history archive
Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War
For the non-specialist new to this period of history, Robert Massie’s Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War is a thorough and entertaining read. Despite its length, it is very readable and does not feel padded out or slow. This is a long book because it covers a lot, not because it has [...]
Shopping in Crouch End, 1948 style – featuring lots of prams
Pathe News has a great clip from 1948 about someone going shopping in Crouch End. Note how even in the 1940s there were prams aplenty on the pavements – though back then only single-buggies, not today’s double-buggy plethora. From about 50 seconds in you can see the main centre of Crouch End, still very recognisable [...]
Yes, they were pointing at things even in 1986
Courtesy of Anthony Fairclough, here is a Focus leaflet from 1986. It was for Dundonald Ward in Merton and contains a familiar looking style of photo at the bottom of page 2: For other leaflets from the past, see my series How leaflets used to look.
House numbering in the UK: the mystery of Postage Act of 1765
Search around online for information about the origins of house numbering in the UK and the chances are you will find stories which say it started with the Postage Act of 1765. This, for example, is what the BBC website has to say: Most British houses started being numbered with the introduction of the Postage [...]
The British General Election of 1955: David Butler’s account is still well worth a read
In many ways the 1955 general election was about as unexceptional, free of surprises and predictable as a general election can be, even including the occasional close poll that looked like it might, but didn’t, upset expectations. That, however, makes it a good one to read about if you are looking for a flavour of [...]
The First Lady of Fleet Street: The Life, Fortune and Tragedy of Rachel Beer by Eilat Negev & Yehuda Koren
Britain’s first female national newspaper editor, Rachel Beer, is a surprisingly little known person, all the more so given her lively and interesting family history and that she edited not only one but two newspapers, both of which are still very much with us – The Observer and The Sunday Times. (The first Sunday newspaper [...]
So that’s why many men used to oppose the idea of female MPs…
Another gem from Who Goes Home? A Parliamentary Miscellany by Robert Rogers: There are obvious disadvantages about having women in Parliament. I do not know what is going to be done about their hats. Are they going to wear hats or not…? If you order them not to wear hats you might be absolutely certain that [...]
Sometimes the government is really rather good at design
A little gem I discovered from Who Goes Home? A Parliamentary Miscellany by Robert Rogers: The red despatch box is a badge of ministerial office … The lock is on the bottom, not the top, which is intended to ensure that the box is locked before it is carried. That’s a very smart piece of design, [...]
Who Goes Home? A Parliamentary Miscellany by Robert Rogers
Given the number of Parliamentary Miscellanies I’ve read over the years, probably the most important aspect of this volume by Clerk of the House of Commons Robert Rogers is that very little of the content in it felt familiar. That’s the case even though I’ve also read his previous volume, Order! Order! One reason for [...]
The Amazing Weapons That Never Were: the future as it used to look
Following the success of The Wonderful Future That Never Was, Gregory Benford and Popular Mechanics magazine have now produced The Amazing Weapons That Never Were. I very much enjoyed the previous book, this one not nearly so much. Why the difference? Primarily because pretty much everything in the book in one form or other came [...]
