Category: History

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NEW VIRTUAL WALKS PROGRAMME FOR APRIL 2021

KEVIN FLUDE’S LONDON WALKS APRIL 2021 VIRTUAL WALKS SEASON

To Book follow this eventbrite link which gives access to all Kevin Flude’s Virtual tours.

ROMAN LONDON – ARCHAEOLOGY VIRTUAL TOUR

Painting of the Roman Forum of London from the air
Painting of the Roman Forum of London from the air

Sunday 11th April 2021 6.30pm

The virtual walk looks at the amazing archaeological discoveries of Roman Londinium

To book

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF ROMAN LONDON ARCHAEOLOGY VIRTUAL WALK

Reconstruction View of Roman Riverside Wall being built
Reconstruction View of Roman Riverside Wall being built

Sunday 18th April 2021 6.30pm

An exploration of what happened at the end of the Roman Period, and how the City became first deserted, and then a Saxon, German speaking English City.

To book

LONDON BEFORE LONDON – PREHISTORIC LONDON VIRTUAL COACH TOUR

REconstruction painting of the Islands of Southwark and the hills of London before the foundation of Loninium

Sunday 25th April 2021 6.30pm

An exploration of London before the foundation of Londinium

To book

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The London of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell. The City of Wolf Hall Virtual Walk

Sunday 29th February 2021

The Walk creates a portrait of London in the early 16th Century. It has a particular emphasis on the life and times of Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More who feature in Wolf Hall, the novel by Hilary Mantel.

Listen to the Tour Podcast (6 min 55)

The Virtual Tour will start with a boat tour from Hampton Court, via Chelsea to the City, and then a Walk around the City.

More and Cromwell had much in common, both lawyers, commoners, who rose to be Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII and they both ended their career on the block at Tower Hill. But they found themselves on the other side of the gulf that suddenly opened with the religious ferment that accompanied Henry’s obsession with Anne Bolyen.

The Walk will include visits to the sites of More’s and Cromwell’s town houses and then walk through the market streets of Tudor London, to Cheapside and the Guildhall, St Pauls and outside the Walls to Smithfield where most of the religious executions took place. We visit Charter House where More took a break from the stress of public office, and whose Prior, Cromwell had hanged, drawn and quartered. We exit via the plaque pits, and finish off with a walk around the City Walls until we come to Tower Hill where both men ended their lives on the scaffold.

Saint or Sinner? What better place to ponder that question that the streets of Wolf Hall London?

To buy Tickets click here:

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ROMAN LONDON – ARCHAEOLOGY VIRTUAL TOUR

Painting of the Roman Forum of London from the air
Painting of the Roman Forum of London from the air


Sunday 11th April 2021 6.30pm

The virtual walk looks at the amazing archaeological discoveries of Roman Londinium

Archaeology has transformed our knowledge of Roman London and this walk takes us around the amazing archaeological discoveries and the stories they reveal.

We disembark at the Roman Waterfront by the Roman Bridge, and investigate the circumstances which lead to the foundation of London. Then we walk up the hill to the Roman Town Hall, past the houses of its wealthy citizens. At the Forum we look at the market and discuss Roman local politics. We proceed through the streets of Londinium, with its vivid and cosmopolitan street life and to the site of the excavation called ‘the Pompeii of the North’. Then we worship at the Temple of Mithras, and finish with Bread and Circus at the Roman Amphitheatre.

.This is a London Walks Guided Walk. Look at their web site for a list of other of their amazing walks

To Book:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/roman-london-virtual-archaeology-walk-tickets-137340139053

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New Light on Thomas Becket’s Window at Canterbury

Recent research has revealed the true story behind stained glass windows at Canterbury which had been reassembled wrongly.

The story is told here:

And if you cannot get through the pay wall here:

I am doing a Chaucer Walk on Sunday 31st 2021 at 6:30 which will feature the pilgrimage to Canterbury.

For more on Becket and London see my post here.

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Life Scientific vindicates Florence Nightingale’s Wards

Cath Noakes, an expert on ventilation and Covid talking on Life Scientific today on BBc Radio 4 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000rcnl) reported on experiments using a Nightingale Ward design and found it was likely to cut down the spread of infection by 4 times.
This was by

1. use of high ceilings

2. Big Windows that could open top and bottom

3. Radiators with ventilation grills behind them

She noted that most Florence Nightingale wards have since been modernised with low ceilings, smaller sealed windows and radiators replaced.


Her message was that ventilation is, with distance, one of the best ways of cutting the spread of infection.

Here is an image of Dorcas Ward st St Thomas’s Hospital, London.

Black and white photograph of Dorcas Ward, St Thomas Hospital showing high ceilings.
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SULAWESI WARTY PIG PAINTING 44,000 YEARS AGO

This is the oldest animal art found, and it takes the focus of early art from Europe to the Far East. What is remarkable about it is that it isn’t a scribble. It is clearly done by someone who knows how to make a likeness and a pleasing piece of art.

The hands created using the human hand as a stencil and by blowing paint from the mouth are a feature found all over the world.

Cave Painting of the Pig found Leang Tedongnge cave on Sulawesi.

The BBC has an excellent article about the subjects here:

Sulawesian Warty Pig Cave painting