Many years ago, I was an archaeologist. I spent one summer living in a tent in the middle of Northamptonshire, excavating a Roman palace. After many university digs and surveys, this was my first serious archaeological site. It was a huge excavation and was once a massive Roman farm estate, located right in the centre […]
Read More Water GodThe Metorpolitan Commission of Sewers, surveryors report, Soho, 1855. Having had a look at dirty on books and manuscripts in my previous article, I once worked on a book that was covered in grime. This time in a very different context. Could this be some archaeology I have discovered in the archives? One area of […]
Read More Another dirty bookAs soon as you walk into an archive store, you can smell the dust. 100,000s of books and documents dating back hundreds of years, all carry dust and dirt they picked up along the way. They are encrusted with it. As you open a book or the lid of an archive box, it hits you […]
Read More Dusty and Dirty BooksMany years ago, I found a box in the attic of my auntie’s house. She had just passed away and I was clearing the place. It was odd, as the whole of the attic was empty apart from this one box in the centre of it. The box was full of postcards, photographs, a piece […]
Read More Postcards, Woolwich Arsenal, 1917Kalendarium Hortense; OR THE Gard’ner’s Almanac, Directing what he is to do MONTHLY throughout The YEAR. AND what FRUITS and FLOWERS ARE IN PRIME. By John Evelyn. Esq; Fellow of the Royal Society Evelyn’s Kelendarium Hortense for May. It is very hot this weekend, so time to move your Orange trees from the Conservatory. […]
Read More The Gard’ners Almanac cont’d; Orange TreesThe Kaledarium Hortense is a classic gardening book by John Evelyn. It takes the gentleman gardener through the year, detailing what he is meant to do in the garden with fruit vegetables and flowers. Much of his advice is straight forward gardening knowledge and logic, and something you may well hear on TV, radio or […]
Read More The Gard’ner’s Almanac“On Saturday morning, an accident which has unfortunately terminated fatally, occurred to a man named Dobson,” starts a news article from the 1850s. “The deceased sat upon the stone while it was being raised, to prevent it shaking the scaffolding”. I read this out loud to an audience as part of a talk on the […]
Read More SHOCKING ACCIDENTThe meaning of historic places has very much changed in recent years. People have been using them in very different and personal ways, above and beyond the usual interest in architecture and historical events. I’ve seen this developing at an historic site I’ve been visiting for the past 15 years or so. It was an […]
Read More The AbbeyClaes Visscher’s panorama of London is one of the most famous images of the City for many reasons. We see the various landmarks across London, such as the churches, Leadenhall and the Exchange, all of them labelled. Architecturally the panorama is superb, with the buildings drawn in great quality, detail and precision. It shows us […]
Read More Visscher’s PeopleI don’t really believe in ghosts, or the supernatural, but I am fascinated by it. Rationally, I don’t believe in ghosts. Emotionally, I want to, or rather, want to be left with a feeling of mystery. I am caught between two worlds. Rational logic and emotional desire. I am not looking to explain, nor indulge […]
Read More There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio…