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Gerrard Street, London
Gerrard Street () is a street in the West End of London, in the Chinatown area. The street was built between 1677 and 1685 and originally named Gerrard Street after the military leader Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield who owned the land and used it as a training area. It was developed by the physician Nicholas Barbon. By the mid-18th century, it was known more for its coffee houses and taverns than as a place of residence. Residents John Dryden (1631–1700) lived for a while at 43 Gerrard Street, which is commemorated by a blue plaque. This building was later occupied by Rudolph Appel in 1851. Here he ran an anastatic lithography printing business until he relinquished the business in favour of Samuel Cowell of Ipswich in 1858. Another plaque, on number 9, marks the meeting of Samuel Johnson and Joshua Reynolds at the Turk's Head Tavern to found The Club (Literary Club), The Club, a dining club, in 1764. In fiction, Charles Dickens sets the home of Mr Jaggers, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinatown
Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. The development of most Chinatowns typically resulted from human migration to an area without any or with few Chinese residents. Binondo in Manila, established in 1594, is recognized as the world's oldest Chinatown. Notable early examples outside Asia include San Francisco's Chinatown in the United States and Melbourne's Chinatown in Australia, which were founded in the early 1850s during the California and Victoria gold rushes, respectively. A more modern example, in Montville, Connecticut, was caused by the displacement of Chinese workers in New York's Manhattan Chinatown following the September 11th attacks in 2001. Definition Oxford Dictionaries defines "Chinatown" as "...a district of any non-Asian town, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Society Of Arts
The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, social progress, and sustainable development. Through its extensive network of changemakers, thought leadership, and projects, the RSA seeks to drive transformative change, enabling “people, places, and the planet to thrive in harmony.” Committed to social change and creating progress, the RSA embodies a philosophy that values the intersection of arts, industry, and societal well-being to address contemporary challenges and enrich communities worldwide. From its "beginnings in a coffee house in the mid-eighteenth century", the RSA, which began as a UK institution, is now an international society for the improvement of "everything and anything". An "ambitious" organisation, the RSA has "evolved and adapted, constantly reinventing itself ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The 2i's Coffee Bar
The 2i's Coffee Bar was a coffeehouse at 59 Old Compton Street in Soho, London, that was open from 1956 to 1970. It played a formative role in the emergence of Britain's skiffle and rock and roll music culture in the late 1950s, and several major stars including Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard were first discovered performing there. History Founding and ownership The name of the 2i's derived from earlier owners, brothers Freddie and Bakhtyar (Buck) Irani, who ran the venue until 1955. Musicstorytellers: People With 2i’s Retrieved 24 October 2013 It was then taken over by Paul Lincoln, an Australian [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kate Meyrick
Kate Meyrick (7 August 1875 – 19 January 1933) known as the 'Night Club Queen' was an Irish night-club owner in 1920s London. During her 13-year career she made, and spent, a fortune and served five prison sentences. She was the inspiration for the character Ma Mayfield in Evelyn Waugh's novel, ''Brideshead Revisited''. Early life and marriage Kate Evelyn Nason was born on 7 August 1875 at 24 Cambridge Terrace, Dún Laoghaire, Kingstown to John William Washington Nason, a doctor, and Sarah Frances, née Bateman. Her father died from meningitis in 1876 and her mother married the clergyman Reverend Edwin Sandys Jackson in June 1880. The family moved to England and lived at the rectory in Great Sankey, Lancashire. When Kate was seven years old, her mother died and she and her older sister, Ethel, returned to Kingstown where they were raised by their grandmother, Isabella Bateman, and two great aunts at Fairyland, York Road. She was educated by governesses then attended Alexandra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Home Office
The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigration, passports, and civil registration. Agencies under its purview include police in England and Wales, Border Force, UK Visas and Immigration, the Visas and Immigration authority, and the MI5, Security Service (MI5). It also manage policy on drugs, counterterrorism, and immigration. It was formerly responsible for His Majesty's Prison Service and the National Probation Service, but these have been transferred to the Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom), Ministry of Justice. The Cabinet minister responsible for the department is the Home Secretary, home secretary, a post considered one of the Great Offices of State; it has been held by Yvette Cooper since July 2024. The Home Office is managed from day to day by a civil servant, the Per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nightclub
A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighting displays, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who mixes recorded music. Nightclubs tend to be smaller than live music venues like theatres and stadiums, with few or no seats for customers. Nightclubs generally restrict access to people in terms of age, Clothing, attire, personal property, personal belongings, and behaviors. Nightclubs typically have dress codes to prohibit people wearing informal, indecent, offensive, or gang-related attire from entering. Unlike other entertainment venues, nightclubs are more likely to use Bouncer (doorman), bouncers to screen prospective patrons for entry. The busiest nights for a nightclub are Friday and Saturday nights. Most nightclubs cater to a particular music genre or sound for bran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
43 Club
The 43 Club or "The 43" was a nightclub at 43 Gerrard Street in Soho, London that became notorious during the Jazz Age for outrageous parties frequented by the decadent rich and famous. Local myth provides many tales of provocative, licentious and sometimes criminal goings on. Kate Meyrick The proprietor, Kate Meyrick, was eventually gaoled five times before the club finally closed. She and her clubs were targeted by the Home Secretary, William Joynson-Hicks, who instructed the head of London's Metropolitan Police, William Horwood that ‘it is a place of the most intense mischief and immorality ithdoped women and drunken men. I want you to put this matter in the hands of your most experienced men and whatever the cost will be, find out the truth about this Club and if it is as bad as I am informed prosecute it with the utmost rigour of the law’. Legacy Occasionally modern nightclub ventures in London and elsewhere call themselves "Club 43" and other variations of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties, sometimes stylized as Roaring '20s, refers to the 1920s decade in music and fashion, as it happened in Western world, Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the United States and Europe, particularly in major cities such as Berlin, Buenos Aires, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York City, Paris, and Sydney. In France, the decade was known as the (), emphasizing the era's social, artistic and cultural dynamism. Jazz blossomed, the flapper redefined the modern look for British and American women, and Art Deco peaked. The social and cultural features known as the Roaring Twenties began in leading metropolitan centers and spread widely in the aftermath of World War I. The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of novelty associated with modernity and a break with tradition, through modern technology such as automobiles, Film, moving pictures, and ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Office Of Works
The Office of Works was an organisation responsible for structures and exterior spaces, first established as part of the English royal household in 1378 to oversee the building and maintenance of the royal castles and residences. In 1832 it became the Works Department within the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings. It was reconstituted as a government department in 1851, which in 1940 became part of the Ministry of Works. Organisation and key positions Surveyor, Comptroller and Architect The organisation of the office varied; senior posts included Surveyor of the King's Works (1578–1782) and Comptroller of the King's Works (1423–1782). In 1782 these offices were merged into Surveyor-General and Comptroller. After the death of the Surveyor-General and Comptroller James Wyatt in 1813, a non-professional Surveyor-General was appointed: Major-General Sir Benjamin Stephenson. He was assisted by three "Attached Architects": Sir John Soane, John ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Telephone Company
The National Telephone Company (NTC) was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British telephone company, which from 1881 to 1911 consolidated smaller local companies in the early years of telephone adoption. The British government nationalised the company under the Telephone Transfer Act 1911 with the General Post Office taking over in 1912. History Three years after the first telephone company, The Telephone Company (Bells Patents) Ltd, appeared in London (in fact it was the first in Europe), the National Telephone Company was formed on 10 March 1881, as a provincial subsidiary of the United Telephone Company Limited (UTC). The NTC was initially formed to develop and operate telephone services in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Ulster and parts of Scotland, taking over UTC operations in those places. The UTC developed other similar provincial companies throughout the British Isles between 1881 and 1885. The UTC then wished to create a new company for the amalgamation of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peeping Tom (1960 Film)
''Peeping Tom'' is a 1960 British psychological horror-thriller film directed by Michael Powell, written by Leo Marks, and starring Carl Boehm, Moira Shearer, Anna Massey and Maxine Audley. The film revolves around a serial killer who murders women while using a portable film camera to record their dying expressions of terror, putting his footage together into a snuff film used for his own self-pleasure. Its title derives from the expression "Peeping Tom", which describes a voyeur. The film's controversial subject matter and its extremely harsh reception by critics had a severely negative impact on Powell's career as a director in the United Kingdom. However, it attracted a cult following, and in later years, it has been re-evaluated and is now widely considered a masterpiece, and a progenitor of the contemporary slasher film. The British Film Institute named it the 78th greatest British film of all time, and in 2017 a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Powell
Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company Powell and Pressburger, The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a series of classic British films, notably ''The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' (1943), ''A Canterbury Tale'' (1944), ''I Know Where I'm Going!'' (1945), A Matter of Life and Death (film), ''A Matter of Life and Death'' (1946, ''Stairway to Heaven'' in the U.S.), ''Black Narcissus'' (1947), The Red Shoes (1948 film), ''The Red Shoes'' (1948) and ''The Tales of Hoffmann (film), The Tales of Hoffmann'' (1951). His controversial ''Peeping Tom (1960 film), Peeping Tom'' (1960), which was so vilified on first release that it seriously damaged his career, is now considered a classic, and possibly the earliest "slasher movie". Many renowned filmmakers, such as Francis Ford Coppola, George A. Romero, Brian De Palma, Bertrand Taver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
