The other day Ray forwarded this great video clip from the BBC website and it set us thinking – where can you find fossils in Central London

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19574619

Here are some of our suggestions

• Fossil filled Jurassic Limestone is being used in a lot of new buildings – have a look at Plantation Place on Fenchurch Street
• Jenni can show you a megalosaurus footprint on the wall of a Post Office near Bank
• The new entrance to Green Park tube is covered in fossils, and if you really get stuck its decorated in fossil patterns too
• As part of the dinosaurs of Crystal Palace park a section of geological strata was created, some of it containing fossils http://www.victorianweb.org/science/geology1.html
• If you really want to see fossils in situ head to Lesnes Abbey Woods in South East London where a small fossil bed often yields sharks teeth from the Eocene period

Still stuck? We can show you some fossils like the ones in our picture on our Walking the Hidden River Fleet walk see http://footprintsoflondon.com/walkingthefleet for details, the next walks are on 28th March and 19th May

The redevelopment of the former Kings Cross goods yard is moving into a new phase this year as work concentrates on building the residential areas at the North of the huge site. This means new streets are being laid out, and new streets need new street names. Interestingly the developers have asked the public for ideas, which they can contribute at their website or via Camden and Islington libraries. It’s not often you get the chance to name part of London so the Footprints of London team have entered their suggestions. We thought we would try and get some of our London heroes and heroines a well deserved mention, and also stick with a Kings Cross theme. There are ten streets that need a name – here are five we came up with.

1 Bessemer Street

Sir Henry Bessemer lived and worked in Kings Cross during the 1840s. It was here that he carried out some of the early experiments that would lead to the Bessemer process – a revolutionary way of making better and cheaper steel. This invention makes cutlery affordable, and ships fast enough and strong enough to make Transatlantic trade more viable. Although there are towns named Bessemer in his honour in the USA, there isn’t even a blue plaque to record the site in Kings Cross.

2 Wollstonecraft Square

In her lifetime Mary Wollstonecraft was named the most famous woman in Europe, and in her short life she lived in many places. By the age of 30 she had already written a novel, set up a school for girls and written a treatise on education for women. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman she sets out ideas that go on to form the basis of feminism. Sadly she died not long after giving birth to her daughter Mary Shelley and was buried in St Pancras Churchyard. While there is a campaign to build a statue of her on Newington Green, a street in Kings Cross near the university might be a good way to remember her too.

3 Gresley Way

Sir Nigel Nigel Gresley designed some of the most famous and advanced steam locomotives in the world, notably the iconic A4 class typified by the record breaking Mallard, and the famous A1 class Flying Scotsman. His office was based by the side of Kings Cross station, near where the new departure hall is today. Sadly the Blue Plaque to record this has yet to reappear, but a street named after him would be nice.

4 Burdett-Coutts Street

Angela Burdett-Coutts was the most generous philanthropist of the nineteenth century, using money inherited from the banking business to support hundreds of charities and improvement schemes, all over the world. She supported social housing, education for the poor, created employment opportunities for the homeless, and with her friend Charles Dickens set up a home to help women who had been forced to work as prostitutes. In the Kings Cross area she paid for a sundial recording the names of those who had their graves disturbed by the building of the railways, and set up the Boot Black Brigade, a scheme to teach homeless boys how to clean shoes so they could earn a living, while educating them during the evenings.

5 Keskidee Rd

This one is named after a building rather than a person, the Keskidee Centre which opened in 1971 in nearby Gifford Street, and was Britain’s first black cultural centre. Opened by Guyanese architect Oscar Abrams, it provided educational and cultural facilities and pioneered the teaching of black history, which was ignored by mainstream teaching at the time. Sadly the Centre itself closed down many years ago and last year the building that housed it burnt to the ground. Perhaps the best tribute would be for a new community building to be built bearing the Keskidee name, but failing that a street name would at least keep the memory alive.

So what would you name these new streets? Footprints have already entered our suggestions in the competition, but it would be interesting to hear your ideas.

Two of our upcoming walks visit the Kings Cross area Walking the Hidden River Fleet on May 19th and All Change at Kings Cross on June 13th

If you are going on Tinas next tour around the Guildhall on Thursday, I reccomend a quick browse around the new Guildhall Library bookshop. It may be small but it has a fantastic selection of books about City of London history, historic maps and a postcards featuring the library collection. The only risk is you will end up buying more than you bargained for.

The bookshop is open at the same time as the library details here

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/visiting-the-city/archives-and-city-history/guildhall-library/Pages/default.aspx

… at plans for an old Shakespeare playhouse which include a new theatre.

It was only a few months ago that Museum of London archaeologists announced they had concrete evidence for the site of one of the oldest theatres in London – the Curtain.

Built in the 1570’s this venue entertained thousands of Elizabethan Londoners. William Shakespeare’s acting company used it, Almost certainly the man himself would have performed on its stage.

Where was this Tudor playground?  Just outside the old city’s boundary – and regulations – in a racy neighbourhood called Shoreditch. In more recent times, this part of town became industrialised and densely settled. All visible traces of the Curtain were obscured years ago.

Now potential building work has enabled part of a site to be cleared, and walls and foundations came to light. If new plans for the area go ahead, the remains will be preserved and accessible, a new open-air theatre will be built, and another tower block – 40 storeys this time – added to the London skyline.

Sounds like the usual mixture of Good News and Bad News? For more details, pictures and opinions see these news sources:

http://lovingdalston.co.uk/2013/01/stage-looks-set-for-40-floor-shoreditch-tower/

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/curtain-lifts-on-openair-stage-at-shakespeare-theatre-site-in-shoreditch-8464712.html

For a stroll around the parts of Shoreditch and the City that Shakespeare knew in the early years of his London career, try the Footprints of London Shakespeare in Shoreditch  guided walk (Act I of our regular series) this Saturday 2^nd February at 11am.

We have other Shakespeare walks on offer, and the Shoreditch leg is also available on Saturday 9^th March.