Over the summer I read an amazing book by Judith Flanders, called The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ London.
This has always been one of my favorite historical periods, maybe because so many of the books I read as… Read More
Up until the late 1800s, milk vendors in London’s St. James Park brought their cows to supply milk on demand to nursemaids and children out for their daily walk.
Flanders, Inside The Victorian Home, 391… Read More
I’m at a Starbucks right now, sipping my double-tall-extra-hot-nonfat-latte, and thinking about the history of coffee. It arrived in Europe during the seventeenth century.
What did people drink before then? Like in Shakespeare’s day? Not water, if they could help… Read More
I’m sure most families have standard phrases they use with one another, inside jokes that others might not necessarily get. One of my family’s is from the 1968 musical version of Oliver Twist. There’s a scene, in Fagin’s lair, where… Read More
In 19th-century London, water companies made no effort to filter the drinking water pumped in from the Thames. On several occasions, live eels came wriggling out of people’s faucets.
source: Liza Picard, Victorian London: The Life of a City… Read More
My past two blog posts have been about smoky cities in the U.S. Can you tell I’m obsessed? Today’s post will be about London fogs.
London used to be famous for its fogs. “Pea soupers,” they were affectionately called. Growing… Read More