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British Museum makes 1.9M images available for free
The British Museum has revamped its online collections database, making over 1.9 million photos of its collection available for free online under a Creative Commons license.
IanVisits
A panel of three former Harley Fellows will reflect on their research, the work made possible by the Fellowship, and the difference it has made to their careers and to the wider field of map history.
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Visit ianvisits.co.uk → RSS feedOn Hacker News Jun 2017 – Jan 2026
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2
Over 700k paintings from the Rijksmuseum online copyright free
Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum has put over 700,000 digitised copies of its huge art collection online, and is making them available to reuse as public domain
3
There’s a 30-year old dead Rabbit in Seven Sisters tube station
For over thirty years, a dead rabbit has hung inside Seven Sisters tube station, and thousands of people walk past it every day without noticing.
4
Cooling the tube – Engineering heat out of the Underground
On a summer's day a trip in a hot tube train is a dreadful experience, but how did we end up with such hot tube trains, and what's being done about it?
5
The British Library puts 1M newspaper pages online for free
The British Library project to digitise copies of newspapers from its archive is to release one million pages as a free resource.
6
London tube map made from a working circuit board
Fancy a tube map with a difference? How about one made from a circuit board - with lights that show live train movements?
7
South Kensington station's escalator replacement project
Deep underneath South Kensington tube station, a huge project is underway to replace all five of the station's escalators, and all of them at the same time.
8
The Piccadilly line’s new air conditioned trains
A railway running through the forests of west Germany is seeing a very unusual sight at the moment - as a Piccadilly line tube train is running through the area.
9
Archive of old military maps published
Over 3,000 military maps, views and prints collected by King George III have been digitised and published online free to visit by the Royal Collection
10
TfL's simple pop-up message led to a significant drop in paper ticket sales
Transport for London (TfL) has seen a drop in the sale of paper tickets after it made a small change to the ticket machines in London Underground stations.
11
Those odd-looking security barriers
You've probably seen these dotted around a few places, what looks like some sort of security barrier, but wondered how such an odd thing could work.
12
The e-scooter isn't new – London was zooming around on Autopeds a century ago
The e-scooters that clutter up pavements may seem like a new thing, but a hundred years ago, there were already people zooming around London on powered scooters.
13
How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground
Dotted around London, there are a number of private hotels that aren’t the sort of hotel you might expect – they’re needed to make mobile phones work on the London Underground.
14
3D Diagrams of London Underground Stations
TfL has released a batch of documents which show almost every underground station in glorious 3D format.
15
A train-sized tunnel is now carrying electricity under South London
Electricity has started flowing through a deep-level tube train sized tunnel running through South London.
16
Ancient law requires a bale of straw to hang from Charing Cross rail bridge
The scaffolding surrounding the Charing Cross railway bridge has received an addition – two bales of hay/straw – because an ancient law requires it.
17
Take a Look at the Crossrail Station Under Bond Street
Of all the Crossrail stations, the most controversial has to be Bond Street - as it's so behind schedule that it might not open when the Elizabeth line's own delayed opening takes place.
18
How Crossrail was affected by the curvature of the Earth (2018)
Crossrail's tunnels under London are long, so long that when they were being planned, they were affected by something you might not expect -- the curvature of the earth.
19
A Map of the Trees of London
Ever wondered what that tree is you passed during your lockdown exercise walk? There's a website that tells you the answer.
20
Elizabeth line testing ways of banishing its "ghosts in the walls"
The appearance of shadowy ghosts has plagued some of the Elizabeth line's central London stations, and now TfL is trying to banish them.
21
A couple of messages about changes to ianVisits
I've been contacted a few times recently about the sharp decline in descriptive images on the events listings.
22
The City of London’s oldest document is currently on public display
A document that was written just a year after William the Conquer did his conquering has gone on display in the City of London.
23
The Myth of Medieval Small Beer (2017)
There is a story repeated so often that it has become a truth -- that medieval folk drank weak beer to avoid the perils of drinking water -- but it's a myth.
24
First photo of HS2 tunnel boring machines
HS2 has released the first picture of one the two TBMs that will spend around three years digging the longest and deepest HS2 tunnels – from just inside the M25 to South Heath in Buckinghamshire.
25
A helicopter and boats to perform a rare ceremony at the Tower of London
Next week, a fairly rare ceremony will take place in and around the Tower of London, and it's even more special than usual this time.
26
Pay a visit to Cambridge’s computer museum
Down a rather shabby road in a Cambridge industrial estate can be found a haven of retro computing delights - the Centre for Computing History.
27
British Rail’s short experiment with travelling pubs
It's May 1949 and British Rail was showing off its latest idea to please the public - a travelling pub.