This plaque on the side of Newington Green Primary School records the presence of one of Stoke Newington’s leading intellectual dissenters – that pioneering champion of women’s rights, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797). For two years, she tried to earn a living by running a girls’ school on this site. When the school failed, she worked in Ireland as a governess – an experience which influenced her groundbreaking work, A Vindication of the Rights of Women.

Fleetwood Street, Stoke Newington, London N16 (Photographed June 2024 © Breda Corish) In 2023, I was asked to give a local history talk...

How did James & Elizabeth Butler, the 12th Earl and Countess of Ormond first rise to the positions of Viceroy and Vicereine of Ireland?

What connected Ireland's great dynastic Norman family, the Butlers, with the most fashionable urban development in 17th-century London?