title: Juggalo gangs

text: The Juggalo subculture has several features in common with traditional gangs, including throwing hand signs, wearing matching clothing, and getting matching tattoos. However, criminal Juggalo subsets contain gang-like features that the general Juggalo population does not, including gang initiations, handbooks detailing rules and punishments for gang members, formal leadership structure, gang colors, and the tendency to engage in organized patterns of serious criminal activity.


title: Juggalo gangs

text: Police officers in Sacramento have stated that while a fast-growing gang using the Juggalo name is contained within the Juggalo subculture, most Juggalos are law-abiding citizens, which makes it difficult to tell the difference between Juggalo gang members and Juggalo fans.


title: Juggalo gangs

text: The FBI's classification of Juggalos as a gang has caused confusion, resulting in many peaceful, non-criminal Juggalos being mistaken for their criminal counter-parts by police and by ordinary citizens. This type of confusion along with the fact that Hot Topic will no longer stock Psychopathic Records merchandise in states that legally consider Juggalos to be a gang, has prompted Insane Clown Posse to file a lawsuit against the FBI. In December 2012, ICP and Psychopathic Records quietly agreed to withdraw as plaintiffs in the case, and the FBI later released a report justifying their decision to classify Juggalos as a gang. However, ICP later announced that they would follow through with the lawsuit anyway. On August 23, 2013, the FBI asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit against them.


title: Juggalo gangs

text: In an interview given in 2013, Shaggy 2 Dope of Insane Clown Posse addressed the Juggalo gang classification and the impending FBI lawsuit. He stated that at first he believed that the classification of Juggalos was "pretty dope" because it would afford the band a tougher image, but later changed his mind after realizing the negative repercussions of being labeled a gang, such as gang enhancements for Juggalos who commit crimes. He also expressed concern about innocent Juggalos being targeted in "Shithole, Nebraska" by MS-13 members. He argued that while some Juggalos are criminals and gang members, he does not believe that Juggalos as a whole constitute a gang.


title: Juggalo gangs

text: In January 2014 Insane Clown Posse along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed suit again against the FBI. The suit aimed to have Juggalos no longer considered to be a gang and to have any "criminal intelligence information" about Juggalos destroyed. The suit was dismissed in July 2014, ruling that that band and its fans lack standing to bring the suit. The ACLU has stated that it intends to appeal the dismissal.


title: Juggalo gangs

text: In September 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati overruled the circuit court and remanded the case for action consistent with the ruling.


title: Juggalo gangs

text: On September 16, 2017, a rally was held in front of the Washington Monument reflective pool in Washington, D.C. marching for the declassification of Juggalos as gang members.


title: Juggalo gangs

text: In December 2017 the Sixth Circuit ruled that ICP failed to demonstrate harm caused by the FBI's 2011 report.


title: Juggalo gangs

text: The emergence of Juggalo gang subsets has created a sharp divide between gang investigators in the United States, with some considering the entire subculture to fit the definition of a criminal gang, while others stress that the subculture's criminal element makes up only a small portion of the Juggalo population. A report released by the National Gang Intelligence Center in 2010 supports the latter assertion.


title: Juggalo gangs

text: A report released by the Rocky Mountain Information Network states that, "Just because we do not understand this phenomenon fully, we can’t as gang detectives ignore it ... We in law enforcement must be willing to take that extra step in our intelligence gathering to see if we are in fact dealing with a gang member or just a crazed fan."


title: Juggalo gangs

text: Detective Michelle Vasey has stated that not all Juggalos are violent or criminals, and the music is not to blame: "We can't necessarily say that [the music's] to blame. But I think it definitely does have some influences. As an officer we have to decide when we're talking to these guys, who do we need to worry about and who don't we need to worry about."


title: Juggalo gangs

text: Police Lt. Scott Conley has stated, "Those involved in the criminal side of (Juggalos) cause us some concern. If they are not involved in criminal activity, they can do their own thing, as long as they haven't crossed that criminal element line ... The attraction to that music, or those people following that music, I have no problem with. When they start breeding disruption in the community, showing up in libraries to harm people with butcher knives up their sleeves, I have a problem. I have to get involved with the community."


title: Juggalo gangs

text: The official web site of Montana's department of corrections contains an explanation for Juggalos' classification as a security threat group: "the Juggalos are a recognized STG group that would never classify itself as a street gang. They are more like a cult that follows mimics and idolizes the music group, Insane Clown Posse. The music encourages and condones extreme acts of violence, which some Juggalos carry out. Juggalo members paint their faces black and white, dress in black clothing, attend raves together that often end violently, and consider themselves a family."


title: Juggalo gangs

text: However, some law enforcement officers have been firm in their assertion that Juggalos are a criminal group. Police watch commander Jay Mackanin of Citrus Heights has stated that, "Juggalos are a gang. I know sometimes they say they're not, but they are."


title: Juggalo gangs

text: Kelly Snyder, a former Drug Enforcement Administration officer who tracks Juggalo activity across the U.S., has stated that "It almost has the taste of a cult...The perception is that something is obviously not right here...It's not going to stop. So far they are almost committing the perfect crime."


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: The Midnight Ride was the alert to the American colonial militia in April 1775 to the approach of British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord.


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: The ride occurred on the night of April 18, 1775, immediately before the first engagements of the American Revolutionary War. In the preceding weeks, British Army activity indicated a planned crackdown on the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, then based in Concord. Paul Revere and William Dawes prepared the alert, which began when Robert Newman, sexton of Boston's North Church, used a lantern signal to alert colonists in Charlestown to the Army's advance by way of the Charles River. Revere and Dawes then rode to meet John Hancock and Samuel Adams in Lexington, ten miles distant, alerting up to 40 other riders along the way. Revere and Dawes then headed towards Concord with Samuel Prescott. The three were captured by British troops in Lincoln. Prescott and Dawes escaped but Revere was returned to Lexington and freed after questioning. By giving the Colonists advance warning of the British Army's actions, the ride played a crucial role in the Colonists' victory in the subsequent battles.


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: The ride has been commemorated in a range of cultural depictions, most notably Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1861 poem, "Paul Revere's Ride", which has shaped popular memory of the event.


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: When British Army activity on April 7, 1775, suggested the possibility of troop movements, Joseph Warren sent Revere to warn the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, then sitting in Concord, the site of one of the larger caches of Patriot military supplies. After receiving the warning, Concord residents began moving the military supplies away from the town.


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: One week later, on April 14, General Gage received instructions from Secretary of State William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth (dispatched on January 27), to disarm the rebels, who were known to have hidden weapons in Concord, among other locations, and to imprison the rebellion's leaders, especially Samuel Adams and John Hancock. Dartmouth gave Gage considerable discretion in his commands. Gage issued orders to Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith to proceed from Boston "with utmost expedition and secrecy to Concord, where you will seize and destroy... all Military stores... But you will take care that the soldiers do not plunder the inhabitants or hurt private property." Gage did not issue written orders for the arrest of rebel leaders, as he feared doing so might spark an uprising.


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: Between 9 and 10 p.m. on the night of April 18, 1775, Joseph Warren told Revere and William Dawes that the king's troops were about to embark in boats from Boston bound for Cambridge and the road to Lexington and Concord. Warren's intelligence suggested that the most likely objectives of the regulars' movements later that night would be the capture of Adams and Hancock. They did not worry about the possibility of regulars marching to Concord, since the supplies at Concord were safe, but they did think their leaders in Lexington were unaware of the potential danger that night. Paul Revere and William Dawes were sent out to warn them and to alert colonial militias in nearby towns.


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: In the days before April 18, Revere had instructed Robert Newman, the sexton of the North Church, to send a signal by lantern to alert colonists in Charlestown as to the movements of British troops when the information became known. In what is well known today by the phrase "one if by land, two if by sea", one lantern in the steeple would signal the British army's choice of the land route while two lanterns would signal the route "by water" across the Charles River. (In the event, the British chose the water route, and therefore two lanterns were placed in the steeple.) Revere first gave instructions to send the signal to Charlestown. He then crossed the Charles River by rowboat, slipping past the British warship HMS "Somerset" at anchor. Crossings were banned at that hour, but Revere safely landed in Charlestown and rode to Lexington, avoiding a British patrol and later warning almost every house along the route. The Charlestown colonists dispatched additional riders to the north.


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: Riding through present-day Somerville, Medford, and Arlington, Revere warned patriots along his route, many of whom set out on horseback to deliver warnings of their own. By the end of the night there were probably as many as 40 riders throughout Middlesex County carrying the news of the army's advance. Revere did not shout the phrase later attributed to him ("The British are coming!"): his mission depended on secrecy, the countryside was filled with British army patrols, and most of the Massachusetts colonists (who were predominantly English in ethnic origin) still considered themselves British. Revere's warning, according to eyewitness accounts of the ride and Revere's own descriptions, was "The Regulars are coming out." According to his own account, Revere narrowly escaped capture in present-day Somerville near the displayed corpse of a local slave, a local landmark. Revere continued on and arrived in Lexington around midnight, with Dawes arriving about a half-hour later. They met with Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were spending the night with Hancock's relatives (in what is now called the Hancock–Clarke House), and they spent a great deal of time discussing plans of action upon receiving the news. They believed that the forces leaving the city were too large for the sole task of arresting two men and that Concord was the main target. The Lexington men dispatched riders to the surrounding towns, and Revere and Dawes continued along the road to Concord accompanied by Samuel Prescott, a doctor who happened to be in Lexington "returning from a lady friend's house at the awkward hour of 1 a.m."


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: The ride of the three men triggered a flexible system of "alarm and muster" that had been carefully developed months before, in reaction to the colonists' impotent response to the Powder Alarm of September 1774. This system was an improved version of an old network of widespread notification and fast deployment of local militia forces in times of emergency. The colonists had periodically used this system all the way back to the early years of Indian wars in the colony, before it fell into disuse in the French and Indian War. For rapid communication from town to town—in addition to other express riders delivering messages—bells, drums, alarm guns, bonfires, and a trumpet were used, notifying the rebels in dozens of eastern Massachusetts villages that they should muster their militias because the regulars in numbers greater than 500 were leaving Boston with possible hostile intentions. This system was so effective that people in towns from Boston were aware of the army's movements while it was still unloading boats in Cambridge. Unlike in the Powder Alarm, the alarm raised by the three riders successfully allowed the militia to confront the British troops in Concord, and then harry them all the way back to Boston.


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: Revere, Dawes, and Prescott were detained by a British Army patrol in Lincoln at a roadblock on the way to Concord. Prescott jumped his horse over a wall and escaped into the woods; he eventually reached Concord. Dawes also escaped, though he fell off his horse not long after and did not complete the ride.


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: Revere was captured and questioned by the British soldiers at gunpoint. He told them of the army's movement from Boston, and that British army troops would be in some danger if they approached Lexington, because of a large number of hostile militia gathered there. He and other captives taken by the patrol were still escorted east toward Lexington, until about a half-mile from Lexington they heard a gunshot. The British major demanded Revere explain the gunfire, and Revere replied it was a signal to "alarm the country". As the group drew closer to Lexington, the town bell began to clang rapidly, upon which one of the captives proclaimed to the British soldiers: "The bell's ringing! The town's alarmed, and you're all dead men!" The British soldiers gathered and decided not to press further towards Lexington but instead to free the prisoners and head back to warn their commanders. The British confiscated Revere's horse and rode off to warn the approaching army column. Revere walked to Rev. Jonas Clarke's house, where Hancock and Adams were staying. As the battle on Lexington Green unfolded, Revere assisted Hancock and his family in their escape from Lexington, helping to carry a trunk of Hancock's papers.


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow popularized Paul Revere in "Paul Revere's Ride", a poem first published in 1861, over 40 years after Revere's death, and reprinted in 1863 as part of "Tales of a Wayside Inn". The poem opens:


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: Longfellow's poem is not historically accurate, but the inaccuracies were deliberate. Longfellow had researched the historical event, using such works as George Bancroft's "History of the United States", but he changed the facts for poetic effect. The poem was one of a series in which he sought to create American legends; earlier examples include "The Song of Hiawatha" (1855) and "The Courtship of Miles Standish" (1858). Longfellow was successful in creating a legend: Revere's stature rose significantly in the years following the poem's publication.


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: Parts of the ride route in Massachusetts are now posted with signs marked "Revere's Ride". The route follows Main Street in Charlestown, Broadway and Main Street in Somerville, Main Street and High Street in Medford, Medford Street to Arlington center, and Massachusetts Avenue the rest of the way through Lexington and into Lincoln. Revere's ride is reenacted annually.


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: Contrary to popular belief, Revere and Dawes were not the only riders; however, they were the only two to be noted in poetry. Samuel Prescott and Israel Bissell were also tasked to undertake the mission, Bissell being the person to ride the farthest distance of all.


title: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

text: The rock group Paul Revere and the Raiders had considerable popularity from the mid-1960s through the early-1970s. The band's namesake and the organist was born Paul Revere Dick, named after Revere. The song "Me and Paul Revere", written by musician Steve Martin and performed with his bluegrass group Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, was inspired by the tale of Paul Revere's ride and told from the point of view of Revere's horse, Brown Beauty.


title: Lothal

text: Lothal () was one of the southernmost sites of the ancient Indus Valley civilisation, located in the Bhāl region of the modern state of Gujarāt. Construction of the city is believed to have begun around 2200 BCE.


title: Lothal

text: Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the official Indian government agency for preservation of ancient monuments, discovered Lothal in 1954. Excavation work in Lothal commenced on 13 February 1955 and continued till 19 May 1960. According to the ASI, Lothal had the world's earliest known dock, which connected the city to an ancient course of the Sabarmati river on the trade route. This trade route stretched between Harappan cities in Sindh and the peninsula of Saurashtra where the surrounding Kutch desert of today was a part of the Arabian Sea. However, this interpretation has been challenged by other archaeologists, who argue Khufu's Red Sea harbour at Wadi al-Jarf is older, dating its construction to between 2580 to 2550 BC and that Lothal was a comparatively small town, and that the "dock" was primarily an irrigation tank.


title: Lothal

text: The National Institute of Oceanography in Goa discovered foraminifera (marine microfossils) and salt, gypsum crystals in the rectangular structure clearly indicating that sea water once filled the structure and it was definitely a dockyard.


title: Lothal

text: Lothal was a vital and thriving trade centre in ancient times, with its trade of beads, gems and valuable ornaments reaching the far corners of West Asia and Africa. The techniques and tools they pioneered for bead-making and in metallurgy have stood the test of time for over 4000 years.


title: Lothal

text: Lothal is situated near the village of Saragwala in the Dholka Taluka of Ahmedabad district. It is six kilometres south-east of the Lothal-Bhurkhi railway station on the Ahmedabad-Bhavnagar railway line. It is also connected by all-weather roads to the cities of Ahmedabad (85 km/53 mi), Bhavnagar, Rajkot and Dholka. The nearest cities are Dholka and Bagodara. Resuming excavation in 1961, archaeologists unearthed trenches sunk on the northern, eastern and western flanks of the mound, bringing to light the inlet channels and "nullah" ("ravine", or "gully") connecting the dock with the river. The findings consist of a mound, a township, a marketplace, and the dock. Adjacent to the excavated areas stands the Archaeological Museum, where some of the most prominent collections of Indus-era antiquities in India are displayed.


title: Lothal

text: The Lothal site was nominated, in April 2014, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its application is pending on the tentative list of UNESCO.


title: Lothal

text: When British India was partitioned in 1947, most Indus sites, including Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, became part of Pakistan. The Archaeological Survey of India undertook a new program of exploration, and excavation. Many sites were discovered across northwestern India. Between 1954 and 1958, more than 50 sites were excavated in the Kutch (notably Dholavira), and Saurashtra peninsulas, extending the limits of Harappan civilisation by to the river Kim, where the Bhagatrav site accesses the valley of the rivers Narmada and Tapti. Lothal stands from Mohenjo-daro, which is in Sindh.


title: Lothal

text: The meaning of Lothal (a combination of "Loth" and "(s) thal") in Gujarati is "the mound of the dead". This is not unusual, as the name of the city of Mohenjo-daro in Sindhi translates to the same. People in villages neighbouring to Lothal had known of the presence of an ancient town and human remains. As recently as 1850, boats could sail up to the mound. In 1942, timber was shipped from Broach to Saragwala via the mound. A silted creek connecting modern Bholad with Lothal and Saragwala represents the ancient flow channel of a river or creek.


title: Lothal

text: Speculation suggests that owing to the comparatively small dimensions of the main city (), Lothal was not a large settlement at all, and its "dock" was perhaps an irrigation tank. However, the ASI and other contemporary archaeologists assert that the city was a part of a major river system on the trade route of the ancient peoples from Sindh to Saurashtra in Gujarat. Lothal provides with the largest collection of antiquities in the archaeology of modern India. It is essentially a single culture site—the Harappan culture in all its variances is evidenced. An indigenous micaceous Red Ware culture also existed, which is believed to be autochthonous and pre-Harappan. Two sub-periods of Harappan culture are distinguished: the same period (between 2400 and 1900 BCE) is identical to the exuberant culture of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.


title: Lothal

text: After the core of the Indus civilisation had decayed in Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, Lothal seems not only to have survived but to have thrived for many years. Its constant threats – tropical storms and floods – caused immense destruction, which destabilised the culture and ultimately caused its end. Topographical analysis also shows signs that at about the time of its demise, the region suffered from aridity or weakened monsoon rainfall. Thus the cause for the abandonment of the city may have been changes in the climate as well as natural disasters, as suggested by environmental magnetic records. Lothal is based upon a mound that was a salt marsh inundated by tide. Remote sensing and topographical studies published by Indian scientists in the "Journal of the Indian Geophysicists Union" in 2004 revealed an ancient, meandering river adjacent to Lothal, in length according to satellite imagery— an ancient extension of the northern river channel bed of a tributary of the Bhogavo river. Small channel widths () when compared to the lower reaches () suggest the presence of a strong tidal influence upon the city—tidal waters ingressed up to and beyond the city. Upstream elements of this river provided a suitable source of fresh water for the inhabitants.


title: Lothal

text: A flood destroyed village foundations and settlements (c. 2350 BCE). Harappans based around Lothal and from Sindh took this opportunity to expand their settlement and create a planned township on the lines of greater cities in the Indus valley. Lothal planners engaged themselves to protect the area from consistent floods. The town was divided into blocks of 1- 2m high (3–6ft) platforms of sun-dried bricks, each serving 20–30 houses of thick mud and brick walls. The city was divided into a citadel, or acropolis and a lower town. The rulers of the town lived in the acropolis, which featured houses with paved bathing platforms, underground and surface drains (built of kiln-fired bricks) and potable water well. The acropolis also housed the towns warehouse, with a ramp down to the basin, on the towns eastern flank. The lower town was subdivided into two sectors. A north–south arterial street was the main commercial area. It was flanked by shops of rich and ordinary merchants and craftsmen. The residential area was located to either side of the marketplace. The lower town was also periodically enlarged during Lothal's years of prosperity.


title: Lothal

text: All the construction were made of fire dried bricks, lime and sand mortar and not by sun-dried bricks as bricks are still intact after 4000 years and still bonded together with each other with the mortar bond.


title: Lothal

text: The uniform organization of the town and its institutions make it evident that the Harappans were very disciplined people. Commerce and administrative duties were performed according to standards laid out. Municipal administration was strict – the width of most streets remained the same over a long time, and no encroached structures were built. Householders possessed a sump, or collection chamber to deposit solid waste in order to prevent the clogging of city drains. Drains, manholes, and cesspools deposited the waste in the river which was washed out during high tide maintaining the cleanliness of the city. A new provincial style of Harappan art and painting was pioneered. The new approaches included realistic portrayals of animals in their natural surroundings. Metalware, gold and jewellery and tastefully decorated ornaments attest to the culture and prosperity of the people of Lothal.


title: Lothal

text: Most of their equipment: metal tools, weights, measures, seals, earthenware and ornaments were of the uniform standard and quality found across the Indus civilization. Lothal was a major trade centre, importing "en masse" raw materials like copper, chert and semi-precious stones from Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, and mass distributing to inner villages and towns. It also produced large quantities of bronze celts, fish-hooks, chisels, spears and ornaments. Lothal exported its beads, gemstones, ivory and shells. The stone blade industry catered to domestic needs—fine chert was imported from the Larkana valley or from Bijapur in modern Karnataka. Bhagatrav supplied semi-precious stones while "chank" shell came from Dholavira and Bet Dwarka. An intensive trade network gave the inhabitants great prosperity. The network stretched across the frontiers to Egypt, Bahrain and Sumer. One of the evidence of trade in Lothal is the discovery of typical Persian gulf seals, a circular button seal


title: Lothal

text: While the wider debate over the end of Indus civilisation continues, archaeological evidence gathered by the ASI appears to point to natural catastrophes, specifically floods and storms as the source of Lothal's downfall. A powerful flood submerged the town and destroyed most of the houses, with the walls and platforms heavily damaged. The acropolis was levelled (2000–1900 BCE), and inhabited by common tradesmen and newly built makeshift houses. The worst consequence was the shift in the course of the river, cutting off access to the ships and dock. The people built a new but shallow inlet to connect the flow channel to the dock for sluicing small ships into the basin. Large ships were moored away. Houses were rebuilt, yet without removal of flood debris, which made them poor-quality and susceptible to further damage. Public drains were replaced by soakage jars. The citizens did not undertake encroachments, and rebuilt public baths. However, with a poorly organised government, and no outside agency or central government, the public works could not be properly repaired or maintained. The heavily damaged warehouse was never repaired properly, and stocks were stored in wooden canopies, exposed to floods and fire. The economy of the city was transformed. Trade volumes reduced greatly, though not catastrophically, and resources were available in lesser quantities. Independent businesses caved, allowing a merchant-centric system of factories to develop where hundreds of craftsmen worked for the same supplier and financier. The bead factory had ten living rooms and a large workplace courtyard. The coppersmith's workshop had five furnaces and paved sinks to enable multiple artisans to work.


title: Lothal

text: The declining prosperity of the town, paucity of resources and poor administration increased the woes of a people pressured by consistent floods and storms. Increased salinity of soil made the land inhospitable to life, including crops. This is evidenced in adjacent cities of Rangpur, Rojdi, Rupar and Harappa in Punjab, Mohenjo-daro and Chanhudaro in Sindh. A massive flood (c. 1900 BCE) completely destroyed the flagging township in a single stroke. Archaeological analysis shows that the basin and dock were sealed with silt and debris, and the buildings razed to the ground. The flood affected the entire region of Saurashtra, Sindh and south Gujarat, and affected the upper reaches of the Indus and Sutlej, where scores of villages and townships were washed away. The population fled to inner regions.


title: Lothal

text: Archaeological evidence shows that the site continued to be inhabited, albeit by a much smaller population devoid of urban influences. The few people who returned to Lothal could not reconstruct and repair their city, but surprisingly continued to stay and preserved religious traditions, living in poorly built houses and reed huts. That they were the Harappan peoples is evidenced by the analyses of their remains in the cemetery. While the trade and resources of the city were almost entirely gone, the people retained several Harappan ways in writing, pottery, and utensils. About this time ASI archaeologists record a mass movement of refugees from Punjab and Sindh into Saurashtra and to the valley of Sarasvati (1900–1700 BCE). Hundreds of ill-equipped settlements have been attributed to this people as "Late Harappans" a completely de-urbanised culture characterised by rising illiteracy, less complex economy, unsophisticated administration and poverty. Though Indus seals went out of use, the system of weights with an 8.573 gram (0.3024 oz avoirdupois


title: Lothal

text: The people of Lothal made significant and often unique contributions to human civilisation in the Indus era, in the fields of city planning, art, architecture, science, engineering, pottery, and religion. Their work in metallurgy, seals, beads and jewellery was the basis of their prosperity.


title: Lothal

text: A thick ring-like shell object found with four slits each in two margins served as a compass to measure angles on plane surfaces such as housing alignments, roads or land surveys. S.R. Rao also suggested that it could have functioned as an instrument for measuring angles and perhaps the position of stars and thus for navigation like a sextant. Lothal contributes one of three measurement scales that are integrated and linear (others found in Harappa and Mohenjodaro). An ivory scale from Lothal has the smallest-known decimal divisions in Indus civilisation. The scale is 6 millimetres (0.2 inches) thick, broad and the available length is , but only 27 graduations are visible over , the distance between graduation lines being (the small size indicates use for fine purposes). The sum total of ten graduations from Lothal is approximate to the "angula" in the "Arthashastra". The Lothal craftsmen took care to ensure durability and accuracy of stone weights by blunting edges before polishing.


title: Lothal

text: For their renowned draining system, Lothal engineers provided corbelled roofs, and an apron of kiln-fired bricks over the brick face of the platform where the sewerage entered the cesspool. Wooden screens inserted in grooves in the side drain walls held back solid waste. The well is built of radial bricks, in diameter and deep. It had an immaculate network of underground drains, silting chambers and cesspools, and inspection chambers for solid waste. The extent of drains provided archaeologists with many clues regarding the layout of streets, organisation of housing and baths. On average, the main sewer is in depth, with outer dimensions of 86 × 68 × 33 cm (34 × 27 × 13 in). Lothal brick-makers used a logical approach in manufacture of bricks, designed with care in regards to thickness of structures. They were used as headers and stretchers in same and alternate layers. Archaeologists estimate that in most cases, the bricks were in ratio 1:0.5:0.25 on three sides, in dimensions which were integral multiples of large graduations of Lothal scale of .


title: Lothal

text: The people of Lothal worshipped a fire god who is speculated to be the horned deity depicted on seals. The presence of private and public fire-altars where religious ceremonies were hosted further testifies to their spiritual beliefs. Archaeologists have discovered gold pendants, charred ashes of terra-cotta cakes and pottery, bovine remains, beads and other signs that may indicate the practice of the Gavamayana sacrifice, associated with the ancient Vedic religion. Animal worship is also evidenced, but not the worship of the Mother Goddess that is evidenced in other Harappan cities—experts consider this a sign of the existence of diversity in religious traditions. However, it is believed that a sea goddess, perhaps cognate with the general Indus-era Mother Goddess, was worshipped. Today, the local villagers likewise worship a sea goddess, "Vanuvati Sikotarimata", suggesting a connection with the ancient port's traditions and historical past as an access to the sea. But the archaeologists also discovered that the practice had been given up by 2000 BCE (determined by the difference in burial times of the carbon-dated remains). It is suggested that the practice occurred only on occasion. It is also considered that given the small number of graves discovered—only 17 in an estimated population of 15,000—the citizens of Lothal also practised cremation of the dead. Post-cremation burials have been noted in other Indus sites like Harappa, Mehi and Damb-Bhuti.


title: Lothal

text: Lothal copper is unusually pure, lacking the arsenic typically used by coppersmiths across the rest of the Indus valley. The city imported ingots from probable sources in the Arabian peninsula. Workers mixed tin with copper for the manufacture of celts, arrowheads, fishhooks, chisels, bangles, rings, drills, and spearheads, although weapon manufacturing was minor. They also employed advanced metallurgy in following the "cire perdue" technique of casting, and used more than one-piece moulds for casting birds and animals. They also invented new tools such as curved saws and twisted drills unknown to other civilisations at the time.


title: Lothal

text: Lothal was one of the most important centres of production for shell-working, owing to the abundance of chank shell of high quality found in the Gulf of Kutch and near the Kathiawar coast. Gamesmen, beads, unguent vessels, chank shells, ladles and inlays were made for export and local consumption. Components of stringed musical instruments like the plectrum and the bridge were made of shell. An ivory workshop was operated under strict official supervision, and the domestication of elephants has been suggested. An ivory seal, and sawn pieces for boxes, combs, rods, inlays and ear-studs were found during excavations. Lothal produced a large quantity of gold ornaments—the most attractive item being microbeads of gold in five strands in necklaces, unique for being less than 0.25 millimetres (0.010 inches) in diameter. Cylindrical, globular and jasper beads of gold with edges at right angles resemble modern pendants used by women in Gujarat in plaits of hair. A large disc with holes recovered from a sacrificial altar is compared to the "rukma" worn by Vedic priests. Studs, cogwheel and heart-shaped ornaments of faience and steatite were popular in Lothal. A ring of thin copper wire turned into double spirals resembles the gold-wire rings used by modern Hindus for weddings.


title: Lothal

text: The discovery of etched carnelian beads and non-etched barrel beads in Kish and Ur (modern Iraq), Jalalabad (Afghanistan) and Susa (Iran) attest to the popularity of the Indus bead industry across West Asia. The lapidaries select stones of variegated colours, producing beads of different shapes and sizes. The methods of Lothal bead-makers were so advanced that no improvements have been noted over 4,000 years—modern makers in the Khambhat area follow the same technique. Double-eye beads of agate and collared or gold-capped beads of jasper and carnelian beads are among those attributed as uniquely from Lothal. It was very famous for micro-cylindrical beads of steatite (chlorite).


title: Lothal

text: The Lothal excavation yielded 213 seals, third in volume amongst all Indus sites. Seal-cutters preferred short-horned bulls, mountain goats, tigers and composite animals like the elephant-bull for engravings. There is a short inscription of intaglio in almost every seal. Stamp seals with inserted copper rings in a perforated button were used to seal the cargo with impressions of packing materials like mats, twisted cloth, and cords. These seals were only verified at Lothal. Quantitative descriptions along with seals of rulers and owners were stamped on goods. A unique seal found here is from Bahrain—circular, with motif of a dragon flanked by jumping gazelles.


title: Lothal

text: Lothal offers two new types of pottery, a convex bowl with or without stud handle and a small jar with flaring rim, both of which were found in the micaceous Red Ware period and not in contemporary Indus cultures. Lothal artists introduced a new form of realistic painting. Paintings depict animals in their natural surroundings. On one large vessel, the artist depicts birds with fish in their beaks, resting in a tree, while a fox-like animal stands below. This scene bears resemblance to the story of The Fox and the Crow in the "Panchatantra". Artistic imagination is also suggested via careful portrayals—for example, several birds with legs aloft in the sky suggest flight, while half-opened wings suggest imminent flight. On a miniature jar, the story of the thirsty crow and deer is depicted – of how the deer could not drink from the narrow-mouth of the jar, while the crow succeeded by dropping stones in the jar. The features of the animals are clear and graceful. Movements and emotions are suggested by the positioning of limbs and facial features—in a jar without overcrowding.


title: Lothal

text: A complete set of terra-cotta gamesmen, has been found in Lothal—animal figures, pyramids with ivory handles and castle-like objects (similar to the chess set of Queen Hatshepsut in Egypt). The realistic portrayal of human beings and animals suggests a careful study of anatomical and natural features. The bust of a male with slit eyes, sharp nose, and square-cut beard is reminiscent of Sumerian figures, especially stone sculptures from Mari. In images of men and women, muscular and physical features are sharp, prominently marked. Terra-cotta models also identify the differences between species of dogs and bulls, including those of horses. Animal figures with wheels and a movable head may have been utilised as toys.


title: Lothal

text: On plan, Lothal stands north-to-south and east-to-west. At the height of its habitation, it covered a wider area since remains have been found south of the mound. Due to the fragile nature of unbaked bricks and frequent floods, the superstructures of all buildings have receded. However, the dwarfed walls, platforms, two wells, drains, and paved bathing platforms are visible. The dock walls were also preserved beyond the great deluge (c.1900 BCE) due to the loam that was deposited by persistent floods. Erosion and brick robbery are responsible for the absence of high standing walls as well as the ancient nullah, inlet channel, and riverbed. The flood-damaged peripheral wall of mud-bricks is visible near the warehouse area. The remnants of the north–south sewer are burnt bricks in the cesspool. Cubical blocks of the warehouse on a high platform are also visible.


title: Lothal

text: The ASI has covered the peripheral walls, the wharf, and many houses of the early phase with earth to protect from natural phenomena, but the entire archaeological site is nevertheless facing grave concerns about necessary preservation. Salinity ingress and prolonged exposure to the rain and sun are gradually eating away the remains of the site. Heavy rain in the region has damaged the remains of the sun-dried mud brick constructions. Stagnant rain water has lathered the brick and mud work with layers of moss. Due to siltation, the dockyard's draft has been reduced by and saline deposits are decaying the bricks. Officials blame the salinity on capillary action and point out that cracks are emerging and foundations weakening even as restoration work slowly progresses.


title: Lothal

text: The trapezoidal, burn brick, structure is located on the east of the town and away from the main river channel, to possibly avoid deposition of silt. The north–south length averages , and east–west width of . An inlet approximately wide and in depth survives in the north of the structure, and a square sluice gate or spillway, that appears could have been dammed by a wooden gate, exists in the south face of the structure.


title: Lothal

text: When the river changed its course in 2000 BCE, a canal approximately wide and long, was dug to the new river course.


title: Lothal

text: Facilitating the movement of cargo was a mudbrick wharf, long, built on the western arm of the dock, with a ramp leading to the warehouse and acropolis, built on a packed mud platform, original in height (Now it is .) on the south westen flank of the basin. The warehouse was originally built on sixty-four cubical blocks, square, with passages, and based on a mud-brick podium. The pedestal was very high to provide maximum protection from floods. Brick-paved passages between blocks served as vents, and a direct ramp led to the dock to facilitate loading. The warehouse was located close to the acropolis, to allow tight supervision by ruling authorities. Despite elaborate precautions, the major floods that brought the city's decline destroyed all but twelve blocks, which became the makeshift storehouse.


title: Lothal

text: who offered an alternative assessment of the feature as primarily an irrigation tank. In their assessment the dimensions of the "inlet" are not large enough to accommodate the draft of ocean going vessels, with inland craft having to be used to ferry goods to ocean going vessels birthed elsewhere. The identification of just two wells in the town, one on the southern edge of the dock and the other on the acropolis, were also offered to support the alternative primary purpose, as a tank to irrigate vegetables in the adjoining fields, a place to bathe, and a quay to unload river boats.


title: Lothal

text: The National Institute of Oceanography, Goa discovered foraminifera (marine microfossils) and salt, gypsum crystals (due to evapouration of seawater) in the rectangular structure clearly indicating that sea water once filled the structure, though Leshnik argued these could have been left through flood events.


title: Lothal

text: The purpose of the 5 stone weights found around the basin, as to whether they were anchors or Shadoof weights has also been debated, as have the source of the estuarine shells from the dock, 5 terracotta models of boats and a circular Persian Gulf seal from Bahrain.


title: Lothal

text: It is speculated that Lothal engineers studied tidal movements, and their effects on brick-built structures, since the walls are of kiln-burnt bricks. This knowledge also enabled them to select Lothal's location in the first place, as the Gulf of Khambhat has the highest tidal amplitude and ships can be sluiced through flow tides in the river estuary.


title: Lothal

text: The main inlet is wide, and another is provided on the opposite side. To counter the thrust of water, offsets were provided on the outer wall faces.


title: Lothal

text: At high tide flow of of water would have allowed ships to enter. Provision was made for the escape of excess water through the outlet channel, wide and high in the southern arm.


title: Lothal

text: There was an important public building opposite to the warehouse whose superstructure has completely disappeared. Throughout their time, the city had to brace itself through multiple floods and storms. Dock and city peripheral walls were maintained efficiently. The town's zealous rebuilding ensured the growth and prosperity of the trade. However, with rising prosperity, Lothal's people failed to upkeep their walls and dock facilities, possibly as a result of over-confidence in their systems. A flood of moderate intensity in 2050 BCE exposed some serious weaknesses in the structure, but the problems were not addressed properly.


title: Lothal

text: The town center of Acropolis was the political and commercial heart of Lothal measuring at east-to-west by north-to-south. There were three streets and two lanes running east–west, and two streets running north–south. The four sides of the rectangular platform on which houses were built are formed by mud-brick structures of thickness and high. The identified bathing platforms are located in the acropolis, and part of mostly two-roomed houses with open courtyards. The bricks used for paving the bathing platforms were polished to prevent seepage. The pavements were lime-plastered, and edges were wainscoted (wooden panels) by thin walls. The ruler's residence was and hosted a bathing platform with contiguous squat latrine which was also connected to an outside drain that discharged into the dock. The lower town marketplace was on the main north–south street wide. Built in straight rows on either side of the street are residences and workshops, although brick-built drains and early period housing has now disappeared. The street maintained a uniform width and did not undergo encroachment during the reconstructive periods after deluges. There are multiple two-roomed shops and workplaces of coppersmiths and blacksmiths.


title: Lothal

text: The bead factory, which performs a very important economic function, possesses a central courtyard and eleven rooms, a store, and a guardhouse. There is a cinder dump as well as a double-chambered circular kiln with stoke-holes for fuel supply. Four flues are connected with each other, the upper chamber and the stokehold. The mud plaster of the floors and walls are vitrified owing to intense heat during work. The remnants of raw materials such as reed, cow dung, sawdust, and agate are found, giving archaeologists hints of how the kiln was operated. A large mud-brick building faces the factory, and its significance is noted by its plan. Four large rooms and a hall, with an overall measurement of . The hall has a large doorway and a raised floor in the southern corner of the building.


title: Lothal

text: A coastal route may have existed linking sites such as Lothal and Dholavira to Sutkagan Dor on the Makran coast.


title: Max Schneider

text: Maxwell George Schneider (born June 21, 1992), also known by his mononym MAX, is an American singer-songwriter, actor and model, signed to Arista and Sony RED. In 2018, MAX's single "Lights Down Low" went double platinum in the US, Platinum in Canada, and Gold in Australia. This led to MAX being named an iHeart 2019 'Best New Pop Artist' nominee, and, in 2020, his single "Love Me Less" went Gold in the US and Canada.


title: Max Schneider

text: Schneider was raised in Woodstock, New York. He began performing at age three and acquired his first agent at the age of 14. Schneider was a swing understudy in the Broadway musical "13" covering 4 roles in 2008 and 2009, and modeled with Madonna for an international Dolce & Gabbana campaign. He was the 2010 YoungArts Theater Winner, and released his debut extended play (EP) "First Encounters" that year.


title: Max Schneider

text: In 2012, Schneider co-wrote the song "Show You How to Do" with Ben Charles for the Disney series "Shake It Up" (2010). He portrayed Zander in the Nickelodeon TV series "How to Rock" and also co-wrote a song for the show, "Last 1 Standing" with Matt Wong and Claire Demorest, which he sold to the show—the song featured in two episodes of the series. Schneider also starred in the Nickelodeon original film "Rags", in the lead role as Charlie Prince. Later that year, he toured with Victoria Justice on her "Make It In America Tour", and co-wrote the song "Standing in China" for Cody Simpson's debut studio album "Paradise".


title: Max Schneider

text: Schneider featured on two tracks from Hoodie Allen's debut album "People Keep Talking" in October 2014. In February 2015, he released an album titled "NWL". Originally planned to be an EP titled "The Nothing Without Love EP", the album was funded by donations through Kickstarter. Its first single, "Nothing Without Love", was originally released together with an accompanying music video on May 21, 2013. The singer's 2014 single "Mug Shot", also included on the album, was his first to be released under the stagename MAX. Schneider has since gone by MAX musically because he "[wants the name] to be more of a vehicle for the music".


title: Max Schneider

text: On February 19, 2015, it was announced that MAX had signed with DCD2 Records and would be releasing new music under the label. Throughout June, he toured with Fall Out Boy, Wiz Khalifa, and Allen on the Boys of Zummer Tour. The album "Hell's Kitchen Angel", his first under DCD2, followed in April 2016. It featured the singles "Lights Down Low" and a "Young Pop-God" by "GQ"—the former later earned double platinum certifications in the United States and Canada. MAX became the lead singer of a new soul group called Witchita, formed with Tim Armstrong, that same month. The group's first single, "Mrs Magoo", was released via Hellcat Records on April 21. In June, he was picked as Elvis Duran's Artist of the Month and appeared on NBC's "Today" show, hosted by Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, where he performed the single "Gibberish".


title: Max Schneider

text: MAX released the collaboration single "Team" with Noah Cyrus in 2018. During the summer of 2019, MAX's new single "Love Me Less", featuring Quinn XCII, reached the top 20 at Top 40 Radio. MAX was named an iHeart 2019 Best New Pop Artist nominee, and labeled by "Billboard" as a number one Emerging Artist. Since then, "Love Me Less" has been certified Gold in the US and Canada. MAX performed the single on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", "the Today Show", and "Live with Kelly and Ryan". In 2020, he released "Missed Calls" with Hayley Kiyoko, and featured on the mixtape "D-2" by Korean artist Agust D, the solo moniker of Suga from the South Korean group BTS. Suga later featured in MAX's song "Blueberry Eyes". MAX's third studio album, "Colour Vision", was released on September 18.


title: Max Schneider

text: Schneider grew up in Woodstock, New York. He was raised Jewish. His father is from a Jewish family and his mother converted to Judaism. Max married Emily Cannon at a courthouse on April 1, 2016, and welcomed their child, a daughter named Edie Celine, in December 2020.


title: Moe Tucker

text: Maureen Ann "Moe" Tucker (born August 26, 1944) is an American musician and singer-songwriter who was the drummer for the New York City-based rock band the Velvet Underground. After they disbanded in the early 1970s, she left the music industry for a while, though her music career restarted in the 1980s, and continued into the 1990s. She has released four solo albums, where she played most of the instruments herself (though with frequent guest appearances by her former Velvet Underground bandmates and others), and has periodically toured. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as a member of the Velvet Underground.


title: Moe Tucker

text: Maureen Tucker was born in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, and grew up in Levittown, New York in a middle-class Catholic family. Her father, James, was a housepainter and her mother, Margaret, was a clerical worker. She had an older brother, Jim, who was friends with Sterling Morrison, and a sister, Margo.


title: Moe Tucker

text: As a teenager Tucker was an avid fan of Babatunde Olatunji, whose music she first heard on Murray the K's radio show. Olatunji, along with Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones, inspired her to become a musician. She began playing the drums in 1963, at age 19. Without any formal instruction, she learned by playing along with popular songs on a second-hand drum kit.


title: Moe Tucker

text: When she was asked to join the Velvet Underground, Tucker had dropped out of Ithaca College and was working for IBM as a keypunch operator. The band's original percussionist, Angus Maclise, had left in November 1965 because he felt the band sold out when it took a paying gig. Tucker was drafted because Velvets guitarist Sterling Morrison remembered her as the younger sister of his high school friend, Jim, who played the drums. Tucker was frequently noted for her androgynous appearance. In spite of this, Tucker has said that she never experienced difficulties due to sexism during this time.


title: Moe Tucker

text: Tucker's style of playing was unconventional. She played standing up rather than seated (for easier access to the bass drum), using a simplified drum kit of tom toms, a snare drum and an upturned bass drum, playing with mallets rather than drumsticks. She rarely used cymbals; she claimed that since she felt the purpose of a drummer was simply to "keep time", cymbals were unnecessary for this purpose and drowned out the other instruments. Rock critic Robert Christgau said of Tucker, "Mo was a great drummer in a minimalist, limited, autodidactic way that I think changed musical history. She is where the punk notion of how the beat works begins."


title: Moe Tucker

text: Apart from drumming, Tucker sang co-lead vocals on three Velvet Underground songs: the acoustic guitar number "After Hours" and the experimental poetry track "The Murder Mystery", both from 1969's "The Velvet Underground" album, as well as "I'm Sticking with You", a song recorded in 1969 but left (officially) unreleased until it appeared on the 1985 outtakes compilation "VU". Lou Reed said of "After Hours" that it was "so innocent and pure" that he could not possibly sing it himself. In the early days, Tucker also occasionally played the bass guitar during live gigs, an instrument that was usually played by the band's regular bassist John Cale. Morrison would normally play the bass if Cale was occupied with viola or keyboards, despite his lack of enthusiasm for playing the instrument. However, some songs had Reed and Morrison playing their usual guitars and Cale was occupied with viola or keyboards and as a result, nobody was on bass: two examples of this are "Heroin" and "Sister Ray".


title: Moe Tucker

text: Tucker temporarily left the group when she became pregnant with her first child, Kerry "Trucker" Tucker, in early 1970. Because of her pregnancy, Tucker was only able to play on a couple of outtakes for "Loaded", which would become the band's fourth and final album with Lou Reed. Billy Yule, the younger and high-school-age brother of bassist Doug Yule, filled in the role of drummer for live performances and some of the songs on the album.


title: Moe Tucker

text: Tucker returned to the band in late 1970, by which time Reed had left the group and Doug Yule had assumed leadership. She toured North America (United States and Canada) and Europe (United Kingdom and the Netherlands) with the band during 1970 and 1971; shortly afterward, she quit the band and the music business altogether to raise a family.


title: Moe Tucker

text: Tucker moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1971, where she lived with her husband and children. While living in Phoenix, she played drums in the short-lived band Paris 1942 with Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls. In the early 1980s, she divorced and relocated to Douglas, Georgia, where she was hired at a Wal-Mart distribution center. She quit the job in 1989 when she was asked to go on tour of Europe with the band Half Japanese.


title: Moe Tucker

text: Tucker started recording and touring again, releasing a number of albums on small, independent labels that feature her singing and playing guitar, fronting her own band. This band at times included former Velvets colleague Sterling Morrison. Tucker also participated in the 1993 Velvet Underground reunion, touring Europe and releasing the double album "Live MCMXCIII".


title: Moe Tucker

text: Apart from releasing her own records, Tucker has made guest performances on a number of others' records, including producing "Fire in the Sky" (1992) for Half Japanese, whose guitarist, John Sluggett, plays drums on her own recordings. In Jeff Feuerzeig's documentary about Half Japanese, "The Band That Would Be King", Tucker performs and is interviewed extensively. Also, she has appeared with Magnet and former Velvet Underground band members Lou Reed ("New York") and John Cale ("Walking on Locusts").


title: Moe Tucker

text: Tucker also played drums on and produced the album "The Lives of Charles Douglas" by indie rocker and novelist Charles Douglas (also known as Alex McAulay) in 1999.


title: Moe Tucker

text: She played bass drum, wrote songs, and sang with the New York/Memphis punk rock–delta blues fusion group the Kropotkins with Lorette Velvette and Dave Soldier, whom she met in John Cale's band, in 1999–2003, recording "Five Points Crawl".


title: Moe Tucker

text: In 2017 she played at the Grammy Salute to Music Legends awards ceremony. A band, amongst others, consisting


title: Moe Tucker

text: of John Cale, played two Velvet Underground classics "Sunday Morning" and "I'm Waiting For The Man". The Velvet


title: Moe Tucker

text: Tucker was married in the early 1970s, and divorced some time in the early 1980s. She has five children: Kerry, Keith, Austen, Kate, and Richard. Tucker lives in Douglas, Georgia, where she raised her family. In a 2010 interview, she said she had ceased making music several years prior, saying caring for her grandson was a "full-time job".


title: Moe Tucker

text: In April 2009, Tucker gave an interview at a Tea Party rally in Tifton, Georgia, to a WALB NBC news crew. She voiced support for the Tea Party movement and said she was "furious about the way we're being led towards socialism". On the official "Tea Party Patriots" website, Tucker stated: "I have come to believe (not just wonder) that Obama's plan is to destroy America from within."


title: Betty Ross

text: Elizabeth "Betty" Ross (later Talbot and then Banner) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and made her first appearance in "The Incredible Hulk" #1 (1962) as a romantic interest of the Hulk (Dr. Bruce Banner). She is the daughter of General Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross. Over the years, the character has undergone multiple transformations, including the Harpy and Red She-Hulk (or She-Rulk).


title: Betty Ross

text: The character was portrayed by Jennifer Connelly in "Hulk" (2003) and by Liv Tyler in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film "The Incredible Hulk" (2008).


title: Betty Ross

text: Betty Ross debuted in "The Incredible Hulk" #1 (May 1962) by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. She was an on-and-off again supporting character in the Hulk's various series for decades, serving as his longest-running love interest. In 1989, Betty Ross Banner received an entry in "The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89" #1.


title: Betty Ross

text: Stan Lee originally portrayed Betty Ross as a strong willed and independent-minded, yet conventionally polite woman. Mid-1980s "The Incredible Hulk" writer/artist John Byrne portrayed her as more wilful and confrontational, characterizations which would remain in place during Peter David's long run as the series' writer. Betty has a miscarriage in "The Incredible Hulk" vol. 2 #360. Though this occurred during David's run on the series, the issue was instead written by editor Bob Harras. David recalled, "The reason I refused to do it was because Betty was really losing her child to editorial fiat. It was decided by the powers-that-be that Betty and Bruce were not to become parents because that would make the characters seem ‘too old’ to the younger readers. My run on the book almost ended with that issue; I nearly walked over it. But there were so many stories I still wanted to tell that ultimately I stayed with it, even though I fumed about it for quite a while."


title: Betty Ross

text: In "Hulk" vol. 2 #15 (September 2009), she appears for the first time as Red She-Hulk, who was created by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Ed McGuinness. Loeb said, "We've been very careful with the creation of this character. We wanted to make sure she didn't come off as silly—my memory of the introduction to [the original] She-Hulk—before anyone had read a page. But the character was a completely different take on the Hulk, a Hulk we'd never seen before. Jen [Walters] is a wonderful character. Our intention is [that] Red She-Hulk will make an equally important impression on the Marvel Universe ."


title: Betty Ross

text: Red She-Hulk is also present in the "Chaos War" and "Fear Itself" storylines in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Red She-Hulk becomes a member of the superhero team the Defenders in "The Defenders" vol. 4 #1 (December 2011) by writer Matt Fraction and artist Terry Dodson. Fraction said, "The way I write her is somewhere between Indiana Jones and Johnny Knoxville; after a lifetime of being fought over and treated like a human football, she's [now] seven foot tall and 62-52-62 or whatever and bulletproof. She goes around leaving these Betty-shaped holes in the wall." The series was discontinued in November 2012, after 12 issues.


title: Betty Ross

text: In October 2012, as part of Marvel NOW!, "Hulk" was retitled "Red She-Hulk" starting with issue #58 by writer Jeff Parker and artist Carlo Pagulayan. About the series Parker said, "She's become convinced of a threat to humanity which is essentially, all people like her. She's conflicted over losing her own human side, and she's acting out on a large scale based on that. But the thing is she may well be right."


title: Betty Ross

text: The only daughter of General Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross, Betty spent her formative years firmly under her father's strict supervision. After her mother died during Betty's teenage years, she was sent away to boarding school. After graduating, the introverted young woman returns to her father's side while he is in charge of a top-secret project to create a new type of weapon involving gamma radiation, known as the Gamma Bomb. The head scientist on the project is Dr. Robert Bruce Banner. Betty is immediately captivated by Banner's intellect and soft-spoken manner. However, less than an hour after their first meeting, Banner is caught in a test detonation of the Gamma Bomb and becomes the Incredible Hulk. Banner's efforts to keep his condition a secret from Betty only serve to alienate her from him. She is then romantically pursued by Major Glenn Talbot, the new aide attached to her father's Hulkbuster task force.


title: Betty Ross

text: After his dual identity becomes public knowledge Banner becomes a hunted fugitive. But with the help of Reed Richards, Banner is able to gain control over his transformations. Banner is pardoned and later proposes to Betty. But during the wedding ceremony, the Hulk's archenemy the Leader causes Banner to transform back into the savage Hulk, and Banner, once again, becomes a fugitive. General Ross is seriously injured when the Hulk runs amok while battling the Rhino, and Glenn Talbot promises Betty that the Hulk would pay for it.


title: Betty Ross

text: As a result of the failed wedding and Banner's relapse into the Hulk, Betty suffers a nervous breakdown and is hospitalized. In an effort by the Sandman to rid himself of his glass like form, the Sandman orders the Dr. Marquand to provide him with a patient with the same blood type as him which turns out to be Betty Ross. As the result of the blood transfusion, the Sandman reverts to his previous form, yet Betty receives the glass properties, which Sandman surmises would eventually kill her. Betty's father recruits Dr. Leonard Samson to reverse the effect by siphoning the Hulk's Gamma and psionic energies to simultaneously cure Bruce and Betty. The result would have permanently cured both of them, if not for Bruce purposefully re-exposing himself to the siphoned Gamma energy, as a means to combat Samson who had also done so, and was subsequently flirting with Betty.This ended in Hulk defeating Samson, yet later on Samson would pursue the Hulk.


title: Betty Ross

text: Finding him in the aftermath of a battle as the Hulk, Betty hears Banner mumble, "Jarella... my love..." After Banner seemingly disappears from Earth forever, Betty accepts a marriage proposal from Glenn Talbot. While Betty and Talbot are on their honeymoon, her father is captured and sent to a Soviet prison. Talbot takes part in a successful rescue mission, but is captured in the process, held prisoner by the Gremlin at Bitterfrost (a top secret Soviet installation in Siberia), and believed dead.


title: Betty Ross

text: The villain MODOK kidnaps Betty and subjects her to gamma radiation, at a higher level than Banner had been subjected to, transforming her into an insane and lethal woman-bird hybrid creature called the Harpy. MODOK tells the Harpy where to find the Hulk and she flies off in search of him. She ambushes him and, after a lengthy fight, knocks him out with her hellbolts. Before she can take the Hulk back to MODOK, however, they are abducted by the Bi-Beast to his city in the sky. Banner agrees to repair the machines that cause the city to float in exchange for permission to use the advanced equipment to cure Betty. MODOK comes to the island and instigates a fight just as Banner starts the equipment. Banner, nonetheless, manages to escape the collapsing city with a now-cured Betty.


title: Betty Ross

text: Talbot is eventually rescued by General Ross, Clay Quartermain and the Hulk. During his time in captivity by the Gremlin, Talbot was made into a mindless husk. In order to unblock Talbot's mind, Doctor Leonard Samson has the Hulk (who was, at that time, Banner's mind controlling the Hulk's body by a special device worn on his head called the Encephalo-Helmet) unblock what was keeping him in a mindless state. The process is, ultimately, a success. However, the Talbots' marriage later becomes strained.


title: Betty Ross

text: When General Ross suffers a nervous breakdown, Talbot returns to the military as a Colonel and it is revealed that he had fired a ray gun that sent the Hulk to the Sub-Atomic universe after the Hulk stormed into Gamma Base, looking for Jarella. This incident proves to be the last straw in Talbot's already deteriorating relationship with Betty, and their marriage later ends in divorce. Blaming the failure of his marriage on Banner, whom he also tried to have court-martialed, Talbot steals the War Wagon prototype and dies in Japan while trying to destroy the Hulk. Betty admits to Rick Jones afterwards that she had never stopped loving Banner all the while she was married to Talbot.


title: Betty Ross

text: When Betty learns that her father had conspired with MODOK to kill the Hulk, she accuses him of treason. Realizing Betty was right, Ross nearly commits suicide and then disappears.


title: Betty Ross

text: Banner again achieves a state in which he can control his transformations and maintain his normal personality and intelligence while in the form of the Hulk. But Betty is upset because she wants Banner to be rid of the Hulk, not to control him, and leaves him once again. When the Hulk disappears from Earth for an extended period (banished by Doctor Strange to the Crossroads, an alternative reality/inter-dimensional portal, because he became completely bestial), Betty begins dating a man named Ramon. Upon learning that the Hulk had been sighted on Earth once again, Betty leaves Ramon and returns to Gamma Base, where the Hulk is subjected to a process that splits Banner and the Hulk into separate entities. Believing himself finally cured, Banner proposes to Betty, and she accepts. Betty's father appears at the wedding, armed with a gun and demanding that the marriage not take place before shooting Rick Jones, who tries to stop him. Betty confronts her father, accusing him of domineering her throughout her life, as well as calling him out on his hostility towards Banner over the years, and cows him into surrendering the gun. Finally, Banner and Betty are pronounced husband and wife.


title: Betty Ross

text: However, Banner begins dying as a result of being physically separated from the Hulk. The two are secretly merged once more. Betty soon discovers this. General Ross later dies before his daughter's eyes, sacrificing his life to destroy an unnamed mutant that nearly killed both Betty and Banner seeking a strong host to whom to be parasitically linked.


title: Betty Ross

text: Betty becomes distraught on learning that Banner had sometimes consciously triggered his transformation in the past and is willing to become the Hulk in order to deal with very menacing threats. Betty leaves her husband and returns to Ramon, but then changes her mind and abandons Ramon as well. She is then captured by the Leader, who sets her free after learning that she is pregnant with Banner's child, but after being tormented with terrible nightmares by the demons Nightmare and D'Spayre, Betty loses her unborn baby.


title: Betty Ross

text: She is eventually reunited with Banner, but soon afterward the Hulk seemingly perishes in a tremendous explosion at Gammatown. Believing Banner and the Hulk dead, Betty leaves for New York City, where she eventually begins training to become a nun. Betty spends some months in a convent to recover from the ordeal, but eventually reunites with Banner. They spend years living together as fugitives until the Hulk's enemy the Abomination uses his own blood to poison Betty, which would appear to be the work of the Hulk himself (due to the high levels of gamma radiation present in both of their bodies). Betty is placed in cryogenic suspension by her father.


title: Betty Ross

text: In a later retconned story arc, Betty is seemingly revived by the Leader, undergoes surgery which considerably alters her appearance, is granted superhuman strength; and for a time aids her fugitive husband as his shadowy contact, Mr. Blue.


title: Betty Ross

text: Her resurrection is later revealed as a reality-distorting hallucination created by Nightmare, who supposedly raped her in her sleep to conceive his daughter, Daydream.


title: Betty Ross

text: During the "Fall of the Hulks" storyline, Betty Ross is revealed to have been resurrected by the Leader and MODOK at the urgings of their new ally, her father Thunderbolt Ross, who had previously kept her body in cryonic stasis. She also underwent the same process that had turned her father into the Red Hulk, which granted her superhuman physical power. The now-villainous Doc Samson also helps the Leader brainwash Betty into an extremely confused and aggressive state. Ross' allies, aware of his intentions to betray them, send Betty, as the "Red She-Hulk", to help assassinate her father, who is hunting the mercenary Domino, after she witnesses him transform from his human form. Their encounter ends with the Red She-Hulk kicking the Red Hulk off the Empire State Building.


title: Betty Ross

text: After Ross fakes his own death, Betty also appears as herself at his "funeral", accompanied by a Life Model Decoy of Glenn Talbot to constantly monitor and control her, and expresses distrust of Bruce due to his recent marriage to Caiera on Sakaar and his subsequent attack on Manhattan.


title: Betty Ross

text: During the "World War Hulks" storyline, after Skaar stabs her with his sword, the Red She-Hulk reverts to her human form, exposing her true identity. Betty explains how she was brought back to life, and asks that Bruce allow her to die. But when Samson arrives, Betty's anger at his betrayal transforms her back into the Red She-Hulk, thus healing her injuries. Now once again in control of her own mind, Betty (as the Red She-Hulk) helps Bruce/the Hulk to reconcile with his son Skaar. When Bruce gains the upper hand in the ensuing final battle against Ross, Betty becomes worried for her father, which, combined with her heightened aggression when transformed, leads to conflict with the original She-Hulk, who prevails. After Ross is defeated and imprisoned, Betty convinces Bruce to grant her father an opportunity for rehabilitation and redemption.


title: Betty Ross

text: In the aftermath of the Leader's attempted takeover, Betty tells Bruce that they are no longer married, since she was declared legally dead and everyone else knows that Bruce had married Caiera. But in the last series, the Hulk family defeats Fin Fang Foom. Afterwards, Betty and Bruce resume their romantic relationship, but it gets shaky as Bruce becomes obsessed with regaining the power of the Hulk.


title: Betty Ross

text: During the "Fear Itself" storyline, the Red She-Hulk travelled to Brazil, along with Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel and the Protector, to fight the Hulk, who was transformed into Nul: Breaker of Worlds. She later receives an enchanted Asgardian sword from Iron Man and joins the heroes in the final battle against the Serpent and his forces. After the battle, the Stark-Asgardian weapons were returned to Asgard to be melted down, but the Red She-Hulk kept her sword.


title: Betty Ross

text: Following the "Original Sin" storyline, the Hulk persona emerges as the result of an attempt to assassinate Bruce and efforts to save his life using the Extremis virus. This new Hulk, calling himself "Doc Green", decides that gamma-powered superhumans are a threat to humanity that must be eliminated. Betty despaired of the Red She-Hulk and was cured of her insanity and her mutation by Doc Green, although whether this will be permanent is debatable, as Banner in any form has never been able to cure himself or any gamma-ray mutate to date on a permanent basis. But she realized that she had made the same mistake that Bruce had made; she had created a monster.


title: Betty Ross

text: During the "Civil War II" storyline, Betty Ross was among those who learned about Bruce Banner's death and ended up mourning him at his funeral.


title: Betty Ross

text: Shortly after Bruce's resurrection during the "No Surrender" arc, he visited Betty's home shortly after her father's funeral and explained that he had not contacted her for months due to emotional turmoil. As they talked, they were being watched by the Bushwacker, an agent of the U.S. Hulk Operations, who had orders to monitor Bruce and possibly kill him. Though the Bushwacker was ordered by General Reginald Fortean not to shoot, he ignored the order and fired his gun. However, he unintentionally hit Betty in the head. Bruce transformed into the Hulk and went after the Bushwacker, but the Hulk was held off by Doc Samson, allowing the Bushwacker to escape. When the Hulk and Samson returned to her house, her body was missing. It was later revealed that she was transformed into a red version of the Harpy when she confronted Jackie McGee on where the Hulk is. The Harpy and Jackie track Hulk to Reno, Nevada, where he is fighting Rick Jones' Subject B form. The Harpy witnesses mercenaries from the U.S. Hulk Operations kill a civilian, causing her to mutilate them. Jackie confronted the Harpy about this action, to which she quoted "But this is me." After reminiscing about her toxic relationship with the Hulk, the Harpy arrived at the location where Subject B has used its acid attack to blind the Hulk and melt his limbs.


title: Betty Ross

text: After hearing Betty's voice, the Hulk begs for her to help. The Harpy uses her talons to rip open the Hulk's chest. When the Hulk asks why Betty is not acting like his friend, the Harpy thinks "This is me" as she rips out the Hulk's heart and eats it. This caused Rick Jones' Subject B to attack Betty Ross' Harpy. The Hulk revives enough to regenerate his limbs and punch Subject B. The Harpy then continues her attack on Subject B and rips at his stomach to prevent him from emitting acid. During the fight between Subject B and the Harpy, the Hulk gets Jackie McGee to safety as two War-Wagons sent by Reginald Fortean arrive. When in the air, the Harpy dropped Subject B onto one of the War-Wagons as the Hulk destroys the War-Wagons. With Rick in tow after being ripped out of Subject B's body, the Hulk, the Harpy, and Jackie McGee fled the area upon the Hulk seeing Gamma Flight approaching. Some days later, Betty learned to control her Harpy transformations and chose not to be in her human form around the Hulk. After Rick Jones was fully revived, he told them about the U.S. Hulk Operation's base at Groom Lake in Area 51. The Harpy joins the Hulk, Rick, and Jackie McGee into raiding the U.S. Hulk Operation's base. While the Hulk and Gamma Flight fight General Fortean and the U.S. Hulk Operations' soldiers, the Harpy assisted Rick and Jackie McGee, where they found the gamma mutate Delbert Frye in a room with scientist and the U.S. Hulk Operations' lead scientist Dr. Charlene McGowan.


title: Betty Ross

text: As the Harpy, Betty had superhuman strength, stamina, speed and durability with which were even enough to fight the Hulk. She also had big bird-like wings from her back that she used to fly at high speeds through the air and perform aerial attacks. In addition, she could project blasts of nuclear energy she called "hellbolts" from her hands and had razor-sharp talons which were strong enough to cut through metal or carry heavy objects.


title: Betty Ross

text: As the Red She-Hulk, Betty has enormous superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and durability, and a healing factor that allows her to easily survive what would normally be fatal injuries to humans, such as stab wounds to the leg and abdomen by Wolverine's claws. Similar to her ex-husband, Betty's strength level is so vast that it warps the laws of physics even further than standard for other characters in the same fictional continuity; for example, allowing her to punch her way through dimensional barriers between different universes. However, she was defeated easily by the original She-Hulk, mainly due to her lack of experience. She shares the Red Hulk's ability to absorb energy, such as the gamma radiation from other gamma mutates, thereby reverting those beings to human form, and at least temporarily boosting herself. According to Banner, there were plans to remove this ability through the same process that removed the Red Hulk's based on the fact that this ability would eventually kill her. Also like her father, the Red She-Hulk has yellow blood, produces yellow energy from her eyes when angry, and can discharge energy by touch. The Red She-Hulk can be returned to human form if she is suddenly startled or frightened, though she can revert to her Red She-Hulk form at will. As the Red She-Hulk, she still maintains control of her humanity, though if extremely angered she can become "pure Hulk", further increasing her strength, but losing control of her mind.


title: Betty Ross

text: The Red She-Hulk carries a great sword that she affectionately calls her "big ass sword". The sword, forged by Tony Stark, is made of Stark Industries repulsor technology and enchanted uru metal from Asgard and was first given to the Red She-Hulk during the "Fear Itself" storyline, along with similar weapons given to other heroes in order to defeat Cul "the Serpent", Odin's long-forgotten brother. While the other weapons are eventually returned and melted at the end of the storyline, the Red She-Hulk manages to hold on to hers. The sword is later taken by a massive global machine called "the Terranometer" during the "Hell Hath No Fury" story arc and is held there until the Red She-Hulk is able to stop the U.S. government from inadvertently creating a dystopian future in which gamma-enhanced super-soldiers take over Earth.


title: Betty Ross

text: In the "Heroes Reborn" universe created by Franklin Richards in the aftermath of the "Onslaught" crisis, Betty, known as Liz Ross, served as the head of security for Stark International. As a result, she took Iron Man's apparent appointment as Tony Stark's personal bodyguard as a personal insult, and was also present when Bruce Banner was exposed to the gamma radiation that would turn him into the Hulk (the same accident that resulted in Stark donning the Iron Man armor in the first place). Shortly before the heroes returned to their world, it was revealed that Liz was dying of cancer as a result of the gamma exposure, Banner being particularly affected by news of the disease to the extent that he turned back from being the Hulk to embrace her as Banner after learning about her condition.


title: Betty Ross

text: In the alternate universe seen in the 2005 "House of M" storyline, Betty Ross is married to Major Glenn Talbot.


title: Betty Ross

text: In the "Ultimate Marvel", Betty Ross is still the daughter of ex-head of S.H.I.E.L.D., General "Thunderbolt" Ross. She earned a degree in communications at Berkeley and dated Bruce Banner until his failed attempts at cracking the super soldier problem turned him into the Hulk. She was also the college roommate of Janet van Dyne and confided in her with Hank Pym's emotional trauma, resulting in abuse.


title: Betty Ross

text: When the Ultimates were assembled, she became their Director of Communications/Public Relations Officer. After being spurned by Betty, Bruce responded by injecting himself with a version of the Hulk formula that incorporated the recently discovered Captain America's blood, and went on a rampage as the Hulk, during which he killed more than 800 civilians. During his trial, Betty declared her love for Bruce, who was eventually convicted, and sentenced to death, but Bruce escaped the nuclear bomb intended to execute him by turning into the Hulk and escaping. Bruce returned during the "Ultimates 2" miniseries after Fury, the President of the United States, Washington D.C. and New York had been captured by the Liberators. Bruce, now exhibiting greater control over his transformations, helped repel the Liberators, and Betty was seen tending to an exhausted Bruce after the battle with the Liberators and Loki in Washington, D.C.


title: Betty Ross

text: In the "Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk" miniseries, Nick Fury sends Wolverine to find and kill the Hulk, but their battle was interrupted by the She-Hulk after Betty injected herself with the Hulk serum made by Dr. Jennifer Walters and became She-Hulk. Fury reveals that S.H.I.E.L.D. is working to keep her transformations under control, and has her imprisoned in the Cube.


title: Betty Ross

text: Betty Ross appears in media set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This version is a cellular biologist who works at Culver University who, along with Bruce Banner, were recruited by the U.S. Army on top secret bio-tech force enhancement research that would go on to turn Banner into the Hulk.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The Elephant and Castle is an area around a major road junction in London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground station of the same name. The name is derived from a local coaching inn. In the first half of the 20th century, because of its vitality, the area was known as "the Piccadilly of South London". In more recent years, it has been viewed


title: Elephant and Castle

text: "The Elephant", as locally abbreviated, consists of major traffic junctions connected by a short road called Elephant and Castle, the nascent part of the A3. Traffic runs to and from Kent along the A2 (New Kent Road and Old Kent Road), much of the south of England on the A3, to the West End via St George's Road, and to the City of London via London Road and Newington Causeway at the northern junction. Newington Butts and Walworth Road adjoin the southern junction. The whole junction forms part of the London Inner Ring Road and part of the boundary of the London congestion charge zone.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The subterranean River Neckinger, which originates from the Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park area, flows east directly under the area towards St Saviour's Dock where it enters the Thames.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The area was significantly remodelled in the 1960s as part of the post-war reconstruction. A new and major wave of redevelopment was initiated in the late 2000s with the demolition of the brutalist Heygate Estate. The various phases of the project are due to last until the late 2020s. The demolition of the shopping centre and The Coronet took place in 2021.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The Elephant has two linked London Underground stations, on the Northern and Bakerloo lines, and a National Rail station served by limited Southeastern services and Thameslink suburban loop line services to Mitcham, Sutton and Wimbledon, and services to Kentish Town and St.Albans to Orpington or Sevenoaks via Catford.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: Skipton House, home of Public Health England; a large part of the London South Bank University campus; the London College of Communication (part of UAL), home to the Stanley Kubrick Archive; the Ministry of Sound nightclub; the Imperial War Museum, which sits in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park; the Michael Faraday Memorial; the Siobhan Davies Studios, an award-winning Victorian school conversion by Sarah Wigglesworth; West Square; the original Bakerloo Line depot; the Inner London Crown Court; the Revolving Doors Agency; the London School of Musical Theatre; the Baitul Aziz Islamic Cultural Centre, the Cinema Museum; and the Metropolitan Tabernacle. The Cuming Museum is nearby on Walworth Road. A K2 model phone box from 1927, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott and located on the southern side of the New Kent Road, which was moved a few metres and reinstalled at the entrance of Ash Avenue in 2021, is a Grade II listed structure since 1986.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The name "Elephant and Castle" is derived from the name of a pub/coaching inn located at this major crossroad. The earliest surviving record of this name in relation to this area appears in the Court Leet Book of the Manor of Walworth, which met at "Elephant and Castle, Newington" on 21 March 1765.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: Previously the site was occupied by a blacksmith and cutler – the crest of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers features an elephant with a castle (representing a howdah) on its back, which in turn was used because of the use of elephant ivory in handles; this association with the Cutlers is considered a far more likely explanation for the name.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The inn was rebuilt in 1816 and again in 1898, and the present Elephant & Castle pub, at the junction of New Kent Road and Newington Causeway, was part of 1960s comprehensive redevelopment.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: Newington, which was the name of the village forming the basis to the neighbourhood before the inn's name took over, is a common place name in England. London quickly expanded into the northern parts of the parish from 1750 to 1830. By the end of the 19th century ten daughter parishes had arisen in Newington including its secondary manor, Walworth. No notable upper, lower, or hill parts of the ancient parish nor compass points have been used, so to locate businesses and homes without reference to traditional saints divisions, many people popularised the informal name, of the notable public house. Other instances in Inner London are 'Angel' at Islington and Bricklayers Arms at the east end of New Kent Road.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The popular and enduring idea that the inn itself derives its name from an English corruption of the phrase "La Infanta de Castilla", as a reference to Eleanor of Castile, has been debunked by local historian Stephen Humphrey in his 2013 book "Elephant and Castle, a History".


title: Elephant and Castle

text: After examining how the image of an elephant with a castle on its back has been popular for centuries and throughout Europe (the earliest example predating Queen Eleanor by 1,500 years), and pointing out the fact that the sign only begins to be used in the area about 500 years after Eleanor was alive, he states: ""The story of Queen Eleanor in relation to the Elephant and Castle is therefore a myth. It is wildly anachronistic both in respect of the sign in general and in its specific use in Newington, and she has no connection with the sign or with the place.""


title: Elephant and Castle

text: Known previously as Newington (Newington Butts and Newington Causeway are two of the principal roads of the area), in the medieval period it was part of rural Surrey, in the manor of Walworth. This is listed in the Domesday Book as belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury; the income from its rents and tithes supplied the monks at Christ Church Canterbury with their clothing, and a 'church' is mentioned. The parish was called St Mary, Newington, which church occupied the southwest side of today's southern roundabout, near the Tabernacle, and was first recorded by name in 1222.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: In May 1557, William Morant, Stephen Gratwick and a man named King, known as the Southwark Martyrs, were burnt at the stake in St George's Field on the site of the present Tabernacle during the Marian Persecutions.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: St Mary's Church was rebuilt in 1720 and completely replaced in 1790, to a design of Francis Hurlbatt. Within another hundred years this too was to be demolished, with its replacement on Kennington Park Road ready in 1876. It was destroyed by bombing in 1940 during the Second World War. The remains of the tower and an arch were incorporated into its replacement of 1958. The open space is still known as St Mary's Churchyard, and the narrow pedestrian walk at its south end is Churchyard Row.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: There is record of a 'hospital' before the Reformation. In 1601 the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers erected St Peter's Hospital on the site of the present London College of Communication. This expanded and survived until 1850, when it was removed to Wandsworth. The Drapers' livery company created Walters' Almshouses on a site now at the southern junction island in 1640, giving the tower block opposite the name Draper House. The almshouses were relocated to Brandon Street in the 1960s as part of the major redevelopment.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The neighbourhood became urbanised and somewhat commercial after the building of Westminster Bridge in 1751 and the improvements to London Bridge in the same period. These required 'by-pass' roads across the south side approaches to each other and also to the main routes to the south and southeast coasts. These road improvements – Great Dover Street, Westminster Bridge, New Kent Road, St George's Road and Borough Road – connect to the older Kennington and Old Kent Roads to facilitate this traffic. In 1769 the new Blackfriars Bridge was connected to this system at what is now St George's Circus and Blackfriars Road (originally Great Surrey Road) and to the Elephant junction with the new London Road. As a result of these improvements, the area became a built-up part of the metropolis during the late Georgian and Victorian periods.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The railway arrived here in 1863 and the first deep-level tube line, now part of the Northern line's City Branch, in 1890. The Bakerloo line terminus was created in 1906. The middle-class and working-class populations increased, the first settling on the major roads, the latter on the streets behind these. The area declined socio-economically in much of the Walworth (south-east) side as work in London Docklands shifted further east and became more mechanised, and the regional-level railway yard work decreased (see Bricklayers Arms railway station).


title: Elephant and Castle

text: In the 19th century the nationally famed Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon built the Metropolitan Tabernacle here. The building, designed by William Willmer Pocock, was finished in 1861 and dedicated on 18 March. It was bombed in the bombing of London but the portico and basement survived. In 1957 the tabernacle was rebuilt to a new, much smaller design, accommodating surviving original features.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The Theatre Royal was built in 1872 and destroyed by fire only six years later. Renovations were initiated by Jethro Thomas Robinson after the fire, and completed by Frank Matcham, to what became the Elephant and Castle Theatre in 1879. The Theater was converted to an ABC cinema in 1928, and became The Coronet Cinema in 1981.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: During the late 19th century there was a cemetery in the vicinity, but it was built over during London's rapid expansion. A few gravestones remain in St. Mary's Churchyard. At the north side of the churchyard, the church of St Gabriel's Newington was built in 1874 before being demolished in 1937 on what is now a walkway called St Gabriel Walk.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The area became the location for a thriving shopping area, known as "the Piccadilly (Circus) of South London", with its own department store (William Tarn and Co) and many smaller outlets. Also featured were a shoe factory, a branch of Burton and a renowned hatter.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: In 1930, the Trocadero, a monumental neo-Renaissance style picture house seating over 3000 and fitted with the largest Wurlitzer organ imported to the United Kingdom, was built at the northern corner of the New Kent Road (a plaque commemorating the building was unveiled in 2008 by Denis Norden, who had worked there in his youth). This was replaced in 1966 by a smaller cinema (the Odeon, known for a time after closure as an Odeon in 1982 as the Coronet, not to be confused with the Coronet below) which was demolished in 1988.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: In 1932, another cinema opened across the street, The Coronet. It is now mostly used as a night-club and concert venue. At the time it seated over 2000 people, and was an art-deco conversion of the Elephant and Castle theatre, opened in 1879 on the site of the short-lived Theatre Royal (built in 1872 and burnt down six years later). It was reconstructed in 1882 and again in 1902.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: One monument to cinema still remains just off the Elephant, the Cinema Museum is a volunteer-run museum with screenings of classic cinema and a vast collection of cinema memorabilia. It is located in the old workhouse where Charlie Chaplin spent time as a child.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The Elephant was the centre of the target zone for the German air raids on London on 10 May 1941 and suffered "raging fires".


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The major development of the 1960s consisted of post-war reconstruction to a larger metropolitan plan, much of it replacing properties destroyed by bombing in World War II and creating two infamous roundabouts,


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The Metropolitan Tabernacle was reconstructed behind its preserved classical facade to a smaller scale than the original. Alexander Fleming House (1959), originally a group of government office blocks and now Metro Central Heights residential complex, is a prime example of the work of the Hungarian modernist architect Ernő Goldfinger.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The shopping centre, designed by Boissevain & Osmond for the Willets Group, was opened in March 1965. It was the first covered shopping mall in Europe, with 120 shops on three levels and a two-storey underground car-park. In the sales brochure (1963), Willets claimed it to be the "largest and most ambitious shopping venture ever to be embarked upon in London. In design planning and vision it represents an entirely new approach to retailing, setting standards for the sixties that will revolutionise shopping concepts throughout Britain." When it opened, budget restrictions meant that the proportions and finishes of the building had had to be scaled down and only 29 out of a possible 120 shops were trading. The demolition of the shopping centre and The Coronet took place in 2021.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: The Elephant is the location of the London College of Communication, formerly the London College of Printing, an internationally renowned dedicated college, part of University of the Arts London. The present structure was constructed during the redevelopment of the area in the early 1960s. It is slated for demolition in the mid 2020s, when the college is due to move to a new campus being built on the site of the Coronet Theatre.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: In 1974 the Brutalist Heygate Estate, designed by Tim Tinker, was completed. It was home to more than 3,000 people. The estate was once a popular place to live, the flats being thought light and spacious, but the estate later developed a reputation for crime, poverty and dilapidation. It was demolished in the 2010s and replaced with the Elephant Park development, which, the developer claimed, includes "the largest new green space to be created in London for 70 years."


title: Elephant and Castle

text: Perronet House, an award-winning residential block owned by Southwark Council, was designed by Sir Roger Walters. It was completed in 1970 and extended in 1987.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: At the south of the area, stood Castle House (an office building now replaced by Strata SE1), which was part of the Draper Estaste. When Draper House, which still exists, was built in 1964, with its 25 floors, it was the tallest structure in London. The design was by Hubert Bennett of the London City Council's (LCC's) Architects Department and inspired by Le Corbusier. Well regarded at the time, the building was featured in Architecture Review which said it, ‘sets a standard of clarity and vigour’.


title: Elephant and Castle

text: In recent times the area has had a reputation for successful ethnic diversity and centrality. The area's proximity to major areas of employment, including Westminster, the West End and the City, has meant that a certain amount of gentrification has taken place.