Amy Levy's lat C19th photo-#feminist (?) novel, The Romance of a Shop (1888/2021) offers a story of the struggle of #women to stay independent in Victorian #London. While perhaps this has a touch of Zola in its telling, the four sisters' #photography business, an interesting plot element, sadly gets subsumed into the more general social tale of courtship in the middle-classes. Its a breezy, short read but ultimatley disappoints a little @bookstodon
Happy Monday! We'll be sharing a weekly photograph of George Lansbury from the archives.
Here is George with his daughter Daisy Postage. As well as working as her father's secretary, Daisy was an activist and was involved in the suffragette movement. She famously dressed up as Sylvia Pankhurst to help the real Sylvia Pankhurst evade capture from the police.
Israel’s #hasbara has officially gone into overdrive, or possibly becoming more desperate. This simulation of a terrorist attack in #London (guess it has nothing to do with London seeing the biggest demonstrations in support of #Palestine) on #Xmas day is supposed to “make Brits feel what it’s like to be ‘in our shoes’ for a minute or two,” according to one of the producers.
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London.
Christmas Day.
Your home and dear ones.
What if it were you?
Once a week, I pull a lateral move and go for a walk without notice cancelling close-back headphones, and, when taken in in small doses, the sonic assault of the urban cacophony can be almost enjoyed for its complexity, like a pinball for mindfulness.
In #earlymodern London, 29 October (the day after the feast of Saints Simon and Jude) was the day of the Lord Mayor's Triumph.
Late as I walked through Cheapside, an early #17thCentury ballad from Ms Drexel 4257 describes the sights and sounds of the day.
Details include the Lord Mayor's procession through the streets of London, accompanied by civic dignitaries, liverymen, whifflers, and more; horses, wild men and noisy fireworks; and pageants with boy and girl actors.
From the Gamble Commonplace Book, Ms Drexel 4257
Richard de Winter: tenor
Robin Jeffrey: lute
Alison Kinder: bass viol
Tamsin Lewis: violin
Am #Welttierschutztag ein Hinweis auf #WerkstattGeschichte 56/2011 "#tiere", hg. v. @DocRoscher & André Krebber; Beiträge v. Bernhard Gißibl über Mensch-Tier-Beziehungen im kolonialen Ostafrika, Brett Mizelle zu "Grizzly" Adams und die Genese des Bildes vom Grizzly Bären im 19. Jh. sowie v. Anna-Katharina Wöbse & M. Roscher zu #Zoo-Tieren in #Berlin & #London im #2WW
> A project mapping medieval England's known murder cases has now added Oxford and York to its street plan of London's 14th century slayings, and found that Oxford's student population was by far the most lethally violent of all social or professional groups in any of the three cities.
Repeated throughout the book, the assertion 'Since the one thing that can solve our problems in dancing' shapes Caleb Azumah Nelson's shortish Anglo-Ghanian novel Small Worlds (2023). Its a wryly told story of love, migration, frustrated hopes & redemption all mainly set in 1980s/90s South #London. Evoking a similar feeling to Steve McQueen's Small Axe/Silly Games, the novel is both insightful & a very satisfying piece of modern fiction. @bookstodon
In medieval London, everyone from kings to peasants ate eels. But by the 19th C eels had largely become a street food.
In 1851, London imported 9.8 million live eels per year (mostly from Holland). 70% went to street vendors selling hot buttered eels in poorer parts of the city. #eels#medieval#history#london
I wrote this back in 2021. Know what? It’s still really good. So, here you go again: how London’s brewers are reviving the city’s beer style that was once all but lost.
1 in 10 flights taking off from UK are private jets (www.thetimes.co.uk)
archive.is/qN5g3