Huge thanks to Farokh Talati, Head Chef at St John Bread & Wine, for so generously baking this magnificent Apple Strudel for the guests on The Gentle Author’s Tour of Whitechapel this Sunday. Click ...

Who can resist the lure of the forest in summer? Since Epping Forest is a mere cycle ride from Spitalfields, each year I visit to seek refuge among the leafy shades. And, in the depths of the forest, ...

I knew Mr Turk from Cookham who was involved with the Swan Upping for many years. There are still Turks involved in the Thames, as I saw a family business on the banks of the Rive ...

Apart from memorable excursions outside London as an evacuee, Marie Iles lived her entire life within a quarter mile of Stepney and it suited her very well. Those wartime experiences taught her the ...

At least once each Summer, I direct my steps eastwards from Spitalfields along the Mile End Rd towards Bow Cemetery, one of the “Magnificent Seven” created by act of Parliament in 1832 as the growing ...

Jack Hanlon gives a rare insight into the fascinating lost world of the Smithfield Meat Trades Institute… The correct way to ...

I cycled along the River Lea to Waltham Abbey. On my approach, even from the riverbank, I could see the majestic tower rising over the water meadows as the Abbey has done for the past thousand years, ...

St Mary Rotherhithe Free School founded 1613. To be candid, there is not a lot left of old Rotherhithe – yet what remains is still powerfully evocative of th ...

Fred Iles was born half a mile from his allotment in Stepney and his wife Marie grew up in Garden St that once stood where the allotment is today. They were married in St Dunstan’s, just across the ...

George Cruikshank’s Comic Almanack published by Henry Tilt of Fleet St annually between 1835 & 1853, illustrated the continuum of festivals and seasons of the year for Londoners. (Click on any of ...