London

Wood engraving from The Graphic magazine features an illustration of a young man running with the ball during a football match on a grassy field, late 19th century. (Photo by Stock Montage/Getty Images)

5 facts about the history of football

Ross Poldark in London in the BBC's drama. The capital city was described in contemporary magazines and newspapers as the "vortex of dissipation", says Hannah Greig. (Image Credit: BBC/Mammoth Screen/Robert Viglasky)

From politics to pleasure gardens: the real history behind Poldark’s 18th-century London

Actor William Gillette playing the detective Sherlock Holmes. (Photo by Gillette/London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images)

11 things you (probably) didn’t know about Sherlock Holmes

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

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

10 scandalous moments in Wimbledon’s history

First built in 1576, the Globe theatre burnt to the ground in 1613. During a performance of the play now known as 'Henry VIII', a set of stage cannons were fired and a piece of flaming material from one of the cannons landed on the theatre’s thatched roof, causing the fire. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

5 facts about Shakespeare’s Globe theatre

A view of the Globe Theatre, Bankside, London c1600. During a performance in 1613, a set of stage cannons were fired and a piece of flaming material from one of the cannons landed on the theatre’s thatched roof, causing a fire. (Photo by Epics/Getty Images)

The Globe theatre fire of 1613: when Shakespeare’s playhouse burned down

Keith Granville, managing director of BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation), holding a model of the Boeing 747 jet, with the new aircraft hangars under construction in the background, at Heathrow Airport, 17 March 1969. (Photo by Jim Gray/Keystone/Getty Images)

In pictures: the history of London’s Heathrow Airport

During his time in Oxford, Wilde fully embraced ‘aesthetic flair’: growing his hair long; dressing in flamboyant fashions and assuming exaggerated affectations. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Oscar Wilde

An 1870s illustration of a typical London artisan terraced houses with washhouses, privies and yards leading on to an alley, all dominated by railway viaducts. (Photo by Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Victorian London’s East End: what can a foul murder tell us about life in the city?

British prime minister Winston Churchill delivering a speech at Westminster College that addressed the Communist threat in 1946, in which he uttered the now-famous phrase 'Iron Curtain'. (Photo by George Skadding/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Second World War

Churchill’s greatest speeches

Gin Lane, a print issued in 1751 by painter and printmaker William Hogarth. It depicts the perceived evils of the consumption of gin. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

The 18th-century craze for gin

Grenfell Tower: from hope to tragedy

Grenfell Tower: from hope to tragedy

Four police officers, members of the Bow Street Horse Patrol, pose for a photograph with a horse.

The rise of the Great British ‘bobby’: a brief history of Britain’s police service