VictorianLondon
@victorianlondon.bsky.social
2.7K followers 270 following 1.3K posts
Lee Jackson, Victorianist, historian, author of 'Dirty Old London' (Yale, 2014), 'Palaces of Pleasure' (Yale, 2019), 'Dickensland' (Yale, 2023)
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by VictorianLondon
thisismyglasgow.bsky.social
Some rather beautiful Art Deco enamelling from the foyer of the Scottish Legal Life Assurance Society building on Bothwell Street in Glasgow.

#glasgow #enamelling
#colours #design #architecture #glasgowbuildings #glasgowarchitecture #interiorsdesign #artdeco #architecturephotography #enamel
Reposted by VictorianLondon
victorianlondon.bsky.social
ladies from The Man of Pleasure's Illustrated Pocket Book, 1850
Reposted by VictorianLondon
victorianlondon.bsky.social
enjoying the intense competition between Tom Daley's and Charlotte Church's cleavage on The Traitors
Reposted by VictorianLondon
drlindseyfitz.bsky.social
Funeral Invitation, 1688.

Funeral invitations first appeared in the 17th century, and acted as an admission ticket to both the church and the funeral feast. Pallbearers were often assigned a number on the ticket to signify their position in carrying the coffin.
A funeral invitation from April, 1688. It has an ornate black border with various memento mori iconography around it - like skeletons, winged hourglasses, and scythes.
Reposted by VictorianLondon
c20society.bsky.social
Happy 60th Birthday to the BT Tower!

Built 1961-65 to the designs of Eric Bedford, Chief Architect at the Ministry of Public Works, the 582ft telecommunications tower is one of Britain's most distinctive post-war buildings and after being sold in 2024, is set to be converted to a destination hotel.
BT Tower, Fitzrovia, London - Eric Bedford, Chief Architect at the Ministry of Public Buildings, 1961-65
Image credit: James Burbs (@londonfromtherooftops)
Reposted by VictorianLondon
ncdominie.bsky.social
My dad has turned up this photo from a visit "many years ago" to the Forth Bridge. I think it's taken from what he calls the howff, just below track level, used by the maintenance workers.

I guess when you're engaged in a proverbially endless task, you need a wee cup of tea once in a while.
Black and white photo showing a kettle on the sill of a very dirty window. Immediately outside the window is the very recognisable steelwork of the Forth Bridge.
Reposted by VictorianLondon
richardfallon.bsky.social
A literary Iguanodon at the Earth Sciences Library. Do any other libraries have dinosaurs or other antediluvian creatures carved into the furniture?
Reposted by VictorianLondon
pastpostcard.bsky.social
We have just come down from the top of the post office tower. It was very exciting being 499 feet up. The cars and buildings looked like dinky toys.
Reposted by VictorianLondon
timenw.bsky.social
Final reminder that I will be presenting a talk about Hendon Aerodrome for the Pinner Local History Society tomorrow at 8pm.

More details here www.pinnerlhs.org.uk/forthcoming-...
Reposted by VictorianLondon
youngalison.bsky.social
Great ‘Spotlight on MUSIC HALL’ exhibition @thelondonarchives.bsky.social - small but perfectly formed!
victorianlondon.bsky.social
lot of interest in this case the other day (1829) ... turns out there was a pamphlet archive.org/details/auth... warning, describes how they performed a post mortem to check on 'James's' sex. The publisher? J.S.Thomas, soon to become the first superintendent of the new Met police in Covent Garden.
victorianlondon.bsky.social
the notorious 'Rat's Castle' in Seven Dials (1832), later visited by Dickens
Reposted by VictorianLondon
sarahebull.bsky.social
SIGHTED: The Man of Pleasure’s Pocket Book at the Thomas Fisher Library!
victorianlondon.bsky.social
Victorian criminal slang of the day:
"Flash dragsman" - a night coachman (taxi driver) in league with thieves/prostitutes
Reposted by VictorianLondon
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Good morning!

[Gaetano Giulio Zumbo, A Soul in Hell, 1670-1700, Wax, 11.5 cm x 10 cm (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)]
A screaming head modeled in wax, surrounded by demons and stylized flames
Reposted by VictorianLondon
paintingsoflondon.bsky.social
Good morning! This week's theme is the River Thames.
------
'Bridge in London' (1908) by Mstislav Dobuzhinsky

(Private collection)
Reposted by VictorianLondon
oispooky.bsky.social
1898 - The Greatest Showman Alf Ball's boxing booth at St Giles Fair, Oxford. Alf, a top 1880s middleweight, on the right. This was around the time he stopped fighting a Mexican Puma - you can see them depicted in the middle banner - and started getting a bit more into being a Bioscope presenter:
Image from Historic England archives dated 1898. It is a black and white photo of six men in front of ornate banners and frontage, advertising boxing in front of a crowd. There is a tall black man on the left in a fur trimmed robe, he is either a boxer or perhaps an animal tamer, four shorter men in white undershirts and hats in the centre and Alf in waistcoat, tie, shirt and hat on right. Women, men and young boys and girls look on.
victorianlondon.bsky.social
London's most haunted mural including an avian coo' d'oeuil
victorianlondon.bsky.social
in fact, in Victorianese it generally means pretty or even beautiful, i.e. likely to incite interest; I have I think occasionally seen it applied to men. they are basically saying they weren't a bad looking (wo)man.
Reposted by VictorianLondon
charlieholland.bsky.social
The Hay Wain, rural Brixton, October 2025.
Bales of hay on a bicycle trailer parked at Loughborough Junction.
Reposted by VictorianLondon
erinacean.bsky.social
And going on into the C20th, see Alison Oram's 'Her Husband Was A Woman': Women's Gender-Crossing in Modern British Popular Culture (2007) (now so many papers are digitised I think one could probably find more, as I recall without checking my copy, she used The News of the World).