Another promise unfulfilled. #CarOfTheFuture #BluePeter

Adolf Uzarski. Cabaret español. 1928 Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf.

you do not get much more edwardian than this

"The Ceaseless Gong" - lovely description of an early (1919) car alarm system

police raids on the Communist Party of Great Britain in Covent Garden in 1920s seized, amongst other things, a 'mysterious sphere'

On this cold rainy night, people sitting on stools are enjoying hot noodles and sake in this cosy lantern-lit roadside booth (Tomikichiro Tokuriki’s woodblock print ‘Noodle Restaurant on A Rainy Night’ (1951)

Robert Graves on dancing in the 1920s

'For marine, astronomical, stalking and general use.'

Sally Matthews, contemporary UK sculptor known for her work depicting animals #womensart

somehow absolutely terrifying

more opera goers

the rush for the opera

traditional domestic pets of the inter-war years

I don't know about you, but I find it impossible to see this sort of thing without thinking of Jack Nicholson

London Fish Dinner at 275, Strand in 1884 (Opposite W.H. Smith & Son’s)

So many fantastic moments here, from the man who turns up selling fish, to the black clutch bag loaned out to any client who needs it for a funeral. (My mum used to go to a salon much like this for a weekly ‘shampoo and set’ back in the ‘70s.) On the iPlayer: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Ishii Shigeo. 1933 - 1962.

The 12th-century crypt chapel at St Olave's Church, Hart Street, London. To the south of the altar you can just see a rather unusual feature: a well! 📸2026

There is so much to admire in this neat silk #1780s jacket. The ombré stripes run this way and that, making their own decoration and the ruffled peplum sits up at the waist emphasising the piecing of the centre back #madparisfr #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡

75014 PANAME C'était Paris en 1970 📷 Concours FNAC Avec les nouveaux HLM

sad to have lost our cat, Rory, aka The Ginger Cloud. we'll miss him terribly. somehow I feel the need to mark it here, given how often I've posted his splendid pics. he was, in short, truly a magnificent beast.

"Covent Garden contrasts"

never heard it called that before

great shot of the proverbial market porter

in 1928, Lyons "adopted" a blue-eyed eight-year-old orphan as its mascot and dressed her in a miniature waitress costume. she later attended the Nippies 1931 ball dressed as a female aviator in a model biplane. she retained the gig until she turned sixteen

in the 1930s, the 'nippies' (waitresses) of Lyons Teashops had a yearly fancy dress ball at Covent Garden Opera House

I feel some people here made more effort than others

"Barney Blitz" ... once again, a real-life name that your book's editor would strike out as too self-consciously quaint

yeah, sure.

something quite sad about wholly forgotten newspaper cartoon characters, no matter how deservedly (Pip, Squeak and Wilfred, Daily Mirror, 1920s)

Art Nouveau upright piano crafted in 1900 by French sculptor François-Rupert Carabin and manufactured by Henri Hertz. Presented at the Universal Exhibition of 1900 in Paris. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pi...

Warren St was once known for its secondhand car street sales ... this from 1931 ... lasted a couple of generations, I think (there's a video from the ?1970s? somewhere online)

jazzing

Today's new post - water from the Chelsea and Southwark Companies in 1850. A Microscopic Examination of the Water Supplied to the Inhabitants of London at alondoninheritance.com

l'Ex tour Nakagin Capsule Tower de Kisho Kurokawa, Tokyo, Japon, 1972.

has the Pickwick opera of 1936 ever be restaged?

vague 70s dystopian sci-fi vibe in this 1930s Times headline

1930s opera at Covent Garden seems all too ready to supply me with my drag name. currently debating SCHWANDA THE BAGPIPER vs MADAME CONCHITA SUPERVIA.

strong vibe of "I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it."

1920s letter in the Times about memories of the Tavistock Hotel, Covent Garden, in the 1870s or thereabouts: "I remember the shock we sustained when tea-cups with handles were substituted for the old-fashioned bowls."

Shoolbred's department store on Tottenham Court Rd, well known for its Christmas toys, advertised in 1920s that 'mummy and daddy' could retire to the 'smoke room' while kids explored.

typical night out

a director of the Electrophone Company (which played live audio of concerts to homes down special phone lines from the 1890s) comments on the new 'wireless' broadcasts in 1923; two years later, he was out of business

back in the early 1920s theatres in London were experimenting with showing big box office films, with both Covent Garden Opera House and the Albert Hall setting up screens when opportunity arose ...

just came across a Samuel B. Sharp in a press article; presumably Samuel C. to his more intimate acquaintances

Marceline Day with Lon Chaney in LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (Tod Browning, 1927)

the modern world

A version of this is now up — will post expanded versions in the future. sarahbull.me/mapping-nine...

Last summer, I got super into plotting addresses of nineteenth-century British pornographers that I'd collected as part of a project using the National Library of Scotland's Georeferenced Maps. Collecting the data was a painstaking process, as was plotting it as many of these addresses no longer +