Independently London
Our blog on London, its curiosities and its history, for independently-minded Londoners, and anyone else who might be independently interested in London.
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Woolwich
Posted on 07 April, 2021
Woolwich is very old. It’s been settled since the Iron Age, before the Romans built Londinium. Its name suggests that in Anglo-Saxon times it was a trading place for wool.
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Westminster
Posted on 28 March, 2021
Westminster was once an island at an important ford across the River, but the name originally referred only to the Abbey.
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Wandsworth
Posted on 22 March, 2021
Wandsworth is the only metropolitan borough to have lost bits when it was transformed into a larger London borough of the same name in 1965.
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Great Cockney traditions
Posted on 18 March, 2021
From Bow bells to jellied eels, you can’t beat a good old bit of Cockney tradition, the heart and soul of London’s culture and identity.
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Stoke Newington
Posted on 14 March, 2021
In population terms, Stoke Newington (“Stokey” to its friends) was London’s smallest metropolitan borough.
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Stepney
Posted on 10 March, 2021
Though the area we call Stepney nowadays is quite small, it was once a manor that covered most of what’s now the East End.
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Indian London (part two)
Posted on 06 March, 2021
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Indian London (part one)
Posted on 02 March, 2021
There’s been an Indian community in London for centuries. While nowadays strongest in West London, it was at one time based firmly in the East End.
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Southwark
Posted on 26 February, 2021
Southwark isn’t just any old borough, if you please; Southwark is the Borough.
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Shoreditch
Posted on 22 February, 2021