Dunwich was a very important trading and fishing port along the Suffolk coast of England. I say ‘was’ because the bulk of the town, a square mile of it, is now underwater. The coastline here is very sandy, so is highly susceptible to erosion. The town has been falling into the sea since the medieval period. Historian Dan Snow has helpfully done a little spot on the place that’s worth a watch (it’s a bit old, so the picture quality…
Last week marked the first time I commuted into an office since mid-October. It was fine, other than the Overground train in the morning running incredibly slow and getting to Whitechapel nearly 20 minutes later than it should have – making that leg of the journey 47 minutes instead of 27 minutes. And of course the train is standing room only once it reaches our station (the 2nd station up from where the train starts) thanks to Southern cutting services…
Well I certainly got my wish for some colder weather this past week. It’s been great, sunshine, clear evening skies, and I get to wear my new winter jacket from Christmas. When it’s especially clear at night, we can see an impressive amount of objects in the sky for being relatively close to the perma-noon of central London. We popped along to a talk by the Norwood Society on the history of Anerley Hill – a short, but jam-packed with…
Well, the biggest event for me this week has been starting a new job. I took a bit of time off after leaving my previous job in mid-October, so it’s been a bit of a shock to the system. A shock that went well though. The first week was completely remote, and the company on a whole is hybrid working, but very chill about it. The office is in Bloomsbury, somewhere I’ve not worked before. I do really enjoy the…
In an effort to do a bit more writing and posting here, I thought I’d have a go at the ‘Week Notes’ format. Each week, just writing about interesting bits from the past week. Let’s get stuck in! The week kicked off with a visit to St. James’s Park to do a bit of birding. It was the first time I was really out and about since before Christmas. I had myself a chest infection that was very determined to…
169 years ago today, a dinner party was thrown that if it had been organised now, would be herralded as ‘London’s most Instagramable dinner experience pop up’ or something along those lines. It has to do with the dinosaur statues in Crystal Palace Park and the Victorian penchant for spectacle… Dinner in the Iguanodon One of the larger of the model dinosaurs built for the park are those of the Iguanodon. During construction of the models, the paleontologist working on the…
So winter hit London recently. The temperature dropped to around freezing last weekend and the snow started to fall Sunday evening. Liz and I got a few walks in at some of our favourite South East London nature spots… Dulwich Wood – Sunday 11 Dec The colder temperatures made for a very atmospheric walk through Dulwich Wood on Sunday morning. The damp air was made into a frosty fog which was just perfect atmosphere for an ancient woodland. The walk…
Last Sunday we headed off to the O2 Arena in North Greenwich to take in a couple of basketball games. The event was called the Basketball Hall of Fame London Showcase, though the players on show are likely future hall of famers as it was four American college teams playing. It marks the first time college hoops have been played in London. First up was Marist College vs. University of Maine. Maine had a quite few Canadian players including one…
This week a friend and I made a pilgramage to have one last visit to the Museum of London. It will be closing its doors on the 4th of December to start preparing to move to its new location in Smithfield. Lots can be read about the new museum here First off, I got a lot of photos of the outside as this corner of the Barbican is slated to be heavily redeveloped. Inside the museum, we fell into the classic trap of taking…
We recently spent a couple of days in Suffolk, somewhere that Liz hadn’t explored very much. I’ve been to a few sights when I lived in Cambridgeshire A Long Time Ago. So, it was ripe for exploring. First up was a town we recently heard of in a couple of places; Lavenham. It was featured on BBC Four’s ‘Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village’ as well as a handy book we have called ‘Escape London‘. It’s considered…