Londonist: Time Machine

Articles

Some Notes on London Pedantry

6 days ago | londonist.substack.com | Matthew Brown

Welcome to Londonist: Time Machine’s Friday newsletter for paying subscribers, with a wholesome extended teaser for everyone else. A friend once said to me, “Matt, you’re such a pedantic.” To which I, of course, replied: “No, I’m a pedant”. But I’m not the only one. Most of us enjoy a bit of nitpicking or minor point-scoring, especially when it comes to language and grammar. In today’s newsletter, I pedant the heck out of London’s history.
Five... great animal escapes in London's history

1 week ago | londonist.substack.com | Lydia Manch

Hi and welcome to your weekend newsletter… This edition’s a handful of the great escapes effected by London’s animal population across the centuries.
An Historical Unusualness for Every London Borough (Part 4)

1 week ago | londonist.substack.com | Matthew Brown

Welcome to Londonist: Time Machine’s Friday newsletter for paying subscribers, with a chunky, nourishing teaser for everyone else. Today, I’m finishing off my series on the 32 London boroughs, which coincides with the 60th anniversary of their creation. You can read parts one, two and three in the archive. First up, the History Radar and a few recent links…Upcoming events for those who enjoy London history.
Five... pieces of Canadian history in London

3 weeks ago | londonist.substack.com | Lydia Manch

Hi and welcome to your bank holiday weekend newsletter… 🍁 As I’m holidaying this weekend, this edition’s a reshare and update of a newsletter from a year ago. As we’ve more than doubled in subscribers since then, hopefully there are plenty of readers this’ll be new to… And with the Canadian elections coming up next week, it feels like nice timing to revisit some of the many pieces of Canadian history from over the centuries that you can still visit in London.
An Historical Unusualness for Every London Borough (Part 2)

3 weeks ago | londonist.substack.com | Matthew Brown

Welcome to Londonist: Time Machine’s Friday edition for paying subscribers, with a toothsome teaser for everyone else. No History Radar again this week… I’m still supposedly on Easter holidays. It shall return next Friday. Greater London and the 32 London Boroughs are 60 years old this month (April 2025). To mark the occasion, I’ve put together an historical curiosity for ever one of the the boroughs, spread over four newsletters.
Five... historic London ceremonies

1 month ago | londonist.substack.com | Lydia Manch

Hi and welcome to your belated weekend newsletter… This edition’s a handful of rituals and ceremonies bound up in the history of London — some of them are traditions that would sound elaborately strange enough even if they’d been left behind in whatever century and circumstances birthed them. Some of them are all the stranger for being relatively new. All of them you can still partake in today. And there are a lot that didn’t make the list.
London's First Theatre

1 month ago | londonist.substack.com | Matthew Brown

Welcome to Londonist: Time Machine, the newsletter of London history. It’s the Easter school holidays here in London. I’ll be spending much of my time with the kids over the next two week — 6 and 9, and both budding historians. I like to use these opportunities to give voice to a few other writers on Londonist: Time Machine, and this week I’ve got a treat. David C.
Five... iconic concerts from the history of the Fairfield Halls

1 month ago | londonist.substack.com | Will Noble

Hi and welcome to your weekend newsletter… This edition’s a guest post from Will Noble, author of the outstanding Croydonopolis. It’s adapted from an article originally published last year on — our sister newsletter, now edited by East Croydon Cool, and covering the best of the borough.
A Double Decker In Stained Glass

1 month ago | londonist.substack.com | Matthew Brown

Welcome to Londonist: Time Machine’s Friday edition for paying subscribers, with a wholesome, nourishing teaser for everyone else. Jesus, Mary, a clutch of disciples and a saintly martyrdom; these are the sacred images we expect to find on stained-glass windows. But a church in Southwark revels in its city-gazing glazing. This is Christ Church off Blackfriars Road, and its delightful windows include a double-decker bus, local landmarks and a downtrodden secretary. Let’s take a look inside.
The artist painting London's vanishing shopfronts

1 month ago | londonist.substack.com | Tabish Khan

Hi and welcome to your weekend newsletter… This edition’s a guest post from Tabish Khan, and was originally published on — our sister newsletter, covering London’s massive, and massively varied, visual arts scene — as part of his Artists Inspired by London series. Subscribe to Londonist: Urban Palette for weekly reviews, interviews, gallery news, slices of London’s art history and more.