are they ghosts? Visions? Or intruders through a crack in time? Join your guides and explore the backwaters and byways that have slowly spread over the mysterious marshes of Lambeth.

I was told to make my way to Westminster Bridge and “Strange things will begin to occur immediately after the second toll of Big Ben has sounded.” They certainly did. What followed was a three-hour historical romp around Lambeth in some very strange company.

It’s ostensibly a guided tour but, really, the whole thing is done as one barmy but erudite theatrical production, with actors hidden among the public, and surprises lurking at every turn and tunnel. I can’t go into specifics. I don’t want to undermine the managed bewilderment. But you can expect to be entertained and educated. And puzzled, and pleased, and lightly pickled, if you make full use of the two pub stops en route.

Minimum Labyrinth always put on a good show. They’re masters of threading historical tales through an eldritch loom. And I promise that you’ll visit locations that even most Lambeth residents won’t know about. I urge you to give it a go, with various summer dates available here.

Update: John Rocque and other maps

Regular readers will know about my ongoing mission to colour in the 1746 John Rocque map of London. If it’s given you a taste for old maps, then you should head along to Daniel Crouch Rare Books in Bury Street, Mayfair. The place is always filled with cartographic rarities, but it currently has a small exhibition of 18th-century garden and estate maps of London. Among the collection are a handful by John Rocque himself, including Kensington Gardens (above), and this exquisite chart of Wanstead, now in east London.

Update: Upminster barn

Image: Historic England

Back in January, I received an unexpected invitation to climb up to one of the largest thatched roofs in the country. Upminster Barn, near the border of Essex and Greater London, dates back to the 15th century, and is home to the Museum of Nostalgia. The barn is a “scheduled monument”, and thereby among the most important structures in England, but the roof and some of the timbers were deteriorating and needed urgent restoration.

That work has now been done, thanks to the expertise of Historic England and their contractors. Much of the funding came from National Highways, as part of their community support programme linked to the recently approved Lower Thames Crossing. The two organisations have now signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on other heritage projects in the future. I’ll try and organise a Time Machine outing to the barn, once it’s ready to receive visitors again.

Update: the contents of the Great Exhibition

I find the The Crystal Palace and Great Exhibition of 1851 endlessly fascinating. A little over a year ago, I wrote a newsletter that pulled together dozens of surviving exhibits from 1851, with details on where to see them (these include some surprises, like the clock above King’s Cross station).

I’m not alone in my interest. Keith Wood has built a virtual replica of the Crystal Palace, which can be explored via Steam. He’s also begun the task of populating it with exhibits in their original locations. As part of his research, Keith has also put together a list of surviving exhibits, which includes many not on my list. Have a browse here.

Something you should do: Visit the Blitz exhibition at London Archives

Image: Matt Brown

The Clerkenwell repository of books, maps and documents relating to the history of London is not content to rest upon its archives. It also puts on regular small, but perfectly formed exhibitions. The current offering is a look at wartime London, through old photographs, bomb-damage maps, fire-warden logs, and even watercolours of the rubble. Fascinating stuff. It’s free, and running until October 2025.

On a similar theme, St Paul’s Cathedral currently has an open air display of photographs and testimony from the men and women who kept watch over the building during the war. Clearly, they did a good job. Saving St Paul’s is free to visit, and can be found to the south of the cathedral, also until October 2025.

And some summer subscriber drinks

Finally, it’s high time we got together again for some drinks in an historic pub. To that end, who’d like to join me for a pint or three on Wednesday 6 August?

Not sure where yet… might be a good idea to push out of the centre a bit, so we can find somewhere with a beer garden. I’ll have a think.

This is a ‘thank-you’ gathering for paying subscribers and plus-ones. If you’re interested, drop me an email on matt@londonist.com so I can gauge numbers and work out whether I need to book space or not. 🍺🍺🍺

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave comments below, or email me any time on matt@londonist.com