I’ve used Flourish.Studio and data from my Church St occupancy survey 1847-2021 to create an animated ‘race chart’ showing the most common businesses by type in Stoke Newington Church St since 1847. You can view it in action and interact with it here. 

The 14th Stoke Newington History Talks event on December 3rd was attended by 130+ viewers on YouTube and included talks from myself, Billy Reading and Caz Richards. It was a very different experience than the usual in-person setting I got used to in the last 4 years, but it was still a great evening nonetheless. £573 was raised for the Hackney Foodbank and each talk generated interesting questions from the remote audience. And now I can start planning the next event!

Continue reading “03.12.2020 – Stoke Newington History Talks #14” →

Connie Dimsdale wrote a piece in the Hackney Gazette about my talk in October, which drew an online audience of 315 people.

From the article: 

Hackney’s Cllr Sophie Cameron (Clissold, Lab) said she feels “heartened” by how popular the history of Stoke Newington is: “One of the things that is so amazing about the local area is that there are so many people invested in the history…and it really affirms their identity. “It gives people a connection to the past that sometimes they feel is missing in modern life.

Hackney Gazette

You can read the full article here

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.