St Mary’s Hospital, London St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London dates back to 1845. As is the way of old hospitals, it has been much altered and changed but the original building, now known as the Cambridge Wing, still exists with its main entrance on Norfolk Mews. It is a smaller entrance, where Norfolk Mews…
Myddelton Passage, London Myddelton Passage is an ordinary, quiet residential street in Islington behind the Sadlers Wells Theatre. However, back in the 19th century it wasn’t a residential street but was a narrow alleyway a stone’s throw away from a pub, a theatre and a music hall. It shows up in court reports of the…
August Miscellany Upcoming Events On 19 September I'll be giving an online talk on Tudor Houses. This site will feature prominently – King's House at the Tower of London. Built c 1538-40, it is one of the first houses to have attics lit by dormer windows. Booking details are here:https://t.co/mKdWgoTlP0 pic.twitter.com/T7MHo0WhaM — James Wright (@jpwarchaeology)…
June Miscellany Upcoming Events London Graffiti Talk by Wayne Perkins Items of Interest Mysterious graffiti in Malmesbury Carlisle Castle Graffiti From Twitter Elaborate compass drawn cross on the south side of the tower arch. St Leonards church, Flamstead. One of hundreds of fantastic early inscriptions in the church. pic.twitter.com/sUd2cSsDMi — Medieval Graffiti (@MedievalG) June 2,…
Westminster Hall, London Westminster Hall is one of the few parts of the medieval Palace of Westminster to survive. The rest has succumbed to time, rebuilding or the great fire of 1834. The current Houses of Parliament are the Victorian replacements built between 1835 and 1870. Westminster Hall itself dates back to 1097 but the…
Eltham Palace, London Eltham Palace in south east London has had a long history. It was given by the Bishop of Durham to Edward II in 1305 and used a royal residence from then until the 16th century. Out of favour as residence from then on it fell into disrepair until only the great hall and…
National Covid Memorial Wall, London In March 2021, the grass-roots campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, aided by Led by Donkeys, started painting pink and red hearts on the wall of the Albert Embankment opposite the Houses of Parliament by Westminster Bridge. This was the start of the National Covid Memorial Wall and the aim was to have…
All Saints, Chingford, London All Saints Church in Chingford, is usually known as the ‘Old Church’. While there is evidence that a church was on this site since Norman times, the current church mostly dates back to the 13th century. The chancel and tower are 15th century, while the south porch belongs to the 16th…
April Miscellany Upcoming Events Making Your Mark 2020 graffiti symposium is announced with a call for papers Brian Hoggard has an online talk on Magical House Protection on 15th May at 6pm. Opportunities for graffiti survey at Flamstead church, Hertfordshire Items of Interest 100 year old drawings found on school blackboard Sandstone Cave near Guildford…
February Miscellany Upcoming Events Wayne Perkins talk at Treadwells Bookshop, London Wayne Perkins guided graffiti tour of St Bartholomew the Great Church, London (Editor’s note (Anthea, this time): there are only a tiny number of City of London churches with any graffiti that survived the Great Fire, Christopher Wren, the Georgians, the Victorians and the…
December Miscellany Pictures This month’s pictures are from the Roman Britain and Europe galleries in the British Museum. Future Events Hidden Charms 3 Conference Items of Interest Cherokee ritual on the wall of a cave Blog post on graffiti at the Tower of London in Spitalfields Life
April Miscellany Pictures Under the heading of ‘Not Quite Medieval’ come these coin holes from the old Dominion Cinema on the corner of Buxton Road and Mission Grove in Walthamstow, London. The coin holes show where people queueing for the cinema have ground coins into the brickwork, making these distinctive round holes. Items of Interest…
All Saints, Kingston, London All Saints church in Kingston on Thames sits to the north of the market place as it has done since the 12th century. The church has been updated and renovated throughout the centuries, with the subsequent loss of a lot of its graffiti. There is some still hanging on, though, despite…
Hampton Court Palace, London (2/2) The previous post on Hampton Court dealt with graffiti in the Tudor areas of the palace. The 17th century areas of the building have their own graffiti too. Most of the graffiti is concentrated in two areas – The Kings Staircase entrance from the Clock Court and the East Front…
Hampton Court Palace, London (1/2) I went to Hampton Court Palace as a tourist, wanting to keep an eye out for graffiti but not having planned this visit as a graffiti-hunting trip. I was blown away by how much graffiti there is in the place from drawings and protective marks in the Tudor kitchens to…
Sutton House, Hackney, London Sutton House is a Tudor house in the middle of Hackney. It was built in 1535 by Sir Ralph Sadler, a privy councillor at the court of Henry VIII. It has been a family house, a school, a centre for WW2 fire wardens, the offices of a trades union and a…
The Temple Church, London It can be hard being a graffiti hunter in London. There have been three waves of destruction visited upon the medieval buildings of the City of London. There was the Great Fire of 1666, which destroyed so much of the old structure of the city. Then there were the Georgians and…
St Augustine’s Tower, Hackney, London St Augustine’s Tower is a strange remnant of 16th Century Hackney still standing in the midst of a bustling shopping district, a couple of minutes away from Hackney Central Overground station. It has a complex history. It was built in the early 1500s as part of a…