Call toll free: 0307 472 1942
An update from Mark Rowland on the London Symphony film project: I’m delighted to report that The London Symphony film project met its crowd funding target (sailed past it, in fact) and the great news is that the film is now going to be made, so well done everyone who got involved either through making a funding pledge or promoting…
Read moreFootprints of London Guide Richard Watkins was interviewed by Anne Diamond for BBC Radio Berkshire Yesterday to talk about the 1834 Great Fire of Westminster that destroyed the Houses of Parliament. There were worrying parallels with a recent report that said that the current parliament building was at risk from fire. Richard and Stephen…
Read moreMayfair was Ian Fleming’s playground. He was born here in 1908 in a house strangely unmarked by a blue plaque. And it was here where he drank and gambled in his clubs. His father was an MP who was killed in the First World War, his grandfather was Robert Fleming the banker who gave…
Read moreTo celebrate our Literary Footprints finale on Friday 31st October, the Footprints of London Guides have chosen their favourite London streets. Here’s what Neil Sinclair says about Hanging Sword Alley If you feel any sense of foreboding or trepidation walking along Hanging Sword Alley, the passageway between Whitefriars Street and Salisbury Court off Fleet…
Read moreHave you ever wondered what it would be like to walk every street in the London A-Z? – A feat none of us Footprint guides has yet accomplished! In Geoff Nicholson’s 1997 Whitbread shortlisted novel Bleeding London that’s what jaded tour guide Stuart London sets out to do, crossing them out in the A-Z as…
Read moreTina Baxter finds some amazing connections between Chaucer and the modern City 25th October 2014 – Anniversary of Geoffrey Chaucer’s death Geoffrey Chaucer died on 25th October 1400 and was buried in Westminster Cathedral in a place now known as ‘Poet’s Corner’, he was the first great literary hero to be enshrined on that spot….
Read moreAlan Fortune poses some questions answered in his Literary Soho walk Which literary figure is this street in Soho named after? She was to have a great influence on Jane Austen. What connection does the New Loon Moon Supermarket have with Britain’s literary heritage? Which writer of both detective stories and theological books has…
Read moreJen Pedler talks about Shepherd Market Today Shepherd Market, just off Piccadilly, is a hidden oasis of pubs, restaurants and up-market shops. In the 1920s it was far less salubrious; a haunt of prostitutes and also home to writers such as Michael Arlen and Anthony Powell who both encapsulated the world of 1920s Mayfair…
Read moreJen Pedler asks where exactly is one of London’s most famous addresses The enigmatic 221b 221b Baker Street must be one of the most famous addresses in the world. It is, of course, fictional but that hasn’t prevented generations of Sherlock Holmes fans from trying to track it down. The blue plaque on the wall…
Read moreHazel Baker explains why Oliver Twist is very far from being a children’s story Many of Dickens’ contemporary critics and reading public feared that novels could be too realistic, and that naïve readers (often female readers) wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between fiction and reality. Especially for a novel like Oliver Twist, which…
Read more
