The Curse of Cleopatra's Needle
The ancient obelisk now called Cleopatra's Needle was made in Egypt long before Cleopatra and presented to Britain in the nineteenth century. Its transport inside a purpose-built…
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2034 articlesMudlarks Reading the Thames
Mudlarks were once impoverished people searching the low-tide shore for coal, metal and anything saleable; today the name is used by licensed foreshore searchers and researchers.…
Captain Kidd's Last Tide
Scottish mariner William Kidd received a royal commission to suppress piracy, but after taking the Quedagh Merchant he was accused of piracy and murder himself. Brought to London,…
Pirates and Smugglers at the Prospect of Whitby
The Prospect of Whitby traces its origins to a sixteenth-century tavern on the busy Wapping waterfront, serving sailors, dock workers and people connected with smuggling. Its name…
The Thames Torso Murders
Between 1887 and 1889 parts of several women's bodies were found in the Thames and across London, including remains discovered during construction of the new police headquarters…
The Princess Alice Disaster
On 3 September 1878 the passenger steamer Princess Alice collided with the collier Bywell Castle near Gallions Reach and sank rapidly. More than six hundred people died, many…
When the Thames Froze: The Frost Fairs
During exceptionally cold winters from the seventeenth to early nineteenth centuries, the central Thames froze strongly enough to support frost fairs. Stalls sold food, printers…
Dead Man's Hole Beneath Tower Bridge
“Dead Man's Hole” names a small space near Tower Bridge's north abutment associated with bodies recovered from the Thames. River police and coroners genuinely dealt with many…
London Stone: Heart of the City or Ordinary Masonry?
London Stone stood for centuries on Cannon Street and appears as a familiar landmark in medieval records. Its origin remains unknown: theories identify a Roman milestone, part of…
The Temple of Mithras Beneath Bloomberg
The Temple of Mithras was discovered in 1954 during post-war clearance beside the Walbrook, attracting enormous public attention. The Roman mithraeum was built around the third…
The Amphitheatre Beneath Guildhall
Londinium's Roman amphitheatre was discovered beneath Guildhall in 1988 during preparations for a new art gallery. A timber structure appeared in the second century and was later…
The Roman Bathhouse Beneath Billingsgate
Beneath an office building on Lower Thames Street survive parts of a Roman house and bath complex that developed between the second and fourth centuries near the ancient…
