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Fire at the Crystal Palace: the end of an era
Eighty years ago, on 30 November 1936, a huge fire lit up the night sky over London. The Crystal Palace in South London had caught fire and as the colossal structure blazed, Londoners had a preview of what many would… Continue reading
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A rumbustious ode to Buxton
For National Poetry Day, Chris Hilton shares an unlikely offering from our collections. We’ve often said that if the Wellcome Library needed a mission statement, one possibility would be “more than you think”: a collection built around the central organising… Continue reading
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If not here, where?
It was the proud boast of London’s Windmill Theatre that “We never closed”: that throughout the Blitz, as bombs rained down on London, the theatre continued to provide nude tableaux for the entertainment of lonely servicemen and their like. The… Continue reading
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Yorkshire Day
1st August is Yorkshire Day – inaugurated 1974: the date alludes both to the battle of Minden, 1759, historically commemorated by the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, and the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in… Continue reading
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Medical London: City of Diseases, City of Cures
Monday 10 November sees the publication of Medical London: City of Diseases, City of Cures, a work which charts the many roles that diseases, treatments and cures have played in the city’s sprawling story, and reveals how London, in turn,… Continue reading