• Finsbury in Print: from Black Dwarf to Spare Rib

    Finsbury's narrow streets and courts provide the setting for many novels. We pass by novelist Arnold Bennetts's Riceyman Steps, through George Gissing’s Nether World, see where Dickens' Oliver Twist first met Mr Brownlow and meet the inspiration for Miss Haversham. Closely associated with the print trade, Finsbury was also home to many magazines and journals, ... Read More

  • Islington’s Big Screens

    Islington’s Big Screens

    A stroll through more than 100 years of Islington cinema-going; all between Angel and Essex Road stations. You’’ll encounter Victorian showmen, architectural wonders and tales of bad behaviour in the stalls. Come to discover hidden gems and hear what a night ‘at the flicks’ was like decades before multiplexes. In addition to such landmarks as ... Read More

  • Up and Down Upper Street

    Islington, now the most densely populated London borough, was for centuries famed for its pastures, dairies, fresh water wells and pleasure gardens. Today, this inner urban borough offers an eclectic range of modern shops, restaurants, theatres, pubs and cafes, but its history remains there, hidden in plain sight. At the heart of Islington is Upper ... Read More

  • Finsbury in Print: from Black Dwarf to Spare Rib

    Finsbury's narrow streets and courts provide the setting for many novels. We pass by novelist Arnold Bennetts's Riceyman Steps, through George Gissing’s Nether World, see where Dickens' Oliver Twist first met Mr Brownlow and meet the inspiration for Miss Haversham. Closely associated with the print trade, Finsbury was also home to many magazines and journals, ... Read More

  • The Ups and Downs of Life in Medieval London

    he 12th century cleric, William Fitzstephen wrote in glowing terms about London. However, on this walk we will discover both the ups and downs of life in Medieval London. Walking through Clerkenwell, Smithfield and ending in the City of London, find out about a variety of aspects of life from prayer to punishment and employment ... Read More

  • Islington’s Lost Entertainments

    Islington’s Lost Entertainments

    For centuries, Islington has been a popular destination for pleasure seekers. On this two-hour tour we'll explore the activities and institutions that went from ubiquity to obscurity as London changed around them. We'll uncover Islington's time as a land of pastoral excess; the antics of various rock-n'-rollers; the food; the fads; and the fights. The ... Read More

  • Islington’s Lost Entertainments

    Islington’s Lost Entertainments

    For centuries, Islington has been a popular destination for pleasure seekers. On this two-hour tour we'll explore the activities and institutions that went from ubiquity to obscurity as London changed around them. We'll uncover Islington's time as a land of pastoral excess; the antics of various rock-n'-rollers; the food; the fads; and the fights. The ... Read More

  • Art Deco Holloway: architectural delights of the 1930s

    Holloway's main shopping area has a wealth of Jazz Age and Streamline Moderne architecture simply hiding in plain view. Since the 1870s this area has been north London's main shopping area. As this continued into the 1920s and 1930s many businesses updated or rebuilt in the new Moderne styles of that time. We'll visit a ... Read More

  • Mary Wollstonecraft and Newington Green

    A statue in honour of Mary Wollstonecraft is now a feature of Newington Green but there's a long history of radical thought in the area, explored on this walk. The Unitarian Chapel is the oldest nonconformist chapel still in use, and the original China Inland Mission still stands next to the Green. The walk will ... Read More

  • Cultural Clerkenwell

    Cultural Clerkenwell

    Since the middle-ages, when religious pageants were held on the banks of the River Fleet and entertainers performed at the annual Bartholomew’s Fair, Clerkenwell has been a part of London steeped in cultural history. Theatre, literature, music, film, architecture, food, sculpture and visual art spanning the last 900 years are all covered as we wander ... Read More