Jane Austen’s London takes place at 2.30 pm on Sunday, July 4th. The meeting point is Green Park underground station, London (north exit, on the corner)
The walk takes in the area of the London section of Sense and Sensibility. This is where Jane Austen frequented when visiting her banking brother, Henry. He lived here during his ‘successful’ period, after resigning as a Captain in the Militia and setting up a bank to help soldiers pay for their commissions. He then did what all good bankers do – went bankrupt and ruined himself, family and friends. His uncle lost 10,000 pounds; his rich brother, Edward Knight lost £20,000. (that is 2/5ths of the fortune of Willoughby’s wife, and equal to the income of Darcy, 100 times the annual income of Mrs Austen after her husband died) i.e. a heck of a lot of money. Jane lost £13.
But this area was also the centre of the Ton – the wealthy elite of Regency London. It was here that the French Royal family, in exile, hung out, and the haunt of Beau Brummel and Prinny, the Prince Regent, loungers in chief who were so well satirised in the figure of Sir Walter Elliot. This is where the Dandies lounged, leered and shopped. Here the rich could get their guns, swords, cigars, snuff, hats, shoes, tailored clothes, uniforms, wine, prostitutes, lovers. They came to visit art galleries, see panoramas of European Cities, to ‘see’ the invisible women living in her glass jar, to choose their Wedgwood pottery.
And what is astonishing is that this is still where the megarich do exactly the same things: hang out and shop. All the top brands are here, and instead of people like John Willoughy are to be found Russian Oligarchs, and the rich of the Emirates, and every other country in the world. And most marvellously many of the shops survive into the present day. The same shops and shop fronts still in use. They catered to the stupidly wealthy of the 18th Century are now catering for the stupidly wealthy of the 21st Century. This is where you can buy luxury yachts.
So we follow Jane and Henry, and see the ghost traces left by immoral Willoughby, sensible Elinor, overwrought Marianne, dull but nice Edward Ferrars, dull and horrible Robert Ferrars, stolid Colonel Brandon, vulgar but kind Mrs Jennings and her unforgivably vulgar daughter Mrs Palmer with her despairing husband; the Middletons, the Steeles gals ruthlessly working their assets. Plus we have a little look at the relationship between Prinny and Beau Brummel, and the terrible childbed of Princess Ch
I do various walks from time to time, nearly all for London Walks. (A list of all the walks. lectures, study tours I have given can be found here):
JANE AUSTEN’S LONDON
Jane Austen’s London takes place at 2.30 pm on Sunday, July 4th. The meeting point is just outside the Green Park exit (by the fountain) of Green Park Tube.
The walk takes in the area of the London section of Sense and Sensibility. This is where Jane Austen frequented when visiting her banking brother, Henry. He lived here during his ‘successful’ period, after resigning as a Captain in the Militia and setting up a bank to help soldiers pay for their commissions. He then did what all good bankers do – went bankrupt and ruined himself, family and friends. His uncle lost 10,000 pounds; his rich brother, Edward Knight lost £20,000. (that is 2/5ths of the fortune of Willoughby’s wife, and equal to the income of Darcy, 100 times the annual income of Mrs Austen after her husband died) i.e. a heck of a lot of money. Jane lost £13.
But this area was also the centre of the Ton – the wealthy elite of Regency London. It was here that the French Royal family, in exile, hung out, and the haunt of Beau Brummel and Prinny, the Prince Regent, loungers in chief who were so well satirised in the figure of Sir Walter Elliot. This is where the Dandies lounged, leered and shopped. Here the rich could get their guns, swords, cigars, snuff, hats, shoes, tailored clothes, uniforms, wine, prostitutes, lovers. They came to visit art galleries, see panoramas of European Cities, to ‘see’ the invisible women living in her glass jar, to choose their Wedgwood pottery.
And what is astonishing is that this is still where the megarich do exactly the same things: hang out and shop. All the top brands are here, and instead of people like John Willoughy are to be found Russian Oligarchs, and the rich of the Emirates, and every other country in the world. And most marvellously many of the shops survive into the present day. The same shops and shop fronts still in use. They catered to the stupidly wealthy of the 18th Century are now catering for the stupidly wealthy of the 21st Century. This is where you can buy luxury yachts.
So we follow Jane and Henry, and see the ghost traces left by immoral Willoughby, sensible Elinor, overwrought Marianne, dull but nice Edward Ferrars, dull and horrible Robert Ferrars, stolid Colonel Brandon, vulgar but kind Mrs Jennings and her unforgivably vulgar daughter Mrs Palmer with her despairing husband; the Middletons, the Steeles gals ruthlessly working their assets. Plus we have a little look at the relationship between Prinny and Beau Brummel, and the terrible childbed of Princess Ch
THE REBIRTH OF SAXON LONDON ARCHAEOLOGY VIRTUAL WALK
Sunday 4th July 2021 6.30pm
An exploration of what happened following the Roman Period. How did a Celtic speaking Latin educated Roman City become, first deserted, then recovered to become the leading City in a germanic speaking Kingdom?
My first virtual walk took place every Sunday at 2pm in August 2020 and was:Myths, Legends and the Archaeological Origins of London in August 2020 and I have since done:
Sunday 25th October 2020 The Archaeology and Culture of Roman London Virtual Walk. For more details click here.
Sunday 1st November 2020 The Decline and Fall of Dark Age London Archaeology Virtual Walk. For more details click here.
Sunday 8th November 2020 The Rebirth of Saxon London Archaeology Virtual Walk For more details click here.
Sunday 22nd November 2020 Flower of Cities All – Medieval London History & Archaeology Virtual Walk For more details click here.
Sunday 29th November 2020. The London of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell Virtual Walk For more details click here.
Sunday 6th December 2020 The Financial City from Slavery to Hedge Fund Virtual Walk For more details 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.
THE FINANCIAL CITY FROM SLAVERY TO HEDGE FUND VIRTUAL WALK
SUNDAY 30th May 2021 6.30pm
To book
This walks looks at the development of the City of London as a financial centre. Its origins were among the money lenders of the Jewish and Italian quarters of Old Jewry and Lombard Street. We continue the story with the introduction of the first commercial companies and the Merchant Adventurers of Elizabethan London, alongside the revival of the cruel trade in Slaves. We walk through the alleyways of the City where innovation went side by side with the introduction of Coffee in the Coffee Houses of Stuart London.
We look at the distinctive architecture of the City as we walk around one of the most specialised market places in the world that once prided itself on the virtues of providing face to face contact.. The financial institutions in the City have encountered many changes since the scandal of the South Sea Bubble and it has weathered them all, so far. It was given a huge boast by the ‘Big Bang’ in Mrs Thatcher’s time. But the consequences of the effects of Brexit and Covid on top of the Internet are not yet clear on the City.
Kevin Flude leading a guided walk on the South Bank
The good news is that I am starting doing real physical Guided Walks again.
Leo Heaton and I are doing an Archaeology walk every Thursday evening at 6.30. We alternate as the Guide.
The plan is to do another walk in the afternoon. I am also putting together a series of special, repertory walks for London walks running throughout the summer.
Here are the details of the walk on 27th May.
ARCHAEOLOGY OF LONDON WALK
Thursday 6.30pm Exit 3 Bank Underground Station Short Description A TALE OF FOUR CITIES Description Legend says that London was founded as New Troy. Historians believed it was founded as Londinium after the Bridge was built by the legionaries of the Emperor Claudius in AD 43. Archaeologists in the 1970s and 1980s discovered that London was refounded as Lundenwic in the 7th Century and again in the 9th Century when it was called Lundenburg.
This walk tells the epic tale of the uncovering of London’s past by Archaeologists. And provides an insight into the dramatic history of the Capital of Britannia, and how it survived revolts, fires, plagues, and reacted to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. It became the foremost English City but with periods under Viking and Norman control.
We tell the story in the streets of the City of London, beginning in the valley of the River Walbrook by the Temple of Mithras, and visit many sites where important archaeological discoveries were made, including the Roman Forum, Amphitheatre. Bath Houses, Temples, Roman roads and the City Walls.
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.
The first British Brexit? The Roman Britons kicked out the Romans in 407AD, and, soon, asked them to come back after a catastrophic collapse. Faced with plaque, civil war, invasion, mass immigration, industrial decline, reversion to barter; the authorities struggled against anarchy and descent into a Dark Age.
But was that how it was? Wasn’t it a rather a transition into the Late Antique period in which life for most people went on much as before except paying taxes to local rulers rather than distant Romans? This virtual walk explores why the Roman system in London broke down, and what really was the impact of the end of the Roman system in London? What is the evidence? and can we trust it? Or can we really do nothing much more than guess?
We tramp the virtual streets of London in search of light to shine on the Dark Ages in London.
This is a London Walks event by Kevin Flude, ex Museum of London Archaeology and Museum Curator
The Monk-Doctor the 2nd story based in London about a merchant’s daughter with piles. After many unsuccessful ‘cures’ a monk takes on the task. He in blowing a medicine through a tube to cure the piles but he spends too long examining the girl through a hole in a cloth that has been draped over her bottom. She tries to stifle a fit of giggles which becomes a fart and blows the corrosive medicine into the Monk’s one remaining eye and blinds him. The case is taking to the courts and becomes a celebrated and much discussed case.
This is a 15th Century French collection of bawdy tales. The illustrated version in the Hunterian, Glasgow has some marvellous illustrations.
View of London from the SE as it might have looked before the Roman Invasion
In researching my Prehistoric Virtual Walk (Sunday 25/04/21 Details) I came across many great sites of interest. Here are a few
Barn Elms – London’s Oppidum?
This is a lecture by Alex Barnes – only 15 minutes, long and about a site in South West London that just might be an important Iron Age centre of power, which might explain all that great metalwork found in the River Thames over the centuries.
I don’t know how I missed this site, as it was reported in archaeological magazines I read, but it is an amazing multi-period site in the Thames Valley. Excavations before gravel extraction have shown a particularly amazing sequence of Neolithic and Bronze Age discoveries.
They found 4 or 5 early Neolithic Houses, about 15% of those that have been found in the entire UK, and an amazing placed deposit, which contained a collection of objects dating back thousands of years. In effect, a ‘museum’ collection.
I’ll let you read it from the horse’s mouth. To read click here.
THE REBIRTH OF SAXON LONDON ARCHAEOLOGY VIRTUAL WALK
London in the 5th Century Reconstruction painting.
Sunday 4th July 2021 6.30pm
An exploration of what happened following the Roman Period. How did a Celtic speaking Latin educated Roman City become, first deserted, then recovered to become the leading City in a Germanic speaking Kingdom?
The Canterbury Pilgrims
PAINTINGS
painting
Blake, William (1757 – 1827, English)
Painting entitled ‘The Canterbury Pilgrims’, by William Blake
PC.89
Saturday 20 February 2021 7.00pm
A Virtual Walk around Medieval London following in the footsteps of its resident medieval poet – Geoffrey Chaucer
One of the spectators at the Peasants Revolt was Geoffrey Chaucer, born in the Vintry area of London, who rose to be a diplomat, a Courtier and London’s Customs Officer. He lived with his wife in the Chamber above the Gate in the City Wall at Aldgate. His poetry shows a rugged, joyous medieval England including many scenes reflecting life in London. His stories document the ending of the feudal system, growing dissatisfaction with the corruption in the Church, and shows the robust independence with which the English led their lives.
His work helped change the fashion from poetry in French or Latin to acceptance of the English language as suitable literary language. This was helped by the growth of literacy in London as its Merchants and Guildsmen became increasingly successful. In 1422, for example, the Brewers decided to keep their records in English ‘as there are many of our craft who have the knowledge of reading and writing in the English idiom.’
Chaucer and other poets such as Langland give a vivid portrait of Medieval London which was dynamic, successful but also torn by crisis such as the Lollard challenge to Catholic hegemony, and the Peasants who revolted against oppression as the ruling classes struggled to resist the increased independence of the working people following the Black Death.
A walk which explores London in the Middle Ages, We begin at Aldgate, and follow Chaucer from his home to his place of work at the Customs House, and then to St Thomas Chapel on London Bridge, and through London to Poultry, Bucklersbury and Cheapside before visiting the Guildhall and St Pauls. We will walk in the muddy City Streets, exploring the unhealthy conditions and poverty amidst great riches and pageantry.
