I have recorded a short podcast as an introduction to my Chaucer’s London Virtual Walk for London Walks which is this Saturday at 7pm on 20 February 2021
To listen to the podcast press play
Podcast for Wolf Hall Tudor Walk
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.
COMPENSATION FOR SLAVERY & STATUES
I used to think that asking compensation for past wrongs was not a good idea, after all where would we draw the lines? Currently, we seem to draw that line in 1933.
Then I heard about the
Legacies of British Slave-ownership project – UCL
What this revealed was that the British Government borrowed money (from Rothschild which they only paid back recently) some £20m if I remember correctly.
We have the list of the beneficiaries of compensation for their loss of OWNERSHIP of human beings. So we, the people, funded compensation of exploiters of human misery.
£20m is perhaps £16 billion in today’s money.
So what would be so terrible about, we, the people, setting up a charitable fund with £16billion capital to fund, say, the removal of barriers to equal opportunity in Britain, the West Indies and Africa.
Funded by Government borrowing.
As to Statues. Case by Case examination of the issues, by citizens panel guided by expert opinions.
Options to include:
1. Removal to a museum display where contextual information can be clearly displayed.
2. Erection of new plinth with appropriate information
3. Creation of a new statue nearby to make a suitable display representing the issues
4. Resiting of statue with an explanatory panel.
5. Leaving in place with an explanatory panel.
6 Leaving as is
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
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
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
Sunday 25th April 2021 6.30pm
An exploration of London before the foundation of Londinium
To book
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:
PODCAST FOR LONDON BRIDGE VIRTUAL WALK
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:
ROMAN LONDON – ARCHAEOLOGY VIRTUAL TOUR
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
Ralph Fiennes and Cast of the Dig visit London Excavation
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.
Lighting a Fire at Tudor Hampton Court
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