Our complete London doors advent calendar

December 26, 2019 Comments Off

Thank you for all your wonderful feedback on our daily London doors advent adventure, we hope you had fun trying to guess the doors and enjoyed the fascinating little glimpses into London’s history they revealed.

You want them all together in the same place? Go on then… 🙂

Click on any of the pics to reveal what and where the doors are and a little story behind each one.

Compliments of the season to all and what better way to exercise both body and mind after the indulgences of the holiday than joining one of our guided walking tours?

All our best wishes for the new year, we look forward to seeing you on our tours!

	Day 1, we showed you a door behind which Lord Mayors are sworn into office that features on Jen Pedler’s tour The Real Dick Whittington.

	Day 2 was a door through which a famous 19th century artist passed when he arrived home at the end of his daily trudge from work at a West End art dealer that features on one of Stephen Benton’s tours.

	Day 3 was a sturdy old door because in the nineteenth century it was protecting some of the greatest treasures of the Orient that were to be found behind it. From Rob Smith’s tour Maritime Blackwall – Spice Traders and Ship Builders.

	Day 4 was a shout out to London’s wonderful and brave emergency services featuring the door to London’s first ambulance station in an area more renowned for its literary than its medical connections. It features in one of Oonagh Gay’s tours.

	Day 5 and we asked you when is a church door not a door? When it’s been bricked in, of course, but where and why? Daniella King’s tour Mr Harris’s List, the Book That Shocked London reveals more.

	Day 6 was a real toughie from Dave Charnick’s tour Engineering Change. Without wanting to “telegraph” 😉 you the answer, at one point in its history what went on behind this door in The City of London could connect you to the nation.

	Day 7 showed a door panel elaborately carved in mahogany that recalls the meeting in London of three Victorian literary titans, but who are they and where is it? Features in both Jill Finch’s City by the Book and Mark Rowland’s Heroes and Villains tours.

	Day 8 tested your film location knowledge too as this is the door to a church that had a starring role in Four Weddings and a Funeral (and a bonus point if you can remember which wedding of the four!). It also stars in Jen Pedler’s tour Travel through time in Smithfield.

	Day 9 and some beautifully elaborate ironwork in the door of a building that was a philanthropist’s gift to the people of Hoxton. Features on Rob Smith’s tour 20th Century Buildings in Hoxton and Haggerston.

	Day 10 and as Christmas shopping entered full flow we took you into the heart of the West End via one of the area’s famous retail landmarks. Feel “free” 😉 to guess which one. Features on Stephen Benton’s tour Mr Selfridge and his Competitors.

	Day 11 and we headed into genteel St James’s for for the doors through which Phileas Fogg had to return to within 80 days of leaving them in order to win his bet. More stories from “clubland” on Mark Rowland’s tour The Gentlemen’s Clubs of St James’s.

	Day 12 was election day so it was only ever going to be Larry the cat’s front door…

	Day 13 brought you a modernist house in a 1930s North West London suburban estate, the consulting architects of which also designed the Grade II listed Underground station that serves it. Find out more on Jen Pedler’s tour Suburbs, Stations and Subways.

	Day 14; there’s no arm in it now, but there was in 1535… Easy if you know the story behind this particular entrance. If you don’t, best of luck guessing! Find out about the arm in question and much more on Jiff Bayliss’s tour Walk Macabre – dispatching the dead in Smithfield and Finsbury.

	Day 15 and we headed back east to asked you who policed the streets before there were police? Hear more on Dave Charnick’s tour The Dark Side of the Green.

	Day 16 showed the entrance to the oldest extant interior of all The City of London livery halls, but long before this was a livery hall England changed forever as a result of a fateful meeting beyond where this door now stands. Discover more on Mark Rowland’s tour Tracing the Tudors.

	Day 17 featured a revolution in housing. The entrance to a Bolshevik masterpiece in Pentonville, but do you know the name of this housing block? Features on Jiff Bayliss’ tour Modernism in Finsbury.

	Day 18 was the location for the mysterious 1936 fictional murder of Ms Emmeline Hunt, solved by another resident who happened to be a famous fictional detective. But residents of where? Uncover the mysteries on Jiff Bayliss’s tour Walk Macabre – dispatching the dead in Smithfield and Finsbury.

	Day 19 and a rather unprepossessing entrance but one with quite the story to tell. The former entrance to a London police station infamous for its part in a famous author’s 1931 Christmas preparations. Find out more David Charnick’s tour Bethnal Green in So Many Words.

	Day 20 featured yet more revolutionary housing, this time from a RIBA Gold Medal winning architect who built houses here for himself and fellow architects and went on to design estates for Camden Council. Hear the full story on Jen Pedler’s tour Highgate New Town – A revolution in social housing.

	Day 21 took you into the origins of a square mile of offices. The City of London is pretty much all office blocks now, a process with its roots in the 19th century and the main company behind that particular evolution was once behind a door on this site. Dave Charnick’s Dickens of a City tour tells you more.

	Day 22 was pretty straightforward; the entrance to the oldest building in Clerkenwell. Straightforward, that is, as long as you know which building it is! Features on Jen Pedler’s tour An Architectural History of Clerkenwell.

	Day 23 took us back into the world of fiction with a famous fictional barrister who fights for our freedoms in this legal arena, but who and where? He features on one of Dave Charnick’s tours, (it will be obvious which once you reveal the answer!).

	Day 24, Christmas Eve so only appropriate that we should finish at a church, this particular one features on on Jen Pedler’s tour Archway, my way. The dome of this church stands higher than the top of the cross of St Paul’s Cathedral and the title of Jen’s tour at least tells you where in London it is!