Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk
2.30 pm Saturday 25th Jan25
Green Park underground station, Green Park exit, by the fountain To book
| Also | |||||
| 9 February 2025 | Special | 2.30 pm | 4.30 pm | ||
| 8 March 2025 | Special | 2.30 pm | 4.30 pm | ||
| 6 April 2025 | Special | 11.30 am | 1.30 pm |
2025 is th 250th Anniversary of Jane Austen’s Birth in Steventon, Hampshire. We celebrate her fictional and real life visits to Mayfair, the centre of the London section of Sense & Sensibility and where Jane came to visit her brother
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Jane Austen devotee in possession of the good fortune of a couple of free hours today must be in want of this walk.”
People associate Jane Austen and her characters with a rural setting. But London is central to both Jane Austen’s real life and her literary life. So, this tour will explore Jane’s connections with London and give the background to Sense and Sensibility, a good part of which is based in this very area. We begin with the place Jane’s coach would arrive from Hampshire, and then walk the streets haunted by Willougby; past shops visited by the Palmers, the Ferrars; visit the location of Jane Austen’s brother’s bank and see the publisher of Jane’s Books. The area around Old Bond Street was the home of the Regency elite and many buildings and a surprising number of the shops remain as they were in Jane Austen’s day.
This is a London Walk Guided Walk lead by Kevin Flude
To book
Jane Austen’s ‘A Picture of London’ in 1809 Virtual Walk
7.30 27th January 2025
With the help of a contemporary Guide Book, Jane Austen’s letters, and works we explore London in 1809
‘The Picture of London for 1809 Being a CORRECT GUIDE to all the Curiosities, Amusements, Exhibitions, Public Establishments, and Remarkable Objects in and near London.’
This Guide Book to London might have been on Henry Austen’s shelf when his sister, Jane, came to visit him in London. But it enables us to tour the London that Jane Austen knew in some detail. We will look at the Curiosities as well as the shopping, residential, theatres areas as well as the Port, the Parks and the Palaces.
The walk is a thank you to Alix Gronau, who, having been to one of my lectures in 1994, wanted the book to come to me. I have had the book restored and am using it to explore London in 1809.
To Book:
Charles I and the Civil War. Martyrdom Anniversary Walk
2.30 Thursday 30th January Exit 4 Westminster Underground Station
On the day Charles I was executed at the Banqueting Hall we explore events of the Civil War and Restoration in Westminster
On January 30th, 1649 Charles I ascended the scaffold erected outside the Banqueting Hall. Ironically the Reubens Ceilings inside symbolised the Divine Right of the Stuarts to
reign as God’s anointed rulers. Here Charles collected himself before his execution.
Westminster witnessed many of the events that defined the 17th Century. Charles I’s failed coup against Parliament, the trial and execution of Charles I as well as the Regicides. Charles I and Cromwell had their palaces here, and Parliament and the infamous Star Chamber met here. So on the walk, we can follow the epic events of the 1640s- 1660s
To Book: Booking not yet open
The Civil War, Restoration and the Great Fire of London Virtual Tour
7:30pm Thurs 30th January 2025
January 30th is the Anniversary of the execution of Charles I and to commemorate it we explore the events and the aftermath of the Civil War in London.
Along with the Norman Conquest of 1066 and winning the World Cup in 1966 the Great Fire in 1666 are the only dates the British can remember!
And we remember the Great Fire because it destroyed one of the great medieval Cities in an epic conflagration that shocked the world.
But it wasn’t just the Great Fire that made the 17th Century an epic period in English History. There was a Civil War, beheading of the King, a Republic, a peaceful Restoration of the Monarch, the last great plague outbreak in the UK, the Glorious Revolution and the Great Wind.
The Virtual Walk puts the Great Fire in the context of the time – Civil War, anti-catholicism, plague, and the commercial development of London.
The walk brings to life 17th Century London. It starts with the events that lead up to the Civil War concentrating on Westminster and ends with a vivid recreation of the drama of the Fire as experienced by eye-witnesses. Route includes: Westminster, Fish Street Hill, Pudding Lane, Monument, Royal Exchange, Guildhall, Cheapside, St Pauls, Amen Corner, Newgate Street, Smithfield.
To Book:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82803113341?pwd=Z1FaOHRwZnJqeHpKSWdDcnEyRzRPdz09
Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk 2.30 pm Sunday 9th February 25 To book
A Virtual Tour of Jane Austen’s Bath
7.30pm 10th February 2025 To book
Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk 2.30 pm Saturday 8th March 25 To book
Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk 11.30 pm Sunday 6th April 25 To book
Chaucer’s Medieval London Guided Walk Sun 2:30pm 6 April 2025 Aldgate Underground
Chaucer’s London To Canterbury Virtual Pilgrimage
7.30pm Friday 18th April 25 To book