England

The Bull, etching by Paulus Potter, Dutch, 1650. Album / Alamy Stock Photo

Good for Nothing

As the 19th century wore on, social reformers campaigned for charitable modernisation. Their target: England’s most useless foundations.

‘The QUACKS’, etching, published by William Humphrey, 27 March 1783

A Cure for Wellness

Eminent doctors and notorious charlatans vied for sick patients to treat in the cut-throat medical marketplace of Georgian England.

Dividend Day at the Bank of England, 1770.

Virtuous Bankers by Anne L. Murphy review

‘A day in the life’ of the 18th-century Bank of England.

Jamaican men, many of them former RAF servicemen, disembark Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks, 22 June 1948.

What Happens Back Home

The Windrush generation witnessed the Caribbean colonies from which they had emigrated achieve independence. Despite being an ocean away, they were not passive observers.

Winston Churchill speaking at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in front of a picture of Abraham Lincoln, 1944. Bridgeman Images.

Churchill Off Record

Once the war was won, Winston Churchill had two preoccupations: preserving his place in posterity and making lots of money. If they could be achieved at the same time, so much the better.

© London Metropolitan Archives / Bridgeman Images.

Fostering the Foundlings

The governors of the London Foundling Hospital recruited an external network of nurses to care for children. For many, the bonds established endured.

demonstrators outside Leeds Crown Court on the first day of the trial of the Leeds Bonfire Night 12, June 1975. Photograph by Max Farrar.

Is Violence the Answer?

Using violence as a response to racism can both divide and unite communities. This was demonstrated when a riot erupted in the Leeds suburb of Chapeltown on Bonfire Night 1975.

Getting Away with Murder

Found guilty of the Temple Murders in 1733, Sarah Malcolm became the most notorious woman in Britain. Did she commit the crime alone? Did she commit it at all?