London
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Discover Jane Austen’s London with a Historic Walking Tour (with me!)
Happy Friday and I hope you are having a wonderful new year! I am really excited to share a project I’ve been working on for a little while – that has perfect timing to celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday this year. I’d like to invite you to come and discover Jane Austen’s London with a read more
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New Podcast | Past Matters, “The Queen of the Bluestockings”
Hello! I recently had a wonderful chat with the lovely Ploy Radford of the Past Matters Podcast about one of my favourite eighteenth century women, Elizabeth Montagu. Montagu was the so-called Queen of the Bluestocking Circle, a group of intellectuals – both men and women! – who often met in her London home. You can read more
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Attending Almack’s in Regency London
Print made by James Caldwall, The Cotillion Dance, 1771, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1977.14.11242. If you were part of high society in late eighteenth or early nineteenth century London, a key social location of the season was Almack’s. Located on King Street behind St James’s Square, Almack’s put on balls and read more
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Visiting Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens
One of my favourite things to read about in eighteenth and nineteenth century history is how, and where, people spent their free time. The eighteenth century saw a real change in the development of leisure and pleasure, especially for the elite, which meant the arrival of more cultural institutions and places to satisfy these needs. read more
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What actually was the London season?
It seems that whenever we turn on the TV to watch Regency-based period drama, or pick up a historical novel set during this period, there are so many references to the London season. Bridgerton, of course, has much of its storyline powered by the London season and the actions of the ton in the capital. read more
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Mini-Post | The Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection began as the art collected by the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace – he was probably the 4th Marquess’ illegitimate child. His widow, Julie Amelie, Lady Wallace, bequeathed it to the nation. You can find the collection at Hertford House, which was the family’s London home. The 2nd read more
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Mini-Post | The Hill Garden and Pergola
Welcome to a little corner of Hampstead, where you will find the most perfect “The Secret Garden” vibes… The Pergola at Hill Garden was originally built in the early twentieth century for Lord Leverhulme by Thomas Mawson. Funnily enough, at the same time the Pergola was being built, the Northern underground line was being extended read more
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An Enquiring Mind: Manolo Blahnik at The Wallace Collection
I realised a couple of weeks ago that, even though I’ve spent plenty of time visiting galleries and museums in London, that I’d never actually been to the Wallace Collection. I have been meaning to go for ages, and decided that, last weekend, I had a free morning in London and it was time to read more
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Tudor, Medieval, Art Deco: Old meets New at Eltham Palace
A friend once told me about a country house, just outside London, which was the childhood home of Henry VIII but had also been transformed into an Art Deco masterpiece in the early twentieth century. I found this really hard to visualise – it’s such a clash of different styles! Recently I was fortunate enough read more
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Charles II, the Restoration Court and an Abundance of Mistresses
The Restoration is immortalised as a period of decadence and debauchery – when Charles was restored to the throne in 1660, a new libertine age commenced following the Puritan years under Oliver Cromwell. read more
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Dr. Lizzie Rogers 