HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: The official website for BBC History Magazine
date: 2024-12-29T12:26:04.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: "War's greatest picture"? Inside the night St Paul's Cathedral survived the Blitz
items: Victorian zoos: animal attraction in the 19th century
items: Why are British monarchs traditionally crowned in Westminster Abbey?
items: Alternate history: what if the Great Fire of London never happened?
items: Your guide to the Great Fire of London, plus 10 surprising facts
items: How the Great Fire of London revealed the city’s Roman past
items: London history quiz – how much do you know about the city?
items: The earthquakes that rocked Georgian London (plus three more seismic events that shaped history)
items: 23 things you (probably) didn't know about No 10 Downing Street, the official residence of Britain's prime ministers
items: Ghosts of Viking London

"War's greatest picture"? Inside the night St Paul's Cathedral survived the Blitz
type: item
date: 2024-12-29T12:25:32.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: On 29 December 1940, a night of havoc broke bricks and mortar and claimed more than 160 lives. But it also created a moment that was used to bolster British spirit for years to come…
encoded: The Blitz had halted briefly over Christmas 1940, but on the evening of Sunday 29 December the Luftwaffe resumed bombing an already hammered London. The whistling sounds of incendiaries were first heard at 6.15pm, and for the next three-and-a-half hours more than 100,000 such bombs fell. The attack was so ferocious that one American reporter telegraphed his office with the words: “The second Great Fire of London has begun.” While most people huddled in shelters or Tube stations, an act that had become all too familiar, firefighters and volunteers tirelessly tackled the 1,500 or so blazes across the city. Dozens of buildings were utterly destroyed – but not one crucial landmark. Why did Churchill want to save St Paul's Cathedral? St Paul’s Cathedral was surrounded by smouldering ruins, while flames licked the edges of the churchyard. But Prime Minister Winston Churchill, recognising its importance to British morale, sent a message saying St Paul’s must be saved at all costs. The cathedral’s volunteer firewatchers, the St Paul’s Watch, spent the evening putting out the fires from the 28 incendiary bombs that rained down on the building, using stirrup pumps, buckets and sand. One crashed through the dome and lodged in the support beams – causing molten lead to drip down – before it finally fell to the stone floor. Yet, incredibly, the cathedral sustained no irreparable damage. By dawn, the fires had been brought under control by the exhausted firefighters, the ‘heroes with grimy faces’. The night had left more than 160 dead and around 500 injured. War's greatest picture? A couple of days later, once the photo had been cleared by the censors, the Daily Mail's front page featured what it dubbed "war's greatest picture". St Paul's was still standing and almost emerging, defiant, from the black smoke. It was taken by Herbert Mason from the roof of the newspaper's office, around half a mile from the cathedral. "The shining cross, dome and towers stood out like a symbol in t…

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Victorian zoos: animal attraction in the 19th century
type: item
date: 2024-11-11T18:15:22.000Z
subject: Georgian
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Life in Victorian Britain
subject: London’s history
description: If the Surrey Zoological Garden was anything to go by, a zoo in the Georgian and Victorian eras was so much more than a place to see animals from around the world. Joanne Cormac reveals how the entertainments put on – which included pyrotechnic re-enactments of the Great Fire of London – reflected Britons’ growing taste for the exotic in the 19th century
encoded: One fine day in late spring 1835, veteran aeronaut Charles Green climbed into a hot air balloon from a raft floating on a lake, and soared into the sky. Flight was nothing new for Green – this was his 198th ascent – but today he was joined by an unusual passenger: Jacopo the monkey, a resident of the Surrey Zoological Gardens. As this unlikely duo floated above Walworth, then just south of London, Jacopo, wearing a smart red jacket, descended “with great velocity” in a specially made parachute, to the delight of the watching crowds. Jacopo was physically unharmed, though newspaper reports of the event noted that he “seemed not much to relish the ride”. A label was attached to the poor primate, promising a small fee – and free admission to the gardens – for anyone who found him. Evidently, Jacopo was brought back safely; two years later he returned to the skies, this time with Margaret Graham, the first British woman to make a solo balloon flight. The hot air balloon ride was one of many attractions at Surrey Zoological Gardens, which had opened on 13 August 1831 in the grounds of Walworth Manor House, Kennington. At the time, zoos were rare novelties but, as the public clamour for encounters with exotic animals swelled, they began popping up across Great Britain and Ireland. Read more | Where was England's first zoo? Many of them no longer exist. Surrey Zoo was one of the casualties, yet in its heyday it was an enormous hit with the public. It is the quintessential example of the menagerie-style zoo that struck such a chord with Britons in the 19th century. In its day Surrey’s zoo was the main rival of London Zoo at Regent’s Park. These were, however, very different establishments. Like most early zoos (including those in Dublin, Bristol and Manchester), London’s had lofty ambitions and was aimed at educated society seeking enlightenment. Surrey Zoo, on the other hand, offered exoticism, imperial display and commercial entertainment for its fashionable clientele – a…

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Why are British monarchs traditionally crowned in Westminster Abbey?
type: item
date: 2023-05-03T18:17:33.000Z
creator: Professor David Carpenter
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: London’s history
description: There is no way to tell the story of the English monarchy without Westminster Abbey, the site of royal coronations, weddings, funerals and burials for the last 1,000 years. Professor David Carpenter answers the key questions about the abbey’s long history
encoded: What is Westminster Abbey, and how old is it? A marvel of gothic architecture, it stands on one side of Parliament Square in London, adjoining Big Ben, Victoria Tower and the Houses of Parliament. It is the place of coronations (including that of Charles III) and has many famous (and infamous) people buried and commemorated within it, including monarchs, prime ministers, scientists and poets. Legend has it that it was founded in the reign of an Anglo-Saxon king called Saberht in the early seventh century, after a miraculous appearance by Saint Peter. There’s some reason to think that the site of the abbey was originally an island in the Thames, the island of Thorney, so we have to think of the river as much wider than it was before it was embanked. On the podcast | David Carpenter answers listener questions on the history of Westminster Abbey Until the reformation, the abbey was the home of a community of Benedictine monks ruled by an abbot. Since then, although keeping the name 'abbey', it has been an Anglican church governed by a dean and small group of clergymen called 'canons'. They form the dean and chapter. The abbey is a 'royal peculiar' meaning it is subject only to the monarch. The bishop of London has no jurisdiction over it. When was the Westminster Abbey that we see today constructed? There was an abbey at Westminster in the late-Anglo Saxon period, but the real start came with Edward the Confessor (reigned 1042-66), who had a palace essentially on the site of the Houses of Parliament and completely rebuilt the church. The Confessor also richly endowed the abbey. Read more | Edward the Confessor: England’s holy hardman The building of today, however, comes not from the 11th century, but mostly from the 13th during the reign of Henry III (r1216-72). He built all the church we have today save for the nave, Henry VII's chapel and the western towers. That said, the foundations of Edward the Confessor’s abbey and cloisters have been uncovered in excavations, …

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Alternate history: what if the Great Fire of London never happened?
type: item
date: 2022-12-12T10:16:24.000Z
creator: Dr Clare Jackson
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Stuart
subject: London’s history
description: For a little under five days, London was ablaze in one of the city's worst-ever disasters. What was the impact of the Great Fire? Dr Clare Jackson talks to Nige Tassell about how it changed the English capital and why its legacy as a ‘plague killer’ should be extinguished
encoded: When fire shot through the City of London over the course of three days in early September 1666, razing everything in its path, the future of England’s capital – its very existence – was in jeopardy. Although the estimated death toll remained remarkably low for a fire that wreaked such destruction, the City itself looked much different when the final smouldering was extinguished. More than 13,000 houses had been destroyed, along with nearly 90 churches. Some significant buildings were lost to the flames, including the original St Paul’s Cathedral and the Royal Exchange, as well as the city gates at Aldersgate, Ludgate and Newgate. The subsequent history of England would have taken a different complexion had its entire capital been lost. As it was, the flames were largely limited to the City of London. A few historians have even suggested that, in some regards, the Great Fire of London turned out to be a force for good. The principal tenet of this line of thinking revolves around the Great Plague. The belief is that, when fire broke out, the epidemic – which had ripped so easily through the cheek-by-jowl living quarters of the City the previous year – would have found it much harder be transmitted; in short, that the fire killed off the epidemic, certainly in London. Did you know? Thomas Farriner’s bakehouse (where the Great Fire of London began) was not located on Pudding Lane, as traditionally believed. Hearth tax records show it was actually sited on Fish Yard, a small enclave off Pudding Lane. Read more | Coffee, plague and the Great Fire: the pleasures and perils of living in Restoration London Dr Clare Jackson – senior tutor at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and author of the award-winning Devil-Land: England Under Siege, 1588–1688 (Allen Lane, 2021) – dismisses this theory. “This is a myth. The Great Fire had not spread to areas that had experienced particularly high levels of plague infection, such as Southwark, Clerkenwell and Whitechapel.” That is, the flames fail…

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Your guide to the Great Fire of London, plus 10 surprising facts
type: item
date: 2022-07-27T09:00:08.000Z
subject: Period
subject: Stuart
subject: Family and parenting
subject: London’s history
description: One of the most famous disasters in London's history, the Great Fire of London in 1666 devastated the heart of England's capital, destroying more than 13,000 houses and badly damaging landmarks including St Paul's Cathedral and the Royal Exchange. But how much do you really know about the blaze? We bring you the facts...
encoded: Why did the Great Fire of London start? Who was to blame? And how many died? Discover the story of the 1666 blaze that destroyed the City of London – from diarist Samuel Pepys's first-hand accounts, to the aftermath of the devastating fire... When was the Great Fire of London? How did the Great Fire of London start? The Great Fire of London: eye-witness accounts What did people do when the fire broke out? The aftermath of the Great Fire of London How many people died in the Great Fire of London? How was London rebuilt after the Great Fire of London? 10 lesser-known facts about the Great Fire of London Great Fire of London: through the eyes of Samuel Pepys The Great Fire of London: key facts When was the Great Fire of London? 2 September 1666 to 5 September 1666 How much damage did it cause? It is thought that the Great Fire of London destroyed up to four-fifths of the City of London, including most of the civic buildings, old St Paul’s Cathedral, 87 churches, and around 13,000 houses How many people died in the Great Fire of London? "Though we do not know exactly how many people died as a result of the Great Fire of London, it was almost certainly more than commonly accepted figures," says historian Rebecca Rideal When was the Great Fire of London? The Great Fire of London began on Sunday 2 September 1666. The famous diarist Samuel Pepys – from whom we know a great deal about the event – was enjoying a good night’s rest at the time; the previous day he’d been to the theatre, avoided someone he didn’t like and repaired to Islington. He ate, drank and became “mighty merry”, before singing all the way home, writing some letters and falling into bed. Hardly surprising, then, that when his maid called him at three o’clock in the morning to look at a fire across town, he decided it was far enough away not to worry about and went straight back to sleep. Pepys wasn’t the only one. The Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Bloodworth, took one look at the blaze, declared “a woman might pis…

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How the Great Fire of London revealed the city’s Roman past
type: item
date: 2022-07-25T15:00:42.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Roman
subject: Stuart
subject: London’s history
subject: Roman Britain
description: The Great Fire of London obliterated an estimated four-fifths of the City of London, engulfing more than 13,000 houses and almost 90 parish churches. But, as historian Alison Cooley explains, the fire also unearthed a fascinating relic from London's Roman past – the tombstone of a Roman soldier named Vivius Marcianus
encoded: The name of one man stands out in accounts of the aftermath of the Great Fire of London: Christopher Wren. The renowned architect masterminded the rebuilding of some 50 churches including the new St Paul’s Cathedral, which also became his memorial, as his epitaph proclaims: Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice – “Reader, if you seek a memorial, look around you.” Less well known, though, is another aspect of the fire: that it revealed elements of London’s Roman past. In 1669, on the site where St Martin’s Church was to be rebuilt on Ludgate Hill, Christopher Wren uncovered a large slab of limestone depicting a full-length male figure below a Latin text. Despite the fact that the stone was over two metres high, it had remained hidden for hundreds of years, having been used as building material during the construction of the earlier medieval church. The sockets cut into the surface of the stone when it was reused are still clearly visible. Read more | The story of the Great Fire of London The slab was a tombstone for a Roman soldier named Vivius Marcianus. The epitaph reads: “To the spirits of the dead. Ianuaria Martina, most dutiful wife, set up the monument for Vivius Marcianus, centurion of the 2nd Legion Augusta”. The 2nd Legion Augusta came to Britain during the Claudian invasion of AD 43 and remained until the Romans withdrew from the province. By the middle of the second century AD the legion was based at Caerleon in south Wales, but it was quite usual for individual soldiers to be posted to the provincial capital. It seems likely, therefore, that Vivius Marcianus was in London on secondment to the staff of the provincial governor. On its rediscovery, the stone was immediately appreciated for its historical value. It was transported to Oxford at the expense of the archbishop of Canterbury, Gilbert Sheldon, who had longstanding ties to the university, having been fellow and warden of All Souls College, as well as university pro-vice chancellor and chancell…

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London history quiz – how much do you know about the city?
type: item
date: 2022-05-17T16:48:46.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Quiz
subject: London’s history
description: Test your knowledge of London's history – from its architecture and place names to notable events and famous residents...
encoded: View Riddle on the source website Learn more about the history of London Questions by Nick Rennison and Travis Elborough, authors of London Quiz (2014)

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The earthquakes that rocked Georgian London (plus three more seismic events that shaped history)
type: item
date: 2021-11-03T14:55:56.000Z
subject: Georgian
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: London’s history
description: Houses collapsed, sheep ran wild, Westminster Abbey shook and the people trembled in fear of Armageddon. Andrew Robinson describes what happened when a series of earthquakes struck London in 1750, a chain of events that prompted the birth of seismology ...
encoded: Just after 12.30pm on 8 February 1750, Britain’s lord chancellor was sitting in Westminster Hall with the Courts of King’s Bench and Chancery when the room began to shake. For a moment everyone thought the great edifice was going to collapse on their heads. In Lincoln’s Inn Fields, meanwhile, Newcastle House trembled so much that the Duke of Newcastle sent out his servant to enquire what had happened from a neighbour, the physicist Gowin Knight. The servant found Knight busy investigating the signs of disturbance in his own residence, including a bed that had moved. In Gray’s Inn, a lamp-lighter very nearly fell from his ladder. At Leicester House, home of the Prince of Wales, the foundations were believed to be sinking. Throughout the City and Westminster, people felt their desks lurch, chairs shook, doors slammed, windows rattled and crockery clattered on its shelves. In Leadenhall Street, part of a chimney fell. In Southwark, south of the Thames, a slaughterhouse with a hay-loft collapsed. Little did they know it, but Londoners were being shaken and stirred by the first of several earthquakes that would strike England that year. Although small – with an estimated magnitude of just 2.6, according to today’s British Geological Survey – the epicentre of the 8 February quake was shallow and centred beneath the capital, apparently around London Bridge. So the city received a considerable jolt. This wasn’t the first, nor the last, year in which the earth would move under London. In 1580, an earthquake beneath the English Channel collapsed part of the white cliffs at Dover, killed two children in London, rang the great bell in the Palace of Westminster and was referred to in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In 1692, another thronged the streets of London with confused crowds. A third quake, with its epicentre at nearby Colchester, rattled the Houses of Parliament in 1884. Puzzled MPs were halted in their tracks, jolted against walls or felt papers and briefcases …

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23 things you (probably) didn't know about No 10 Downing Street, the official residence of Britain's prime ministers
type: item
date: 2021-04-03T06:24:53.000Z
creator: Felicity Day
subject: General Modern
subject: Period
subject: Family and parenting
subject: London’s history
description: Felicity Day takes a glimpse behind the world’s most famous front door, reveals 23 fascinating facts about the official residence of the prime minister and the events that have taken place within its walls
encoded: It was given as a gift from a king In 1732 a grateful King George II presented Sir Robert Walpole with a house on Downing Street. Walpole, who is usually recognised as the first to have and to use the powers of a prime minister, refused the property as a personal gift. Instead, he agreed to accept it as an official residence for the First Lord of the Treasury, to which post – held by Walpole for more than 20 years – “he got it annexed for ever”. No 10 Downing Street was initially No 5 The king’s gift was, in fact, two houses: one fronting onto Downing Street and a larger one overlooking Horse Guards behind. Walpole moved in only once the two had been combined and refurbished, becoming the first premier to call Downing Street home in September 1735. The house was then actually No 5, and remained so until 1779 when it was renumbered. Its historic colour is the result of air pollution No 10 Downing Street’s distinctive brickwork is not actually black – restoration works in the 1960s revealed that the terrace was built with yellow bricks, subsequently blackened by two centuries of inner-city air pollution. A black colourwash is used today to maintain its historic appearance. A brewery once stood the land The land on which Downing Street stands was once part of the ancient Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norman settlements of Thorney Island. Later home to a brewery, it was in the hands of the Crown by the reign of Henry VIII, sitting on the edge of the king’s vast Whitehall Palace site. A house there was leased by Elizabeth I to one of her favourites, Sir Thomas Knyvet, in 1581, and it was his niece, Mrs Hampden, who was residing in it when the land was confiscated under Oliver Cromwell (although she still continued to live there). The house was built by one of Oliver Cromwell's spymasters A “perfidious rogue” and “ungrateful villain” was how diarist Samuel Pepys described the man who gave his name to Britain’s most famous street. Sir George Downing was a former preacher who beca…

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Ghosts of Viking London
type: item
date: 2020-09-19T11:30:20.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Viking
subject: Period
subject: London’s history
description: In a talk from our 2019 History Weekend in Winchester, Thomas Williams discusses the many impacts the Norse raiders had on the city of London
encoded: In a talk he delivered at our 2019 BBC History Magazine History Weekend in Winchester, historian, archaeologist and author Thomas Williams discusses the many impacts the Norse raiders had on the city of London.

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