The rude and crude street names providing a link with the past

What is in a street name? Residents in Primrose Hill have won an important victory blocking Dumpton Place being given a more "upmarketket" name. Developers building luxury flats had wanted to change it to Jasmin Mews, a name they believed was amenable to buyers - and something which Camden council intially seemed happy to go along with.

If it was strictly down to commercial decisions , we would have lost many historic street names across Britain in response to changing fashions. So victories, like the one in Dumpton Place where Camden council gave in to public pressure this week, are important for preserving our heritage. 

Street names provide useful clues to the past. As I strolled round the City of London at the weekend for example I encountered the likes of Bread Street, Fish Street and Pudding Lane. You don't need to think very hard to get a sense of the trades that used to be based in these places. Change the street names and you immediately lose that Medieval connection.

For the residents of Dumpton Place their street name dates back to 1872 when the road was the site of a hostel for railway workers and a coal dump for steam trains. How times have changed of course for the area as rich and famous of the "Primose Hill set" moved in over the course of the Nineties, making it one of the most expensive suburbs in London.

The Londonist produced a guide to some of the rudest street names in the capital a few years ago - which includes some named after gentlemen's bits, such as Laycock Street in Islington and Cock Lane in the City. Ladies bits also feature, with Clitterhouse Road in Barnet making the list. Elsewhere, in the country you have Penis Road and Cockburn Street.

Residents in Butt Hole Road in South Yorkshire were so fed up of being the subject of endless jokes that they fought to get it changed (they succeeded, it's now Archers Way - refering to a nearing medieval castle). Youths used bare their backsides for photographs while many delivery firms simply refused to believe it existed.

But interestingly an online petition was started to try to get it changed back to its original name of Butt Hole Road, named after a communal water butt that was originally in the area. I would sign this petition - after all, the street name will have been around much longer than the residents. Surely, they shouldn't have moved into the street if they didn't like its names.

In an age where developers of new housing estates often name streets after themselves or other commercial organisations, to the extent that they are meaningless and have no connections with the area, it is fitting that some people are fighting to preserve history. 

Stag parties - a history

The practical jokes are planned and the rules are set for harsh pub drinking games. If you haven’t guessed it already I am indeed getting ready for a fun-filled array of night-time and day-time activities at a friend’s stag weekend.

Preparing a bachelor for married life through a night orweekend of humiliation in the company of male friends is now a multi-million pound industry. Indeed, many UK towns and cities like Blackpool, Newcastle, Bournemouth and Brighton (said to be the most popular in the UK) - have become known as prime stag party destinations. Groups also head to destinations in Europe such as Krakow, Prague and Barcelona.

Where, though, does the tradition of stag parities actually originate from?

Evidence for these early celebrations is unfortunately limited, but like many wedding traditions it seems to stretch back thousands of years. In Sparta, in 5^th century BC, military comrades would toast one another on the eve of a friend’s wedding. There was plenty of feasting and drinking. The groom would say goodbye to the carefree days of bachelorhood and swear continued allegiance to his comrades.

And, according to a blog 'the stag night was held to raise money for the married couple –coincidentally, so that the groom would have means to drink with his friends after his wife takes charge of the finances.'

There is clear evidence for stag parties during the reign of King Henry VIII where groups of men would be invited to lavish banquets. Give his eight marriages, Henry’s friends must have got quite used to the format.

As for the term ‘stag’, this is said to refer to a pre-Christian horned figure of worship that is a symbol of masculinity and of independence.

Over the years, these parties on the eves of weddings have turned extremely commercial. Last year a survey by Teletext Holidays estimated that £300m is being spent annually by Brits. What was 10 years ago simply a question of an evening of drinking down the local pub with friends (the biggest cost being the hire of a stripper) has now developed into mini-holidays with everything from go-karting to paint ball included in packed schedules. 5% of stag dos were found in the survey to last a whole week.

And, thanks to the rise of budget airlines like Ryanair and Easyjet over the last decade, more stag weekends are now taking place abroad. The Foreign Office estimated that 1m Brits headed overseas for this reason.

But stag parties abroad don’t always pass smoothly, with the Foreign Office estimating that about a quarter of these trips running into trouble. Indeed, the Czech tourist board has estimated 20% of all weekend crimein Prague is caused by British men on stag weekends. There was outrage, for example, a few years ago when a 34-year-old was caught urinating on a reveredmonument in the Latvian capital Riga and was given a custodial sentence.

Some places are saying enough is enough. Dublin started the ball rolling when some 34 pubs and hotels banned stag and hen parties in 1998.The move followed a report which revealed that these visitors were putting offtourist business, and costing the city £57m each year. Other destinations, like Amsterdam have also attempted to crack down on stag parties, but in reality it is very difficult to launch outright bans.

Yet stag parties shouldn’t always be seen by outsiders in a negative light. While some do descend into trouble, at the end of the day, they should be seen as celebrations of a boy becoming a man. Most groups won’t set out to cause trouble and disturb other visitors on holiday, they simply want to have fun. Fun and is all I hope for on this upcoming trip.

The trading company that changed London and the world

London is a city that was built on overseas trade. Right from the establishment of Londinium by the Romans in 43AD, merchants came from far and wide to sell their wares. Later on, Medieval London prospered on the back of trade with the continent, with wine being imported and cloth exported amongst other goods.

But the real money was made when London merchants looked further afield from the 1600s to seek out the riches of the East, with the English trading in the likes of cotton, silk, tea and opium. Right at the heart of this trade was the East India Company. From chartering ships in the 1600s to bring back the goods demanded by consumers it grew to an organisation so powerful that it ruled much of India.

But what of its London headquarters and its influence on the capital? That's what I wanted to know as I joined City guide Tim Kidd for a talk and walk on the East India Company, part of Celebrate the City events this weekend.

It was, as Tim described it, like the NHS of its day. At its peak everyone living in London would have known someone who worked or had dealings with the Company, and employed a total of a third of the British workforce. That brought it enormous power - kings and queens (and Cromwell) were so dependent of the taxes and loans it provided to them that they were reluctant to take away the monopoly it enjoyed.

As part of the walk this weekend we visited the East India Arms in Fenchurch Sreets. The pub stands alone today but it was once connected to a vast array of warehouses housing goods imported by the East India Company.

The Company had started in 1600 when Queen Elizabeth I granted it a Charter allowing for a monopoly on trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. This was of course renewed many times over. London based investors bought shares in the profits of specific voyages which were at first focused on spices. By the third voyage, the return was in the region of 300%.

Within about 40 years, the set up of the Company had changed - investors bought shares in the organisation as a whole, rather than just single voyages. It followed a model that was already proving successful for the Dutch. But competition with Holland meant it moved from focusing on spices in what is now Indonesia to tea and other items from the Indian subcontinent.

Shares were traded in Jonathan's coffeehouse in Change Alley in the City, the birth place of the London Stock Exchange, now a private members club. And the East India Company was the one of the first major institutions that made this institution an initial success.

All around the City the company made its mark. Deals were signed in coffee shops and taverns for chartering ships and the like. We saw on the walk where Lloyd's of London, the ship insurance underwriters, started out - it's now a Sainsbury's store but then it was a coffeehouse run by Edward Lloyd.

It didn't initially require many staff to administer the Company. The first governor, Mr Smith had his house in Philpot Lane and was only supported by a small number of people to keep the records up to date.

But over time the workforce was greatly expanded. Thousands would have worked at East India Dock in Poplar, unloading goods by hand as they came in, alone. The headquarters, now the site of Lloyds of London, would have dominated the City.

In India they pretty much ran the country, with a private police force. So the East India Company had turned from being traders to rulers, leaving a lasting impact in frosty diplomatic relations with the rest of the world (the Chinese still remember the Opium Wars).

Such was the power that the Company held that when judges launched enquiries into their monopolistic powers, they would simply pay them off.

Eventually, after the Indian Mutiny of 1857 the British government nationalised the Company. It was the end of an era of an organisation, a major institution, which had had a remarkable impact on London, Britain and the rest of the world. It was one of the great institutions that paved the way for the British to rule large swathes of the world in the 19th century.

The East India Company's name does however live on. In 2010 an Indian businessman bought the rights to the name from the British government after an 135 year absence. He opened a luxury shop in Mayfair London selling goods inspired by the Indian subcontinent - including teas, coffee, chocolates and mustards.

Livery Companies - the ancient institutions making a modern impression

London's Livery Companies, which today boast a membership of over 26,000, have played a big part in this weekend's Celebrate the City festival. They've been selling their wares at a market outside Guildhall and many have also opened their doors to the public.

But what, in the free trade driven 21st century, is the role of livery companies today?

In Medieval times these guilds were a passport to trading in London. If you weren't a member of the relevant trade you couldn't set up in business within the City walls.

They were at the same time the trade unions and professional associations of their day, regulating everything from prices, quality standards and working conditions. When members grew old they supported them with pensions and they would help spouses if their husband died. So they could be seen as forebearers of the welfare state.

Yet in the days of free trade and where you don't largely need professional membership to set up in business, these medieval guilds are still having an important role in London life, most notably through supporting charities across the capital. It was estimated for example that the 108 Livery companies distribute about £41m to good causes in 2010. More than half of that was spent on education-related causes and almost one third on welfare/relief, according to the report. 20 Livery Companies provide accommodation for 855 houses for 1,014 elderly residents in the UK

Many do, as we shall see, still have an important role in regulating trades and maintaining standards. For example the Goldsmiths' Company continues to be responsible testing for the purity of gold and marking with its 'hallmark', the name coming from a requirement since 1478 for wares to be brought to its halls. Several hundred million articles of gold, silver and platinum are awarded hallmarks by the company each year. 

The Fishmongers continues to use the powers of inspection and seizure awarded in 1604  to ensure that quality is maintained on fish sold at Billingsgate Market. The Gunmakers' Company conducts tests so that guns sold in the United Kingdom and safe to use.

Livery Companies also  provide apprenticeships and work placements for trainees and students, with 214 such programmes set up in the City in 2011. The Saddlers' Company for example introduced the Modern Apprenticeship Scheme for saddlery. 

Think again though if you believe the Livery Companies are restricted to trades with ancient origins - there are for example the Water Conservators and Air Pilots & Air Navigators.

Members continue to meet for dinners at their lavish halls across the City. These buildings, the very assets that make guilds wealthy, have been rebuilt many times over following destruction by fire and bombings.

So today the halls continue to be a hive of activity through the working week. I have attended many a client presentation and drinks reception for example at these lovely buildings. The current Haberdashers Hall, near Smithfield Market, may be relatively new but it is built in a historic style, set around a charming courtyard.

Today I looked around Goldsmiths' Hall, a lavish Grade I Listed building built in 1835, the third built since 1339 on the site in Foster Lane. Unsurpisingly, gold features heavily on the ornate interiors, and chandeliers hang in the main meeting room.  It really would be a spectacular place for a function.

The Goldsmiths' Company currently has an amazing exhibition, Gold: Power and Allure, on (runs until 28th July), with 4500 years of gold treasures from across Britain on display. Cabinet after cabinet is filled with luxurious pieces on display, ranging from trophies produced for sporting events and pendants to bowls and coins.

Guildhall, an amazing building stretching back to the 1400s and home to the City of London Corporation, was also open today to the public today. Local government developed here and has been a blueprint for how other towns and cities around the UK were run. It is here that the different Livery companies come to elect a Lord Mayor for the following year. 

The main meeting hall (pictured below) is, I believe, as spectacular as Westminster Hall and boasts lovely high vaulted ceilings and a timber roof. While some of the modern extensions to the Medieval building are ghastly, the wings do hold some spectacular treasures and documents stretching back one thousand years. Today, I was also able to view Shakespeare's first folio and a property deed with his signature on it.

So much of the City of London is hidden away and closed to the public. But keep an eye out on their websites for when they are open. Through visiting the places likes the halls of the Livery Companies and the Guildhall, you will be greatly rewarded with a memorable journey back into the past. London is a city that is always changing, somethings remain re-freshingly remain constant.  

The Guidhall's great hall

Celebrate the City? - we should be doing this every day

Usually deserted at the weekend, the City of London is alive today with activity. Stalls fill Guildhall yard and Cheapside. Livery companies have opened their doors so you can see their wonderful meeting halls, many of which are listed. And with impromptu concerts springing up both inside and outside churches, the City really is looking its best.

The hive of events, which also include talks and walks, are all part of Celebrate the City. Organised by the City of London Corporation and the Bishop of London, the festival showcases 2,000 years of remarkable history. But it also acknowledges that the City, that is the square mile of wealth originally laid out by the Romans, is a great place to hang out in 2012.

Yet while the crowds are flocking in this weekend for the packed programme, unfortunately during the normal course of events the streets are dead after 8pm on a week day. And, because only 11,000 people actually live here (over 300,000 work in the City during in the week), it usually seems like a virtual ghost town at the weekend.

In Medieval times the population could have been as high as 40,000. No one would claim that life was all rosy back then but it still must have been a fascinating and vibrant city to live, work and play in. People lived above their shops, practiced their trades and then went to the taverns in the evening.

It is a real shame that today the City is only seen as a working district. Here you have the best pubs, fine churches and intriguing alleyways. History is quite literally hidden around corners.

There should be a plan to get people back into living in the City. We owe it to our ancestors, the ones that laid out the streets and made it the best capital in the world, to make it vibrant again.

Celebrate the City? We should be enjoying it all day, every day. But in the meantime enjoy the fantastic events planned for tomorrow. Just head for the City and join in the fun.

Curtains for historic theatres but legacy of great buildings lives on

Once there was a grand theatre in every London borough. From east to west people across the capital would flock to playhouses for a night of variety or drama.

But as tastes changes sadly many of these lovely old buildings, some stretching back to the turn of the 20th century, became redundant and faced demolition. Property developers out to make a bob or two probably had their eye on building towering blocks of flats in their place.

Yet some how many of these fine structures survived the bulldozer and are pulling in full houses night after night. Brixton Academy, where I'm writing this from tonight, is a great case in point. As I await Jack White, of White Stripes fame, take to the stage all I can see is people. We are in the circle where every seat is taken. And the stalls are also buzzing as music fans dance to the sounds of support band First Aid Kit.

The music may be good but I can't help getting about the lovely building that we are in. Even though plays have been replaced by gigs the decor has probably changed little from when it was a theatre. We've got the wonderful ornate carvings around the balconies and an almost like temple structure above the stage.

There is also a wonderful display of indoor plants set outside what looks like someone's appartment. What a view that person would have.

And Brixton Academy is just one of a line in theatres in London that has been turned into gig venues - places like the HMV Forum in Kentish Town (where I saw the excellent Shins) and the Shepherds Bush Empire (where I saw Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) are all preserving a flavour of the 30s.And other theatres are now night clubs. I love Koko in Camden, a venue where if you book a VIP spot you can sit in a box.

Should we worried about theatre in London? Not at all, the West End is thriving and I've seen some great plays at smaller venues recently.It may be curtains for these great historic buildings as theatres, but thanks to the likes of Jack White their legacy lives on.

And talking of Jack, he's taking to the stage right now.....

It’s time to explore - the next stop is Caledonian Road

“The next station is Caledonian Road,” is one of the announcements I hear every day as I trundle into work on the Piccadilly Line. Then a few minutes later the doors open so a few people can get out and others get on. And in no time at all we are off again, with most passengers none the wiser as to what is going on above ground.

But as tonight’s episode of the excellent Secret History of Our Streets series (see my earlier blog for my take on episode one) revealed Caledonian Road, which stretches for a mile and a half north of King’s Cross station, really is a fascinating somewhere I want to spend more time exploring. Some would argue that today the area is grubby, unloved and generally a “shit hole”, but as will become clear this is not a view held by all. Many people there seem happy, like those who enjoy sing alongs with Elvis tribute acts at the Prince of Wales pub.  

Right from when it was established in the first decades of the 1800s Caledonian Road has largely been lived on by the working people. It’s ironic because the neighbouring Thornhill Estate, built speculatively a little earlier by the wealthy George Thornhill, was, and is today, very upmarket with the highlight being the lovely Thornhill Square. For Caledonian Road by contrast, tonight’s BBC programme used the late Victorian social explorer Charles Booth’s poverty map to show how 125 years ago it really was a depressing, tatty and generally an “undesirable address”.

When the King’s Cross railway station was opened, cheap housing sprung up for railway workers and the area became rundown. Prostitutes took advantage of the inflow of passengers and operated in large numbers on street corners. The area also gained a reputation for the fencing of stolen goods. And then then opening of a cattle market meant the streets were clogged up with smelly animals as they were moved from King’s Cross to the slaughter house.

Over the years, by some accounts, the area deteriorated further still as waves of newcomers moved into bedsits. When in 1970 the police station was besieged by 100 black youths Islington council felt that enough was enough and that the solution was to knock down rows of perfectly decent terraced houses.

As was the case in other parts of London and indeed elsewhere in the UK the 1970s tower blocks to replace the properties did nothing to resolve the problems – if anything anti-social behaviour increased. Then, as if the area hadn’t suffered enough already, the recession in the 1980s hit the area hard with many shops boarded up.       

Yet what I took from the programme tonight is that in spite of its problems many members of the community have bonded together well to maintain Caledonian Road’s unique character. In contrast to the grime and crime, there were people who had grown up in the area interviewed on camera saying that you could leave your door open and not worry about people stealing valuables. And neighbours’ children happily played with each other, whatever their ethnic group.

Long-standing residents fought to make Caledonian Road and its surroundings a nicer place to live. They successfully campaigned for a tatty open air car park to be turned into a pretty communal garden. Then they famously fought off plans in the 1990s for properties to be pulled down so that the Channel Tunnel lines could be brought into King’s Cross. And later they beat off British Rail’s masterplan large parts of the area to be demolished in order to create a residential and commercial area.  

Could change now be coming to Caledonian Road though? As the commentary on tonight’s programme pointed out, has the road been saved but something indistinguishable from its original make-up been left in its place? Following the opening of the new King’s Cross station, the area is developing fast and new residential properties are being built, leading some to fear that the ‘rough around the edges’ character will alter. Of course, anything that improves the lives of people of people on the poverty line has got to be positive. Gentrification, where the workers are pushed out, is something quite different.

I think there needs to be a happy medium whereby the area is enhanced but the long-standing community is not left behind.   

“The next station is Caledonian Road.” Rather than letting the stop pass me by, I for one will be getting out to explore this fascinating area in more detail.

It’s got a Hull of a history – but why isn’t there a museum properly charting the city's story?

Working as a journalist in Hull it wasn’t hard find bad news. With devastating floods, murders and large scale job losses some could say that the city was tainted. Yet from a selfish point of view, all of this meant there was usually plenty of choice for us to find a powerful front page, even if it did nothing to bring cheer to the people of East Yorkshire.  

But returning four years on, I wanted to find out if there is a reason to smile optimistically about Hull today. Unfortunately within five minutes of arriving at Hull Paragon train station I knew this was going to be an uphill struggle; there seemed to be more empty shops than when I was last in the city and the majority of those that were trading could fit into the categories of pound stores, pay day loans and bookies.

What’s more, the copies of local paper the Hull Daily Mail I picked up featured gloomy headlines such as ‘Man failed for five years after attacking elderly woman with her walking stick’ and ‘equipment shortage putting obese patients at risk’. Clearly there were also some more positive stories, like one about a barking dog alerting sleeping family to blaze in their home, but overall bad news continues to be high up on the agenda in East Yorkshire.

So in a bid to get away from all the doom and gloom I decided to head for a whistle stop tour of one of Hull’s museums. In the past these have always impressed and this visit was no exception. The Hull and East Yorkshire Life Museum tells the captivating story of early settlement both in the region itself and further afield. If you were fascinated by Neil Oliver’s recent BBC series, a History of Ancient Britain, then this is the place for you to visit. The exhibitions also cover the arrival of the Romans (with particular reference to how life changed for the inhabitants following the crossing of the Humber in AD71), illustrated by some wonderful local floor mosaics and finds from regional settlements.

But then, after displays on early Medieval East Yorkshire, this captivating story comes to an abrupt halt. Just as Hull is arriving at its prime, its glory days, visitors are greeted by signs to the gift shop and exit. There are of course other, specialist museums in Hull, such as the excellent Streetlife museum (charting the Victorian transport revolution in the city), the Maritime Museum and Wilberforce House (covering slavery and its abolition), but there is nothing that brings the social narrative together for a popular audience. "Perhaps they ran out of money," said one of the museum attendants.

You might not think it today, but the people of Hull do have a lot to be proud of. Building on its early trade of the export of wool and imports of wine, the River Hull became a haven for shipping. And after being awarded royal charter by Edward I in 1299, the settlement was renamed King’s town upon Hull, or Kingston Upon Hull and rose in importance. The increase in trade after the discovery of the Americas ushered in very prosperous 16^th and 17^th centuries for the city. During the English Civil War, Charles I was barred from Hull, strategically important because of the large arsenal stored there, thus becoming a key part of the long-running conflict.

Right up until the First World War, when its prosperity peaked, Hull remained an important place. Many settlers from Northern Europe passed through the Port of Hull on their way to the New World. It must have been a really exciting time as over the years new docks were built and wave after wave of immigrants moved in to work in a variety of industries, including the whaling trade. By the Victorian era the city had of course expanded far beyond the medieval city walls.

Then during World War Two Hull had 95% of its houses damaged or destroyed, making it the most severely bombed British city or town apart from London. Much of the city centre was wiped out and 1,200 people died in the raids. Hull never really recovered and, worse still, in the decades that followed the Port of Hull on the Humber dwindled bringing numerous job losses.

    

It’s easy to focus on the gloomy recent history, but as I have recounted in the last few paragraphs Hull has seen some happy, more prosperous times. The city needs to step up to the plate and follow the example of the likes of London, Bristol and Liverpool which all have excellent museums properly charting their histories. There is in East Yorkshire a Hull of a great tale to tell.  

Sacrificing a river to make London the thriving metropolis it is today

With a host of exhibitions, TV programmes and special events on right now, the Thames is the talk of London. And as the sole reason as to why London is what it is and where it is today, it is only proper that this important river gets the just historical recognition that it deserves. It is quite simply the mother of the world’s greatest capital city.

But, sadly, the Thames is now a shadow of its former glory. In comparison to days gone by, it is relatively sedate and underused. Once used as a major trade route into the centre of the capital, the Thames now only really carries tourists. So while a prosperous London may have grown up over the years, it has all been at the expense of the river that made it successful. London’s first “super highway” stands as a bit of a dinosaur.       

Just over a week ago, the Thames formed the centre piece of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. In marked contrast to its normal course of use these days, tens of thousands braved the rain (or at least endured the BBC’s dreary coverage) to watch am impressive flotilla of ships accompany our monarch travelling in her royal barge as she marked 60 years on the throne. I have to confess I was out of the country for the Bank Holiday weekend, but I’ve now caught up on some of the TV highlights and I admit aspects did look pretty spectacular.

To those that witnessed those bustling Jubilee scenes this month, this form of river pageantry is nowadays a bit of novelty. But, as the excellent Royal River exhibition at the National Maritime Museum so clearly illustrates, there is a proud 500 years of history linking the royals and river Thames. Visiting the exhibition this afternoon, I discovered how the Thames has for a long time been used both a way of showing off to subjects, in a sense public theatre, but also as a way for kings and queens to reach their numerous palaces along the river.

Many a coronation, royal wedding and state funeral have taken place at venues along this magical river. Wars, fought in the name of kings and queens, were won thanks to the power of Navy fleets built at Royal dockyards such as Woolwich and Deptford. And royal yachts, moored along the Thames, allowed monarchs to travel around Europe in what could only be deemed luxurious floating palaces, with no expense speared in terms of lavish entertainment, dining and comfort.

And as someone who is very interested in the history of the City of London, I particularly enjoyed the displays at the Royal River exhibition on 400 years of the annual Lord’s Mayor river procession. From 1485 to 1856, the different guilds in their brightly decorated barges would form a flotilla accompanying the new Lord Mayor as he travelled to the Palace of Westminster for an inauguration ceremony led by the monarch.

There is a vivid painting from 1683 that shows Charles II watching the newly installed Mayor. And the exhibition features some of the colourful carvings from the barges of the different livery companies, such as one from the Fishmonger company from 1773. A parade still takes place every year when a Lord Mayor is elected but sadly it no longer involves a river procession.

In terms of trade, when the British Empire was in its prime in the 19^th century, the Thames was alive with ships carrying an array of goods to all four corners of the world. The busyness of the Thames is wonderfully captured at Royal River in a large scale panorama of the river from 1845. How different it must have been to the relative sedateness of the Thames today where its use is largely restricted to tourist boats.

I was also captivated at Royal River by amazing prints showing the scene in 1683 and 1684 when the Thames was frosted over with ice 28cm thick. Stalls were set up on the frosted river and people enjoyed games like skittles and bull bating. Souvenirs, including embossed mugs on show at the exhibition, were sold to commemorate this ‘Frost Fair’.   

The central role of the Thames in the development of London was wonderfully captured in Britain’s Lost Routes with Griff Rhys Jones. The presenter helped crew the first barge laden with straw and hay to travel down for the Thames for over 70 years. Before the advent of motor cars and buses, this fuel laboriously brought from the east of England was essential in keeping the horses that powered carts lining the city’s streets adequately fed. On the return journey, the barges carried horse waste back to the east of England for use as fertiliser.     

But it wasn’t just hay and straw that was brought in the boats down the Thames. As Griff Rhys Jones pointed out on Lost Routes, they carried food for people to eat, barley for beer and bricks and sand for building. Ironically, many of the materials carried on the barges were used in the construction of the roads which helped to make the Thames obsolete as an essential highway for bringing goods in and out of London.  

Dan Cruickshank’s the Bridges That Built London programme on BBC4 tonight provided more clues on the reasons for the decline of the Thames. This excellent film was fixed as essential viewing in my diary after I heard him speak on the subject a few weeks ago at the Tales of the Thames festival, a series of talks by authors on different aspects of the history of the river.

As Dan commented at the top of his BBC programme tonight, bridges were instrumental in the making of London: “Bridges are far more than means of transport…. they are also a way of linking the present to the past.” When the Romans were looking for the site for their new town 2,000 years ago they chose where they did because it was the shallowest and narrowest place for a crossing point. London became successful because of what was brought from one side of the bridge to the other.

The imposing stone medieval bridge, started in 1176, featured homes, shops and even a chapel dedicated to Thomas Beckett where many pilgrims stopped at on their way to Canterbury. Until Westminster Bridge was built in the 18^th century, it was the only structure that could be used for people to cross the river. The tolls collected from London Bridge were immense and the ongoing annual surplus of some £20m today provides the means to fund a number of charities in the capital.

But it was bridges that helped bring about decline for the Thames. After Westminster Bridge was built many others followed, reducing the need for people to travel along the river. Many, including the Watermen, did protest but they couldn’t do anything to halt the construction of bridges. They did, however, get the modern day equivalent of £2m when Westminster Bridge was opened to compensate for lost trade.    

If London couldn’t have existed in the first place without the Thames, it couldn’t have grown to what it is today without its bridges. They quite literally connected and helped it to make the modern world. 

And bridges are today continuing to rejuvenate parts of London today. As Dan Cruickshank pointed out in his programme tonight, the relatively new Millennium Bridge which connects the Tate Modern and Southwark with St Paul’s has helped bring tourists to the area. But as a blog posted today suggests bridges weren’t the only threat to the river Thames – there had been plans for a major tunnel instead of a Tower Bridge.     

So after 2,000 years of history between London and the Thames, do we have a reason to be optimistic about the future? As it stands, I am afraid I have to say ‘no’. I have talked about the royal pageant which was celebrated this month by many, but in the normal course of events the river is barely used. What’s more, the bridges we have to look at today are nothing in comparison to the grand bridges of the past. I share Dan Cruickshank’s hope that one day we will have a bridge in London which is inhabited with homes and shops.

We can’t expect pageants every week and Britain is no longer the workshop of the world so we can’t anticipate high loads of goods flowing out of central London on barges, but surely there is a role for some supplies to be brought in on boats for people living in the city. And, as we approach the Olympics where the capitals infrastructure will be put under considerable strain it seems crazy that the Thames is largely ignored as a solution to move people about.     

Why don’t more passengers travel by river bus? It is, quite simply, an expensive and slow way to travel. Take travelling from Westminster to the Tower of London. By boat it would cost you £9.50 for a single, far more than by bus (£2.30) or Tube (£4.30). For the latter two options there are even greater savings to be had with Oyster and travel cards. And then there’s the time it takes – the Westminster to Tower boat journey I found buried away on the Tfl website took 40 minutes. Something needs to be done to make river travel more attractive.

The Thames was London’s first "super highway" and the mother of city. I can only hope that Londoners making decisions in the future show some loyalty to its maker.

How a rose was used to pay off City officials

Planning officials today would tell you exactly where to go if you offered them a rose as payment for building a footbridge across a public road without permission. But that’s exactly what was imposed when in 1381 Mrs Knollys was rebuked for creating a structure to connect her husband’s City house on Seething Lane to a rose garden across the way. As a penalty, it was ordered that the flower had to be given every year to the Lord Mayor by way of ‘rent’.   

This morning I joined the annual ceremony where a single red rose is cut from the garden and carried on a cushion in a procession to Mansion House. The footbridge may have long since disappeared but each year the Lord Mayor still gets this peppercorn rent payment thanks to the ritual organised by the Company of Watermen and Lightmen of the River Thames.  

Against a backdrop of shiny modern office buildings, the red rose attracted a lot of attention today from office workers rushing from meetings and bemused tourists alike. Few probably had a clue what was going on as members of the Company of Watermen and Lightmen, dressed in traditional red outfits and carrying wooden oars, watched attentively over the flower.   

But why did Mrs Knollys want / need a footbridge to cross the road to reach her rose garden anyway? While her husband, leading citizen Sir John Knollys, was away fighting abroad she is said to have become annoyed with dusting blowing from a property opposite. So she bought it and turned it into rose garden. London roads were muddy so she built the footbridge as well and so her troubles began.

What I witnessed today just goes to show that while the fabric of the old City may have changed it still has a beating Medieval heart. Boris Johnson has control over Greater London but there is still a Lord Mayor elected annually. Guilds may not have the monopolistic powers they once had on all aspects of commercial life, from setting prices to deciding who can trade in the City, but they still meet in their halls. Some are even reporting growing memberships. The street layout in London is Medieval. You just sometimes need an imagination to relieve it and understand it.

The planned destruction of Deptford

Today it is one of the poorest parts of London with residents struggling to get by on low incomes, many shops look shabby, 70s tower blocks are ridden with crime and street drinking is an all too apparent problem. So it may surprise some that Deptford High Street was once one of the richest part of the capital and on par with fashionable Oxford Street.   

This captivating riches to rags story is powerfully told in the first episode of The Secret History of Our Streets, part of the BBC’s ‘London Calling’ season. Taking the landmark map produced by Charles Booth in 1886 recording living conditions of inhabitants in the capital, the programme features archive footage and interviews with residents to chart over 125 years of social history.

In many senses the story of Deptford High Street in south London mirrors an important national history - the destruction of close knit communities up and down Britain through the clearance of slums. But a running theme through this programme is the question of whether the condemned houses really were unfit for human habitation. Were the terraced properties bulldozed by the authorities in Deptford, and elsewhere in Britain, really slums?

Of course many people were living in terrible conditions after World War Two with whole families forced to bunk up in single rooms. Yet documents unearthed in 2012 and featured on the BBC programme revealed that many of the properties in Deptford were not beyond repair - council officers that visited the homes noted that demolition was not the only option. Unsurprisingly these comments were not made public at the time.

In fact, some contributors to the programme alleged that it was the authorities themselves created the slums. When residents moved out following the purchase of their homes demolition teams would move in and those in neighbouring properties who refused to leave would suffer. Roofs were damaged and water pipes cut. If people weren’t already living in slums they after the bulldozing had started.

Councillors and planners at the time also said that people were happy to move out - and with shiny new kitchens and bathrooms why wouldn’t they? But contributors to the programme and archive interviews from the time tell a different story. Deptford residents enjoyed the community spirit that came with living in terraced streets. They popped in for a coffee with neighbours and children had somewhere to play. By contrast, many told of the misery of living in 70s high rise tower blocks or of being pushed out of the area and away from friends.

Booth’s map of 1886 showed how rich and poor people were living literally streets away from each other. Yet the Deptford after the slum clearances was largely one of extreme poverty. Those that had “made it” could not be persuaded to stay and the local council struggled to fill the new homes with local residents. So to fill the vacant spaces a new wave of immigration brought in only those on low incomes.

It’s telling that houses in a street (Aldbury Street) in Deptford that miraculously survived demolition are on the market for £750,000 today. And for a street that was labeled as the lowest of all slums in the 1960s. Just imagine what Deptford would be like today if many more streets had survived demolition.

International Slavery Museum - a case study for a good museum

What is a museum? The answer to this may at first be obvious - surely it is simply a place where objects and artefacts from the past are preserved and put on show for the public to see. Originating from the Greek Mouseion, which denoted a place or temple dedicated to the Muses (the patron divinities in Greek mythology of the arts), the word evokes grand museums like the British Museum in London and the Smithsonian in Washington DC. With both these, impressive buildings house equally special collections charting thousands of years of civilisation.

But in reality the scope and purpose of museums around the world vary enormously, both in what they conserve and how they present it to the public. In today’s modern age, where the thirst for lifelong learning has never been greater, institutions need to work harder in the way they interact with visitors. Displaying classical objects in dusty museums cases is not enough to win over a demanding public, no matter how rare and significant the pieces. 

Of course a good museum starts with its collection, without that it is not a museum. This however is only the starting point. For me, museums need to use a range of tools and techniques to tell the story of the past. When I visit a museum I want to be able to get a sense of the world in years gone by - presented correctly objects really can speak a thousand words, as BBC Radio 4’s recent Shakespeare’s Restless World proved. Touring galleries, I want to know what people thought, what they would have seen, what they would have smelt and what they would have heard. Objects and artefacts can go a long way to telling the past’s story, but good museums supplement with photos, videos, models and other effects.   

In terms of a case study for a good museum, I think Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum ticks all the boxes, somewhere I had the pleasure of visiting at the weekend. The middle passage gallery, which charts the history of the terrible conditions slaves faced as they were squashed into cramped boats on the torturous journey from Africa to the New World, is particularly effective. The shackles that were put on the enslaved people are displayed in well illuminated cabinets. There is a chilling model of a ship, based on contemporary paintings, that brings home the horrors of the poor conditions victims faced. Accompanying text discusses the magnitude of the crime. During the 400 years of the Atlantic slave trade at least 12m Africans were forcibly transported on ships - but about a quarter died on the passage. Visitors can also feel the full force of the conditions on board ships with a video room featuring wrap-around screens showing the terrible transatlantic journeys that slaves faced below deck.

Those that did make it to the New World were both lucky and unlucky - in that they’d made the passage but faced a pretty bleak future on plantations where they were quite literally worked to their deaths. The museum has an impressive large scale model of a plantation next to which visitors can listen to audio accounts, based on original sources, of daily lives for the enslaved workers. Listening to the accounts of the workers, where they were whipped for not working hard enough, can be contrasted with the lavish daily life lived out by plantation managers and owners.

The slave trade made plantation owners very rich indeed. Attractive returns of 10% a year meant that the entrepreneurs could build themselves great country houses in England. It is particularly fitting that the museum is in Liverpool because by the end of the 1700s it was the slavery capital of the world given the high number of ships sailing to Africa. The profits from the slave trade were invested in many other enterprises such as iron, coal and banking bringing about a boom in the local economy.     
Of course, history needs to be set in context - something that the International Slavery Museum does well. It has a whole gallery dedicated to the legacy of slave and the sad fact that, despite the Abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1807 (which is properly charted in the museum as well), the trade continues today.  

No-one today could ever possibly fully comprehend the horrors that enslaved African faced, but the International Slavery Museum is the best attempt I have seen in the UK to chart this chilling history.