In this period, Poplar was one of the poorest areas of London, with high levels of unemployment, poverty and hunger. Under the Poor Law, initiatives to alleviate these issues by the Poplar Poor Law Union had to be funded by …
Since the medieval period, permission for building roads and other public works has been granted by acts of Parliament. Permission to build canals and railways has been granted this way since the eighteenth century, and since 1794 promoters of these …
Emanuel Shinwell: Politician, Peer, Pugilist In the first of our series on the history of Jewish MPs we chronicle the ‘nine lives’ of Manny Shinwell. This blog was written by Richard Ward, Assistant Archives Officer. You know you’ve made it …
This blog post is the third in a series on the Queen Caroline Affair to mark its bicentenary. For an outline of the full story of the Affair, see this introductory blog post and this video. In this blog post, Dr Katie Carpenter …
This blog was written by Richard Ward, Assistant Archives Officer. Continuing our series of blogs on disability history, this is the life and times of Britain’s first blind MP. An inspiring story of determination, love and liberalism. It was a …
This blog article was written by Dr Katie Carpenter from the University of the Highlands and Islands. The summer of 2020 marks 200 years since ‘The Queen Caroline Affair’. This unprecedented episode in British history saw Queen Caroline, the estranged …
This blog was written by Richard Ward, Assistant Archives Officer. The House of Lords Order Paper for the 19th April 2000 noted a chamber debate taking place that afternoon to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the passing of the 1970 …
This blog post was written by Verity Jones, Assistant Archivist (Graduate Trainee). On the 29th March, the clocks will go forward one hour, meaning the end of Greenwich Mean Time and the official start of British Summer Time. At this …
As the New Year approaches, we will once again hear the bongs of Big Ben ring out across London as midnight strikes. While renovations are taking place, the Great Bell is currently only rung on special occasions such as Remembrance …
A blog from our Archive Assistant, Sarah Williams. The latest display from the Parliamentary Archives celebrates the history of policing in Parliament and focuses on the career of one Victorian policeman in particular, Inspector Eleazor Denning. If you are visiting …
