Hidden places, forgotten figures, strange traditions, medieval punishments — London as you've never seen it.
Unusual walks, architectural curiosities, overlooked buildings, centuries-old details.
London and English history, surprising etymologies, medieval traditions, forgotten figures — articles that shed light on what you'll discover during our tours.
London is full of place names that bear no relation to how they're spelled. From Holborn ("O-bun") to Leicester ("Less-ter"), the independent Cockney guide to London pronunciation.
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The word "blackball" comes from the elite London clubs of the 18th century — White's, Brook's, Boodle's — where membership was decided by a vote using black or white balls.
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Joseph Grimaldi, the most famous clown in the world, is buried in a park in Islington. A Dickensian life between Sadler's Wells Theatre and a fame that concealed a terrifying childhood.
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Near the Tower of London, a pub bears this grim name. "Hanged, dragged and cut into quarters" — the fate reserved for traitors to the Crown, described by Samuel Pepys in 1660.
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Each summer, a single rose is presented to the Lord Mayor of the City — a tradition dating back to 1381. The reason? A fine for building a bridge without permission.
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Where do the names Albion, Britain and Cornwall actually come from? From a mythological patchwork invented in the Middle Ages to give English kings a suitably ancient legitimacy.
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Medieval English effigies often show the deceased with crossed legs — a detail virtually unknown elsewhere. England's funerary sculpture and its extraordinary surviving treasures.
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In the 17th century, between Fleet Street and the Thames, there existed a sanctuary called Alsatia — a no-go zone where criminals and debtors found refuge, beyond the reach of justice.
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437 seats for 659 MPs, two sword-lengths between the benches — the House of Commons is a living museum of Britain's most astonishing traditions.
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French visitors are often surprised by how many English words they recognise. The reason? Since 1066 and the Norman Conquest, more than a third of the English vocabulary is of French origin.
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Since 1215 — the year of Magna Carta — the newly elected Lord Mayor of the City has processed each year to Westminster to swear allegiance to the Crown. Over 800 years of unbroken continuity.
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Long before Madame Tussaud, there was Mrs Salmon and her waxwork cabinet on Fleet Street — Charles I on the scaffold, Boudicca, and a countess said to have given birth to 365 children at once.
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