Tag: london

A Summer's School Pick-Up!

Sutton: A Typical Summer School Pick-Up! (20.8.2026)

Of course, we live in South-West Greater London (Sutton & Cheam) – which used to be East Surrey until 1965. The place is countryfied and full of trees and parks – the trees are in the streets – planted down the side of the pavements (my dad said – when he visited in 2000 – that this is “posh”). Sutton used to be terribly wealthy in all areas, but now is just a place that well-off people like to live despite the economy completely collapsing). Obviously, I am here just by accident. I ended-up here more or less by accident due to a relationship, etc. Still, we are where we are and have to make the most of it. The schools are good and we are providing the best education we can for our two daughters. This is my partner “Gee” (left) walking with “Kai-Lin” (right) – I am the rear-guard holding the ‘phone. Earlier that day, me and Gee had attended a School Assembly – within which all the children demonstrated to their parents what they had laerned over the last academic year (September-July).

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An armed Israeli settler films Meead Abu al-Rub in the occupied West Bank, 12 October 2025. The photograph, by Italian photographer Pietro Masturzo, featured on the front cover of L'Espresso magazine (Pietro Masturzo/L'Espresso)

UK: Edgware United Synagogue (London) Reported to Charity Commission – for Promoting Illegal Israeli Settlement Property! (17.6.2026)

The ICJP also sent photographs of brochures and leaflets advertising property in illegal settlements from Sunday’s event to London’s Metropolitan Police.

MEE has contacted the Charity Commission for comment.

The Metropolitan Police are not investigating the event, MEE understands.

The government said last week it would “explicitly advise businesses against economic and financial activity in illegal settlements”. 

MEE has attempted to reach the real estate event’s organisers for comment.

The Edgware United Synagogue has also been contacted for comment about the event but has not responded.

Organisers denied last week in comments to Jewish News that the event would feature land for sale in the occupied West Bank, saying: “All exhibitors, without exception, will provide information about properties and projects within the Green Line.

“We believe that these ridiculous allegations are motivated by anti-Israeli and terrorist supporters, seeking only excuses to attack Jews in general and the State of Israel in particular.”

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Chuck Berry in London!

London: Chuck Berry – “My Ding-a-ling” – 1972! (5.6.2026)

Chuck Berry was advised that the only place he might get away with singing this song – which discusses “sex”, “race-mixing”, and “homosexuality” – was the UK. Obviously this advice was correct. Now, all was not rosy in the flower garden as we possessed a character named “Mary Whitehouse” who apparently attended a number of Chuck Berry concerts – sat at the front raising and dropping her knee to the music and openly singing the lyrics. As a middle-aged and sexually frustrated lady – an ardent Christian – she felt that she had a god-given duty to campaign to have this track “banned”. I was “5” in 1972 and had just started school in deepest, darkest Devon – and I remember all the young kids singing and humming this tune – thinking it was about the hand-bells we were taught to use in music lessons. Apparently, Ms Whitehouse (ironically, “Whiitehouse” was also the name of a prominent pornographic magazine at the time) stated “There is only a one-letter difference between the word ‘singing’ and “sinning’ and I have made this point clear to the representatives of Mr Berry!” Chuck Berry seems to have had a great time in our People’s Republic!

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Surrey: WWII Anderson Shelter – Rural Life Living Museum! (29.5.2026)

The fact that thousands of working-class people in London took to the Tube tunnels for safety demonstrates just how few people possessed these shelters. My mother’s family – which lived in Lewisham – did possess one of these “Anderson Shelters” – and it saved their lives when Hitler’s bombers finally came! During September, 1941, Hitler targetted the working-class areas of London with the intention of either wiping-out the working-class (and preventing them joining the British Armed Forces) or scaring them so much that they would not volunteer to fight Hitler. Hitler destroyed large parts of Lewisham – which included my mother’s family home. They had took cover in the shelter and as my grandfather was piling-up the sand-bags around the door – when the bombs fell that destotyed their house and street!

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The discovery may indicate that Shakespeare spent more time in London in his later years than previously thought

UK: Location of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars House Discovered! (17.4.2026)

One of the documents was a plan of part of the Blackfriars precinct, drawn up in 1668, two years after the Great Fire of London, which confirmed the precise location and size of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars house.

The part of the property that spanned the gate did not appear in the post-fire plan because it had no foundation.

Munro said: “This house was close to [Shakespeare’s] workplace at the Blackfriars theatre.

“We know that Shakespeare co-authored Two Noble Kinsmen with John Fletcher later in 1613, and this new evidence that the Blackfriars house was quite substantial makes it not inconceivable that some of it may have been written in this very property.”

The other two of these documents relate to the sale of the Blackfriars property by Shakespeare’s granddaughter in 1665.

The property covered what are now the eastern end of Ireland Yard, the bottom of Burgon Street and parts of the late 19th Century buildings at 5 Burgon Street and 5 St Andrew’s Hill.

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1745 Coaching Stone - Original 18th Century GPS!

Sutton: 18th Century Coaching-Stone – the Original GPS! (13.4.2026)

I may well have written about the old coaching-stones scattered around Sutton and Cheam – I now of two – but was unaware of the date they were established. Basically, these devices informed travellers on foot, horse, or carriage – how many miles it was from where they were to the centre of London. Coachmen could either read the inscription engraved on the stone – or was taught what the stone said and remembered where it was when driving on the road – either way – these coaching-stones served as the original GPS system for travel. I think the Roman established something similar thousands of years ago – so the concept was not new in 1745. What I did not realise is that these stones have now received official recognition of being historically important monuments worthy of preservation and protection. The iron-bars and plaque are the new editions which I only saw when taking a rare walk through Sutton.

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