Green Park has a very particular atmosphere for a stretch of greenery situated in the very heart of tourist-heavy London. Even on the brightest summer days, one can sense an unusual stillness here – a feeling of suspension and a quiet sadness drifting among the shaded paths lined with twisted, ancient trees. The long, mist-shrouded…
Sir Adam Newton, the first owner of Charlton House, was an undeniably ambitious man: swift rise at court, well-placed connections, and a remarkable gift for turning royal proximity into privilege. His marked talents allowed him to secure positions that other sons of ordinary Scottish bakers could only dream of. A False Priest, a Royal Tutor…
Cleopatra’s Needle is an ancient red granite obelisk that now stands on the Thames Embankment, near Waterloo Bridge. Though its presence beneath London’s clouded skies seems somewhat unexpected, it is not the only Egyptian obelisk to have found its way, quite improbably, to the other side of the world. Monuments of this kind were usually…
In the very heart of old London, at Smithfield, stands the city’s oldest church – St Bartholomew the Great. Stone, cold and silent, it is surrounded by a long-forgotten graveyard, its ground rising noticeably higher than the surrounding paths. This thick layer of earth, heaped up over centuries to make room for successive generations of…
