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. Recording a podcast about such a visual …

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. Here are the audio slideshows and slides of the three talks: …

Continue reading 02.03.2020 – Stoke Newington History Talks #13

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. Slides Videos https://youtu.be/DZ2wbMsh5tU https://youtu.be/evNOl83H9QM Photos  

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 …

Continue reading 03.12.2019 – Stoke Newington History Talks #12

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.

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 …

Continue reading 12.09.2019 – ‘Old road signs should be protected’ – Stoke Newington historian / The Hackney Gazette

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 …

Continue reading 10.09.2019 – Stoke Newington History Talks #11

I had a great time presenting a Stoke Newington history talk for the 3rd year running as part of the Stoke Newington Literary Festival. This year I presented the story of the campaign to save Clissold Park in the mid 1880s. The Gallery Hall in Edwards Lane was completely packed with 135 people and I'm …

Continue reading 09.06.2019 – Stoke Newington Literary Festival

The 10th Stoke Newington History Talks event was a packed event as always in St Matthias Halls. It was great seeing so many familiar faces from previous events and both Ruth and Laurie captivated the audience with their descriptions of the Willows Estate on Carysfort Road and the Hackney Brook respectively. https://www.slideshare.net/HistoryofStokeNewing/stoke-newington-history-treasure-troves-by-amir-dotan https://www.slideshare.net/HistoryofStokeNewing/the-willows-estate-rural-to-industrial-to-gated-development-in-stoke-newington-by-ruth-swirsky https://www.slideshare.net/HistoryofStokeNewing/this-plashy-stream-memories-of-the-hackney-brook-by-laurie-elks