London Walks with Nigel Millett MA
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Each walk will last between 2 hours and 2 hours 20 minutes Price is £10.00 per person – no concessions Nigel's Walks Email me at [email protected] to reserve a place with Nigel Millett MA Walk 5 Walk 6 or for any queries you might have EXPERIENCE HISTORIC LONDON Kensington Gardens & Hyde Park The East End, the Tower & the City You can turn up on the day but a place cannot be guaranteed WITH AN OXFORD HISTORIAN We start at Lancaster Gate station and walk into KENSINGTON We start at Liverpool Street station. Occupying much of GARDENS by the Marlborough Gate entrance. First stop is this site, in the medieval period, was the priory of ST MARY the ITALIAN GARDENS commissioned by Prince Albert as OF BETHLEHEM – its hospice specialised in the treatment a present to his wife – Queen Victoria. Within the gardens is of lunatics giving us the word ‘bedlam’. Then we shall go to a statue to EDWARD JENNER, the doctor who pioneered the Middlesex Street, much better known as PETTICOAT LANE for use of inoculation. Nearby we find the statue of PETER PAN, its Sunday street market. Our next stop is the BEVIS MARKS the gift of its author J M Barrie. Then we walk past the statue synagogue – the oldest synagogue in Britain built in 1701 to ‘Physical Energy’, and skirting the Round Pond, to the statue serve the growing Jewish community in this area. Then onto of Queen Victoria, in front of KENSINGTON PALACE. This Mitre Square – the scene of the fourth brutal murder by the palace was Victoria’s childhood home. By the gilded gates to side serial killer called ‘JACK THE RIPPER’. Then we go down a of the palace I can talk about William III, the Prince & Princess street called the Minories, turn right past a fragment of the of Wales and others who have lived here. Next stop is the Roman Wall, into Trinity Square Gardens, where the scaffold on ALBERT MEMORIAL, opposite the ALBERT HALL. Both were TOWER HILL was located. Here some of the most illustrious built in the 1870’s in memory of Prince Albert who had died in figures in English history were beheaded. Closer to the TOWER 1861. Now we enter HYDE PARK and view another memorial – OF LONDON I can show you the location of the Tower’s the DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN. animal menagerie. Then we shall walk to the MONUMENT, Close by is the ‘Route du Roi’ or ROTTEN ROW, and beside it built to commemorate the Great Fire of London in 1666, which is the site of the Great Exhibition of 1851, better known as the started nearby in Pudding Lane. Then we turn north, through CRYSTAL PALACE. We walk along South Carriage Row, past the financial district known as the City, past the LLOYDS the barracks of the Household Cavalry, to a HORSE TROUGH BUILDING, the GHERKIN, and other distinctive additions dedicated to the seven horses killed in an IRA car bomb attack to the skyline, finishing at Liverpool Street station in front of here in 1982. We pause at the URN to Queen Caroline, wife of the memorial to the KINDERTRANSPORT, which brought George II, who commissioned the Serpentine to be built. We some 10,000 Jewish children to safety from Germany and other end the walk at a large ornamental stone VASE marking the countries before the war. spring which, in medieval times, provided water for Westminster Abbey. In those days the Abbey owned the land which was known as the Manor of Hyde. I am an Oxford Historian who has lived in London For all dates and timings, please refer to my website: For all dates and timings, please refer to my website: all my life. www.nigelswalks.co.uk www.nigelswalks.co.uk I have an extensive knowledge of its people, its history, its architecture and its culture. My walks range through space and time, covering many parts of London and every period from the Roman to the present day. I shall describe both familiar sights but also many unfamiliar sights and tell the true and fascinating stories connected to them. “I did not realise that the places which I thought I knew held so many secrets” Eddie From the Knights Templar to William Shakespeare, and from William Wallace to Winston Churchill, “It was a great day wasn’t it? Hooray for Nigel, I say” “Many thanks for your tour around the East End – we really enjoyed your stories” “Thanks to Nigel for putting together such a great tour When is the next one, Nigel” I shall give you a vivid portrait of London life. Penny Dilys and Michael Francesca and Ron www.nigelswalks.co.uk | [email protected] www.nigelswalks.co.uk Walk 1 Walk 2 Walk 3 Walk 4 Marble Arch, the Royal Palaces, Piccadilly Clerkenwell, Smithfield, Guildhall & the Southwark & the Inner Temple Lambeth, Westminster & Trafalgar Square & Mayfair Roman Wall The walk begins at Waterloo station. We go down to the We start at Waterloo station. We go down to the Thames Path Thames Path which we shall follow throughout the walk, first where the ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL and a flagpole are all that We start at Marble Arch station. First we look at the ‘TYBURN We start at Farringdon station. First stop is the ZEPPELIN BUILDING – so-called because the original building was on the South Bank and then on the North Bank. We pause remains of the Festival of Britain in 1951. Across the river once TREE’ where, for over 600 years, the common criminals of in front of the NATIONAL THEATRE opened by the Queen stood the PALACE OF WHITEHALL – principal residence London were hanged. Then onto THE MARBLE ARCH which destroyed in a zeppelin raid in 1915. Then we walk to the site of the CLERK’S WELL, from which the district of in 1976 to house a National Repertory Company. Across the of most of our Tudor & Stuart monarchs. Going past the was once the triumphal entrance to Buckingham Palace. We walk river is SOMERSET HOUSE and I can tell you the story of this London Eye we come to Westminster Bridge guarded by the into HYDE PARK, through SPEAKERS CORNER, and along the Clerkenwell gets its name. Next stop is ST JOHN’S GATE, a 16th century gatehouse which is all that survives from the important building. Moving on we go past the OXO Tower famous SOUTH BANK LION. Further on, across the river is eastern edge of the park to a LONG MOUND which represents and Blackfriars Bridge and arrive at TATE MODERN, an art the PALACE OF WESTMINSTER also known as the Houses all that remains of the Civil War earthworks which Parliament Headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller. A short walk away is the CHARTERHOUSE, a Carthusian priory which, after the gallery converted from a former power station. Nearby is the of Parliament – the former building (burnt down in 1834) built to defend London. Then we shall see THE MEMORIAL new GLOBE THEATRE – a close facsimile of its 16th century served both as a Royal Palace and a venue for Parliament. The to the 52 victims of the July 2005 bomb attacks on the tube and dissolution, became both an almshouse and a school. Across the square is the block of flats familiar from the HERCULE predecessor. Then we shall see the actual sites of the ROSE third Palace we see is LAMBETH PALACE –still the London a London bus. Next we walk past the ‘Achilles’ statue to Hyde THEATRE & GLOBE THEATRE both of which have been residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. We go across Park Corner where we can view APSLEY HOUSE & THE POIROT television series. We stroll down to SMITHFIELD, a wholesale meat market established over 1,000 years ago. In the excavated. Next stop are the remains of the Great Hall of the Lambeth Bridge, and into Smith Square, where we find the WELLINGTON ARCH. Close by is the magnificent ROYAL BISHOP OF WINCHESTER’S PALACE with its marvellous former CONSERVATIVE PARTY HQ, from where Margaret ARTILLERY MEMORIAL – perhaps the finest military memorial adjacent open space WILLIAM WALLACE aka ‘BraveHeart’ was executed,and the PEASANTS REVOLT of 1381 reached Rose Window. Close by is a replica of the GOLDEN HINDE, Thatcher celebrated three successive election victories. Then we in London. We walk down Constitution Hill to BUCKINGHAM Drake’s flagship on his circumnavigation of the globe. We stroll through the narrow streets of political Westminster, past PALACE, which became the official residence of the monarch in its dramatic conclusion. We walk from there to POSTMAN’S PARK and see the poignant plaques to those who lost their lives double back and cross the river by the MILLENNIUM BRIDGE, a house where T. E. Lawrence ‘LAWRENCE OF ARABIA’ lived London in 1837, then past Lancaster House & Clarence House still known to Londoners as the ‘wobbly’ bridge. On the North and into the precincts of Westminster School. We walk past the to ST JAMES’S PALACE – still the senior Royal Palace. Then trying to save others. Our next stop is ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL, Wren’s great masterpiece, and the FIREFIGHTERS MEMORIAL. Bank we turn left and walk through the site of BAYNARD’S frontage of Westminster Abbey to the CHAPTER HOUSE – the down St James’s Street, turning left to DUKE’S HOTEL, where CASTLE, in the Middle Ages one of the great landmarks of first venue for the House of Commons. Nearby is the JEWEL Ian Fleming enjoyed his dry martinis “shaken not stirred”.