Footprints of London

Celebrate the secret world in words! Photo: Cambridge Circus Sign – © David Charnick 2020 What’s your preference – George Smiley or James Bond? Both feature in this exploration of the shadowy world of secret agents in fiction. The tour features site-specific readings – some obvious, some much less so! Join me in a literary…

Celebrate the great defender – Rumpole of the Bailey! Photo: The Recording Angel, Central Criminal Court – © David Charnick 2020 Fortified with Château Thames Embankment, and overseen by She Who Must Be Obeyed, Rumpole of the Bailey devotes his time to keeping errant humanity out of chokey. Join me to explore Rumpole’s legal world…

Celebrate the many sides of Dictionary Johnson! Photo: Samuel Johnson by Percy Fitzgerald (detail), St Clement Danes – © David Charnick 2022 In 1737 a teacher with an uncertain future arrived in London in the company of one of his former pupils. The former pupil was David Garrick, who would become one of the most…

Celebrate literary Bethnal Green – in So Many Words! Photo © 2016 Alan Tucker – Cheshire Street (formerly Hare Street) Bethnal Green’s story is one rich in variety. Many authors have sought to engage with the human currents of Bethnal Green and to capture its unique flavour. The tour features readings from the writings of…

Celebrate the City through the words of Shakespeare and Co! Photo: Thomas Gresham depicted at the Royal Exchange – © David Charnick 2021 London’s Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights transported their audiences to strange, imaginary worlds. But they were ready also to hold a mirror up to the citizens of London. The reflections were sometimes less…

Explore Peter Ackroyd’s shadowy East End! Photo: St Anne Limehouse (detail) – © 2018 Alan Tucker Peter Ackroyd’s is one of the authentic voices of London: his novels, histories, biographies and so much more capture the rhythms of the city. This tour celebrates his portrayal of the riverside East End as a place of monsters…

Celebrate Shakespeare the Londoner! Photo © 2020 David Charnick – Site of Shakespeare’s Globe, Park Street He was a man, take him for all in all, / I shall not look upon his like again. (Hamlet Act One, Scene Two) William Shakespeare is the stuff of legend, but this can distract us from the real…

Follow the rise of Roman London to become capital of Britannia! Photo © 2019 David Charnick – Porch, St Magnus Martyr In the year 43 Roman troops arrived in Britain; soon the new Roman colony of Britannia was established. Meanwhile a small settlement called Londinium came into being on the banks of the Tamesis river….

Explore the London of Charles Dickens through his own words! Photo: Marshalsea Prison Wall – © David Charnick 2020 The works of Charles Dickens are informed by his urban insights, founded on the observations of the journalist and shot through with human understanding. Join me in celebrating the London evoked by an authentic voice of…

Explore the London of Charles Dickens through his own words! Photo: Marshalsea Prison Wall – © David Charnick 2020 The works of Charles Dickens are informed by his urban insights, founded on the observations of the journalist and shot through with human understanding. Join me in celebrating the London evoked by an authentic voice of…