London History, Up Close
Blogs inspired by Cobble's audio walks
Summer, Sunshine, Souvenirs: “I have come from the City and I bring you this small gift with a sharp point”
A guest post from Cobble historian Dr Victoria Fendel, exploring the excavations that uncovered Roman writing tablets, stylus pens, and the first written mention of London.
3 Queen Victoria street seems the site for skyscrapers. Nowadays you are glancing up at the ten-storey Bloomberg HQ peeking into the sky (fun fact, it is made of Derbyshire sandstone, not a local stone). Before 2010, you would have glanced up at fifteen-storey Bucklersbury house, London’s first tall slab after restrictions had been lifted on buildings above 30 metres in height after World War two. Both have made you look up, but the real treasure is below your feet. Where you are...
moreThe Places We Walk Past: Recovering Attention in an Age of Distraction
From virtual reality to location-based storytelling, the most meaningful technology may be the kind that deepens our attention to the places we move through every day.
A few years ago, after one of my regular walks to Regent’s Park, I realised I could barely recall a single building I had passed. I had taken a route I like through Bloomsbury and up into Fitzrovia, past Georgian terrace houses, cafés and university buildings whose façades I know well. I was walking quickly, earphones in, tracking my pulse and following a story or a political argument of the day. I had paid more attention to the voices in my ears and the numbers on my watch than to...
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