Soho, Mayfair, Marylebone, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, St Giles, Aldwych
Walking Tour - A Great Political Maze: Mayfair in the Eighteenth Century
Mayfair was built up through the eighteenth century. This was a time when democratic systems were evolving albeit marked by corruption and nepotism and impacted by wars, trade and the development of empire. Politics got everywhere including in music, satire and fashion.
We trace a diagonal course through Mayfair including three of its grand squares, passed some of its great surviving eighteenth century buildings and Parish church and the statues to and homes of some of the most powerful players in this theatre such as William Pitt, the Younger, Charles James Fox and Robert Clive. We include great international wars, urban riots and a mysterious suicide.
This walk is especially relevant in 2025 on the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the War of American Independence.
Walking Tour - From Sherlock’s Sitting Room to Nell Gwynn’s Denn
Richard's pub tour brings you the strange tale of one pub named after an eighteenth century naval disaster; why one is named after a famous literary sleuth and another after a real maverick policing outfit. We pass a pub frequented by a highwayman; ones related to Dickens and Turner and a glamorous theatre star turned king's mistress along with one where rough bare knuckle boxing was staged (spoiler alert: no fighting today, in fact it's a lovely boozer).
It's all too easy to take Covent Garden's pubs for granted as just nice drinking holes . But they are so much more: they hold hundreds of years of west-end life within their walls; housed in some terrific old buildngs, some listed; with names redolent of that local history and they attracted historic drinkers. As well as purveying some gorgeous drinks!
And Richard will have a mid-walk stop in one of these fine historic hostelries..
Walking Tour - From Slum City to Empire Avenue: Aldwych and Kingsway
The Aldwych and Kingsway was a major road connection scheme, a grand new royal avenue and a statement of Edwardian Britain at the height of Empire.
It also cleared away London’s last west end slum – an area of dilapidated tenements, some dating before the Great Fire of London, notorious for crime and prostitution. It also contained some fantastic idiosyncratic characters and was reflected in Dickens, Pope et al.
Richard’s walk tells how the road scheme developed with its monumental bankers’ baroque architecture with striking statuary adornments, including prestigious hotels, theatres and diplomatic buildings. He also delves into the neighbourhood that was swept away uncovering some surprising remains of it in buildings, plaques and old streets.
Note: This tour merges parts of two Virtual Tours Richard did of the history of the area converted into a walking tour. difference.
Virtual Tour only Aldwych and Kingsway: London’s Imperial Avenue
Aldwych and Kingsway was a major road scheme - one of London’s greatest planning accomplishments of the twentieth century. It connected the Strand to Holborn and beyond to north London and cleared the last west-end slum. And it provided a new royal avenue, adorned with eminent baroque buildings.
And it makes for a fantastic story which covers some fabulous architecture and their adornments, world trade and diplomacy, newspapers, a prestigious hotel and a flourishing mini theatre-land. And perhaps it provides a snapshot of how Britain saw itself at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Note: This is part two of my Aldwych pair of tours, following, “The Old Curiosity of a Lost London Neighbourhood”, but it works perfectly well without seeing the first.
Virtual Tour only “The Old Curiosity” of a Lost London Neighbourhood.
If you walk around the streets to the north east of the Strand and Aldwych today, you can see hardly a hint of a fascinating old area.
It was a notorious London slum, the last of the west-end, centre of prostitution and Victorian pornographic literature. It had a vibrant street market where the butchers became local grandees, and some prestigious theatres. It also attracted some idiosyncratic characters and contained some rare surviving architecture going back to the sixteenth century.
Using old maps, images, extracts from Dickens and Pope et al and remaining signs today, Richard’s virtual tour leads you through the history of an area long swept away.
Note: This tour deals with some adult themes.
This is the first in a pair of tours, the second one of which features the grand Aldwych, Kingsway road development that replaced this neighbourhood.
St Giles: In Search of a slum.
St Giles was once one of the most squalid, insanitary and criminal areas in the country; it was said to contain, “the lowest conditions under which human life is possible.”
It grew from the early 1600s as a colony of new arrivals, those expelled from the city, the sick and the poor. And it became an urban forest of overcrowded courts, alleys, open sewers and gin shops. Fielding, Hogarth and Dickens chronicled its conditions and campaigned for its improvement.
Richard’s tour explores this area caught between Bloomsbury and Covent Garden, finding some fantastic historic social buildings, fine churches, atmospheric old streets and posh shopping thoroughfares which reveal a great legacy of an appalling slum.
Not Just Tea at the Ritz
Hear the story of London's grand hotels: of how one of the world's grandest hotels was founded by two embezzlers, which hotel became a refuge for deposed European monarchs, and why one hotel was "bomb-proof, earthquake proof and fire proof".
We hear about the historic figures and events and workers' protests which are all part of the story as well as the opulence; and include mafia, espionage and assassination. We stroll through Mayfair, taking in some of its history and three of its fine open spaces.
Please note: as much as I would love to, I cannot actually offer tea at the Ritz within the price of the ticket.
Soho: London’s Great Melting Pot
Foreigners flocked to Soho as it was being built up: French, Italians, Germans, Dutch, Chinese and many others brought their crafts, culture, style and sometimes scandal to Soho’s streets. While Britain is leaving the EU, Richard’s walk celebrates 350 years of Soho immigration. We hear about great success stories, personal stories behind big historic events and meet larger than life characters including one reckless “king”!
The walk takes in Soho Square, an atmospheric graveyard, an unexpectedly lovely period street and some of Soho’s iconic eating and drinking venues.
See five star review of this tour here.
London’s Ragged and Reformers
London in the nineteenth century became the largest city in the world and the centre of the greatest empire in history. However, not everyone shared the glory!
Richard’s walk uncovers the underbelly of Victorian London surprisingly in Marylebone: the slum housing, the workhouse, the hard lives of the street kids. We meet the heroic men and women who worked to improve the lot of the poor: from a chimney sweep turned property magnate to those who taught the semi-criminal, ragged children to a grand statesman obsessed with prostitutes. The walk also takes in some lovely green spaces, characterful Victorian social housing and a fine parish church.
1966: The Year of Swinging London
It was 1966 and London was exploding with new, young, cutting edge movements in music, fashion, film and photography. America’s Time magazine called London “the swinging city”! And to cap it all there were the joyous events In July on a football field at Wembley.
But just how much was London swinging?: Homelessness and poverty was still a big problem in a still largely bombed out city. The first protests were staged against American action in Vietnam. Disturbing gangster crime was rife. These things were all part of the Swinging London world. Richard’s walk takes in some of the streets and alleys of Soho and Mayfair to tell the story of 1966 and swinging London.
See five star review of this tour.
Mr Blake’s Tree Full of Angels: Soho Pub Tour
Richard’s frothing brew of a historic pub walk takes in a department store that had its own local, a pub that didn't actually serve alcohol and one with a secret tunnel.
We plot a course around west Soho: Carnaby Street, Golden Square, Brewer Street (appropriately) down to Piccadilly Circus. We find gorgeous gin palaces, curious pub names and see how the pubs reflect the area's trade and industry and social development. And we meet some great artistic geniuses who may well have liked the odd tipple themselves.
And on the actual tour of the streets, we of course sample the wares of at least one of the subject sites!
The Mad World of Marylebone
The Mad World of Marylebone: From the terrible hangings at Tyburne Tree to some of the loveliest squares in London, great writers, artists and scientist of the C19th century, a lost Pleasure Garden and assorted eccentrics... we explore the historic lanes of the village of St Mary on the Bourne.”
Slums to the Stars: Covent Garden in the Nineteenth Century
Covent Garden in the nineteenth century was the largest fruit and veg market in the country, was London’s red light district, had a maverick police force, had the most notorious slums in and around the area and the theatre woven into its DNA.
Richard’s virtual tour shows you some great surviving signs of the time, focussing especially on the life of the market and the theatre: from the piazza, grand theatre buildings and great tales of their stars to atmospheric back roads, drinking and dining haunts, and little remembered period factories and storehouses.
A Trafalgar Square Travesty
It’s one of the most famous Squares in the world. It lies at the geographical centre of London. And its hosted some great national celebrations.
But how much do you really know about Trafalgar Square?!: Its slow and contentious development, adornment with controversial kings and dubious generals, along with polluting pigeons, pointless plinths and political protests all equally part of its tumultuous and at times just silly history! This is a fun, whimsical one hour walk taking a sideways view at our great capital town square.
Note: I normally do this walk to raise money for The Connection at St Martin’s in the Fields: www.connection-at-stmartins.org.uk, doing fantastic work to help homeless people get back on their feet.
Healers and Hoaxers (Medical history in Marylebone)
Marylebone is full of medical history.
It is famed for the exclusive private clinics which developed on and around Harley street. A number of distinguished medics lived and practised here, including Joseph Lister and Florence Nightingale. And the area contains the Head Quarters of a number of medical professional bodies. But there were also a few oddballs with rather maverick treatments including one “doctor” who taken to court over the death of his patients.
Come with Richard to discover the hoaxers as well as the healers in Marylebone
Mr Gill’s Precious Ornament (Whimsical walk around Oxford Circus)
Right at the heart of town around Oxford Circus, I have uncovered some scandals, secrets and straightforward historic silliness.
We meet a murderous doctor, an over-sexed sculptor, a secret tunnel, a public toilet that's been transformed into a swanky bar, and a royal processional route that would have once connected a palace that was never built with another that was demolished.