Tales of the Titans
Designed to dazzle, department stores were once glittering sites of local pride. Now, with closures, a chapter of history is coming to an...
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boasetessa
- Jan 20
- 3 min
Lamenting the loss of London's Department Stores
An advert for D.H. Evans – which disappeared from Oxford Street in 2001 Who doesn’t love a mooch around their favourite department...
Tessa Boase
- Jun 1, 2021
- 4 min
Lessons from eco pioneer Etta Lemon
Etta Lemon is the formidable woman who built the RSPB. Known by one and all as Mrs Lemon, her surname suited her. She was bitter in her...
boasetessa
- May 25, 2021
- 4 min
The fashionable cult of the ‘osprey’
In March 1888, a record-breaking plumage sale was held at the London Commercial Salesrooms. Among the many thousand birds-of paradise,...
Tessa Boase
- Jan 2, 2021
- 4 min
The skeleton in the RSPB closet
When I started researching Margaretta Lemon, the woman who built the all-female RSPB, I assumed that she would be in favour of women's...
Tessa Boase
- Dec 9, 2020
- 4 min
Why we need more statues of women
Statues of women are troubling. Just look at the reaction to the 2020 Mary Wollstonecraft statue by Maggi Hambling. ‘Catastrophically...
Tessa Boase
- Aug 13, 2020
- 4 min
Looking for Emily Williamson, RSPB founder
Victorian campaigner Emily Williamson was so incensed by the millinery trade’s use of plumage that she invited her friends to tea — and...
Tessa Boase
- Dec 29, 2018
- 5 min
The strange ritual of the Servants’ Christmas Ball
Was the Servants’ Ball really so marvellous? It is invoked as an example of the cosy, protective relationship within the English country...
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