To the Turner & Constable show at Tate Britain, where they have both Turner’s unfinished 1795 watercolour of the York Buildings Waterworks, and Constable’s huge oil sketch of the 1817 Opening of Waterloo Bridge, in which the works’ distinctive watertower also appears…

Yesterday, after 10 years of work, I decided to give up trying to find a publisher for my book and just do it myself. This morning, literally 24 hours later, I got an email from a major publisher asking to share my decade long project. A much appreciated late Christmas present. 😊🙏

Drawn by my many times great uncle Richard Cosway on my biological tree. Mystagogue and sex occultist, painter to the Court of George IV, a brazen queerish Macaroni, I believe an admirer of William Blake. Hecate says Goodnight!

West of Ouessant island, off Brittany, France, is Nividic lighthouse, over 100 years old.

The London County Council’s Strand Underpass, opened in 1964 and created through the conversion of part of the former Kingsway tram tunnel. The work, undertaken by John Mowlem & Co., cost just over £1 million. Here is an LCC brochure marking its completion.

Anyone on their own today in Liverpool who would like a warm meal or company please pop down to the Liverpool Al-Rahma Mosque Bistro, 29-31 Hatherley St, Liverpool L8 2TJ. All welcome 10am-10pm, please feel free to share 🤍 #Liverpool

Merry Christmas to my mother, who got my toddler a toy fire engine that not only makes lots of noise, it also sprays real water

London, 1948 Two Bobbies examine the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree through the smog of a grey December day #Christmas 🎄

I love this country and its traditions, perhaps none more so than how Smithfield butchers are treated like rock stars on Xmas Eve

The Ghost Story, Alfred Bestall, 1930 #Christmasghoststories

It's a busy day in Bethlehem and nobody really notices the couple who have come to be counted. As imagined by the great Pieter Bruegel.

In London a time comes every day where the ghosts get their own back. It's often subtle but always undeniable, and it's strongest in autumn & winter. If you're ever at loose ends on Christmas Eve, pay respects at St Michael's Cornhill. Because here, down the alley, was Scrooge's counting house.

Not now, haunted Victorian shoes

It’s silly to yell at creatives because you assume they have lots of money and go to cool parties. They haven’t and they don’t. Don’t be a silly sausage!

Regular reminder that the majority of the people who dreamed up the stories you love are, like, BROKE broke, and that most of the money spent on their work was given to Some Guy™️ instead.

When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.

Me pleading with Steve, my wife's new lover, to persuade my estranged son to unblock me on WhatsApp so I can send him more centrist memes.

Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower

The shortest day: a bit of an Atkinson Grimshaw effect with St Stephen Walbrook in the twilight mizzle

Whether it’s Pete Buttigieg learning to speak eight languages or Donald Trump successfully identifying a giraffe, there’s plenty of intellectual accomplishments on both sides of the aisle.

Alpha Andrew Tate getting knocked out cold by an opponent wearing pink boxing gloves is an end of year stocking stuffer I didn't expect. Thank you Santa!🎅

I miss the old Morrissey lyrics.

Sounds like you will appreciate the legendary pre-gentrification 'barred list' from my local.

Between 1840 and 1918, British attitudes towards drink changed dramatically. Life assurance company archives reveal their influence and also offer insights into the lives of ordinary abstainers. Available (at 35% off with code GLR AT8) from Bloomsbury Academic www.bloomsbury.com/uk/temperanc...

'Southbank into the Light' by Alistair Carr alistaircarr.com

Circumcision of Christ, taking place in some wild cross between a modern church, an ancient temple, and a ruin. Because it's by François de Nomé, whose day is today.

Nebuchadnezzar, by William Blake, 1795-1805 (flipped) #NetflixPartner

PARKLIFE

What an incredible industry where you protect a pervert for years but not even because he is some rare writing talent but because people who have terrible taste in television know who he is

Le Tour de Monde en un Clin d'Oeil (A Tour of the World in a Blink of the Eye) by Daniel Vierge, Paris, 1876

Day in Winter by Xavier Mellery (1845–1921)

Skating, playing, and a lot of falling on the ice near Amsterdam, as painted by Hans Bol. He was born on this day in 1534.

'Night Haunts', Westway, 2020 by Gail Brodholt, London based printmaker #WomensArt

(Little) Solsbury Hill - as in the #PeterGabriel song - and Crossleaze Studios, in that very hilly area just north of #Bath, which the #CotswoldWay passes through, West of the A46 and East of Lansdown Hill. An area of undulating single-track roads which feels very remote, despite nearby Bath.

A short history of mummers, straw boys and Wren Boys. From mummers to wren boys, the practice of rambling from house to house in rural Ireland lifted isolation for many communities at Christmas, writes @barryhoulihan.bsky.social @uniofgalway.bsky.social www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Some of our publications about London radical history (and more!) can be ordered from our online shop. Pamphlets, books, maps & posters. Much of our back catalogue is out of print but we’re working on making it available again… pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com

Wapping at Forty: the strike that made the modern media. One-day seminar at the Marx Memorial Library to mark the anniversary of the Murdoch News International dispute. Book now: online/in person. sslh.org.uk/2025/12/17/s...

We're celebrating Valentine's day with a traditional ghost story workshop! 👻💝 We're rejoined by Dr Icy Sedgwick whose writing workshops are always popular (because they're fantastic!) 10am and 7pm GMT! 10 - www.tickettailor.com/events/roman... 7 - www.tickettailor.com/events/roman...

Just 2 weeks until my next online talk: Historic Buildings in the Landscape! I'll be exploring local sources of building materials inc the brick, stone & timber for Tattershall Castle which came from a 20 mile radius: Edlington Moor, Ancaster & Stixwould. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/buildings-...

‘We perused 9 bulky volumes, mazes of statistics, maps of picturesque bewilderment of colour…the impression was of something monstrous, grotesque, inane’ (C Masterman, 1890) In the New Year my 6wk Introduction to Charles Booth’s London course starts at the Mary Ward Centre on 13 Jan short.do/wLa3Vc

Roger Clarke and I are writing a book about ghosts. We need a publisher. @tomsbrown.bsky.social and I are writing a graphic novel about boy mire maids and need a publisher. If you are interested, DM me.

Portal to the past. There’s something decadent about being able to walk under ancient wharves at low tide. The wind whistles through the pillars on a bad weather day, faint ghostly voices from the past calling from the Thames. As you walk, your feet crunch on oyster shells from Old Billingsgate.

Our first talk of 2026 is on 17 January 2.30pm by Dr John Price - Educating Deptford: The Deptford Ragged School and its Place in the Community, exploring stories of the children who attended. Tickets £5, location Central Library Bexleyheath - contact us to book your place! @jpaprice.bsky.social

I am encountering M. R. James's handwriting for the first time, and until now I didn't know the true meaning of horror 😱

"This searing book conveys the survivors' sufferings and remarkable resilience, bringing to life their personal stories" The #WolfsonHistoryPrize judges on why they awarded the 2025 prize to Hannah Durkin's 'Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade'.

"I delight in what I fear." Remembering renowned mystery writer Shirley Jackson on her 109th birthday. #BOTD on 12/14/1916

Dad's Army - A Brush with the Law (15th December 1972). Mainwaring stands accused of leaving a light on. With Square on the magistrates bench, will he get a fair trial?

New York City New York 1960s

Nocturnal London - call for papers.