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Description
SideStreets is a podcast about the history and geography of London.
SideStreets will not attempt a narrative history of London. It will instead focus on out-of-the-way places, little-known people, and good stories. It will use them, I hope, to illustrate important patterns and principles in that history and maybe even in the history of all cities.
Enjoy extra exclusive additions to the regular episodes by supporting us on Patreon.
38 Episodes
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Come with us as we dig into the origins of London's most distinctive feature: the residential square. We'll stroll in our first public park, gaze meditatively out of some drawing room windows, trip over rotten vegetables, and dodge duellists. Visit Our Website: https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support Us on Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=84135705
We continue the story of Emma Hamilton in this episode — she becomes even more famous, even more influential, even more powerful, then things go horribly, disastrously wrong . . . Visit Our Website: https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support Us on Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=84135705
To celebrate the holidays, we dig up some old alleyways about graves and memorials. You'll encounter missing teeth, plastic swans, a stone tent, and a faithful companion. Visit Our Website: https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support Us on Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=84135705
Over the next two episodes we look at the life and work of one of England's most underrated cultural figures: Emma Hamilton. Watch her create a style, an artform, a freeing revolution, then watch her life disintegrate into exile, poverty, and premature death.
This month, we wade and scramble from the Swan Theatre, where Queen Elizabeth I was dangerously satirized, to Holland's Leaguer, where her successor James I went for a disreputable good time. Then we speculate a bit about what happened to all these edgy amusements. Visit Our Website: https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support Us on Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=84135705
Come with me in this episode as I make my way through the wildest part of Shakespeare's Bankside. We will meet Winchester Geese, apes on horseback, the first billboards, and rap battles between competing preachers. Visit Our Website: https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support Us on Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=84135705
Come with me as we brave the crowds and the confusion to visit the neighborhood Shakespeare would have known. There's so much to see that we will need at least two episodes!Visit Our Website: https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support Us on Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=84135705
Meet Patrick Colquhoun, slave-trader, wartime profiteer, founder of the Thames River Police. As much as anyone, he created modern London. Visit Our Website: https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support Us on Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=84135705
This episode considers London's changing relationship with the rivers flowing through it, paying particular attention to the attempt to make the Fleet River respectable after the Great Fire. Visit Our Website: https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support Us on Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=84135705
In this episode, we meet another pillar—the magnificent Maori carving rising through the centre of New Zealand House. In a bit of Westminster thick with sculpture, this one puts all the others to shame.Visit Our Website: https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support Us on Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=84135705
We take a walk through the history of Brick Lane, and eventually witness -- and celebrate -- the construction of Banglatown’s jewel, the Brick Lane Jamme Masjid’s minaret.Visit Our Website: https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support Us on Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=84135705
In this episode we meet Anna Hassall, in many ways a typical female entrepreneur of early 18c Jamaica. But Anna, unlike her business partners competitors, ended up in Westminster Abbey. Why?Visit Our Website: https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/ Support Us on Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=84135705
Meet Elizabeth Montagu, doyenne of the Feather Room and hostess of the Chimneysweeps' Feast, who gently feminized London society for half a century. Visit Our WebsiteSupport Us on PatreonSideStreets is a Black Lab Media Production © 2025 - All rights reserved
Why would one of the most famous, successful, influential women of Victorian Britain, one of the greatest and most effective champions of progressive causes, spend twenty years campaigning to deny herself political power? I wish I knew . . . Visit our website Support us on Patreon Copyright Black Lab Media AB 2025 - All rights reserved
Two young men on the make decide that Christmas is a marketing opportunity disguised as a holiday. In London during the third week of September 1843, modern consumerism comes of age.Visit our website - https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support us on Patreon - patreon.com/user?u=84135705
In this episode, we head back to the 60's when Thames geese competed with Eric Clapton's guitar riffs and the wail of Rod Stewart's harmonica, and the hush of Richmond's middle-class respectability was delightfully disturbed by the birth of British rhythm and blues. Visit our website - https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support us on Patreon - patreon.com/user?u=84135705
In 1914 and 1915, thousands of Belgian refugees descended on East Twickenham, many to work in the great munitions factory by Richmond Bridge. They had their own shops, schools, choir, orchestra, theatre groups, even a brothel. By 1920 they were all gone. This episode tells the story of this brief, strange moment in the history of leafy Richmond.---Support us on Patreon - patreon.com/user?u=84135705Visit Our Website - https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/
Marianne North was one of Victorian England’s greatest travelers, and wherever she went, she painted plants. Her greatest adventures were in the tropics, and her greatest achievement is the Gallery of her collected work in Kew Gardens. Come visit it with us!---Visit our Website - https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support us on Patreon - patreon.com/user?u=84135705
In this episode we meet Black Jack Needham, 2nd Earl of Kilmorey, one of Richmond-upon-Thames's most eccentric eccentrics. We also meet his baby elephant, his escaping snakes, his rat-fur shroud, and his migrating Mausoleum.---Visit our Website - https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support us on Patreon - patreon.com/user?u=84135705
In today’s episode we’re going further back than we’ve ever done before… all the way to the founding of London. Many know that London was initially established by the Romans, but did you know that they actually founded London TWICE! Explore this intricate story with us on today's episode of SideStreets. Visit our website: https://www.sidestreets.co.uk/Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=84135705
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