{"id":10934,"date":"2026-05-06T12:43:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T19:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/?page_id=10934"},"modified":"2026-05-06T12:45:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T19:45:39","slug":"may-2026-the-garden-introducing-gasholders-the-blog","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/may-2026-the-garden-introducing-gasholders-the-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2026: the garden, introducing gasholders, the blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lisa<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In this issue: The garden in May, introducing gasholders, the blog.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you know the show Camelot<\/em>, it’s hard not to sing The Lusty Month of May<\/em><\/a> in your head. And May is wonderful for gardens, unless you’re in places where snow had decided to join in the fun. I’m not, although it has decided to rain at unexpected times, filling my garden clogs with water.<\/p>\n

The garden in May<\/h2>\n

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Boysenberries (back frame) are here early, artichokes are tiny but done, wisteria (at the front left) is a volunteer, rosemary and lavender doing ok.<\/p>\n

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My garden has one of everything when it comes to wildlife who like to eat what I grow: one possum, one squirrel, one rat. So this year’s purple pole beans are surrounded by hardware cloth! The plant on the right in front is a guava, behind it is a surname cherry and timber bamboo. Straight back is the giant bird of paradise, a volunteer that I just cut down to a civilized size.<\/p>\n

What’s next?<\/h2>\n

With Murder at the Gasworks<\/em> released, there is little to do but go on to the next project. I’m doing some writing for a new website called The Historic Traveler<\/a>, hosted by Jackie Lapin. Love the idea: a website dedicated to folks who travel to find the history, not just party and do a vacay. I’ve recently submitted an article for the UNESCO section on my favorite city in the world (so far). That’s Durham, in the north of England.<\/p>\n

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\"River
Classic view of the cathedral tower and the River Wear<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Durham City has a castle, a river, and a cathedral built in Norman times. I love the city so much that I had Tommy Jones go there to find a witness in Murder on the Pneumatic Railway<\/em><\/a>, just so I could learn more about the city during the Victorian era. It’s the only city I’ve featured in the Tommy Jones mysteries other than London.<\/p>\n

I wrote that book during the pandemic, and the folks at the Durham Archives were so wonderful. They even scanned pages of the 1870 street directory for me so I’d have the shops and addresses correct for my book.<\/p>\n

While I won’t be able to return there on this year’s trip, I do hope to visit again soon.<\/p>\n

Introducing Gasholders<\/h2>\n

Since the Victorian era, areas of the London skyline have been dominated by the frames of gasholders. Children grew up playing in these derelict structures, and they were a feature in many neighborhoods. A City of London gasholder is on the front cover of Murder at the Gasworks<\/em>. So what is a gasholder?<\/p>\n

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Gasholders on Old Kent Road, \u00a9\u00a0 Stephen Craven (Creative Commons<\/a>)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

They are sometimes called “gasometers”, although they weren’t for metering. They stored the gas in large expanding cylinders or balloons inside the framework, ready for transporting into homes and businesses. Most of them have been torn down, but there has recently been an effort to save the last few. The result has been their preservation as a decorative feature for fancy condiminiums, not a use I would have thought of.<\/p>\n

One example is in the area of St. Pancras, behind the rail station, which used to be derelict and dangerous (I was told not to go there in the 1980s, especially after dark). It has been gentrified, the canal and gasholders preserved.<\/p>\n

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Another is in Bethnal Green, where I saw the housing being built inside them:<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

I’m all in favor of Victorian preservation, in whatever form!<\/p>\n

The Blog<\/h2>\n

Want more of me? My Lisahistory blog goes back many years, and these days focuses on history and my writing.<\/p>\n

April’s post details how I had to change things in my current Work in Progress, because it turns out there wasn’t a zoology section yet at the museum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Till next time, keep grousing!<\/p>\n

\"Lisa\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  In this issue: The garden in May, introducing gasholders, the blog. If you know the show Camelot, it’s hard not to sing The Lusty Month of May in your head. And May is wonderful for gardens, unless you’re in places where snow had decided to join in the fun. I’m not, although it has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-fullwidth.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10934","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10934"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10945,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10934\/revisions\/10945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}