British History Online, including Survey of London

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi, Everyone,
This weekend my eye was drawn to an ad. for a house for sale in London, and noticed a link for a (many-volumed) reference book called:"Survey of London".
This appears on line as part of the brilliantly informative British History on Line, of which a few English Counties already appear.
At:British History Online catalogue
they already have sections on Kensington, Spitalfields and Mile End, History of Lambeth, Covent Garden among others.
There is a great deal of fascinating architectural detail on the buildings, with line drawings of facades.  Was able to have a good look at Queen's Gate, South Kensington, where an ancestor of mine lived for 25 years.
Plus, in the general section you can key in a surname or place and find all kinds of fascinating details going back hundreds of years.
There's a tenuous family connection with Sir Richard GURNARD(or sometimes GURNEY), who was Lord Mayor of London when the Civil War broke out; he was promptly put in the Tower of London.  But I didn't realise until reading today that in 1644 he was let out on bail for a month to "Tunbridge" to benefit his health...(Though I do know he died incarcerated in The Tower in 1647).
Hope other Rootschatters might find something of interest on British History On Line...
Very best wishes,
keith

[janan]

Thanks for that link Keith
I have an 1810 will of John Childs of Charles St Long Acre  so nice to read about the disreputable area he lived in (second floor mind, which I understand made him a little better off than those below). Also great to at last locate it on a map - Charles St became Upper Wellington St in 1844 an attempt to distance it from it's bad reputation!
Jan

[JLo]

Thanks Keith for this reminder of a site I haven't looked at for ages.  
I could spend all afternoon looking at the surveys, but will have to make do with looking at Mile End New Town for today  

[Lydart]

Thanks for the link ... I just looked up Barkers, in Kensington High Street, where my grandfather worked for many years between the wars ... lots to read when I've got a minute.

Also the Derry and Toms roof garden plan brought back memories of being taken up there as a child ...

I've book-marked it !

[Keith Sherwood]

Lydart,
Derry and Toms roof garden is a childhood memory of mine, too!
Just had a good read of the reference to the Mary Abbotts Hospital in Marloes Rd. W8.  Used to live in a shared student house opposite there in the late 1960's - had no idea it used to be the local Workhouse...
keith

[Lydart]

Keith ... I was born in Mary Abbots hospital during WW2 !!!   I dont think it was a workhouse then !

[Keith Sherwood]

Lydart,
Well, how amazing is that!!  Don't know when it stopped being a workhouse (probably some time after WWI), but I do remember a TV programme a few years ago where a frantic ambulance was trying to negotiate a traffic jam in Cromwell Rd. trying to bring a heart (or maybe it was a kidney) to Mary Abbots for a transplant patient...

[nanny jan]

Keith,

Great site as I've lots of Londoners in my tree.  Thanks.


Nanny Jan