London Historian

1908: the first time the various London subterranean & above ground railway lines (ran by separate railway companies) were grouped together on a collective map. The map was a collaboration between 'Underground Electric Railways Company of London' (consisting of the Bakerloo Railway, Hampstead Railway, Piccadilly Railway and District Railway) and four other railway firms: the Central Railway, City & South London Railway, Great Northern and City Railway, and the Metropolitan Railway.
The Underground brand was unleashed as a common advertising factor for the growing London railway network.

If you think cute cat pics were born with the invention of the Internet or Instagram - think again!
Harry Pointer was born in 1822 in Berkshire but moved to London to join the Household Cavalry as a young man.
In 1855 Harry had married and moved to Brighton to set up a photographic studio. Victorian Britain fell in love with his posed #cutecat pics and the 'Brighton Cats' pics became his most notable works. @ London, United Kingdom

The NHS was born on this day in 1948 with the promise that “after July, no mother in the country need consider whether she can afford to have a doctor for her sick child before calling one in".
Government minister Dr Edith Summerskill promised the new Health Service would protect the public “from before birth to the grave”. It was to be free for all at point of use, paid for from general taxation.
The image shows mothers and babies at the Woodberry Down Health Centre in Stoke Newington. Woodberry Down was first fully comprehensive health centre under the NHS. (Credit: Getty Images)

In the 1920s and 1930s sheep were routinely introduced into London parks to keep the grass under control and reduce mowing costs. Shepherds competed for the privilege of grazing their flocks on Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Clapham Common and other pastures around the city.
Pictured: a flock in 1926 strolling down the Strand... chilling by the Serpentine in 1936....heading down Piccadilly from Hyde Park to Green Park in 1931...and settling in Hyde Park in 1929. 🐏🐑🐏🐑🐏🐑

1913: 20 years after the bridge was completed, and decades before health and safety was considered important (check out the guy up the mast!) labourers carry out works on @towerbridge. Notice the carts on the bridge below and @thetoweroflondon in the background.

Less oppressive than the current scaffolding? Elizabeth Tower clad in scaffolding circa 1935 during renovation works.

• @fortnums of 181 Piccadilly, was established in 1707 by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason. • William Fortnum was a footman in the Royal Household of Queen Anne with the sideline as a grocer. • In 1707 William Fortnum set up business with his landlord Hugh Mason in St. James's Market (mapped out above c. 1720). • In 1761 William Fortnum's grandson, Charles, became a Page in Royal Court of Queen Charlotte and business grew as the royal connection took hold. • The store claims to... have invented Scotch eggs in 1738 as a posh snack for coach travellers. They would have used smaller eggs from a young hen, and the meat would have been gamier, like a strong Victorian pâté. • Charles Drury Edward Fortnum (1820–1899) was a distinguished art collector and a Trustee of the British Museum. His collection was largely financed by the inheritance of his first wife - Fanny Matilda Keats, the granddaughter of Queen Charlotte's Page (aforementioned) and a main heir to the Fortnum and Mason business. • In 1886 the shop bought the entire stock of five cases of baked beans made by H.J. Heinz. • In 1964 Canadian owner W. Garfield Weston commissioned a four-ton clock to be installed above the main entrance as a tribute to its founders. Every hour, 4-foot-high models of William Fortnum and Hugh Mason emerge and bow to each other. Weston's granddaughter Jana Khayat is chairman today whilst the family owns Wittington Investments Limited (Selfridges, Heals, Fortnum & Mason) and Associated British Foods plc (Primark, Ovaltine, Twinings, Kingsmill, British Sugar). • In November 2013, an additional store was opened at St Pancras International station - the first new store in the UK. It's first standalone store outside Britain in Dubai on 21 March 2014.
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This image was etched in 1876 and shows a large floating swimming bath next to Charing Cross station, bottom right (opened in 1864).
Presumably, a pretty foul affair by today’s standards according to Old and New London, the baths contained a series of small tanks where water would sit still for a while to allow solids to drop down to the bottom of the tank. There, the top layers were forced through bags made of a strong jute like fibre and filled with rough gravel and sand.
...By 1885 the one shilling per entry baths, essentially a small moored ship, were closed down due to a lack of customers and the hull sold for scrap.
Swipe right to see what it looked like inside.
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A look at the older face of glamorous Mayfair. White Horse Street is part of the tiny Shepherd Market area, a reminder of the Georgian era narrow streets, shops and townhouses.

Head down to the Savoy's Kaspar's Seafood Bar and Grill Restaurant and book a table for thirteen. You might just find an extra kitty shaped guest at your table. Kaspar’s story begins in 1898, when South African diamond magnate Woolf Joel suddenly died. Just before his death, Joel hosted a dinner at The Savoy for fourteen guests. At the last minute one of them cancelled. Joel decided the dinner should go ahead, but a more superstitious guest declared death would befall the fi...rst person to leave the table. Woolf Joel defiantly decided to take the gamble himself. Weeks later he was shot dead in Johannesburg.
Anxious to avoid a repeat of such ill fate, The Savoy decided to provide an extra guest for every table of thirteen. Initially the hotel had a member of staff sit amongst the diners, but this proved unpopular. Guests felt unable to discuss their private matters freely. Thus, in a stroke of genius, Kaspar was created – sculpted into life by architect Basil Ionides in 1926.
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Lionel Walter Rothschild was born into the wealthy Rothschild banking dynasty and was meant to follow in his father's footsteps. Walter had other ideas and dreamt as a child of running a zoological museum. His passion for animals led him to riding around London on his zebra-drawn carriage, to show the public how the animals could be tamed. He lived his dream and set up the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum at Tring, bequeathed to the British Museum when he died and now part of the Natural History Museum.

Karl Marx was born 200 years ago today. This is his family tomb in Highgate Cemetery. He died on 14th March 1883, the grade 1 listed tomb was designed by Laurence Bradshaw and was unveiled in 1956.

An aerial shot of London (looking east) taken in 1932, before office blocks took over from factories, the docks were still heavily in use, and the city needed a good scrub and polish.

28th April 1870 as two ladies exited The Strand Theatre: "I'm a police officer from Bow Street, and I have every reason to believe that you are men in female attire and you will have to come to Bow Street with me now." Pictured above, Fanny and Stella's real names were Frederick Park, 22, and Ernest Boulton, 21. Arrested for homosexuality and several counts of conspiracy, Ernest's most famous lover was Lord Arthur Pelham-Clinton, son of the Duke of Newcastle and godson of Pri...me Minister William Gladstone. The two men spent four months in jail awaiting trial, and if convicted, their sentence would be between 10 years and life in prison. However, the trial failed partly because Boulton's mother Mary Ann had testified to say that it was no secret his son's nickname was Stella and that he enjoyed dressing as a woman. A Victorian knee-jerk and very public reaction to the men's private life created a media storm. Frederick fled to the USA and Ernest toured as a female impersonator with his brother.
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Joseph Merrick, also known as the Elephant Man, died at the Royal London Hospital on this day in 1890. He had gone from humble beginnings in Leicester, cigar rolling, to the workhouse and then to ‘performing’ on 123 Whitechapel Road – now No. 259 and called ‘UKAY Saree.’
Four years before his death Merrick was robbed by his tour manager whilst in Belgium. He begged his way back to London where he stayed at the Royal London Hospital care of his friend surgeon, Sir Frederick Treves, until his death at the age of 27, probably from asphyxia due to the weight of his head crushing his windpipe. The medical condition he suffered from is still being debated to this day.
Photo: Joseph Merrick c.1889 © Royal London Hospital Archives, the East London Advertiser announcement of his death, the Royal London Hospital in the late 19th century.

Author Arnold Bennett died on this day in 1931 at Chiltern Court on Baker Street, an apartment block also occupied H. G. Wells in the early 1930s.
For those eggstraverts amongst us you may recognise his name given to an omelette containing smoked haddock, Parmesan cheese and cream.
Created at his request by the head chef at the @thesavoylondon (pictured in 1904), he loved it so much he insisted that it be prepared wherever he travelled. The Omelette Arnold Bennett has remained a standard dish at the @savoygrill ever since.

Portobello Road pictured in the 1950s with @electricportobello in the middle. The name is a reminder of how rural West London was in the 18th century with Portobello Farm being built in 1740.
The farm was named after a victory of Britain over Spain c. 1740 at the Spanish-ruled town of Puerto Bello (now known as Portobelo in modern-day Panama).

Head over to Instagram at 8:45 for London Historian’s first LIVE feed #TowerHour

The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway opened on this day in 1906. The nickname Baker-Loo, a contraction of the official name, was so popular that it was adopted officially from July of the same year.
It originally ran from Baker Street to Lambeth North (then called Kennington Road) and was extended to Elephant & Castle five months later, on 5 August, and now runs to Harrow and Wealdstone in the north.
The image above shows Elephant & Castle station in 1907. The area’s name derives from the name of a local pub.