London History

If there’s one thing the British love more than a resounding success it’s a resounding failure. And if there’s one thing they like more … it’s the long, savouring anticipation of hubris undone and disaster to come. David Bond of the Daily Telegraph notes that it’s five years to the day until the London Olympics is due to start. Overspending, poor infrastructure and that English favourite ‘wrangling’. Of course he could have a point…

Now this is what the internet is good for. The Illustrated London News magazine which was first printed in 1842 was/is the ‘finest pictorial example of a historic social record of British and world events upto the present day’. The above site has been constructed by an avid collector. We quote: ‘My site will be under construction for many years to come, I expect it will take at least twenty years to complete as I have approximately 3000 original copies from an estimated 8000 printed and I need more. So if you have any please contact me on the form below I have access to every year (since it started in 1842) through local sources, and searches for specific information is possible. when I have the time.’

Of course the most avid fan would have to accept the ILN is not what it was. Founded by the founders of Punch, it was first a weekly, becoming monthly in 1971. From 1989 it came out every two months, then quarterly, now twice a year … do we detect a worrying trend here? A great resource though, an absolute slice of British life down 170 years, and in more depth than the newspapers.

An amazing spectacle comes to London this weekend as the Tour de France, the world’s greatest cycle race, comes to the capital. It’s a marvellous first for London, with the prologue of the race wending from the Greenwich Meridian down into the historic city of Canterbury in Kent.

Also, the renaissance of Robert Millar.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone calls on Londoners and businesses to unite in the fight against global warming.