London

Constructing the Victoria Embankment on the north bank of the River Thames in London: an image analysed by Roger Hudson.

The Zoological Society of London was launched in 1826 to promote scientific research into new species. Roger Rideout describes how it amassed its specimens for its private museum and menagerie, which soon became a public attraction.

Seventy-five years on, the Battle of Cable Street still holds a proud place in anti-fascist memory, considered a decisive victory against the far right. In fact, the event boosted domestic fascism and antisemitism and made life far more unpleasant for its Jewish victims, explains Daniel Tilles.

On July 25th, 1943, King Victor Emmanuel III said to Mussolini: 'My dear Duce, my soldiers don't want to fight anymore. At this moment you are the most hated man in Italy.' Mussolini was forced to resign. Here, Alfio Bernabei reveals evidence of an unknown London-based plot to kill the dictator in the early 1930s.

James Whitfield on why the theft of a Spanish master’s portrait of a British military hero led to a change in the law.

A mid-Victorian competition to design new Government Offices in Whitehall fell victim to a battle between the competing styles of Gothic and Classical. The result proved unworthy of a nation then at its imperial zenith, as Bernard Porter explains.

Dunia Garcia-Ontiveros explores the works of Thomas Hill, the author of the first popular gardening books in the English language.

Glittering monument to Britain’s colonial achievement or fragile symbol of a fragmenting imperial dream? Jan Piggott charts the efforts to make Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace flourish as an ‘Acropolis of Empire’.

Natasha McEnroe on the reopening of a fascinating but little-known collection.

Sarah Wise highlights a campaign to save a humble treasure.

A series of violent attacks by pale shrouded figures on lone pedestrians, especially women, was widely reported in the early 19th century. Jacob Middleton uncovers the sham ghosts of Georgian London.

Sheila Corr marks the advent of a permanent home for the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton, London.

Wilkie Collins’ haunting mystery of false identity and female instability reflected one of the lunacy panics of the age. Sarah Wise looks at three events that inspired The Woman in White.