This virtual walk is about the amazing archaeological discoveries of Roman London, and an attempt to bring to life through archaeology and Roman literary sources what it was like to live in a provincial Roman Capital..
We begin with a walk around the circuit of the City Walls, and walk to the River to discuss the origin of the London Bridge before striking inland to explore Roman Government on the site of the Roman Town Hall or Forum. We walk to what has been called the ‘the Pompeii of the North’., past the Temple of Mithras, along the main Roman way to the Bath House & Amphitheatre before ending in the shadow of St Pauls.
Painting of the Roman Forum of London from the air
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.
The Old Operating Theatre Museum is in St Thomas Church, Southwark, part of the old St Thomas Hospital. The Church, built in 1703, by Thomas Cartwright has a fine baroque Tower, the top two chambers of which have been empty for many years. The conversion to a bijou pied a terre has been completed and details can be found in the link above.
The Passenger Pigeon Manifesto is a call for cultural institutions to open their digital archives for free use by the public. You can see the manifesto in the link below.
https://ppmanifesto.hcommons.org/
It would mean a loss of income from copyright for organisations who are already short of money but on the other hand it would help greatly increase access to our cultural heritage, and, it would help preserve these items, at least digitally, into the long distance future.
So, to my mind, a good thing. I’m trying to find out how to sign up.
Please note it is not asking for low quality reproduction but the high definition copies.
Demonstrations at the Geffrye Museum after the Board refuse to remove the statue of the founder who made money from the slave trade. Interesting developments to this story – the Government wrote to the Geffrye Museum telling them that it was not Government or Heritage England’s policy to remove statues. And in a possibly sinister move the Minister Oliver Dowden asked the Geffrye to consult the government on any move it made.
This seems to go to the heart of independence and a free country. Here is the government using its financial support to make sure independent organisations do what the government wants.
This virtual walk is led by Kevin Flude, a former archaeologist at the Museum of London, who has an interest both in the archaeological evidence as well as the myths and legends of London’s origin.
A Walk for London Walks.
Archaeology in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries has revolutionised our view of the early history of London while its rich set of myths and legends have been largely forgotten. This walk is designed to set that right and give an insight into London’s legends, and how they relate to modern archaeological discoveries.
According to legend London was founded in the Bronze Age by an exiled Trojan called Brutus. He called the new City Troia Nova or New Troy, which became corrupted to Trinovantum. Around the time of Julius Caesar the name changed to Lud’s Dun and eventually to Londinium. Early archaeologists therefore looked for a prehistoric City, to add to the history they could read by classical authors of a City founded shortly after the Roman Invasion of 43 AD. When the Roman system broke down in 410 AD, historical and archaeological records become almost non-existent, until the foundation of St Pauls Cathedral in 604 AD. The two hundred year gap, sometimes called the Dark Ages, has another rich selection of legends. The walk will explore these stories and compare to the archaeology.
The route starts at Tower Hill, then down to the River at Billingsgate, along the River to London Bridge, up to the Roman Forum at the top of Cornhill, into the valley of the River Walbrook, passed the Temple of Mithras, along Cheapside to the Roman Amphitheatre, and finishing up in the shadow of St Pauls.
This is a London Walks Guided Walks. Look at their web site for a list of more of their amazing walks
This is astonishing prehistoric find. A huge circle of pits surrounding Durrington Walls which is itself Britain’s biggest henge, and a mile or so away from Stonehenge, and Woodhenge. Continuing the golden age of Stonehenge archaeology.
A couple of my regular places have been affected by the effects of the toppling of the Colston Statue in Bristol.
Firstly, the statue of Robt Milligan outside the Museum of London, Docklands has been taken down. I have often used this as a meeting point for my students from Westminster University as we explore the Docks and the Docklands Museum.
Slavery was a big part of the visit, although we didn’t make Milligan the villain.
Another site is the Geffrey Museum which is going to open as the Museum of the Home, although this was determined before the George Floyd murder, but now I expect the Geffrey part of it to quietly disappear, as he is also contaminated by slavery.
Interesting fact about slavery, is that UCL have done a brilliant study of all the recipients of the compensation for the end of slavery. The govt at the time paid compensation of £20m to the slave OWNERS. This was a vast amount said to be 45% of the GDP for the year. It was funded by a long term loan which was paid back, as late as, 2015. In modern terms it was 16 billion £.
This has completely changed my mind on compensation for slavery which I was against. But it seems to me if we know that £16 billion was spent then to compensate the owners we could set up a fund of £16 billion now to give, for example, educational grants and start up grants for black people to give them the boost they need to make up for centuries of oppression..
