Fiona hits the streets in search of the sound of London. Or at least the sound of the bells of London. From the Westminster the the City and beyond, listening as the hours pass by and the years drop away. Listening to the echoes of sounds that Londoners heard 300 years ago. What's a carillon? How long does it take to ring a peal? How heavy? And can…

In which Alex tells us why a Hungarian dancer was instrumental in fixing the distance for the marathon. It's a journey that takes us all the way from Pest to Chicago and from Hammersmith, through the Court of Honour, via some more dodgy colonial model villages and out to Windsor. Theatrical and event impresario Imre Kiralfy created the area we now …

Get your pencils and paper ready to join in with us. Alex has prepared a quiz, Fiona has fun facts to share and special guest and friend of the pod Lee Ingleby is putting on a brave face for all of it. Which tube station is the opposite of Squander? What weighs the same as 200 ping pong balls? We're not just testing your London knowledge this week,…

This week it's the rose red empire of Hackney famous residents from the 1500s. We discover why Alex didn't watch Wolf Hall. She's a sensitive gal you know. And we go way back to 600bc, before returning, via the world's first coal powered electricity generating station, where? Really!? How Extraordinary! To the bright lights and power hungry pubs of…

Today we are ringing London, joined by special guest, author and walker, Anna Sayburn Lane. Refugee Tales is a modern recreation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. A five day walk with stories along the way. Each evening there's entertainments (and snoring, especially from the men's dorm!) The walkers are a mix of interested supporters and people who h…

Climb aboard and come away with us on the high seas. Take a trip to France on Henry Grace a Deau. The pride of Henry VIII's fleet. Or overtake her whilst laden with tea, wool or pianos, on board The Cutty Sark. How many woolly jumpers can you fit on the only extreme tea clipper left in the world? Henry's ship was built nearby, and maybe ended it's …

This week we are talking hats. What's Fiona's favourite London hat? Celebrating National Hat day, and giving you time to prepare for London Hat Week. We've got a bit of a beaver update to start us off, and sadly their ancestors make an appearance in one of London's notable hats - The Beaverskin or Muscovy Hat of the Swordbearer of the City of Londo…

Ooh it's a mixed bag this week. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Farming. Industry. Royal Enfield - which might not be from Enfield. What is an Enfield anyway? A heraldic beast with a bit of Fox, a touch of Eagle, maybe some wolf, that's what. And this week's main topic might be a wolf in sheep's clothing. He was a figure of fun in our h…

Well here it is, the second half of our live record evening. We set out to discover the most important/ best/ typically London/ Londitudinal building. Can the champions of Regent St sway the room, to win against The Barbican? Will rock, paper, scissors, finally settle the age old question, is Roman stuff more important than Greenwich? And, critical…

Our story this week is of a hardworking immigrant family, beavering away to improve the quality of life for Ealing. But first there’s hills made of rubble, classic comedy capers (we find out which world leader was their biggest fan) and the first incline lift in a tube station. An experiment is underway at Paradise Fields, to see if Beavers can liv…

We're still on an airfield this week. But it's all about the woman wielding the tools, keeping the planes aloft. It's 1941 and Lilian Bader is one of the first women to qualify as an instrument repairer. Her Barbadian father had served in the Navy, her husband drove tanks, her son flew helicopters. Across the generations her family served across th…

Mayday, M'aidez! I'm worried that Alex is turning to a life of crime! Croydon: The international airport of London in the golden age of glamorous travel. Even the cargo was golden, and enticing. And this week we're learning why you should organise your own getaway car. Plus a superstar kidnapping caper. It's all go. Just as well Alex has had a rela…

We are slightly overexcited this week, as we're chatting with comedian and writer Eleanor Morton. Her fabulous book of lessons from historical women features many of our favourite women. And a host of, maybe, less familiar ones. From mountaineering and marathons to creating familiar music and much loved characters, we're casting the net wide this w…

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 lan…

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…

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 Baz…

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 Blackhe…

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. Bletchle…

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. Learn more …

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 No…

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 ambitiou…

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 …

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, wh…

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 classi…

We're BAAAACK! Oh gang, we've missed you! After an eventful summer, Alex and Fiona are back in your ears, and we have been out and about. Following on from our episode with the Gasketeers a while ago, we have been to meet the very lamp lighters whose job it is to keep the London gas lamps lit - we have visited HQ and nerded out about finials, housi…

We're off travelling this week, from London to Oxford, via Greece and Egypt, to find out about the female manifestations of the rivers Thames and Isis. How did the Thames get its name? Is it as simple as it sounds? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesPor Ladies Who London Podcast

1966. A year that lives on in the memory of the English as the year that England won the World Cup. But it's also the year that England LOST the World Cup too. Huh? Alex delves into the last topic she thought she would ever discuss, which is FOOTBALL. Not her natural home, but there's a good reason why, on this one. Because, like everything, there …

What does the 6th June have in common this year? It is both D-Day and national fish and chip day. So we are spreading two themes in one here, which have a bit of an odd link. We are not just talking f&c, but we are looking at how it links in to WW2, as well as seeing how the very unlikely gooseberries and mulberries fit into the picture. Confused? …

Fiona is back, and cracking out a fantastic story, picking up a loose thread from a few weeks ago, Mary Wortley Montague. An intriguing woman, Mary disappeared to Italy after her marriage went a bit wonky, and also took up the mantle of innoculating children well ahead of the UK more generally, and showed people how it could be done, and how it cou…

Alex is flying solo this week, as we take on the story of Dido Belle, the young mixed race woman, born to am enslaved woman, and brought up in British high society. Born to a British ship's captain, and an enslaved woman being transported to Jamaica, Dido was brought back to the UK and entrusted to one of the highest Judges in the land. Her story w…

We don't half love an Operation here at the Ladies Who London podcast! This, however, is no military operation, although it is no less audacious or finnickity. How do you build huge infrastructure when the place you need to build is one of the busiest spots in London? Well, that is the question. Operation Umbrella was the answer to this exact quest…

Heave ho me'hearties, this week we are setting sail aboard the good ship Hamilton, as we take a look at one of history's most famous mistresses, Emma Hamilton. But does she deserve such a reductive title? Surely there is more to her than we think we know? Boy are you in for a treat! We careen from the Temple of Health and the Celestial Bed (remembe…

Well this is an episode, kids. Fiona has seen a squirrel and gone on a mad goose chase through the annals of history, chasing down the elusive Montagus. Where will we end up?! Heaven only knows...Alex certainly doesn't! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesPor Ladies Who London Podcast

This sounds like one of Sherlock's great cases - the mysterious disappearance of Elizabeth Canning, but it is a true story. What you may not know is that she comes back - after about a month, and in a pretty dire situation. So far, so horrible but straightforward. But then, once her kidnappers are tried, convicted, and thrown in prison, something r…

We've been threatening this one for a while, gang! Here is the unedited history of Titus Oates, and who exactly is he? Is he a brave, whistleblowing legend, or a deluded fantasist who is about to put his foot in it? Come with us to find out more And podcast pedestal returns! After overwhelming support, the pedestal makes a comeback, and you get to …

A week late to Trans Visibility Day, but that is on brand for us! This week's episode is all about the Chevalier d'Eon, spy to King Louis XV, and all round enigma! Were they trans? They lived as both man and woman in both France and England over many years. What weird stipulation did the King make in a deal with the Chevalier and why? We delve into…

It is time. We've been threatening it for a year, so let's get down and dirty with the City of London livery companies! I know, I know, it's hard to contain your excitement. Fiona gets into an A-Z of livery companies, everything you never knew you wanted to know, and we find out why the loving cup is a thing, whether the Upholders really make bras,…

It's us, but different! We come to you LIVE, recorded last week at the Wanstead tap in east London. There are few audio teething issues at the start, but bear with, as it does come together! We had the great pleasure of talking to the lovely Leo Hollis, author of Inheritance - the tragedy of Mary Davies, and what a story it is! A little-discussed b…

TRIGGER WARNING - contains themes of murder and violence against women. It's the return of Katie from Look Up London! Twice in one month, aren't we lucky?! Katie joins us to talk about some of the women involved in the famous case of the 19thC serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. But we are not focusing on him and his action. We are focusing on …

We're on site this week at the new, fantastic exhibition of Women of the RNLI at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the RNLI. We talk to former Tower lifeboat station manager Janet, archivist Hayley Whiting, and photographer Jack Lowe about his amazing project to photograph every single lifeboat station …

It's International Women's Day! So we have invited back one of our regular guests, Katie Wignall, to help us talk about 3 fabulous London women. Bella Burge - boxing impresario Mary Somerville - the first scientist Ada Coleman - one of the best bartenders who ever lived. And it wouldn't be us without having a competition about who is the best! Take…

It's the first of your podcast picks, and the winner was Elizabeth Fry, the angel of Newgate. Shocked by the abject conditions she found in the most notorious of prisons, Newgate, she put her whole life on hold to try and improve the situation for the women imprisoned there. If she could make even one person's experience better, then it would be wo…

Londoners will tell you that London Bridge was once sold to a man who thought he was buying Tower Bridge. That man was Robert Paxton McCulloch, who in 1964 bought London Bridge and had it shipped to Arizona. But did he really think he was buying Tower Bridge, or is that just a fantastical myth spun for a bit of a laugh? This week we delve into the …

Well gang, we've been threatening this one for a while. And you know what happens when we threaten a topic? Yes, we get round to it after about 3 years. Don't say we never treat you. This week we are FINALLY getting round to chatting all things Great Exhibition. From Tempest Prognosticators to naked statues in tents, huge chunks of gold and coal, a…

LONDON IS BEING INVADED BY DRAGONS! Well, they mostly have been here for a while, and almost all of them are made of stone, but let's not let that get in the way of a good headline. Fiona's off on the hunt of some of London's most fearsome dragons this week, with a sprinkling of St George, a dash of Chinese New Year, and a boundary marker or two fo…

Inspired by Emily's episode from last week, Alex is going back to an old favourite, the story of Dorothy Lawrence, the woman who, in WW1, set off to war-torn France armed with nothing but a notebook and a bicycle. Her aim? To get to the front and be the only female war correspondent, and jump start her journalism career. Will she make it? Come and …

Our guest this week is the lovely Emily Laurence Baker, fellow Blue Badge Tourist Guide and champion of women's history. So it is only right that we get her to talk about one of her favourite women, Kit Cavanagh. Kit was one of those women we love - fearless and determined, who decides to go incognito into a man's world! When her husband disappears…

WARNING - discussion of the Georgian sex trade in this episode The marvellous Moll King is the subject of this week's episode - a wonderful businesswoman in the 1700s, who skirted the line of the law with loopholes and cunning. From growing up in Covent Garden and learning the lay of the land, Moll met her husband Tom King, and together they establ…

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London calling! Have you even visited London if you haven't stood in a queue to have your photo taken in a classic red heritage phone box? This week we chat all things phones - from the first phone call made, to where you can find little cherubs on the phone on some London buildings! Why are phone boxes red? What exactly IS a K2? And how can you sp…