Author Archives: John Pullen

Believe it or not there is quite a competition as to which is the narrowest house in London. Many years ago, in one of my “Secret London History” series of books, I wrote about such a property near Marble Arch just across the road from Hyde Park. It forms part of a convent and likeContinue reading “A House for Supermodels!”

Over 1,000 years ago, there were two main parts to London and they the City of London and Westminster. This separation could be illustrated by the fact that the original site where St Paul’s Cathedral is now, was the first great religious building and it was called East Minster. So, when the large abbey toContinue reading “The Medieval Side of London”

All countries and cities go through periods of change. They can be positive such as when improvements are made to the inner workings of the city. But they can also be negative with disasters and the like plaguing a place. For London, it could be said that the seventeenth century had a bit of everythingContinue reading “London’s Century of Turbulence”

Picture the scene. It is Hyde Park in central London. The year is 1792 and the cold of the early morning is leaving a low blanket of mist across the grassland. Two horse-drawn coaches appear and make their way towards each other. They stop and a coachman steps down from each and opens the doorContinue reading “Petticoats at Dawn”

It could be a story or a movie straight out of the Hammer House of Horror series of films. You go down into the Underground in London to catch a Tube train and unbeknown to you, you have been chosen as its next victim, then be prepared to have this creature drink your blood. ThisContinue reading “It Lurks in the Underground Tube Network and Drinks Blood”

Over recent years, the Windrush has come up in the news on a regular basis. It has normally been commenting on the plight of many of the people who travelled on it to Britain in the late 1940s. From this we can guess, unless you already know, that the Windrush was a ship called theContinue reading “The Windrush of Change”

London still has a lot of ancient buildings and monuments which have survived the modernisation of the city. By ancient I mean more than a few hundred years old. However, there are a number of such landmarks that are indeed much older. These include Westminster Abbey, part of the Palace of Westminster and of course,Continue reading “The Old Bridge is Young”

We are all familiar with cash machines that with the right card and a pin code, you can get money out of the machine pretty much all over the world. And although online banking and swiping your card to purchase goods and services becoming more popular, there are many who still find these machines aContinue reading “The First Hole-in-the-Wall Cash Machine”

The title may sound a little trite or even disrespectful, but I can assure you that after some teething problems, the Millennium Dome, now renamed as the O2, is a modern landmark of east London. As the name suggests, it was created as a hub in order to celebrate the new millennium. Besides the bigContinue reading “A Tent by any other Name”

There are many stories that we might read in our local newspapers that tell us that somebody has built an extension or a wall without the correct council planning permission. In the worst circumstances the householder might be asked to take down the unplanned structure. There have even been cases where a whole house hasContinue reading “Your Rent is One Rose”