These are currently available old map walks. Summaries to help you decide. All available as private tours. Public walks posted in batches two months at a time.
Bermondsey Spa
Walk with old maps exploring what became of the gardens and meadows between the Blue Anchor and Bermondsey Spa. With old maps we trace where Thomas Keyse established that spa. We find the tannery built on the footprint of an earlier industry, both used water from the River Neckinger that now flows underground. Along the way we encounter London’s first terminus, the gates of Alaska and Arthur Carr’s short-cut.
Bethnal Green
Walk with old maps exploring buildings, byways and characters around this ancient open space. From fields to overcrowded streets, old maps are a good way into the story of this East End neighbourhood. Despite bomb damage and slum clearance there is still much for us to see, like the Good Shepherd Misson serving the community since 1872 and one of the few churches designed by Sir John Soane. Along the way we encounter Queen Adelaide’s Dispensary, the Parish Watch House and the Mad House on the Green
Bloomsbury
Walk with old maps exploring a less well known corner of this neighbourhood. There is the square laid out with it’s northern side originally left empty so residents had a good view of the hills. We find buildings that survived the demolition of the Foundling Hospital and see what became of French’s Dairy. Amidst trendy shops we find Nelson’s undertakers with a window display worth a second look. The Chimney Sweeps Church and a secret garden? Along the way we encounter Thomas Coram, Dorothy L.Sayers and Kenneth Williams
Borough
Walk with old maps exploring the byways, buildings and characters between Borough High Street and Blackfriars Road.We are in the footsteps of a young Charles Dickens who knew these streets well, when his father was in the Marshalsea Debtor’s Prison. We trace where he lodged in Lant Street. There is the Work House that became a Hat Factory, on the site of a Pleasure Garden Along the way we encounter the Welsh Congregational Chapel, Ancient Lights and a Secret Garden. Our old map walk ends in the yard of London’s last surviving galleried inn.
Bow
Walk with old maps exploring a slice of the East End. Still mostly pasture, nursery gardens and orchards at the end of the 18th century. By the end of the 19th century it’s built over. Almost. Unusually we come across two former Work Houses on this walk. Then there is the former match factory where a very significant strike took place in 1888. What became of the Almshouses so prominent on the 1799 map? Along the way, as well as many Suffragette locations, we encounter Annie Besant, Prisca Coborn and Minnie Lansbury
The City
Walk with old maps exploring the City of London from it’s highest point to where the Great Fire began in 1666. We venture forth by way of hidden alleys, ancient markets and lost parishes. We find houses built soon after the Great Fire and buildings you might not expect to find in City.
Covent Garden
Walk with old maps exploring the strip of land where monks from Westminster Abbey once grew food. Where the upmarket housing development built by the Earl of Bedford became London’s main fruit and vegetable market. Along the way there are Bow Street runners, the grandest of theatres and the handsomest barn in England.It became a Parish within a Parish and still has some interesting buildings including the church inside a theatre Our old map walk begins and ends by way of almost hidden alleys
Kentish Town
Walk with old maps exploring this ancient village on the Fleet. From the Aged Governesses’ Asylum to the biggest false teeth factory in the world. Alongside the Casual Ward we find the platform where they weighed the rocks you had been breaking all day to earn a bed for the night. In a most unlikely corner we find a building beneath which lies the field where Farmer Holmes realised there was more money to be made growing bricks than crops.
Kings Cross
Walk with old maps exploring the district re-named in the 1830’s after a short-lived statue as an early form of regeneration. As well as arguably the finest railway station in London there are Former horse-bus stables, a Victorian horse-cab factory and one of London’s first Gin Palaces. Along the way we encounter the secret life of the Scala Cinema, the Light-house and Plum Pudding Steps. Through it all runs the now buried River Fleet. We see how a lost river has left it’s mark on the 21st century.
Pimlico
Walk with old maps exploring how Thomas Cubitt transformed the Neat House Gardens. We follow the now buried River Tyburn to where it joins the Thames and trace fragments of a long forgotten industrial heritage. We see how Cubitt incorporated paths used by the gardeners and how a lane from the 1720’s survives and whose name is the one link with bygone industry. Amidst the Cubitt architecture there is Dolphin Square, whose story may surprise you in particular what was there before.
Rotherhithe
Walk with Old Maps exploring this ancient riverside village. At the heart of it is the Parish Church, the one the Church Commissioners said no to! Close by we find Marc Brunel’s engine house, now a museum that celebrates the world’s first tunnel under a river We find old buildings that related to life on the river including where they once made and repaired Thames barges and the former mortuary where bodies retrieved from the Thames were taken.
St Giles
Walk with old maps exploring the parish that emerged round the site of a 12th century leper hospital. It’s the area between Soho, Holborn, Bloomsbury and Covent Garden. There’s a former Huguenot chapel, hidden almshouses and 17th century houses where you least expect to find them. We see what became of the notorious St Giles rookery. We are in the heart of London’s theatreland, that was once the heart of London’s metal-working district. This old map walk includes Denmark Street and Seven Dials
Shoreditch
Walk with old maps exploring the one time furniture making district. Most of the surviving buildings were at one stage used for making furniture. See what your favourite bar used to be, at least one was a timber seasoning shed! We trace the site of London’s first theatre. Along the way we encounter silk-weavers houses, the original actors church and Syd’s legendary coffee stall
Spitalfields
Walk with old maps exploring what became of the fields round the medieval Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital following dissolution. Best known for houses where Huguenot weavers lived and worked, we also discover some less well known buildings like the Soup House and the Night Shelter. As well as Hawksmoor’s sublime parish church there are a number of former chapels that chart the changing population of the neighbourhood
Wapping
Walk with old maps exploring this riverside settlement originally hemmed in by marshes later by huge dock walls. Amidst the warehouse conversions we find 18th century houses and 19th century industrial dwellings. There is the Docker’s Church complete with a mission hall, the Charity School set up by a local brewer and the Thames Police. We take a look at the watermens steps, Execution Dock was re-named but with an old map we trace it. With many of those huge dock walls surviving Wapping is still an atmospheric place to explore
Leave a comment