London Week

A late 16th century portrait of Anne Boleyn (c.1500-1536)

Anne Boleyn, Beefeaters, Guy Fawkes and the princes: a brief history of the Tower of London

Angel-of-death-2-42d2a16

Coffee, plague and the Great Fire: the pleasures and perils of living in Restoration London

An illustration depicting the Great Fire of London. (Getty Images)

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Great Fire of London

A cartoon showing a man in a suit of armour on the moon

Q&A Did NASA really pick the brains of the Tower of London armoury when designing the first space suits?

Gussie Moran shocked onlookers with her lace knickers on show at the 1949 Wimbledon Championships (George W. Hales/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

10 memorable moments in Wimbledon’s history

Between 1613 and 1754, a legal loophole meant that on-the-spot marriages could be carried out in an area surrounding the Fleet Debtors’ Prison known as the ‘Liberties of the Fleet’. (Photo by Getty Images)

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the history of London

Rye House in Hertfordshire, which became the Parr family home in 1517, when Katherine was around five years old. (© James Schutte/Alamy Stock Photo)

8 places associated with Henry VIII’s wives

An engraving from 'The Illustrated Police News', c1889, imagines Jack the Ripper

Your guide to Jack the Ripper

Police Constable Neil finds the body of MARY ANN NICHOLS in Buck's Row, Whitechapel Date: 31 August 1888

A big day in history: Mary Ann Nichols becomes the first victim of ‘Jack the Ripper’ (31 August 1888)

A 19th-century cricket match at the Kennington Oval. (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

10 things you didn’t know about London’s sporting history

A crowd admiring the artworks at an exhibition by the Royal Academy of Arts in Burlington House, London. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of London tourism since 1800

The execution of Charles I. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Murder, conspiracy and execution: six centuries of scandalous royal deaths

British prime minister Winston Churchill greeting the crowd from the balcony of Buckingham Palace. From left to right: Princess Elizabeth II; the Queen Mother; Churchill, King George VI and Princess Margaret. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Buckingham Palace’s balcony: a focal point for national celebration

Gunpowder plotters. (Getty Images)

Everything you know about 17th-century London is wrong

The British Pathe film documents the terrible smog, caused by the burning of coal, that smothered London for five days in December 1952. To watch the film, of to www.britishpathe.com/video/the-smog-menace/query/smog

History on film: London is smothered by a dangerous smog