Historic Buildings

* The “Upminster Windmill” – its renovation and the lifting & fitting of its 4 newly restored ‘Sails’
Not essential travel I know, but this week London Shoes decided to take a short 10min bus ride from its Romford base to the neighbouring town of Upminster, for the purpose of witnessing a unique event, that you certainly don’t see happen everyday on a street of a London borough. The town of Upminster is ...Read more...

* “Meard Street” -London W1 – the Soho street stuck in a time-warp
Last week’s jaunt out saw my London Shoes head ‘up west’ to the Soho district of the ‘Smoke’, for the specific purpose of exploring a famous street that is virtually next door to the Barclays Bank branch in Wardour Street, where I worked from 1974 to 1978 when I was a teenager – and yet ...Read more...

* The iconic ‘BBC – Broadcasting House’ – Portland Place-London W1
Under a rare beautifully sunny London sky for this time of year, last week, London Shoes ventured out to the far west of the west-end district – for the specific purpose of viewing a magnificent building, which in my opinion – is one of London’s most unappreciated and undervalued architectural masterpieces:- “Broadcasting House” – in ...Read more...

*London’s “Big Ben” & its young brother…..”Little Ben”
Anyone visiting the ‘Smoke’ during the past couple of years will be aware that one of the capital’s most globally recognised landmarks ‘Big Ben’ has been scaffolded and boarded up whilst it undergoes 4 years of essential repairs. In fact back in August 2017 my London Shoes website published a blog entitled “Bong-less’ Big Ben” ...Read more...

* “Leadenhall Market” – one of London’s oldest & most impressive market sites
Under a dull, grey, damp and miserable London sky last week, London Shoes took the short train journey from its base – into the City’s ‘Square Mile’, for the purpose of exploring a historic London landmark that’s been a ‘constant’ since the 1300’s and quite possibly since Roman times………..the structurally magnificent and splendid:- “Leadenhall Market”-London ...Read more...

*The beautiful “City of London Cemetery”-Manor Park-E12 – one of the largest municipal Cemeteries in Europe
Although the temperatures in the ‘Smoke’ this week were a bit bonkers, there was a serious need for London Shoes to build up the old fitness levels, and so I braved the heat and headed-off on a short 15min train journey to the site of this week’s chosen subject matter. Anyone who has travelled by ...Read more...

*the legacy of “Thomas Barnardo” – his ‘Barnardo Village-Girls Home’ & the ‘Ragged School’
This week London Shoes ventured out onto public transport for only the second time in the 3 months+ during these strange Covid19 virus pandemic travel restricted times – and headed off to Barkingside in the London Borough of Redbridge and also Mile End in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets – for the purpose of ...Read more...

*London’s “Lost Music Venues” – Part 3-the Chalk Farm Roundhouse & the Dagenham Roundhouse
Because of the Covid19 pandemic travel restrictions, London Shoes has had to vary its approach to publishing regular articles on its website-facebook-twitter portals. Its done this by either utilising photos extracted from previous blogs, to create new topics – or alternatively, venturing out ‘locally’ to cover-off topics of historic interest within its London Bor. of ...Read more...

* The “Romford Brewery”-its history & legacy
Because of the Covid19 virus lockdown situation, London Shoes has obviously had to temporarily suspend the weekly jaunts out to the big ‘Smoke’. Fortunately, during this current ‘lockdown’ period, ‘Shoes’ has still been able to post regular articles to its Website-Facebook & Twitter portals, by utilising material that had been collated but had not yet ...Read more...

*The “London Police & Crime”-Walking Tour – with ‘The Laughing Policemen’
Last week was quite a unique one for ‘London Shoes’, when I received an invitation from 2 highly acclaimed ‘London Walking Tour’ guides, asking me if I would like to accompany them on a ‘new’ tour they’ve designed – as they would value my feedback of the tour, its content and its delivery – before ...Read more...