London Walks

Fable & Mirth

Three hundred shops and half a million shoppers a day on Oxford Street. Six or seven little shops and perhaps 85 shoppers on Kensington Church Walk. But what this tiny Lo

Barnet: Blood, Battles and Bad Hair Days

A kingmaker killed in the fog. A fair that gave Cockneys a word for their hair. From bloody battlefields to ancient trees and world-changing ideas, Barnet is full of surp

Camden Town: Judith’s Home Turf

Meet Judith, veteran London Walks guide and Camden Town insider extraordinaire. She’s lived right above Inverness Street Market, in the thick of Camden Town, for half a c

Enfield: You Don’t Know the Half of It

Poets and palaces. Rifles and spies. The world’s first cash machine and a country house where German generals were secretly listened to. Welcome to Enfield, the London bo

The Knock on the Door that Changed English Poetry

The young John Keats, a cottage on Hampstead Heath, and the remarkable Leigh Hunt, the poet, journalist and troublemaker who opened his door to some of the greatest liter

The Little Piece of Ely in London

Tucked away behind its gates, Ely Place is one of London’s strangest survivals, a little world of saints, bishops, strawberries, Tudor power and centuries-old privilege.

Tawdry

A seventh-century queen, two unconsummated marriages, an incorruptible body and a medieval fair. Meet St Audrey, the remarkable woman hiding inside the word “tawdry.”

A Brush with Fire

Parliament is burning, London is watching, and out on the Thames Turner is turning catastrophe into art.

The Night Edward Gibbon Had His Great Idea

On October 15, 1764, amid the ruins of Rome, a young Londoner had an idea. Edward Gibbon would spend the next 23 years turning it into one of the greatest works of histor

William Penn: The London Rebel Who Founded Pennsylvania

Born near the Tower of London, jailed for his beliefs and determined to change the world. Meet William Penn, the London rebel who founded Pennsylvania, and the twelve stu

The First Knight of the Stage

Bradford may have got his death. But London got his life. Meet Sir Henry Irving, the first actor to be knighted and the man who made the Lyceum Theatre the centre of Lond

Sid and Nancy: Punk Rock in Little Venice

A stone’s throw from the quiet waters of Little Venice, Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen were living one of rock ’n’ roll’s most turbulent love stories.

Christie’s: The Gallery Where Everything’s for Sale

One of London’s greatest art galleries is hiding in plain sight, and everything on the walls is about to disappear.

The Boy Who Learned to Listen

A Hackney boy who talked to imaginary friends grew up to change the sound of theatre. Harold Pinter taught us to listen to the words, the silences, and especially the pau

The London Boy with the Rolleicord

Before the battlefields, there was Finsbury Park. Don McCullin had a Rolleicord, hard streets, hard men and an eye that missed very little. London taught him where to loo

Hats Off to 350 Years

Lock & Co has been putting hats on London heads for 350 years. Princes, politicians, dandies and ordinary Londoners have all passed through its St James’s Street door, an

109,915 People Under One Glass Roof

On October 7th, 1851, a staggering 109,915 people poured into Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition’s busiest day. So much silver changed hands that the takings needed two h

“Burned out with London. Needed a bit of a break.”

Jason Lewis was "burned out with London and needed a bit of a break." Thirteen years, 46,000 miles, two broken legs, blood poisoning, oceans, rollerblades and a crocodile

The Day the Sixties Arrived

October 5th, 1962. James Bond walks onto the screen. The Beatles walk into the record shops. Britain wakes up in one decade and goes to bed in another.

Cable Street: The Day London Said No

Ninety years ago today, fascism came marching into London’s East End. Cable Street answered with barricades, defiance and one unforgettable cry: “They shall not pass.”