History Shorts: snippets of local history

Roaming around the British Newspaper Archive today, I came across some adverts from the London Standard which do feel a little bizarre by today's standards! Personals: B*****. De W – You have been traced. Write and give E.P. an explanation, also W., or immediate proceedings will be taken. – F.D. Green Bushes. – Dangerously ill. Mind unhinged. Shop closed: not take sufficient pay rent. Pray  help before Tuesday or will lose all. Ruined. Mother cannot help. What will become our darling. I.V.O.R – I know there is an impassable gulf between us now. Don’t throw across a relic of happier time when you loved and trusted me. It was given on certain conditions and I can only take it from your hand. If you will not see me call for letter. Perhaps your turn has come. Be generous and spare me. Slater's Detective Agency:   Before commencing Divorce proceedings consult Henry Slater, who will obtain all available reliable evidence. Consultations free. Successful in ever

I had read a lot about the secret side of ‘underground London’ for a while without tasting too much of the real thing: the odd surface remnant of a disused tube station being the height of it. So I was delighted then to stumble across news that London Transport Museum were again hosting visits inside the disused Aldwych station, which had closed to passengers in September 1994. The tours sold out sharpish but I managed to get a couple of tickets in time! There is definitely a sense of excitement about getting a glimpse of something that has been ‘hidden’, even in relatively recent history. Even when in use, Aldwych (which opened as the Strand station in November 1907 on the site of a demolished theatre) had an aura of sadness about it, and not just because the ghost of a theatre actress allegedly haunts one of the platforms!. Despite bigger plans on several occasions, it only ever existed as a small branch line from Holborn and was under-used by passengers throughout its hi