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CC’s King’s Road in the 80s: people and places
We’ve had a few visits to the King’s Road in recent months. No sooner had I introduced you to the work of Bill Figg than my old friend CC came along with some equally interesting (and technically...
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The Times of Chelsea – magic, mystics, motoring and maxis
The Times of Chelsea was a small magazine which ran from 1973-1975. It contained a mixture of Chelsea subject matter – news stories to do with planning or conservation, features on local residents,...
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Elegant shopping at Derry and Toms
Victoria Station, at a quiet time of the day. Sometime…in the 1920s, I think. A display unit, and some posters reminding you to head for Kensington for high-class fashion and household goods. Four of...
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Thomson’s guide to London
Now the weather is warmer and we’re in the serious summer, we can relax a little and revisit an old friend, the artist and illustrator Hugh Thomson. Along with his annual “big books” with colour...
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Costume Ball 5: more ladies, more gentlemen
It’s January, so we start the new year by going back to the Duchess of Devonshire’s Jubilee Costume Ball of 1897, for another visit. But don’t think I’m scraping away at the bottom of the barrel. There...
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Masks of fashion: Clementina and the room of stars
I’ve wanted to find a good reason to come back to Clementina, Lady Hawarden and her brief career exploring costume, fabric and light within the confines of a few rooms in her house at Princes Gardens....
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Shopping in the 50s: the Kensington High Street experience
Although I spent my childhood far from Kensington, in the 1960s I did once visit the High Street and its famous triumvirate of department stores, Barker’s, Derry and Tom’s and Ponting’s. Even as a...
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Costume Ball 4: Ladies only
It’s the time of year for parties so we’re back at that social event of 1897, the Duchess of Devonshire’s Diamond Jubilee Costume Ball which has proved to be one of the most popular subjects on the...
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Rite of spring: Mr Ruskin’s May Queen
John Ruskin wouldn’t sit down for this picture. However poor the state of his health he felt it was unthinkable for him to sit in the presence of Rossetti so the great artist held him up. Ruskin was a...
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Return of the Edwardian sartorialist – Sambourne’s Kensington street style
I have good reason to be grateful to Edward Linley Sambourne. My original post about his street photography (Street Style 1906) has been the most popular single item on this blog and has brought in...
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Trelawny at the Royal Court 1898
Currently playing at the Donmar Warehouse in London’s West End is a modern version of Arthur Wing Pinero’s play of 1898, Trelawny of the Wells, directed by the well know film director Joe Wright...
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18th century escapades: the votaries of dissipation at Ranelagh
In April 1776 the gentleman who called himself Momus, the Laughing Philosopher went on a ramble and wrote an account of it in the Westminster Magazine. After a walk in the park he found the day so...
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Party time again: Costume Ball 1897
For those of you who are not especially interested in the Duchess of Devonshire’s Jubilee Costume Ball of 1897 my apologies. But according to my blog statistics there are many of you who can’t get...
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An Englishman abroad: Sambourne in Holland
This week we’re travelling with Edward Linley Sambourne again. Sambourne was an active man even in his later years. He thought nothing of taking a train to Scotland on a Sunday for a couple of days...
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The first fashion photographer: Clementina, Lady Hawarden
I first came across this photograph in a history of 19th century costume. It’s been widely published in print and online so you may well be familiar with it. The author in that book said that the woman...
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Back to the party: the Duchess of Devonshire’s Costume Ball 1897
After nearly a year of blogging I’ve been looking back at the most popular posts of the last twelve months and at number four was the original post about the Duchess of Devonshire’s Diamond Jubilee...
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Beach style 1906 : Linley Sambourne at the seaside
There was a heat wave in 1906 throughout the whole of the British Isles, quite late in the year at the end of August and the early days of September. Edward Linley Sambourne went to the coast as...
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Paris street style 1906: Linley Sambourne goes abroad
There was quite a bit of interest in my first post about Edward Linley Sambourne’s street photography so now that Victorian month is over we can go back to the early years of the 20th century and...
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