Our next meeting is Wednesday 21 June, where we're having a local history talk from Jane Palm-Gold, on the history of Church Lane in St Giles, near to where we meet.
In the 1840s, the sheer number of desperately poor living in filthy conditions in the St. Giles Rookery meant disease and death lingered like a miasma over the parish. The authorities' view was that the locality was a breeding-ground for cholera and other diseases.
Church Lane lay at the heart of the Rookery, yet within a few years, the grease and grime was gone, transformed by soap and sanitation measures.
Jane Palm-Gold takes us on a journey to reveal the area's regeneration: New Oxford Street, 19th century London’s newest street and shopping destination, and the Pears Soap emporium, exploring its art, advertising and Christmas Annuals as well as its problematic past.
We meet in the Upper Vestry Hall of St George's Bloomsbury from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Visitors are welcome, do contact us on londonwestendwi@gmail.com or message us via social media so we know to look out for you.
