It was great meeting people on May 25th who came to Revere the Residence in Stoke Newington Church Street to get their local history questions answered by Nick Perry, Richard Young, Rachel Tobyn and I. As with the first and second sessions, we were presented with a wide range of interesting questions from the history of St Mary’s Lodge in Lordship Road to whether the Hackney Brook runs under the railway line in Rectory Road!

Continue reading “25.05.2023 – Stoke Newington History Drop-In Session no. 3” →

90 people attended the 18th Stoke Newington History Talks event in St Matthias Halls and it was a great evening with talks about local ghost stories, the area’s pre-historic past and rare archeological finds and my talk about local history items I got on eBay.

Continue reading “20.4.2023 Stoke Newington History Talks no. 18” →

80 people braved the icy pavements and cold evening to gather in St Matthias Halls for the 17th Stoke Newington History Talks event on Dec 12th. It was great to be back hosting an in-person for the first time since the pandemic and seeing many familiar faces. The event sold out in less than 24 hours, which was amazing.

Continue reading “12.12.2022 Stoke Newington History Talks no. 17” →

I was invited to talk to Liam Davis about Stoke Newington’s history on his online radio show on Shoreditch Radio. We touched on a variety of topics during a 30min chat such as municipal boundaries, gentrification and Abney Park. You can listen to it here from 28:34min.

The second Stoke Newington History Pop-Up event was held on November 22nd and it was a pleasure meeting people who came to see Nick Perry, Rachel Tobyn and Richard Young and myself to ask us local history questions. From a couple that moved into the area and wanted to learn about the history of their street to a woman who wanted to know the history of the nursery building where she’s working. It was great fun and hopefully we’ll do it again in a the spring.

Continue reading “22.11.2022 Stoke Newington History Pop-Up #2” →

I helped the director and researcher of BBC’s Antique Roadshow with their research into the history of Clissold Park as part of the filming of three episodes there, which is taking place on July 10th. The first of three episodes filmed in the park was aired on October 9th. The other two episodes will be aired in 2023.

Continue reading “Local History Adviser on BBC’s Antique Roadshow” →

On October 4th 2022 I had the pleasure of giving a talk to members of CAMRA’s London Pubs Group about Stoke Newington’s lost pubs. It was an extended version of the first part of my recent talk in the Stoke Newington Literary Festival about Stoke Newington’s ‘ghost’ pubs and cinemas. By the way, have you tried my free self-guided walk ‘Stoke Newington’s Lost Pubs’ yet?

Continue reading “4.10.2022 – Private Talk to CAMRA’s London Pubs Group” →

I was interviewed for Hackney Social Audio and talked about my Stoke Newington history hobby. It was good fun and a chance to reflect on the last 9 years since I started this account. You can listen to the interview here from 7:26min into the episode.

Continue reading “01.08.2022 – Interview for Hackney Social Audio Podcast” →

On Sunday, June 5th I gave a talk as part of the Stoke Newington Literary Festival about some of Stoke Newington’s lost pubs and cinemas. It was great being in front of an audience for the first time since early March 2020 in the historic Mildmay Club in Newington Green. I gave talks in the festival in 2017, 2018 and 2019. It was always great fun and and a thrill to be part of a such a fantastic local event. I enjoyed putting the material together and doing additional research in the process. All 80 tickets sold out in two days and I was glad I was able to get through all 142(!) slides in 45min.

Continue reading “05.06.2022 – Stoke Newington Literary Festival Talk” →