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One of my favourite things about walking London is the little things you find that tell a big story. Take this valve cover marked LHP in Royal Mint Street. Its a remnant of the London Hydraulic Power Company, a network that powered equipment all over London in the late 19th and early 20th century. Hydraulic…
Read moreRenowned British artist Maggi Hambling has been chosen to design a sculpture commemorating novelist Charles Dickens’s connections with the London Borough of Southwark. The sculpture will be installed on the recently created pedestrian piazza outside St George the Martyr church at the junction of Tabard Street and Borough High Street. Hambling, who designed the reclining…
Read moreIn a dramatic moment worthy of a Charles Dickens plot, the winning design for a monument in Southwark to honour the great English novelist will be unveiled on Tuesday 7th February, the 200th anniversary of his birth. The design will be selected by a commitee of representatives from local organisations including Southwark Council and Bankside…
Read moreSunday 22nd January is the 175th anniversary of one of the great architects of London – Sir John Soane. His buildings, in which applied classical styles to the needs of the modern city, are not only important in themselves, but they also are a great boost to the confidence of London. During Soanes lifetime London…
Read moreThe magnificent Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich has acquired yet another alias. It appears in the Maggie Thatcher biopic Iron Lady as the Elysée Palace, official residence of the French president. Meryl Streep, who has just won a Golden Globe best actress award for her portrayal of the former Tory Prime…
Read moreThe latest James Bond thriller landed on terra firma at Greenwich on Friday 6th January when filming for Skyfall, 23rd movie in the Bond franchise, took place at the Old Royal Naval College (ORNC). We can’t reveal too much about the plot, otherwise there may be even more dead bodies in Greenwich than those in…
Read moreIf you enjoyed the latest version of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, screened on BBC TV between Christmas and New Year, revisit the scene of the crimes in Greenwich with Footprints of London guide Neil Sinclair. Tread the London street along which a reluctant Estella is driven to her arranged marriage with the arrogant, disdainful and…
Read moreThe arrival at the Old Royal Naval College this month of veteran vehicles and costumed extras heralds the filming of yet another fin de siècle blockbuster in Greenwich. This time it’s Parade’s End, an adaptation for BBC TV and HBO of the Ford Madox Ford novel set in England and the Western front before, during…
Read moreOne of the highlights of Dianne Hally’s walk London The Great Survivor is the view from the Barbican Highwalk – almost 2000 years of London architecture in one spot, from the Roman Wall to Norman Foster. Dianne reminded us of one of the stranger schemes planned for London – the city pedway scheme. The idea…
Read moreI’ve just been reading a book by Ben Aaronvitch, titled Rivers of London. I’d really recommend this as a fun read to all London Guides and anyone interested in London History – first of three books so far, and introduces a new hero in the form of Peter Grant, a probationary police constable who is…
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