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pasttensehistories.bsky.social
pasttensehistories.bsky.social
@pasttensehistories.bsky.social
London radical histories & mysteries. Obsessions: open space, gentrification, strikes, riot, music, drink, spycops.

https://pasttense.co.uk/
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...
November 16, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Wander the streets of London SE5 with our
Combined map / pamphlet

“Rare Doings at Camberwell”

A radical history walk around London SE5

An 84 page A4 Pamphlet/Walk Guide, wrapped in an A3 map.

Available in our online shop:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/rare...
November 8, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Another new short-run pamphlet from Past Tense:

‘They’re Our Own’

Preserving Wanstead Flats as Public Open Space

Buy online here:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/they...
November 6, 2025 at 8:54 AM
A new short-run pamphlet from Past Tense:

‘Lopping Rights’

Resisting enclosure in Epping Forest

Available to buy online:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/lopp...
November 5, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Got a few copies of a short run pamphlet we’ve produced

‘Openness and Possibility’

Preserving Open Space on Leyton Marsh

Can be bought online here:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/open...
November 3, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Available now from Past Tense:

‘Stand Up Now Diggers All’

The 1649 ‘True Levellers’ Commune at St George’s Hill

Buy online here:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/stan...
November 2, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Today!

The very first
Wanstead Independent Book Fair

10.30 – 4.30
Wanstead Library, Spratt Hall Rd, London E11 2RQ

Join Past Tense, book artists, small publishers, local independently published authors, zine makers, on demand poet(s) & more…

tube: Wanstead

More:
stufflikethatbooks.carrd.co
November 1, 2025 at 8:28 AM
A pamphlet from Past Tense:

'Why Pay? A Short Account of the Fare Dodgers' Liberation Front, London, 1994-6.

Available to order in our online shop:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/why-...
October 25, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Available from Past Tense:

‘The Roaring Girl’
The Lives of Moll Cutpurse

The many lives of Mary Frith, aka Moll Cutpurse: 17th Century thief, fence, performer on stage & street, cross-dresser, transgressor, smoker, & allegedly, highwaywoman…

pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/the-...
October 21, 2025 at 7:46 AM
‘A Shabby London Suburb’
Combined map /walking guide to some of the radical & working class history of Hammersmith

Featuring Revolting peasants, suffragettes, socialists, irish republicans, suffocated tory MPs & more!

Available to buy online:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/a-sh...
October 18, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Wander the streets of London SE5 with our
Combined map / pamphlet

Rare Doings at Camberwell
A radical history walk around London SE5

Available in our online shop:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/rare...
October 17, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Back in print from Past Tense:

THROUGH A RIOT SHIELD
The 1985 Brixton Riot

An account of the September 1985 riot in Brixton in response to police shooting / crippling Cherry Groce in a dawn raid while searching for her son.

Available to buy online:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/thro...
October 15, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Join the protest by the Spied On, this Friday outside the Public Inquiry into Undercover Policing… which continues to cover up for the Undercovers!
Friday 16 October 9sm
2 Paternoster Lane, London EC4M 7BQ
October 13, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Walkers could pop down to our talk on open space, enclosure, and resistance after :
October 5, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Past Tense will be doing a talk about enclosure, resistance & reclaiming of space, focusing on the stories of Sydenham Common and One Tree Hill
At the Grove DIY Skate Park/garden,
Dulwich SE22 8LF
Saturday 11th October, 2pm
Free event - all welcome..
October 5, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Available from Past Tense:
The fabulous live action Photo story

“The Little Squatters Handbook”

5 homeless toys squat an empty dolls’ house & fight off eviction.

Proceeds go to the Advisory Service for Squatters ⁦‪

pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/the-...
September 29, 2025 at 7:54 AM
#OnThisDay in London riotous history: police shooting of Cherry Groce sparks a riot, Brixton, 1985.

More in our pamphlet:
Brixton Through A Riot Shield
First Hand accounts of the 1985 riot

Newly re-issued!

Buy online here:

pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/thro...
September 28, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Back in print:
LAST ORDERS FOR THE LOCAL:
Working Class Space v. the Marketplace;
Theme Pubs and other disasters.

A critique of the emergence of Theming as a marketing factor in various fields of leisure and consumption…

Available to buy online:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/last...
September 27, 2025 at 8:00 AM
More on the riotous battles that saved One Tree Hill as public open green space in our pamphlet - Rights of Common…
September 21, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Alex Brettell playing several brilliant songs about the Great North Wood, land, enclosure & resistance.
September 21, 2025 at 6:46 PM
One Tree Hill poet in residence Hasti with a lovely poem about the Hill
September 21, 2025 at 6:45 PM
John from the Friends of One Tree Hill talking about how the community manage the ecology of the Hill … part of today’s brilliant 120th anniversary celebration of One Tree Hill opening as a public park.
September 21, 2025 at 6:45 PM
It’s in a map I made…
September 20, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Join our free history walk from Peckham Rye One Tree Hill: 120 years since the Hill opened as a public park, after 1000s rioted to reverse its enclosure by a golf club.

Sept 21st, 1pm, Peckham Rye, opposite Morleys, SE15 4JR

One Tree Hill free event:
www.instagram.com/p/DOX8Mr2jBw...
September 13, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Tomorrow: Radical History Faction’s
WAPPING Radical history walk

Sunday 14 th September

from 2pm

starting on Wapping Green.

RADICALS, RIOTS, PIRATES,
PRESS GANGS, COPS,
DOCKS, DEBTORS ………

FREE EVENT

See you there!
September 13, 2025 at 8:45 AM