Beneath the gloomy skies of mediaeval London, the line between superstition and heresy was dangerously blurred. Here, amid the stench of the Thames and the cries of the condemned, witches were hunted, tried, and executed – their supposed crimes etched into the city’s collective memory. Yet behind every accusation lay something darker still: envy, greed,…
Few places revealed the realities of Victorian poverty as starkly as London’s East End. Behind the narrow alleys and soot-blackened tenements lay a world of hunger, makeshift meals, and street-side dining born of necessity. Here, food was not a matter of pleasure but survival – a daily struggle waged with a penny in hand and…
Brompton Cemetery is counted among the seven splendid Victorian necropolises of London, built in the nineteenth century. To this day, it stands as a testament to the enterprise and refined taste of the architects and engineers of that era. Confronted with the growing problem of burials in an ever-expanding metropolis and the overcrowding of small,…
Notting Hill is a typical example of a London district that has undergone a complete transformation in just two centuries. Today, it is one of the city’s most popular tourist destinations – the heart of the world-famous carnival and home to the vibrant antique market stretching along the picturesque Portobello Road. Yet the Notting Hill…
Kitty Fisher was born in 1741 as Catherine Maria, the impoverished daughter of a corset maker. She caught the eye of Admiral Augustus Keppel, who introduced her to London society. (Other sources suggest General Anthony Martin may have been her first patron.) She began her life in the capital as a humble maid, but the…
In 1888, a series of brutal murders unfolded in the deprived district of Whitechapel, resonating far beyond London. Details of the horrific attacks, attributed to a single, ruthless assailant nicknamed Jack the Ripper, made headlines across Europe. The case, involving at least five murders of local prostitutes, remains one of the most chilling and unsolved…
John Christie was born in Yorkshire in 1898, the sixth of seven children. He grew up in a household dominated by an abusive father and an overprotective mother and sisters. Withdrawn and disliked at school, he developed into a hypochondriac with sexual dysfunction and a deep-seated hatred of women. At fifteen, he left school and…
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…
