Perched high up above the Thames in downtown London every month this past year a different writer has spent four days living in a replica of the Roi des Belges, the boat Marlow travels up the Congo in Joseph Conrad's
The Heart of Darkness. Each author would write a short text during their stay "which explores London, rivers, the work of Joseph Conrad, or even all three." They would be visited on the last day by a journalist from The Guardian who recorded them reading their essay, poem or short story. Among the poets, historians and novelists were Adonis, Jeanette Winterson, Teju Cole, Michael Ondaatje and Kamila Shamsie. These recordings, each prefaced by a short interview, are all available on the Guardian website, to stream or download. Below the cut there is a link to each recording, with a short description.
[more inside]
posted by Kattullus
on Dec 31, 2012 -
7 comments
As you turn eyes to London to watch this year's Olympics, you might be surprised to find out that the
City of London has a population of about 11,000 and is only one square mile.
[more inside]
posted by eye of newt
on Jul 26, 2012 -
65 comments
"I'd like my work to be found in a skip, in Southgate or somewhere, in forty years' time". Nick Papadimitriou
walks and
looks and
writes and
thinks, as he ventures around London and its fringes. He eschews the term 'psychogeography', preferring the notion of 'deep topography' to describe what he does.
The London Perambulator, a short documentary about his work, was
released in 2009 and features Will Self, Iain Sinclair, and Russell Brand talking about his impact on their work. His first book,
Scarp, will be released by Sceptre this summer.
posted by hydatius
on May 1, 2012 -
7 comments
London Lives 12 London archives – digitised, marked up and tagged – to "create a comprehensive electronic edition of primary sources on criminal justice and the provision of poor relief and medical care in eighteenth-century London".
The
Lives page is a good place to start browsing.
[related]
posted by unliteral
on Jun 8, 2010 -
8 comments
Kamal Chunchie charts the history of the black and Asian community in Canning Town, east London, in the 1920s and 1930s. It tells the story of the Coloured Men's Institute and its founder, Kamal Chunchie, a man who can rightly be called east London's first black and Asian community leader. One of the many excellent East London
history projects at Hidden Histories.
posted by Abiezer
on Jan 16, 2009 -
2 comments
Forty years ago, Swinging London was yet to swing. Everything was in black and white and, in class-bound Britain, fashion photographers were trades-men – polite, smart, seen but not heard. A new breed of snappers changed all that – Terry O’Neill, Brian Duffy, David Bailey and Terence Donovan. Bailey and Donovan started their careers in the West End studio of the doyen of fashion photographers – John French. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye
on Sep 1, 2008 -
11 comments
Collage is an online image database from the collections of the City of London Libraries and the Guildhall Art Gallery. Images cover the last five centuries. You can search by key word or browse by theme, artist/engraver, person or place.
[more inside]
posted by paduasoy
on Dec 22, 2007 -
7 comments
Tom Vague's History Walk (PDF downloads) of the Notting Hill district is an evocative roll call of books, films, personalities, restaurants, anecdotes and a timeline strung together to cover the period 1950 to 2005.
[whet your appetite inside]
posted by tellurian
on Sep 30, 2006 -
9 comments
London's 'flushers': "If you really thought about where you were going and what you were doing you'd either be shit scared or you wouldn't go there. We're shit shovellers. Some of the jobs I do a high percentage of the country would turn around and say: 'Poke that up yer arse mate as far as you can put it.'" The history of
London's sewers. The craptacular
sewerhistory.org. More entries in the
Night Haunts series.
posted by OmieWise
on Jul 13, 2006 -
14 comments
Sir John Soane (1753-1837) was responsible for the design of quite a few of
London’s public buildings (and to some extent, its
phonebooths). His home, now a
museum, is filled to the brim with architectural relics, sculptures, paintings, drawings, stained glass, and assorted curiosities. Almost unchanged since his death, it also contains the
gravesite of his wife’s beloved dog Fanny, a mummified rat, an
Egyptian sarcophagus, and an imaginary monk named Padre Giovanni. Best of all, on the first Tuesday of every month the museum has a candlelight tour which enhances the
spooky splendor of the rooms.
posted by annaramma
on Dec 15, 2005 -
18 comments
The story of "St. James Infirmary." You thought it was a piece of old New Orleans? Turns out St. James Hospital was in London (and treated lepers), and the song goes back at least to the 18th century (though it used to be sung to the tune of "Streets of Laredo"). Rob Walker's Letter From New Orleans #13 describes the results of his obsessive researches. If you have more info, he wants to hear from you! (Via
Wordorigins, a site any word lover should know.)
posted by languagehat
on Jun 11, 2004 -
9 comments
