pasttensehistories.bsky.social
@pasttensehistories.bsky.social
London radical histories & mysteries. Obsessions: open space, gentrification, strikes, riot, music, drink, spycops.
https://pasttense.co.uk/
https://pasttense.co.uk/
Pinned
Past Tense Histories
DIY Radical history publications from London's turbulent past... Self-published pamphlets, posters, pamphlets and the London Rebel History...
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com
Some of our publications about London radical history (and more!) can be ordered from our online shop.
Pamphlets, books, maps & posters.
Much of our back catalogue is out of print but we’re working on making it available again…
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com
Pamphlets, books, maps & posters.
Much of our back catalogue is out of print but we’re working on making it available again…
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
Not entirely surprising that so many contemporaries, especially Jews & people of colour, viscerally recall Nigel Farage’s systematic racist and antisemitic bullying. His usual response, and universally that of the far right when confronted: furious denial.
www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-...
www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-...
‘Deeply shocking’: Nigel Farage faces fresh claims of racism and antisemitism at school
Bafta-winning director among contemporaries urging contrition and apology from Reform UK leader, who denies the allegations
www.theguardian.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Not entirely surprising that so many contemporaries, especially Jews & people of colour, viscerally recall Nigel Farage’s systematic racist and antisemitic bullying. His usual response, and universally that of the far right when confronted: furious denial.
www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-...
www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-...
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
Global warming is the byproduct of the lavish lifestyles of the 1%
November 18, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Global warming is the byproduct of the lavish lifestyles of the 1%
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
I'll be talking with @peteapps.bsky.social about his important new book, 'Homesick - How Housing Broke London and How to Fix It' at the Writeidea Festival, Tower Hamlets Town Hall, 1pm, Saturday 22 November. Tickets free but you need to reserve a place.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peter-apps...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peter-apps...
Peter Apps: Homesick - How Housing Broke London and How to Fix It
Homesick is the gripping story of how housing defines a city’s past, present and future.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 18, 2025 at 9:01 AM
I'll be talking with @peteapps.bsky.social about his important new book, 'Homesick - How Housing Broke London and How to Fix It' at the Writeidea Festival, Tower Hamlets Town Hall, 1pm, Saturday 22 November. Tickets free but you need to reserve a place.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peter-apps...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peter-apps...
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
The first issue of the Chartist newspaper, the Northern Star, appeared #OnThisDay 18 November 1837. Without it, Chartism would have been a far weaker thing.
www.chartistancestors.co.uk/northern-sta...
www.chartistancestors.co.uk/northern-sta...
November 18, 2025 at 7:27 AM
The first issue of the Chartist newspaper, the Northern Star, appeared #OnThisDay 18 November 1837. Without it, Chartism would have been a far weaker thing.
www.chartistancestors.co.uk/northern-sta...
www.chartistancestors.co.uk/northern-sta...
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
Asked about Tommy Robinson supporting her asylum plans Shabana Mahmood replies that "Tommy Robinson doesn't even think I'm actually English, so he will certainly not be supporting anything I've got to say."
But he is supporting what she's got to say. That was the point of the question
But he is supporting what she's got to say. That was the point of the question
November 17, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Asked about Tommy Robinson supporting her asylum plans Shabana Mahmood replies that "Tommy Robinson doesn't even think I'm actually English, so he will certainly not be supporting anything I've got to say."
But he is supporting what she's got to say. That was the point of the question
But he is supporting what she's got to say. That was the point of the question
#OnThisDay in London radical herstory, 2001:
Silver Moon feminist bookshop closes its Charing Cross Rd premises. The shop moved into Foyles 2001-6.
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/book...
Silver Moon feminist bookshop closes its Charing Cross Rd premises. The shop moved into Foyles 2001-6.
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/book...
Heavenly body
Silver Moon was more than just a bookshop—it was how many people, especially women, found themselves
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
November 18, 2025 at 8:12 AM
#OnThisDay in London radical herstory, 2001:
Silver Moon feminist bookshop closes its Charing Cross Rd premises. The shop moved into Foyles 2001-6.
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/book...
Silver Moon feminist bookshop closes its Charing Cross Rd premises. The shop moved into Foyles 2001-6.
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/book...
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
New! Our report on the #spycops inquiry questioning a last-minute witness, hunt saboteur 'L3', who only just found out that spycop James Thomson tried to frame him for gun smuggling in a confected plot to prolong his cushy undercover deployment.
campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2025/11/17/u...
campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2025/11/17/u...
UCPI Daily Report, 4 Nov 2025: 'L3' evidence
A late addition to the Undercover Policing Inquiry, 'L3' only recently found out spycop James Thomson tried to frame him for gun smuggling
campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com
November 17, 2025 at 6:13 AM
New! Our report on the #spycops inquiry questioning a last-minute witness, hunt saboteur 'L3', who only just found out that spycop James Thomson tried to frame him for gun smuggling in a confected plot to prolong his cushy undercover deployment.
campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2025/11/17/u...
campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2025/11/17/u...
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
I’m down in Hastings this Tuesday to speak about #blacklisting & #spycops at the Trades Council AGM
Tues 18 Nov (7pm)
Isabel Blackman Centre
Winding St
#Hastings
All #union members & allies welcome (@DaveBlacklist)
Tues 18 Nov (7pm)
Isabel Blackman Centre
Winding St
#Hastings
All #union members & allies welcome (@DaveBlacklist)
November 16, 2025 at 10:37 PM
I’m down in Hastings this Tuesday to speak about #blacklisting & #spycops at the Trades Council AGM
Tues 18 Nov (7pm)
Isabel Blackman Centre
Winding St
#Hastings
All #union members & allies welcome (@DaveBlacklist)
Tues 18 Nov (7pm)
Isabel Blackman Centre
Winding St
#Hastings
All #union members & allies welcome (@DaveBlacklist)
Available from Past Tense:
Rent Strike: St Pancras 1960,
Dave Burn
A history of the 1960 rent strike by council tenants in the then London borough of St Pancras, against a new rent scheme introduced by the Conservative council.
Buy online here:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/rent...
Rent Strike: St Pancras 1960,
Dave Burn
A history of the 1960 rent strike by council tenants in the then London borough of St Pancras, against a new rent scheme introduced by the Conservative council.
Buy online here:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/rent...
November 16, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Available from Past Tense:
Rent Strike: St Pancras 1960,
Dave Burn
A history of the 1960 rent strike by council tenants in the then London borough of St Pancras, against a new rent scheme introduced by the Conservative council.
Buy online here:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/rent...
Rent Strike: St Pancras 1960,
Dave Burn
A history of the 1960 rent strike by council tenants in the then London borough of St Pancras, against a new rent scheme introduced by the Conservative council.
Buy online here:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/rent...
#OnThisDay in legal herstory, 1928: Radclyffe Hall’s novel ‘The Well of Loneliness’ is ruled to be obscene by a UK judge, for its positive portrayal of lesbian relationships.
media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/ba...
media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/ba...
Unfolding the court case that banned a 1920s lesbian novel | The National Archives
In 1928 Radclyffe Hall wrote 'The Well of Loneliness', a novel that featured female characters in same-sex relationships. Shortly after it was published,
media.nationalarchives.gov.uk
November 16, 2025 at 10:17 AM
#OnThisDay in legal herstory, 1928: Radclyffe Hall’s novel ‘The Well of Loneliness’ is ruled to be obscene by a UK judge, for its positive portrayal of lesbian relationships.
media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/ba...
media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/ba...
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
Just published - our summary of the #spycops inquiry questioning 'Wendy' who was deceived into an intimate friendship by officer HN16 James Thomson, one of several he continued for many years after his deployment ended. (@copscampaign.bsky.social)
November 16, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Just published - our summary of the #spycops inquiry questioning 'Wendy' who was deceived into an intimate friendship by officer HN16 James Thomson, one of several he continued for many years after his deployment ended. (@copscampaign.bsky.social)
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
Running around Scotland like a crusader, with the force for good, Wow!! The filth that's out there screaming protect or women and children, disgusting white!!! Dirty Filthy 🤬
November 14, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Running around Scotland like a crusader, with the force for good, Wow!! The filth that's out there screaming protect or women and children, disgusting white!!! Dirty Filthy 🤬
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 8:47 AM
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
HUNDREDS of charities and voluntary organisations have warned the UK Government that they will not comply with plans to force asylum seekers to complete voluntary work ...
300 organisations warn Labour: 'We will not comply with proposed Home Office rules'
HUNDREDS of charities and voluntary organisations have warned the UK Government that they will not comply with plans to force asylum seekers to…
www.thenational.scot
November 14, 2025 at 7:26 PM
HUNDREDS of charities and voluntary organisations have warned the UK Government that they will not comply with plans to force asylum seekers to complete voluntary work ...
#OnThisDay in London healthcare history, 1979: St Benedict's Hospital, Tooting, occupied by its workers, in an attempt to prevent its closure
wp.me/p74yfw-Cc
wp.me/p74yfw-Cc
Today in London healthcare history, 1979: St Benedict’s Hospital, Tooting, occupied by its workers.
The staff at St Benedict’s Hospital, Tooting, South London, began an official work-in to prevent closure of their hospital on November 15th 1979. A strong support committee was organised in t…
wp.me
November 15, 2025 at 10:02 AM
#OnThisDay in London healthcare history, 1979: St Benedict's Hospital, Tooting, occupied by its workers, in an attempt to prevent its closure
wp.me/p74yfw-Cc
wp.me/p74yfw-Cc
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
Dan Gilman says that every single conversation that he had with #spycops officer Carlo Soracchi was reported, apart from the one when he told him not to petrol bomb a shop. Dan points out that Carlo's boss was Bob Lambert who has a track record of inventing bomb plots ...
November 13, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Dan Gilman says that every single conversation that he had with #spycops officer Carlo Soracchi was reported, apart from the one when he told him not to petrol bomb a shop. Dan points out that Carlo's boss was Bob Lambert who has a track record of inventing bomb plots ...
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
🚨 NEW POST: the scheme that inspired our postwar 'streets in the sky' - the Justus van Effen Estate in Rotterdam, Michiel Brinkman's masterpiece of the early 1920s. (New photos by @matthew-cook.bsky.social added.)
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/11/11/h...
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/11/11/h...
November 14, 2025 at 9:33 AM
🚨 NEW POST: the scheme that inspired our postwar 'streets in the sky' - the Justus van Effen Estate in Rotterdam, Michiel Brinkman's masterpiece of the early 1920s. (New photos by @matthew-cook.bsky.social added.)
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/11/11/h...
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/11/11/h...
#OnThisDay in classified history, 1978: ABC trial verdicts. Ex-soldier John Berry found guilty of communicating secret defence information to journalist Duncan Campbell, and Crispin Aubrey found guilty of abetting Campbell
More on the ABC trials:
wp.me/p74yfw-s9
More on the ABC trials:
wp.me/p74yfw-s9
This week in London secret history, 1977: Aubrey, Berry and Campbell arrested under Official Secrets Act, sparking ABC trial.
On 18th February, 1977: three men were arrested, John Nicholas Crispin Aubrey, John Ashley Berry and Duncan Campbell. Berry was charged with “communicating classified information to unauthorised per…
wp.me
November 14, 2025 at 10:15 AM
#OnThisDay in classified history, 1978: ABC trial verdicts. Ex-soldier John Berry found guilty of communicating secret defence information to journalist Duncan Campbell, and Crispin Aubrey found guilty of abetting Campbell
More on the ABC trials:
wp.me/p74yfw-s9
More on the ABC trials:
wp.me/p74yfw-s9
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
A section of the ITV report of the Welling demonstration against the BNP bookshop in October 1993 is now about to be shown at the #spycops inquiry. First we are showing maps of the route. (@tombfowler.bsky.social)
November 12, 2025 at 3:22 PM
A section of the ITV report of the Welling demonstration against the BNP bookshop in October 1993 is now about to be shown at the #spycops inquiry. First we are showing maps of the route. (@tombfowler.bsky.social)
Reposted by pasttensehistories.bsky.social
🚨 New on Substack: my post on the postwar history of Lewisham's Honor Oak Estate - a story of exclusion, regeneration and changing community; the childhood home of Ian Wright (pictured here with his inspirational teacher Sidney Pigden).
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/the-honor-...
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/the-honor-...
November 13, 2025 at 8:20 AM
🚨 New on Substack: my post on the postwar history of Lewisham's Honor Oak Estate - a story of exclusion, regeneration and changing community; the childhood home of Ian Wright (pictured here with his inspirational teacher Sidney Pigden).
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/the-honor-...
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/the-honor-...
#OnThisDay in London riotous history, 1887: 'Bloody Sunday'- police attack demonstrators converging on Trafalgar Square for radical demonstration. Two marchers are killed and 100s injured…
wp.me/p74yfw-Hu
wp.me/p74yfw-Hu
Today in London riotous history, 1887: police attack demonstrators on ‘Bloody Sunday’
Public meetings held in the open used to be one of the main venues of propaganda and winning converts in the early socialist movement. Local ‘speakers corners’ were to be found in many working clas…
wp.me
November 13, 2025 at 8:37 AM
#OnThisDay in London riotous history, 1887: 'Bloody Sunday'- police attack demonstrators converging on Trafalgar Square for radical demonstration. Two marchers are killed and 100s injured…
wp.me/p74yfw-Hu
wp.me/p74yfw-Hu
#OnThisDay in Radical publishing history, 1886 : The serialisation of William Morris’ A Dream of John Ball began in Socialist newspaper Commonweal. A time travel tale of class struggles and inspiration from the Peasants’ Revolt to Victorian London
www.marxists.org/archive/morr...
www.marxists.org/archive/morr...
William Morris - A Dream of John Ball
www.marxists.org
November 13, 2025 at 8:37 AM
#OnThisDay in Radical publishing history, 1886 : The serialisation of William Morris’ A Dream of John Ball began in Socialist newspaper Commonweal. A time travel tale of class struggles and inspiration from the Peasants’ Revolt to Victorian London
www.marxists.org/archive/morr...
www.marxists.org/archive/morr...
#OnThisDay in legal history, 1964: The trial of anarchist cartoonist Donald Rooum and others, nicked at Claridges anti-Greek Queen demo, collapses after DS Challenor is proved to have planted a brick in Rooum’s pocket.
More on the demo & frame-up
wp.me/p74yfw-o3
More on the demo & frame-up
wp.me/p74yfw-o3
Today in royal history: Greek queen’s visit to Claridges leads to protests, 1963.
The State Visit to London of King Paul and Queen Frederica of the Hellenes, between 9 and 12 July 1963, occasioned demonstrations by pacifists, nuclear disarmers, Communists, militant Christians, G…
wp.me
November 13, 2025 at 8:36 AM
#OnThisDay in legal history, 1964: The trial of anarchist cartoonist Donald Rooum and others, nicked at Claridges anti-Greek Queen demo, collapses after DS Challenor is proved to have planted a brick in Rooum’s pocket.
More on the demo & frame-up
wp.me/p74yfw-o3
More on the demo & frame-up
wp.me/p74yfw-o3
#OnThisDay in London radical history, 1647: A ‘great meeting’ of 150 weavers at the Mouth Inn (Aldersgate) is held - there is talk of concerted action with the army against parliament.
November 13, 2025 at 8:36 AM
#OnThisDay in London radical history, 1647: A ‘great meeting’ of 150 weavers at the Mouth Inn (Aldersgate) is held - there is talk of concerted action with the army against parliament.
#OnThisDay in radical herstory, 1909: Suffragette Alice Chapin, member of the Women’s Freedom League, is in the dock at the Old Bailey charged with spoiling ballot papers with a noxious liquid at a polling station in the 1909 #Bermondsey by-election.
thefword.org.uk/2009/10/berm...
thefword.org.uk/2009/10/berm...
Bermondsey suffragettes 100 years ago!
Contemporary UK Feminism
thefword.org.uk
November 13, 2025 at 8:34 AM
#OnThisDay in radical herstory, 1909: Suffragette Alice Chapin, member of the Women’s Freedom League, is in the dock at the Old Bailey charged with spoiling ballot papers with a noxious liquid at a polling station in the 1909 #Bermondsey by-election.
thefword.org.uk/2009/10/berm...
thefword.org.uk/2009/10/berm...