The Past brought to Life
On Sunday at 6,30pm I am doing my Wolf Hall Virtual Boat Trip and Walk for London Walks.
This is the podcast.
The Walk explores the Palaces along the Thames and then takes a walk around the City charting the life and deaths of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell, which are so vividly depicted in Hilary Mantel’s books in the Wolf Hall series.
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:
On Sunday 14th Feb 2021 at 6.30pm (GMT) I am doing a Virtual Walks for London Walks. Here is my podcast.
To book for the Walk, click here:
This short video shows you all you need to know to light a fire in Tudor times. All you need is a piece of flight, a piece of steel, some tinder and kindling.
Watching the demo I can’t help feeling that some damage must have been done to the fingers if you were not skilled and careful.
Click here to view
Every Thursday (from Jan 7th 2021) at 6.30pm Exit 2 Bank Underground Station
A walk which explores the City of London that was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666. By 1400 London was dominating the affairs of the Kingdom in spectacular fashion and had grown into a sophisticated medieval Capital, competing against the great capitals of Europe.
We will walk in the footsteps of Geffrey Chaucer, in the muddy City Streets, exploring the unhealthy conditions and poverty amidst great riches and pageantry. It was a cosmopolitan City with colonies of Italians, Germans, Dutch, and French who lived cheek by jowl with native Londoners.
By the 16th Century despite repeated visitations of plague, the huge influx of newcomers created non-stop growth in London. There was a corresponding increase in trade, in crime, in violence, and in creativity.
There were riots against foreigners, riots against May Revels, and burnings at the stake of both protestants and catholics as society struggled to cope with the impact of religious change.
With so many young people drawn into the City to work in its expanding industries, entertainment grew more sophisticated and poets could make a living penning entertainments to the masses. The London landscape changed dramatically as new renaissance inspired architecture began to replace the medieval timber framed buildings and the old medieval monasteries were pulled down.
We explore London in one of its greatest periods of change. The walk is given alternately by Kevin Flude & Leo Heaton
This is a walk for London Walks
This is my schedule of Virtual Walks. One every Sunday at 6pm.
The Programme is:
Sunday 25th October 2020 The Archaeology and Culture of Roman London Virtual Walk. For more details click here. To buy Tickets click here:
Sunday 1st November 2020 The Decline and Fall of Dark Age London Archaeology Virtual Walk. For more details click here. To buy Tickets click here:
Sunday 8th November 2020 The Rebirth of Saxon London Archaeology Virtual Walk For more details click here. To buy Tickets click here:
Sunday 22nd November 2020 Flower of Cities All – Medieval London History & Archaeology Virtual Walk For more details click here. To buy Tickets click here:
Sunday 29th November 2020. The London of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell Virtual Walk For more details click here. To buy Tickets click here:
Sunday 6th December 2020 The Financial City from Slavery to Hedge Fund Virtual Walk For more details click here. To buy Tickets click here:
Sunday 13 th December 2020 Myths, Legends and the Origins of London Archaeology Virtual Walk . For more details of this walk click here. To buy Tickets click here:
Bookings will be via Eventbrite and London Walks and links will be posted here.
Some cute pictures of chubby fat Tudor babies and their highchairs and walkers.
Just some:
bob clip dance hornpipe leather pleasure roust sport stroke till trade trick bed foin foutre frig frisk have jape juggle jumble leap niggle nock occupy plough rifle seal sport swive thrum thump tick-tack till towze tread tumble twang vault wap.
source:
https://www.salon.com/2014/10/05/tickle_gizzard_and_the_pleasure_pivot_a_history_of_sex_slang_and_the_coolest_ancient_dirty_words/
Southwark & Bankside Pub Tour.
London Bridge Tube, 7.15 22nd Feb Tooley St Exit
Southwark has a unique historic and literary heritage and an authentic historic ambiance, with beautiful views of the Thames and the City of London. Plus some of London’s most famous Pubs!
Historic Southwark is chock-full of famous people, and we encounter traces of Chaucer, Shakespeare and Dickens as we explore the history of London’s most famous suburb. Its location at the south end of London Bridge made it a key strategic and commercial site. This was where the great Medieval Inns were located, and from where Chaucer’s pilgrimage set off for Canterbury. Its independence from the City made it a haven for ‘undesirable’ elements and it became the home of the Medieval Stews (Brothels), and also the home of the Shakespearean Stage. On the walk we explore the sites of the Globe, the Rose, the Swan and the Bull and Bear Baiting Pits and Shakespeare’s role in the area. By the Victorian period its nature had changed completely into an industrial centre, home of notorious slums, of debtors prisons, and of charitable hospitals. It became one of the main inspirations for Dickens London fiction whose father was imprisoned here for debt when Dickens was a young boy. It was at the White Hart that Dickens introduced Sam Weller into the flagging story of the Pickwick Sporting Club – the character who saved Dickens literary career.
This is a London Walks Guided Walk by Kevin Flude
Bishopsgate Ward Walk. 2nd Feb 20 10.45.
Liverpool St Tube. Bishopsgate Exit. Top of Escalator
The next in a series of occasional Ward Walks. This is a chance to explore a small area of the historic City of London in detail. The area in question Bishopsgate is split into 2 parts – Within Bishopsgate and Without the gate. This means that the Ward covers two of the most fascinating areas of the City of London – from the Gate to Leadenhall Street, and outside the Gate to the border of Shoreditch. The extramural section was an area of monastic settlements, burial grounds, grand housing, and on the periphery slums. Inside the Gate were prime business locations, important markets and Parish Churches. Along the way we will look at the archaeological discoveries and the historic and literary associations of the area, including local resident William Shakespeare.
This is a London Walks Walk by Kevin Flude