London Walks

There are two power point presentations available from the 2016 evening party.  One a rolling display of the walks over the ten years.  The second a presentation on the waterways of London.  They are too big to upload but are available; just email Philip via londonvillages@lalg.org.uk

Thread your way through the labyrinth of medieval alleyways and courtyards that weave through the patchwork quilt of today’s City of London. Our first City walk was in the east, tracing the city from year 0 to 2000. This second City walk is to the medieval west, outwith the wall. Hear the history and judge the impact of churches, coffee-houses and craft guilds.

Download more details below.

Is the Garden Suburb the same as the Garden City we know so well, or not?  Judge for yourself.  Mind you; it is just a suburb, not a village.  A 5-mile walk with time for coffee + lunch.

Download the file below for details.

This 4 mile walk began in Turnham Green, one of Chiswick’s original settlements, with a walk round Bedford Park, the World’s first garden suburb. The Civil war Battle of Turnham Green and Hogarth’s statue were followed by a stroll along Chiswick High Road, then along the lane where Linoleum was invented to St Peter’s Square, with fine Georgian houses. After crossing the Great West Road we walked along Chiswick Mall, the finest (and most expensive) street in the area. One Grade 1 listed house was on the market for £18.5M. Then to St Nicholas Parish church where various luminaries are buried, including Hogarth whose little ‘country’ house came next, followed by the glory of Chiswick House and Gardens where we finished the day.

Once a bustling and highly lucrative Warehouse and Wharf nicknamed 'the Larder of London', the converted Hay's Galleria continues the tradition with many coffee shops and restaurants, an apt start to the day. On to Shad Thames with its overhead gantries and Butler's Wharf complex, now expensive apartments and offices, once an entry point for many goods, especially spices. We paused at the tidal St Saviour's dock to reflect on its Dickensian atmosphere then returned to the 21^st century at the Tideway children's mural. Continuing along a shady Thames path we passed Bermondsey beach and moved into Rotherhithe with its riverside reminders of kings, pilgrims, engineers and social reformers. We made our way to Canada Water, in the heart of what was the Surrey Commercial Docks area, with only small areas of water left, apart from Greenland dock, now a major recreational asset. In the afternoon we explored Stave Hill with its spectacular views of the City and Canary Wharf, the Russia dock woodland area and nature reserve; and quiet residential streets: their names telling us their history.

We started our day out with coffee in the atmospheric Crypt cafe of St Martin's in the Fields, moving on to look at the original site of the Eleanor Cross in what was the medieval village of Charing. The site is covered by a statue of King Charles I in what has become Trafalgar Square. Whitehall next, site of the principal government offices since Henry VIII established his court at Whitehall Palace in the 1530s. Under the Empire, many old buildings were replaced by architecturally grandiose ones, such as the Old War Office. Military statues and memorials are a significant feature of Whitehall and the surrounding area.  After a stop at Horse Guards we wound our way back to Trafalgar Square via Victoria Embankment and the original Scotland Yard, now a luxury hotel. The second part of the tour took us down to the Water Gate on the original bank of the Thames, along the back of the landmark Art Deco Savoy Hotel and Embankment Gardens to Blackfriars station.

Peter Moore describes how he arranged and led multiple trips to Covent Garden.

Like everyone, the London Villages group was buffeted by changing government rules on social distancing, travel, lockdowns, business closures and safety concerns as infection rates raged up and down then up again.

Celia Lord completed her visits to Whitehall with two trips in January.  For the rest of 2020, instead of the usual repertoire of another three walks, only limited and rescheduled walks to Covent Garden were possible.

At the beginning of February dates and booking details for Covent Garden trips in April and May were sent for inclusion in the March Newsletter. Bookings were taken on 9 March and the four trips were filled with 90 members.  Infection rates were increasing ominously and by 23 March we were in ‘lockdown’ and all trips were cancelled.

It was not until early July that ‘lockdown’ was lifted and we entered a new era of ‘the rule of six’. What to do? 

I went to Covent Garden in August for a reconnaissance trip. What was it like on the trains, what was open for coffee with toilets and how crowded was it?  I needn’t have worried. Trains to London were running with only 1-3 people per carriage and they were just as busy coming home. The capital was very quiet, with a huge reduction in numbers of tourists and office workers. Plenty of coffee shops were open and similarly quiet. However, realising that most would not wish to use the tube, the plan was to get a Thameslink train direct to Farringdon and walk the 20 minutes to the start of the Covent Garden walk.

The ‘group of six’ restriction was now the only impediment but with so many wishing to come and with all the preparation done, I decided to run two trips in September and two in October, though taking only six at a time is not viable long term.

It proved a popular and successful decision. We had two walks for the price of one: Covent Garden and Covid London.

Our emergence above ground at Farringdon Thameslink was into a London that has never been seen before. The 20 minute walk to Kingsway via Hatton Garden, Ely Place, past the old Prudential building on High Holborn, Staple Inn, then into Lincoln’s Inn Fields was along wide pavements with few people on them. Holborn lacked its normal heavy traffic so we didn’t have to wait for the ‘green man’ to cross the road, or even bother going to a crossing point. Buses trundled by, proudly carrying their small quota of passengers. A succession of shops and eateries were closed or closed down for good. Close pairs of Sainsbury’s Local and Pret a Manger had reverted to one closed outlet and one little-used outlet trying to keep its head above water. The office workers had vanished.

The most prominent and noisiest workers were in construction: Conversion of Bow Street Magistrates Court to a luxury hotel, restoration and repairs to Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, conversions to Drury House, conversion work to the vacated offices of ‘The Lady’, and so it goes on.

At Covent Garden, foreign and British tourists were virtually absent, making the streets easy to walk and easy to socially distance and much reduced traffic noise made my job easier. This had been helped further by the road closures around Covent Garden, instigated by Westminster and Camden councils. Colourful market trolleys filled with flowers had been used to block the roads to traffic allowing much more space for pedestrians and allowing the cafes and restaurants to spill onto the roads - an inviting prospect in August but not October.

The lack of people on the streets was mirrored in the cafes which we virtually had to ourselves. I had no competition from the usual buskers so could stand and deliver some of the talk where they normally perform in front of St Paul’s church, on one occasion inadvertently delaying one from starting. He didn’t mind at all and happily let me finish but then, there was no-one waiting to hear him. He was very friendly and chatty and we left feeling rather sorry for him but it was a sad and not particularly uplifting experience to wander those near-empty streets that were once a hive of activity.

Lunch was picnic time on the first three trips when the weather was kind enough for us to enjoy the sun-trap of the near-deserted benches in the churchyard of St Paul’s.  But whose was the expensive white Tesla S, reg. L2 EAT, always parked by the church door? The vicar’s? I spoke to the church warden, a really pleasant guy who recognised me from previous visits. Apparently, it belonged to a good friend of the church whose family ran the nearby Italian restaurant, Pasta Brown on Bedford Street. It was getting colder by our last trip in October so Pasta Brown it was for lunch. A separate table each, good service, good food, good price and a welcome, warm sit down,

On three of the four visits the finale of the day was a performance by a professional opera singer, also busking, in the old market buildings. Much discussion on whether they were using amplification. Of course, they were not. They were just amazing!

Lockdown v2 scuppered plans for November but the new regulations and tiers for December look as though I should try for a final two trips before Christmas

So how will London look and feel in the next few years when, hopefully, we are living without significant restrictions?

Will those closed streets be opened up to traffic again? - I hope not.

Will tourists return in number? - probably.

Will office workers return to their daily commute? - probably not.

Which businesses will survive and which newcomers will rise up?

Will Crossrail be up and running? Its gleaming portals, already brightly lit and emblazoned with ‘Elizabeth Line’, lead directly from the Farringdon, Thameslink platforms. It was due to open in 2018 and is now projected for ‘as early as possible in the first half of 2022’. .

London Villages Group have had walks planned using this interchange since 2017, so we continue to hope!

Photographs by Rachel Thomson

An exploration of the only part of the West End not previously visited by the London Villages Group. The area boasts two centuries of association with artists, links to the Bloomsbury Group and the hub of 20th century Bohemian life led by Augustus John, Dylan Thomas and Nina Hamnett. 

It has its own newspaper, much needed to help withstand redevelopment. Fitzroy Square is one of London's finest and most intact Georgian squares built between 1794 and 1835 and the heart of the Fitzrovia Conservation Area. It  has also been a popular filming venue for BBC costume dramas.

In 2018, The Fitzroy Tavern was given a special award by CAMRA for a refurbishment which retained and revived the Tavern's orignal Victorian appearance. A great lunch stop!

This 3 mile walk took us around the historic tranport hub, looking at how the existing buildings and structures have been adapted for the 21st century, and how this once-derelict industrial site is rapidly becoming a vibrant and welcoming public space.

Our September 2018 excursion took us into London's East End. Water, weavers, wayfarers, and the way into the UK for centuries of refugees and entrepreneurs.

The walk, led by Philip Sayers, included docks and locks, a mosque, a park on stilts, university refectory lunch and an historic conservation area.

Two particular features stood out. Maria Terrace, which "is a terrace of unusual 3-storey brick houses with gothic arches over the front doors and white gables over the second floor windows." 

And the Clock Tower on Stepney Green dedicated to "Stanley B. Atkinson, 1873-1910, Barrister at Law, Stepney Borough Councillor, Guardian of the Poor, Member of the Metropolitan Asylums Board. With two stone reliefs for education and benevolence."

Download details below.

The 3-mile walk began at Parliament Square passing Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey and continued through quieter, less well known areas of Westminster with its fine buildings ranging from Georgian through to the 20th century. 

Particularly unusual was Edward Lutyens 1930s chequerboard Social Housing on Page Street with an early example of access galleries around a courtyard. This style was adopted by other architects and became known as 'streets in the air'.

The Grade 1 listed St John's Church, Smith's Square, now a concert hall, is one of the finest examples of English Baroque architecture.  It has the nickname 'Queen Anne's footstool as she is said to have kicked her footstool over when asked what she wanted it to look like and said 'like that'.

From the Bethnal Green tube station we visited the memorial to the worst civilian disaster of WWII and went on to explore the environs of what has always been one of the poorest areas in London, but enlivened towards the end by the unexpected delight of Victoria Park.

The legal world has been concentrated for centuries around the Inns of Court, located between the Thames and just north of High Holborn. The Inns are comparable architecturally to Oxford and Cambridge Colleges, consisting of barristers’ chambers, libraries, halls and chapels, all set within elegant courtyards and gardens. Our walk of about 4 miles took us around this quiet, elegant and green area of central London during November, December 2017 and January 2018.

In September 2017 our walk pieced together the City of London from nothing, through the Romans, back to nothing, through the medieval period to the ultra-modern metropolis that it is now. The Timeline took us to a significant part of the City wall, into Medieval churches and around the very centre of global commerce since 1660.  We finished at Faringdon which is to become a major rail hub linking our part of the country with Crossrail and a convenient route to Heathrow and the South Coast in the near future.  

Our walk was about 4¼ miles in length from Tower Hill towards Canary Wharf along the north bank of the Thames exploring the riverside parts of the four former hamlets of Wapping, Shadwell, Ratcliffe and Limehouse. Following wartime devastation and the closure of the docks in the late 60s, much of this formerly industrial area has undergone gentrification and we saw the one remaining dock, fine examples of converted warehouses together with historic pubs, private houses and two fine churches. 

Our compact walk started at the BBC's iconic building in Portland Place, crossed the country's medical heartland and featured a plethora of literary names and famous figures.

Intimately linked for 2000 years to the City of London by London Bridge, Southwark is, nevertheless, a place apart. A convenient place for the stink industries and dubious entertainments undesirable to, but necessary for, the City. Its history has been shaped by all traffic from the south into the City having to pass through it until 1750. It retains large parts of its Tudor street pattern, the only remaining galleried inn in London, Borough Market, formative associations with Dickens and much that is unexpected

Nash Route for the Prince Regent.  This walk was a departure from the normal ‘village’ - an area  described as ‘quite simply the greatest piece of town planning London has ever seen’. Starting from the iconic viewpoint of Primrose Hill, the route followed a slightly erratic course through Regent’s Park, past the BBC, All Souls, Oxford Circus ending at the Duke of York steps on the Mall. For 200 years it has remained prime real estate with much fine architecture. This is John Nash’s Via Triumphalis.

We saw some fascinating aspects of Regency London; Paddington, Regent’s Canal, Little Venice, Regent’s Park. Highlights include; a basin bigger than you have ever seen, a major historical trade junction to the watery north, Regency architecture, ducks and daffs. And the site of a major extension to Damian Hirst’s listed home; all underground, including a swimming pool. Whatever next?

Download more details below.

Notting Hill: now a wealthy residential area famous as a film location, for the Portobello Road market, riots and the annual carnival. Hidden behind the opulent facades we see today lies a story of exploitation and aspirations.

Pass Go! to land on Mayfair; the village of squares, squires and high society.  Go high-class window shopping, see embassies, find the original May Fair; and hear a nightingale?  Lunch at the quaint and quirky Shepherds Market (Mayfairish prices, £10 +/-).   To finish, a stroll through St James park with daffs, ducks and the most delightful and serene view of Palladian London (no, not Buckingham Palace).  Just over 4 miles. Download the leader's working notes below.

Our habit of making a slideshow for each trip was taking up a bit too much room!

So, we will make just one slideshow for each year and title each picture accordingly.

This trip led by Phil, then our newest leader, broke new ground for the London Villages Group:

it began with a choral session! Fortunately this didn’t involve any auditions, just a rendering of sections of “Oranges and Lemons”, the full words of which were displayed on the wall of a pub in Bow, just down the road from the church with the relevant bell. Then down to the waterside and on to Three Mills, a delightful piece of industrial history. The Olympic site was still very much a work in progress, with Bob the Builder and his mates out in force, but we got a good view of Anish Kapoor’s media centre amidst the bulldozers. The new Westfield shopping mall impressed, and leaves its 1960s neighbour rather out in the cold. Finally to the delightful West Ham park, rather surprisingly owned and run by the City of London, where spring flowers abounded and we enjoyed lingering in the sunshine. Even the train ride back was educational, with an overview of most of the places we had visited seen from a different angle. A most interesting and enjoyable outing, with plenty of fascinating historical anecdotes.

The September 2011 outing for the London Villages group was to Chiswick.

From Turnham Green and a brief introduction to the Bedford Park area, we headed off along Chiswick High Road, noting Hogarth's connection with the area en route.   The highlight was Chiswick Mall with its fine houses and views over the Thames, where we learned about their interesting histories and owners (past and present), and the  concentration of breweries nearby.

After admiring the oldest buildings in what was once the village High Street, we proceeded to Chiswick House and lunch, followed by a tour of the lovely gardens before wending our way back to Kings Cross.  

Many thanks to Peter Moore for an excellent day out.

The London Villages Group visited leafy Dulwich in May and June, and discovered that despite being south of the Thames it is surprisingly easy to get to,

and some members will doubtless return to spend time in the Picture Gallery.  We admired the Georgian architecture, learnt the history of Dulwich College and had an excellent lunch in the Pavilion café in the park.   The highlight for many was seeing Ernest Shackleton’s boat, the James Caird, and hearing the story of his incredible journey trying and failing to reach the South Pole.  On the first trip two of our members spontaneously created their own work of art, “The Three Barbaras (Hepworth, Raines and Hewitt).  That must be a first for LALG!

The March trip was to darkest Hoxton, Haggeston and Shoreditch.

We started by making a circuit round Old Street station, a favourite target area for Victorian philanthropy, now up-market and down-at-heel almost street by street. We  included Moorfields Eye Hospital's most recent building and the home of Methodism in City Road. We  also visited handsome Hoxton Square and the fine new buildings that make up Hackney Community College, before heading for a lunch-break at the excellent Geffrye Museum of domestic house furnishing.

Some of the group then headed  off to Brick Lane, ending at Moorgate Station via the former Trumans Brewery and Spitalfields.