Yesterday I gave an online talk on YouTube, which was attended by 315 people, out of the 580(!) that booked tickets. Both were incredible numbers and it was great to be able to share old photos of Stoke Newington Church Street with such a large audience. The 45min talk was structured as a tour of Stoke Newington Church Street using photos I was given kindly by the Hackney Archives, when I first gave the talk a few years ago. Special thank you to Nick Perry who organised and orchestrated the event.

The talk was organised by HackneySociety.org and HackneyHistory.org

Clara Murray from LovingDalston.co.uk wrote a short article about my campaign asking the council to save old street signs. Earlier this year I learnt through correspondence with the council, that irrespective of their potential historical significance, street signs are removed and destroyed if they are considered no longer fit-for-purpose due to their condition.

Continue reading “14.10.2020 – An Article About My Campaign to Save Old Street Signs Across Stoke Newington” →

I was chuffed to be invited a few months ago to record a BBC ‘Boring Talk’ podcast about my fascination with coalhole cover designs. It was great fun to record in the BBC 4 studio and also in the streets of Stoke Newington. You can listen to the podcast here.

Continue reading “BBC ‘Boring Talks’ Podcast” →

The 13th Stoke Newington History Talks event was held in St Matthias Halls on March 2nd in front of a packed audience. Brilliant talks by Alan Denney and Andy Wells. Proceeds from this event were donated to Hackney Playbus. Thank you to all who attended.

Continue reading “02.03.2020 – Stoke Newington History Talks #13” →

The 12th Stoke Newington History event of the year was held on December 3rd in St Matthias Halls, as usual. All 155 Tickets were snatched in 22 hours, which was incredible. Proceeds from this event were donated to Pets Against Loneliness; a group of volunteers bringing together older members of the community with well-behaved dogs and their owners for the purposes of joy and the alleviation of loneliness.

Continue reading “03.12.2019 – Stoke Newington History Talks #12” →

I had a great time presenting my survey of Stoke Newington coal-hole cover designs as part of the October Nerd Nite London event. It’s very niche and ultra-geeky, which is why Nerd Nite is the ideal forum to share my interest in these decorative cast iron beauties.

Continue reading “16.10.2019 – Nerd Nite Talk: The Beauty of Victorian Coal-Hole Covers” →

Here’s a snippet from a Financial Times article about Stoke Newington house prices, which includes a few quotes I provided the journalist who contacted me on Twitter.

I had the pleasure of presenting my talk about the dramatic campaign to save Clissold Park from development in the Drawing Room in Clissold House as part of a festive Sunday celebrating 130 years of Clissold Park, which coincided with the Open House London weekend. Giving this talk in Clissold House always feels special.

Continue reading “22.09.2019 – Clissold House Open House Event” →

Sam Gelder from the Hackney Gazette wrote an article about my recent photo-survey of the 17 surviving street signs that include ‘Borough of Stoke Newington’, meaning they date back from the the period of 1900-1965 when Stoke Newington was an independent metropolitan borough. I’ve been fascinated by these old signs for a while and finally got around to documenting them all. You can read the online version of the article here.

The photos I took of all the street signs can be viewed here. 

The 11th Stoke Newington History Talks take place on Sep 10th and was jammed packed with 120 people. The talks by guest speakers Nick Higham and Anne Wilkinson were absolutely fascinating. I’m glad I finally got a chance to share my extensive collection of material about Stoke Newington seven long-lost cinemas. I’m glad that seating capacity will be increased to 140-150 for the next event in order to accommodate demand.

Continue reading “10.09.2019 – Stoke Newington History Talks #11” →