Rob Baker

Author of two London history books - Beautiful Idiots & Brilliant Lunatics, and High Buildings, Low Morals. Another book on its way …

[Ian Leslie @mrianleslie]

Letter in the Guardian

[Rob Baker @robnitm]

@simong0808 @JNorthcroft Totally agree

[Rob Baker @robnitm]

@PaulTonkinson @KatyaTaylor And a sizeable number of the ones who don’t support Arsenal probably hate them

[Rob Baker @robnitm]

@IAmTheEggPod The Jim Reeves letter! It’s been along time since I laughed so much. Great episode!

[James Marriott @j_amesmarriott]

On the same theme I think this is the novel (or trilogy of novels) I've most thoroughly enjoyed reading this year. Completely gripping, full of atmosphere, funny, painfully sharp and realistic about people

[Rob Baker @robnitm]

@icod I’ll do a deep search though. Let’s see what I can find

[iCod @icod]

@robnitm sorry if I've asked you this before. My mum was a student at UCL around 56/7 and used to tell us a story about a coffee bar called cocaine which made us hoot. Until we realised it was spelt cockayne. Can't find any reference to this. Have you heard of it?

[Rob Baker @robnitm]

@icod I haven’t. I’m afraid

[Chris Deerin @chrisdeerin]

This is so affecting, and one of the reasons Holyrood exists. A great addition to Parliament.

[Rob Baker @robnitm]

@chrisdeerin Extraordinary

[Rob Baker @robnitm]

@MattSingh_ Definitely

[Rodney Marshall @RodneyMarshall1]

Roger Ebert: "It was a rainy day in Paris in 1962, and I was visiting Europe for the first time. A little cinema on the Left Bank was showing The Third Man, and I went, into the humid cave of Gauloise smoke and perspiration, and saw the movie for the first time. 1/2

[Rob Baker @robnitm]

@kateferguson4 It really is

[Rob Baker @robnitm]

@Peston The most dull tedious cheating club that has ever won a football competition in the history of team games. Utterly pathetic.

[Rob Baker @robnitm]

@A_Crouch_Ender @DrGABaines Yes, no fast internet either

[Rob Baker @robnitm]

Ian and Baxter Dury outside Axfords underwear and lingerie shop at 306 Vauxhall Bridge Road close to Victoria Station. Used for New Boots and Panties and taken by Chris Gabrin in 1977.

[Rob Baker @robnitm]

@CleveresV Yes we had a sugar cube with the vaccine when I was young

[Rob Baker @robnitm]

A nine year old Ian Dury and his mum Peggy at the Festival of Britain in 1951. Ian had contracted Polio two years previously, most likely, he believed, from a swimming pool at Southend-on-Sea during the 1949 polio epidemic.

[Rob Baker @robnitm]

@SylviaHopper1 @Robin_Askwith For decades I just presumed his name was made up and a pun on injury