14
Feb
What’s the Story? Love, Saints & Amethyst
Did you receive a love letter this morning which made you go all limp and reflective, like this lovely lady, imagined by the Victorian artist John Callcott Horsley?
It’s Valentine’s Day, of course, a day when we celebrate love, but there’s a bit of confusion ...
9
Jan
What’s the Story? Names & Numbers
I came across this question while researching yesterday’s post on the Penny Black -‘how would you know where to deliver a letter if there were no street names and no numbers on the door?’.
Good question, and one that I admit to having never thought about befor ...
2
Jan
What’s the Story? New Year’s Resolution
Firstly, may I wish you all a very happy New Year.
We are all hoping for good things in 2018 and I am sure you will have made a variety of ‘new start – better me’ type resolutions for the New Year. I have noticed that a lot of people have been keen to make ...
19
Dec
What’s the Story? Christmas Pudding
Are you a traditionalist when it comes to the end of the Christmas meal? For me nothing comes close to Christmas pudding but I have often wondered what the ‘figgy pudding’ in the song ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’ was? Was it a fig pudding of sorts ...
12
Dec
What’s the Story? Christmas Crackers
All the staff at Prickett & Ellis got together last Saturday for our Christmas Party – you can imagine it: welcoming drinks, happy faces and beautifully laid tables with a tube of coloured paper at every place. Yes, what would a Christmas celebration be without cracker ...
28
Nov
What’s the Story? The First Christmas Tree
Have you thought about your Christmas tree yet? We will be getting ours next week and we are delighted to be sponsoring the tree in St James Square this year – which will be lit for the Very Merry Muswell event on the 9th December. Talking of Christmas trees – di ...
21
Nov
What’s the Story? Win with Spot-it!
Come on everybody – there’s a great prize to be won and it is so easy to enter our great Spot-it! competition. All you have to do is identify this local landmark.
Need a clue? These 1930s blocks of flats were designed by the architect Berthold Lubetkin on the hi ...
14
Nov
What’s the Story? Highwaymen of Finchley Common
We have been experiencing a rash of motorbike robberies lately. They appear to be carried out mainly by young men, working in pairs, grabbing valuables like phones and handbags. One of my colleagues had a run-in with a pair of these thugs on Finchley High Road recently and as ...
7
Nov
What’s the Story? Charter for Trees, Woods & People
We are incredibly lucky to have five remnants of Ancient Woodland to enjoy in our area. In England these are defined as woodlands which have been in continuous existence since 1600 – long enough to develop as ecosystems that are rich, complex, and irreplaceable. In fact ...
1
Nov
What’s the Story? Bubonic Plague – is Back?
There’s been a bit of a stir in the press about the return of the Plague! Actually, it seems that this dreadful disease, which decimated populations in London and all over Europe in the 14th century and then again in the 17th century, has never gone away – it has ju ...
24
Oct
What’s the Story? Walthamstow Wetlands
I can’t say Walthamstow without my family laughing because, for some reason, I get it mixed up with Stoke Newington. So it’s not surprising that they thought it was a joke when I told them that, after a £10.6m investment, Europe’s largest urban wetland reserve is ...
17
Oct
What’s the Story? The Victorian Society
It’s hard to imagine there was a time when Victorian architecture was despised and neglected. The Festival of Britain in 1951 sponsored the idea of a Brave New Britain, with modernist architecture and design. Meanwhile, Britain’s architectural heritage was under at ...
