Today in London gay history: the South London Gay Centre evicted, Brixton, 1976 In 1972, some transpontine activists in the Gay Liberation Front founded a South London branch, which initially met from 1972 in the Minet Library, North Brixton. Among their early actions was stre…

#OnThisDay in London gay history: the squatted South London Gay Centre evicted, Railton Road, Brixton, 1976
wp.me/p74yfw-u1

More here: www.revoltinggays.com

I went to the library to get a book on conspiracies but they didn't have any.

Coincidence? I don't think so!

The Women’s Liberation Movement and the Gendering of Undercover Police Surveillance in 1970s Britain: the Public Inquiry as (Un)Ethical archive Abstract. In the 1970s a female police officer went undercover in the feminist movement in Britain. Across two years, she shared plans, conversations, and

My article on 1970s feminists, spycops, and if feminist historians can use materials extracted by undercover police officers is out in History Workshop Journal doi.org/10.1093/hwj/...

Refurbished M&S store opens with ribbon-cutting ceremony Percy Pig joined in the celebrations!

After the ceremony, the Wicker Pig was burned as a sacrifice on a hilltop outside of the town.

Today in London radical history: compositors locked out, 1911 Compositors (type-setters) working on London newspapers were locked out by employers in January and February 1911, after demanding a 48 hour working week. The printers’ union, the London Soci…

#OnThisDay in London radical history, 1912: The Daily Herald is launched as a leftwing tabloid paper, though it had existed as a strike sheet from 1911, emerging as strike bulletin from the
newspaper compositors’ lockout

pasttense.co.uk/2016/02/04/t...

Painting by Lee Madgwick of a floating tower block crumbling from the bottom in a flat landscape and stormy sky.

Painting by Lee Madgwick. An old remnant of a seaside resort under a moody sky. Three attached premises face the unseen sea from the promenade. Two deckchairs are positioned on the beach.

A painting by Lee Madgwick of a lone abandoned, partially boarded up ruin under storm clouds.

A painting by Lee Madgwick. A brutalist building with an exterior staircase. Birds fly by. ‘Hope’ is scrawled in graffiti at the top.

Hi #portfolioday I’m Lee, I’m a painter from England. I have a penchant for abandoned and derelict buildings - an unhealthy obsession that finds its way into my strange and unsettling universe.

It speaks volumes about our president. It looks like an SNL skit.

Two girls at a weaving station in a victorian era factory.

By October 1797 more than 200 children had been admitted to the Asylum for the Infant Poor on the outskirts of Birmingham. It was presented as a refuge or place of safety, despite the reality that most children spent their days in the asylum's workshops.
www.herts.ac.uk/uhpress/book...

Late in the evening OTD 1912 RMS Titanic hits one of the icebergs shown on this June 1912 chart of the North Atlantic. The Bodleian holds the Marconi archive and before the ship sank telegrams were sent both from the ship and to others in the area like this one, calling for help. @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Inspired by the way so many classic songs fade out at the end rather than having an actual ending, in my next book, the text will just get fainter and fainter until you can't see it anymore.

Mark Ruffalo, Glenn Close, Ben Stiller, Jane Fonda, John Cusack, Kristen Stewart, JJ Abrams, Katie Phang, John Leguizamo, and over a thousand actors, writers, directors, journalists, producers, composers, and Hollywood executives have signed a letter against the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger:

🧵

4 years later, Broadcasting House begins construction immediately behind it

A rectangle colour linocut. The dominant colour is yellow, which is used for the platform & walls & ceiling of an underground train station, lit as they are by electric light. Shadows in the form of triangles of green reappear across the picture. The platform curves from far left to a dark tunnel two thirds of the way towards the picture’s right hand edge. At the platform is a curving red train. At its head is a worker on the platform signalling to it. The train is full of silhouettes of passengers. The platform is empty of them.

The Tube Station, linocut, by Cyril Power, c.1932.

News from the Victorian Society | Save Liverpool Street Station: Write to the Mayor News about Save Liverpool Street Station: Write to the Mayor from the The Victorian Society - news.

This is a critical moment for Liverpool Street Station.

A damaging and unnecessary scheme now stands to be approved unless the Mayor of London intervenes.
The Mayor now has the power to step in and refuse this scheme.

Write to the Mayor and urge him to refuse these proposals. bit.ly/4844PBo

Every time I contemplate local and wider higher education management/policy poor old Calgacus’s summary of Roman policy springs ineluctaboy to mind:

ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

Where they make a desolation, they call it peace.

visions of the twilight zone episode when the ventriloquist becomes the dummy and vice versa.

My new (and first) book, The Drunkard in Victorian Fiction and Culture is out in May with @edinburghup.bsky.social. You can now pre-order which is pretty cool. Even cooler is that you can get 30% off with this flyer/code. Recommend to your university library if you think it will be of interest. 🍷

1926 General Strike Centenary Open Day The People’s History Museum in Manchester is hosting a special open day to mark the centenary of the 1926 General Strike on the 9 May 2026. The event will delve into the strike’s contin…

The People's History Museum is hosting a special open day on the 9 May to commemorate the centenary of the 1926 General Strike. We are delighted to support this event! sslh.org.uk/2026/04/13/1...

“Women”

Man Who Threw Molotov Cocktail At Sam Altman’s Home Claims He Was Following ChatGPT Recipe For Risotto

Man Who Threw Molotov Cocktail At Sam Altman’s Home Claims He Was Following ChatGPT Recipe For Risotto theonion.com/man-who-threw-molotov-co...

🎯

The Helen de Witt stuff is making me think of the writing industry convention/seminar-type thing I was invited to a little while ago. There were a couple of hundred writers there, lots of great people, and the organisers were really lovely.

Well spotted!

My 6-wk course ‘Unreal City: the History of London Through Literature, c.1780 to Today’ starts Tue 22 April, 6.30pm @MaryWardCentre Stratford, E London

We'll examine c.250 years of London through the eyes of authors from William Blake to Zadie Smith, Ainsworth to Zephaniah
To book shorturl.at/72fIY

Good afternoon! This week's theme is London Worship.
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'St Nicholas, Deptford' by Louise Hayward
societyofwoodengravers.co.uk/shop/p/louise-hayward-st-nicholas-deptford

This is what Times Square will look like when Congress or a cheeseburger finally does its job

South Parks: Tales from the Southern Commons with Chris Roberts Join writer and tour guide Chris Roberts, to talk about the history, development of and folklore surrounding London parks.

About this time tomorrow I'll be heading up to Carnegie Library for tea & biscuits ahead of my talk. Free tea? What's not to like?
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/south-park...

#OtD 13 Apr 1906 Irish novelist, poet, and playwright, Samuel Beckett, was born. During the Nazi occupation of France, Beckett joined the French Resistance as a courier. After the war, he was awarded the Croix de guerre and the Médaille de la Résistance for his efforts

Montage of front covers from Salvation Army newspapers, The War Cry and The Social Gazette

🥳We're so pleased to announce that two Salvation Army periodicals are now available on the British Newspaper Archive.

'The War Cry' for 1879-1985 & 'The Social Gazette' for its entire run of 1893-1917. A total of more than 70,000 pages! 🙌

www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/titles/BL/war-cry 🔒