Tag: buildings
-
Who gets a blue plaque?
I read all 1,037 English Heritage plaques listed in London and mapped 6,476 plaques across the UK. Only 16% of the people on London’s plaques are women, but 54% of those honoured since 2020.
-
The Conquest in Castles
I mapped 3,288 Norman-type castle sites across Britain. Only 113 carry a date from 1066 to 1199, and they show a castle frontier that leapt across England within a few years of Hastings.
-
Still Standing: why do old buildings survive?
I mapped all 6,837 buildings and structures in Wikidata from before AD 1100. 65% were built for worship, most still are, and the survivors are either indispensable or forgotten.
-
What Became of the Abbeys?
Henry VIII closed the monasteries of England and Wales between 1536 and 1540. I traced 808 of them to what stands on their sites today: more houses and churches than ruins. And the Cistercians chose quiet places, not empty ones.
-
Did lighthouses work?
Between 1760 and 1900 the coasts of Britain and Ireland were ringed with new lights. I counted the wrecks recorded at each spot before and after its light was lit. The wrecks came first.
