THEMES

The first railway terminus at Euston 1837

Euston station was the first mainline station to be built in London. In July 1837, the London and Birmingham Railway opened it’s first terminus. It was to have been built at Camden at Chalk Farm but it was proposed that that it should be brought closer to the metropolis and an Act of parliament in…

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The new London Bridge opened 1831

The old London bridge was a bridge like no other bridge in the world. It was a thoroughfare, jammed full of houses and shops and passable only with caution and if you had time to spare. The old bridge was not able to cope with growing demands of an expanding city  A new bridge was…

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1824 Patent for Portland cement

The 1824 patent for portland cement, an immensely important patent that allowed us the docks, the sewers and tunnels under the Thames.The importance of Portland cement in the development of English towns and cities cannot be underestimated.

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1795 Sterilization process for preserving food introduced

‘An army travels on it’s stomach’, so Napoleon said and seeing so many of his troops suffering from diseases that had more to do with hunger and scurvy than with battle wounds, he determined to do something about it. The French government offered a prize of 12,000F to the person who could invent a method…

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