Period

Gustave Doré's famous engraving, produced to illustrate the 1872 book 'London: A Pilgrimage', depicts (and exaggerates) the squalor of tightly packed terraced houses. Yes, as Rosalind Crone observes, the washing lines in Doré's picture demonstrate that "slum-dwellers were not all very dirty - or, at least, they didn't choose to be". (Photo by Getty Images)

Was Victorian life really so grim? 5 reasons why the Victorians were 'happy'.

Workhouses were meant to be unpleasant. Inmates worked hard (like these women hanging out laundry c1880). (Photo by Sean Sexton/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Victorian daily life: what was it like for 'ordinary' Victorians?

From fire hazard petticoats to garments that caused fainting and even death by poison, some trends in 19th-century women’s fashion were risky business for those who wore them. (Photo by Toronto Star Archives/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

A bodice-ripping revolution: how Victorian women cast off deadly fashion trends.

Reading the runes: uncovering the everyday lives of the Vikings.

Decoding Mary, Queen of Scots.

The Blitz: everything you wanted to know.

General History

QuizMatch these famous moustaches with the historical figures

Telling the story of modern Jerusalem.

Historical anniversariesNovember

Video podcastCocaine: a Victorian sensation.

My history heroSteve Hackett chooses Thomas Paine.

Satan & the sabbath: witchhunting in the Basque Country.

Video podcastFlorence Nightingale: life of the week.

Florence Nightingale: life of the week.

Statue of Zeus, king of the Greek gods

King of the gods and sex pest: the legend of Zeus and his thunderbolts

Cocaine: a Victorian sensation.

Tales from history's toilets.

Video podcastJustinian: life of the week.

Medieval science: everything you wanted to know.

Medieval women: friendship, wanderlust and the medieval hustle.

A man holds his head in his hands as he is visited by the ghostly apparition of a woman. A photographer's assistant is visible at centre, right.

General History

Halloween stories10 terrifying tales from medieval to modern history

Chris Packham & Peter Frankopan: can history help tackle the climate crisis?.

Halloween card depicts a pair of girls as they look out of a window as a witch (with a black cat) rides a broom across a full moon, early 20th century.

General History

What is the history of Halloween?

History Behind the Headlines: political memoirs, fuel and access to nature.

Video podcastDismemberment & disgrace: the grisly fate of Simon de Montfort.

Tudor spymaster: the secret machinations of Robert Cecil.

Medieval England's political miracle.

The Korean War: everything you wanted to know.

Video podcastRoman slavery: a brutal life in the ancient empire.

Roman slavery: a brutal life in the ancient empire.