London: A Very Local History

The final episode of our first season - Waterloo! Waterloo! F.K.A. Lambeth Marsh. Named after a famous battle - but it was given to the bridge before the train station. From then on it’s a very railways sort of story, UNTIL the post war redevelopment of the Southbank. An alternative theatre land, the salacious Roupells, THAT lonely house and the birth of the circus (acrobats and that - not the one you’re listening to).

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T.I.T. and a Saxon place name - is it taken from the river or the hills though? In the rest of the episode we track an increasingly familiar residential and transport boom, from retail wonderland to uncertain prosperity. And what of the great RYE - with a history taking in wild beast shows, whale bone arches and PoW camps. We’ll also wander down Rye lane and enjoy the murals of Peckham, PLUS meet our first significant lost river!

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What's in the name..?* There’s a few theories, but one part they all agree on is that there was a well. Better health, an historic knees up, asylums to workhouses (workhouses to asylums?), an embarrassment of parks, notable residents from the first black woman to have a BBC radio show to Florence and her machine. Top boozers, TOP scran, and uncovering the Earl’s Sluice (our lost waterway for this segment)

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*we use the term 'cripple' in this episode in its historic context

In part three of our intro to London's history we ask what happened post FIRE, and how did it define the face of London as we know it? Not just surviving, but thriving - bridges, banking and a heavy dose of imperialism makes Britain, with London at its centre, one of the preeminent civilisations in human history. One can only speculate on what the pace of change in this period felt like on a human level, but we can do the locomotive, and bask in the glory of the Victorian sewer system.
Visual notes available on Instagram @averylocalhistory

We begin part two of our history of London on a date you may know - yes, it’s 1066 - but what did the Norman conquest mean for the city? The iconic Domesday book gets done, giving us some of the first written records of people and places. There’s also plague, the London Stone (you’ll have to look it up), the establishment of the guild system, the peasants are revolting AND a couple of notable episodes to do with gunpowder and a REALLY big fire.
Visual notes available on Instagram @averylocalhistory