Ladies Who London

Ladies Who London Podcast

Ladies Who London - a fun look at London's history from 2 qualified tourist guides

  • 53 minutes 56 seconds
    Ep 189 Camden cures all featuring Elizabeth Garett Anderson

    We're taking a stroll through the medical powerhouse that is south Camden and focussing on Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. She's been on the fringes of many an episode - her sister and her daughter have already featured, now she gets the limelight. And boy does she deserve it. She overcame hurdles and jumped through loopholes, even learning another language in her fight to become the first female Dr to practise (while presenting as a woman) in the UK. Her co-founders of the London School of Medicine for Women, were equally determined, playing the establishment at their own game to learn their skills. Inspiring women whose legacy still lurks along the Euston Rd.


    Plus a miniature distillery in Scotland. Cheers!

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    20 November 2024, 12:10 am
  • 50 minutes 5 seconds
    Ep 188 The British Empire Exhibition - Baffling displays back in Brent

    In a new guessing game Alex tries to pick the material chosen to sculpt the Prince of Wales. 100 years ago the crowds were gathering in Wembley for the extraordinary spectacle that was the British Empire Exhibition. A showcase for trade, manufacturing and, it turns out, people. Problematic? Just a tad.

    But there was a miniature railway, a palace of engineering, a palace of art including the teeny tiny wine bottles in Queen Mary's Dolls House. And a regular display of destruction of the House of Commons. What's not to like?

    When the empire was at it's height, but with the cracks beginning to show, an exhibition was bound to be both brilliant and disturbing. Join visitors John Betjeman and Virginia Woolf as we explore the exhibition together.

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    13 November 2024, 12:10 am
  • 53 minutes 3 seconds
    Ep 187 Brilliant Bexley - Crossness pumping the poop

    Calling all penny farthing enthusiasts, we need answers! New records have been set, and we want to know more.


    Alex takes a dive into the Thames this week. Not the modern Thames, oh no, she's bravely gone back to 1858, the year of the Great Stink. What's that got to do with Bexley? The Crossness pumping station, that's what. An important part of Bazalgette's solution, his new improved sewage system, to transport the poop of London out the East. A very functional building then, presumably. Wait, have you met the Victorians?


    And will our funky theme tune be hitting the charts or clubs any time soon?

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    6 November 2024, 12:10 am
  • 54 minutes 27 seconds
    Ep 186 with a VERY special guest and some spooky South London goings on.

    We're very excited about our guest this week. With a suitably seasonally episode. What do we think about Spiritualism? Are mediums in contact with those who have passed. Doris Stokes held audiences enthralled, was it all smoke and mirrors? But how did she know about the money?

    There's relocated bodies, fancy tombs, and a Bermuda Triangle in Blackheath. So that's how the highwayman disappeared.

    This'll set you up nicely for Halloween. Sleep tight.

    Did I mention the special guest?

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    30 October 2024, 12:10 am
  • 1 hour 23 seconds
    Ep 185 Brent, Tommy Flowers and the colossal impact of Dollis Hill

    Get your buzzers ready. We get competitive this week. Can you beat Alex in spotting the links to past episodes? Who'd have thought that Gladdie Park could be so well connected? And just around the corner was a unassuming building with a big story to hide. Partly the underground bunker, and partly their contribution to code breaking in WW2. Bletchley Park was the main centre for British codebreaking. Telecoms engineer Tommy Flowers and his team at Dollis Hill provided the equipment to break the most secret of all the codes. The Lorenz code of the Gerheimschreiber machines used by German high command. And if anyone doesn't know what Taskmaster is, where have you been?

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    22 October 2024, 11:10 pm
  • 32 minutes 12 seconds
    Ep 184: Fanny Eaton, Overlooked Pre-Raphaelite Muse

    You might not know her name but there's a decent chance you know her face. Fanny Eaton worked as a model for the Royal Academy and painters of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Was she chosen for her beauty or seen as an exotic other? Alex goes in search of the beautiful Mrs Eaton. Possibly the most seen woman of colour in Victorian Britain.

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    15 October 2024, 11:10 pm
  • 51 minutes 57 seconds
    Ep 183 Bromley - Margaret Finch, Queen of the Gypsies

    Project 32, this week we're south of the river in Bromley. Home to Margaret Finch, Queen of the Gypsies. (We're using the term as that's how she would have been known at the time). A mysterious figure who loitered by a lychgate. Margaret was elected Queen by the Roma community. Part figurehead, part ambassador, part advisor, she drew visitors to Norwood to consult her cards. Royals, celebrities, that one who went everywhere, they all came to see and seek their fortunes.


    Editor's note: since recording this we've realised we've gone astray. Anyone who knows the list of London boroughs, and the alphabet, might spot that we've missed Bexley and arrived in Bromley too soon. Don't worry, there's no sinister reason to miss Bexley, and we'll get to her (her?) soon, around about the time we should have been doing Bromley.

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    8 October 2024, 11:10 pm
  • 1 hour 3 minutes
    Ep 182 Barebones Barbon - The Fetter Lane dynasty

    The radical preacher who served in Parliament and the son who followed in his footsteps, but maybe for very different reasons. Between them they span the 1600s,a time of great change in London, and the century that might just be Fiona's favourite. Praise God for the Barebones family. And the bricks and mortar legacy of one of London's most ambitious, unscrupulous businessmen. As Alex says "it's another historical rotter!". If Jesus had not died for thee, thou wouldst be damned.

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    1 October 2024, 11:10 pm
  • 53 minutes
    Ep 181 Project 32 The Battle of Barnet

    The 2nd week of project 32, and London's 2nd most populous borough. This week we are stumbling around in the fog of the Battle of Barnet. Who is fighting who? who trusts who? We're in the midst of the Wars of the Roses, and the kingdom is at stake. The biggest failure of the battle - it's Heraldry itself. Hang your head in shame heraldry, you cost lives that day.

    Plus the tale of Dirty Gertie's arrival from France, and the gift that Barnet keeps on giving to the rest of London. Ooh, a lovely Barnet fair, hexcellent.


    A little bit late this week - sorry gang. Fiona's internet died at the critical moment. She could have taken her laptop to a cafe to work, like a proper modern person, if she had a working laptop. There's nothing like losing the ability to do something, to realise how much we take it for granted when it works. Modern technology is a marvel. When it works.

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    25 September 2024, 7:38 pm
  • 42 minutes 2 seconds
    Ep 180 Degas's Miss Lala

    We're in between boroughs this week as Alex goes gaga for Miss Lala (as painted be Degas). She wowed the crowds in Paris and London with her phenomenal strongwoman act, on the trapeze, holding herself, and others, with her teeth. Her portrait is still wowing the crowds at the National Gallery. Pop in to pay her a visit and decide for yourselves, what do you see at first glance? Is she jumping? We know more about her performances than her life, but there are moments when we can glimpse her, moving to London, appearing at the Royal Aquarium, getting married. A mixed race pocket rocket gymnast who performed as at Black Venus and one half of Les Deux Papillons. She was last recorded applying for a passport, on the brink, maybe, of a leap across the oceans into the unknown. But we can admire her still, as Degas saw her that night, in white and gold, dazzling the Parisiennes high above the Cirque Fernando.

    Oh and we go off on a tangent for the benefit of Mr Kite. That makes a change, it's usually Fiona who does the tangents.

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    17 September 2024, 11:10 pm
  • 43 minutes 52 seconds
    Ep 179 Launching Project 32 - Barking and Dagenham

    It's the long awaited, hotly anticipated, much hyped launch of Project 32. Our deep dive into all the boroughs of London. And Alex is kicking off this week with Barking and Dagenham and a group of women who changed the world of work for the better. It's 1968 and the female sewing machinists of Ford are not happy. Not surprising when they are classified as less skilled than the men sweeping the factory floor. When striking doesn't work they head to Whitehall to meet the minister. With cars backing up at the factory, do they do a deal and get equal pay? And how much does the stoppage cost Ford? HOW MUCH??

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    10 September 2024, 11:10 pm
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