Viewpoints – Placecloud

London, United Kingdom. In December 1818, Tom Keats, the youngest of the three Keats brothers, died at number 1 Well Walk. In the final stages of his consumption, Tom was nursed by his elder brother, the poet John Keats. Listen to find out more about how Keats undertook his responsibilities as Tom's sole carer.

London, United Kingdom. Home to London's wits, Button's Coffee House held a vision for a new way to socialise and the improvement of society via the ideal coffeehouse. To achieve it, they enlisted the help of a lion to root out the city's misdemeanours.

London, United Kingdom. Bartholomew Fair was held in Smithfield annually from the 1133 to 1855 at the end of August on the days around St Bartholomew's Day. Originally a cloth fair, the event expanded to include a variety of other wares and a number of entertainments and sights. Listen to this recording of a 17th Century broadside ballad to hear a description of the fair: All those that have money...

London, United Kingdom. New coffeehouses brought not just a new drink to drink, but a new social space away from courts and universities. If you had visited in the late seventeenth century you would have heard financial deals and the latest news from across the globe. If you went to Garraway’s Coffee House in Change Alley, you may have also seen the latest scientific experiments, from tests on gas...

London, United Kingdom. Wentworth Place (now Keats House) was home to the Romantic Poet John Keats from December 1818 - September 1820. Listen to discover more about the history of the house and Keats's time spent living there.

London, United Kingdom. Recounts the story of Constable George Funnell who died in 1899 while attempting to rescue people from a fire at a Hackney pub.

London, United Kingdom. Recounts the story of Solomon Gellman, aged eleven, who was run down and killed on Commercial Street in 1901 while trying to save his little brother from being injured.

London, United Kingdom. Recounts the story of three men who lost their lives in 1901 while trying to rescue their workmate at the Three Mills Distillery in Bow.

Ealing Broadway, United Kingdom. Recounts the story of Samuel Rabbeth, a doctor at the Royal Free Hospital in Barnet, who, in 1884, lost his life while attempting to save a child in his care.

London, United Kingdom. Recounts the story of Thomas Griffin who, in 1899, was scalded to death at a Battersea sugar refinery while trying to rescue his mate.

London, United Kingdom. Recounts the story of Richard Farris, who lost his life in the Grand Surrey Canal in Peckham in 1878 while trying to save the life of a woman.

London, United Kingdom. Recounts the story of Alice Ayres who, in 1885, perished in a fire in Southwark while attempting to rescue three children.

Vilnius, Lithuania. Brothel madams mediated between the police and women who sold sex, so they were essential for the functioning of the state regulation of prostitution. This viewpoint explores some of the responsibilities given to brothel madams working under the state regulation system.

Irkutsk, Russia. The construction of the Trans-Siberian railway increased the visibility of prostitution in Siberia. This viewpoint explores the impact of transportation development and war on efforts to police prostitution in the Siberian region.

Arkhangelsk, Russia. Understandings of prostitution, and methods of policing it, hinged upon the social, economic, and environmental characteristics of a particular place. This viewpoint looks at how policing prostitution was influenced by the landscape and environment of Arkhangel'sk, a city just outside the Arctic Circle.

St Petersburg, Russia. What was a secret prostitute and why did the tsarist police deem them so concerning? This viewpoint answers these questions by examining an anonymous denunciation of a woman living at 25 Bol'shoi Prospekt in St Petersburg that was sent to the city police in 1905.

Vilnius, Lithuania. Brothels were everywhere in urban centres of the Russian Empire, and reactions to them were complicated and varied. This viewpoint focuses on one street in Vilnius in the early 1900s to examine the complex relationships between landlords, brothel madams, and the tsarist police.

Krāslava, Latvia. The Russian imperial authorities struggled to regulate the bodies of its populace in the chaos, dislocation, and destruction of the First World War. This viewpoint explores this challenge using the case study of Evgeniia Trifonova, a woman who snuck into the military barracks at Krāslava disguised as a military nurse in order to sell sex.

Liepāja, Latvia. Venereal diseases in the military were extremely concerning for the Russian imperial authorities. This viewpoint examines responses to epidemic rates of venereal infection in one port of the Empire, the Port of Emperor Alexander III in Libava (now Karosta, near Liepāja in Latvia)

Riga, Latvia. This viewpoint explores the forced registration of women onto the Russian Empire's police lists of prostitutes in the early 1900s. In Riga, forced registration commonly occurred in the city's hotels, and can be read as official attempts to kick back against perceived moral decline amidst urbanisation, industrialisation, and modernisation.

London, United Kingdom. The concept of feminist marxist architectural history is explored through Jane Rendell’s writing on Burlington Arcade.

London, United Kingdom. Jagonari Educational Resource Centre was a hub for East End women designed by the groundbreaking feminist design co-operative Matrix.

London, United Kingdom. East End Women’s Museum is the only museum dedicated to women’s history in England. It was founded in 2015 as a positive protest against the ‘Jack the Ripper Museum’ in Cable Street. A permanent building is set to open in Barking in 2021 - 2022.

London, United Kingdom. The story of the Focus E15 campaign and their occupation of an empty building in Carpenters Estate to provide a social centre in 2014.

Ealing Broadway, United Kingdom. Kensal House is a pioneering modern public housing project devised for working class families and designed by architect Maxwell Fry and housing consultant Elizabeth Denby.