HISTORICAL LONDON WALKS
 

These are historical walks looking at both well known and less familiar buildings. The hidden streets, squares and house behind the famous facades are intriguing especially when accompanied by tales of those who have lived and worked in them. Click on any underlined walk to see further details.

BELGRAVIA - See how the other half lives

BLACKFRIARS - named after the monks who lived & worshiped here.  The north bank of the Tames home to a theatre, a palace & a church which inspired the tiered wedding cake.

BLOOMSBURY - The ‘Bloomsbury set’ lived in squares, wrote in circles & loved in triangles! 

CANARY WHARF - Soaring architecture & public works of art

CHELSEA - famous for its buns, boots & pensioners. A walk through one of London's most exclusive areas. 

THE CITY - 2000 years of history from Roman wall to latest technology.

CLERKENWELL - derives its name from the ancient well. The green was for centuries the setting for radical meetings.

COFFEE HOUSES - from coffee house as office to Starbucks latte.

COVENT GARDEN - London's first piazza now the centre of street entertainment.

THE LONDON OF CHARLES DICKENS - Dickens was inspired by London and spent many days and nights walking the streets on both sides of the River Thames. On this walk we step back in time to follow in the great writer’s footsteps. Meander through the courtyards of Gray’s Inn where he worked as a clerk and featured in several of his books including David Copperfield. Learn how Dickens helped with the founding of London’s first and most famous children's hospital and also supported the first home for abandoned children. We will see the only house in London still in existence where he is known to have lived and written a number of his books including Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. This is now home to The Dickens Museum. 

DOCKLANDS - Once the busiest in the world. Cobbled streets & smugglers tales.

EMBANKMENT  GARDENS - Watergates, peaceful gardens with statues from Robbie Burns to the Camel. 

THE FIRE OF LONDON Trace its destruction from The Monument to Smithfield accompanied by the diary entries of Samuel Pepys.

GREENWICH - take the boat to Maritime Greenwich frozen in time as painted by Canaletto

HATTON GARDEN - Dickens & Diamonds. The rookeries & alleys served as an inspiration for Charles Dickens novels.  Window shop at the largest collection of retail jewellers in London.  

LEGAL LONDON - The Inns of Court. A peaceful place of courtyards, gardens and lawyers.

NOTTING HILL - Markets, Movies & Carnival.

OLD KENSINGTON - The Royal Village.

PADDINGTON & LITTLE VENICE - Trains & Boats & Bridges

REGENT’S  PARK - The town in the country designed for a Prince. A Royal Ramble past the elegant terraced homes of the wealthy & architect designed animal houses.

ROMAN LONDON - 2000 years of history in the square mile. Discover the origins of our capital city.

SHOREDITCH AND THE GEFFRYE MUSEUM - The haunt of artists, designers and performers. Achingly trendy restaurants, art galleries and expensive apartments are tucked in among social housing, corner stores and parks you might not want to venture into at night; making this an edgy, exciting place to spend the morning.

One of the most famous art galleries in London; a surprising sex shop catering just for women; a place where you can learn to fly through the air with the greatest of ease and a restaurant where celebrity chefs eat on their night off, are all mixed up with the remains of the 19th century Music Hall tradition and the place where the Jester of Henry 8th and a friend of Shakespeare are both buried.

Visit the Geffrye Museum,18th century alms houses, now home to a unique collection of period room settings from Jacobean times to the 20th century.

SOHO - Saucy & notorious; Red lights & night life. Indulge your fantasies at a theatrical costumier…..

THE SOUTHBANK - A river walk outside the confines of the City - theatres & fun.

SPITALFIELDS - The East End. A cosmopolitan mix of ethnic cultures.

ST JAMES & PICCADILLY - Royal and Aristocratic London - scandal!

STROLLING THE STRAND - Land claimed form the river. Splendid hotels, forgotten palaces.

WAR MEMORIALS - War is still with us as are these memorials; an ever present reminder of ‘man’s inhumanity to man’.

WESTMINSTER AND WHITEHALL - 1,000 years of government & monarchy.

WINDSOR TO ETON - Wander from the weekend retreat of the queen to the most famous school in England.

 

MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES

THE BRITISH LIBRARY & MUSEUM Begin at The British Library which opened here in 1997 - make up your own mind about the building home to over 12 million books. See Shakespeare's First Folio & Magna Carta. Then we take a guided walk through Bloomsbury, where so many literary figures made their homes including The Bloomsbury Set' who were said 'to live in squares, write in circles and love in triangles'. The walk finishes at The British Museum in the Great Court and restored Reading Room before a 'Highlights Tour' of some of the six and three quarter million exhibits.

SOMERSET HOUSE Built in the eighteenth century as a public building - home of the Inland Revenue. Now transformed into a new cultural complex including the only outpost of The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, surrounding one of the most spectacular squares in London. Tour the building including the Naval Staircase, the Lightwells, Seamen's Waiting Hall, Great Arch and understand what was here before. View The Gilbert Collection - comprising some 800 works of art. outstanding gold, silver and micro-mosaics, gifted to the nation by Sir Arthur Gilbert (entry fee £4.00 for groups of 10).

TATE BRITAIN The art of Britain from the sixteenth century to the present day. The work of British artists and others who have lived and worked here. Landscapes by Turner and Constable, portraits by Reynolds and Gainsborough, places, people, history, myths and literature paintings.