London History

In this episode of the London History Podcast, Hazel Baker is joined by City of Westminster tour guide Phil Scott for a reign-by-reign exploration of Kensington Palace. Together, they trace its story from its origins as Nottingham House in the Middlesex countryside, through William III and Mary II’s transformation of it into a royal palace, to its spectacular Georgian state rooms and its defining Victorian associations.
They discuss Queen Mary II’s hands-on involvement in furnishing the palace, including her remarkable collection of East Asian porcelain; William Kent’s theatrical King’s Staircase and remarkable Cupola Room; Queen Caroline’s influence on Kensington Gardens and the Serpentine; and the difficult, closely supervised childhood of the young Queen Victoria under the so-called Kensington System.
The conversation also explores Queen Anne’s extraordinary relationship with Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough; the palace’s connections to the transatlantic trade in enslaved people; the private and public lives of Princess Margaret, Diana, Princess of Wales, and more recent royal residents; and the overwhelming outpouring of mourning outside the palace after Diana’s death in 1997.
Whether you are planning a visit, revisiting a favourite London landmark, or simply enjoy royal history with all its personal drama and political consequences, this episode offers a vivid introduction to Kensington Palace and the people who shaped it.

londonguidedwalks.co.uk/podcast

Step into the restless, glittering and deeply unequal London of 1904 with author, screenwriter and director Mario Theodorou, creator of the Felix Grey Mysteries.
Mario joins Hazel to explore the Edwardian capital behind his historical thrillers: a city of political power, royal intrigue, rapid technological change and growing demands for social reform. At the heart of the novels is Felix Grey, an idealistic and inexperienced young Prime Minister drawn into dangerous mysteries of abduction, conspiracy and corruption.
Together, Hazel and Mario travel across Edwardian London—from Downing Street, Parliament and Buckingham Palace to Fleet Street, the Savoy, the Tower of London, Bow, Old Kent Road and Sailortown. They discuss gentleman’s clubs and imperial power, the changing character of the capital, workers’ rights, the Bryant & May matchwomen, suffrage, the press, secret passages, and the tension between the old Victorian order and a more modern, uncertain future.
Mario also shares how his film background shapes the sensory world of his fiction, from the smell of ink on Fleet Street to the energy of the docks, and why he hopes readers will begin to see London as a lived-in city of overlapping stories rather than simply a tourist destination.
A richly atmospheric conversation for anyone who loves Edwardian London, historical fiction, political intrigue and the hidden histories beneath the city’s streets.

London History Podcast Website

Spotify episode description
London’s forgotten fighting history comes alive in this episode of the London History Podcast. Hazel Baker explores the brutal, theatrical and hugely popular world of Georgian bare-knuckle boxing — a sport that shaped London’s streets, entertainments and social life.
From James Figg, celebrated as the “invincible master,” to Jack Broughton’s influential rules of combat and Daniel Mendoza’s revolutionary style, this episode follows the fighters who made the ring a defining feature of eighteenth-century London. Hazel also examines women’s involvement in the boxing world and the writing of Pierce Egan, whose accounts give us a vivid window into the culture of prizefighting.
Discover how boxing moved from taverns, amphitheatres and the margins of the city into the centre of popular London life — and why its legacy still matters today.
In this episode:
The rise of prizefighting in Georgian London
James Figg and the early fighting schools
Entertainment, gambling and the city’s rougher edges
Women in the boxing world
Jack Broughton and the first formal boxing rules
Daniel Mendoza and the changing art of combat
Pierce Egan and the storytelling of the ring

For full show notes, sources and more London history, visit the London History Podcast website.

How Tower Bridge Was Built: The Untold Story of London's Most Famous Bridge
Discover the remarkable history behind Tower Bridge, one of London's most iconic landmarks. Learn how political battles, engineering innovation, and Victorian ambition transformed a transport crisis into one of the greatest bridge-building achievements of the nineteenth century.

00:00 Building Tower Bridge
01:00 Why London Needed a New Thames Crossing
03:00 The Engineering Challenge
05:00 Early Designs and Political Battles
06:00 Choosing the Bascule Design
06:30 Horace Jones and John Wolfe Barry
08:00 The Tower Bridge Act of 1885
10:00 Building the Foundations Beneath the Thames
12:00 The Six Divers of Tower Bridge
14:00 Constructing the Steel Superstructure
16:00 The Revolutionary Hydraulic System
18:00 Victorian Engineering and Safety Standards
20:00 Costs, Delays and Human Sacrifice
22:00 Legal Disputes During Construction
24:45 Why Victorian Critics Hated Tower Bridge
27:30 The Grand Opening of 1894
29:00 Tower Bridge's Lasting Legacy

Below Stairs London: Tracing Victorian Servant Life in Belgravia and MayfairHazel Baker guides listeners through surviving street-level traces of Victorian servant London—area steps and railings, coal-hole covers, bell systems, mews alleys, and service districts—showing how London’s architecture encoded a rigid “upstairs/downstairs” hierarchy and enforced servant invisibility. Using census figures, she explains domestic service as Britain’s largest employer of women, driven by coal soot, class display, and tax incentives against male servants, then outlines household ranks from butler and housekeeper to scullery maid and mews staff. She describes the physical toll of long days, the servant supply chain at Shepherd Market, mews history and later gentrification, and surviving examples including Hyde Park Gardens Mews, Belgravia Mews West’s Star Pub, Bathurst Mews stables, and 18 Stafford Terrace (Sambourne House). She critiques period dramas for softening labor and highlights servants’ documented sexual vulnerability and limited protections.00:00 161: Life Below Stairs00:12 Introduction01:55 The Scale of Servant London14:20 The Architecture of Invisibility17:02 Coal Holes & Bell Systems22:38 The Mews28:50 Shepherd Market33:23 A Day in the Life37:00 Downton Abbey vs. Reality40:04 Sexual Vulnerability & Structural Silence44:47 Why Did Servants Stay?46:32 18 Stafford Terrace48:54 The Dual City51:43 Outro & Related Episodes