Exploring Tudor London – episode 1

The City of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell – Tudor London walk

Back in November I picked up a copy of the fascinating 1520 map of Tudor London, from the Charterhouse, which is featured on the map (you can also purchase these from St Bartholomew the Great, included in part 2 of this series). One Sunday afternoon I ventured out into the City of London using the map as my guide to see what traces of Tudor London I could find on the street. The walk in this video starts at the Tower of London and the Roman wall then goes past All Hallows by the Tower, along Seething London to Hart Street and Crutched Friars. At Aldgate we pass the Aldgate Pump and walk down Leadenhall Street and visit Leadenhall Market site of the Roman Forum and Basilica. Our walking tour ends at Throgmorten Street, site of the Thomas Cromwell’s mansion.

Tudor London - the Charterhouse at Smithfield

A Map of Tudor London by the Historic Towns Trust in association with the London Topographical Society https://www.historictownstrust.uk/maps/tudor-london

Sound of The Walnut Tree Leytonstone on a Sunday night

I sit at a table at the very back of my local Spoons. I have my notebook, the latest copy of London Archaeologist and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. I check the football results on my phone and scroll the Apple News feed. I actually feel a bit rough and have spent the day in bed but I often use the pub as therapy – both physical and psychological. I’m trying not to get annoyed by the couple at the next table playing clips of awful Euro techno on their phones but shoot them a few glares. They stop for all of five minutes before carrying on. This is a lesson in acceptance. I try to place their language but fail which often means it’s either Portuguese or Hungarian. Then I embrace the cacophony that had broken out around me, a phone call through the speaker, someone’s playing games, a fella is spinning yarns stood over a table, music through phone speaker. I can’t even see what I’m typing anymore on the blogging app. I haven’t even listened back to the recording but it’s of the here and now.

Walnut Tree Leytonstone

This is a throwback to the early days of this blog when I would post photos from a booth from the Spoons on Farringdon Road 2004-05 excited by the possibilities that this new medium offered.

Paris Drift / One day in Paris

A day in Paris. Just one day. To be guided by my feet and senses. Arrive on the Eurostar walk all day and depart again from Gare du Nord. I can’t say I was completely without plans. I had three:
– visit Re:Voir
– see the new Notre Dame
– walk – and only walk, no Metro or bus or Tram allowed
– have a nice birthday lunch – so ok, that’s four plans.

On my way to Re:Voir I passed Rue du Château d’Eau, where I remember I stayed with my wife on my first trip to Paris, in 1997. I was returning from three years abroad and flew in to Paris from Delhi intent on arriving back in England on the Eurostar which had started running after I’d left the country in 1994. I stood outside Hotel Pacific and the years rolled back and there we were in the summer of 1997 up in that room beside the hotel sign delighted to be back in Europe, downing cans of cold Kronenbourg from the Reception vending machine, gulping down tap water, while ignoring the resident mouse.

Paris 1997 vintage video footage

Around the corner at Re:Voir I marvelled at the array of Super 8 cameras, had a nice chat with the fella behind the counter and walked away with DVD OF Jonas Mekas’ The Sixties Quartet.

I discovered new passages to me at Passage Ponceau and Passage du Grand Cerf and thought of Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project as I always do, but now with the added context of Dan Hancox’s great FT article on Benjamin’s final journey across the Pyrenees.

Re:Voir Paris Super 8 cameras
Re:Voir
Le Pave Paris
Notre Dame Cathedral January 2025
Rue Marie-Stuart Paris
Cinema Paris
Notre Dame Paris
Paris house on the Left Bank
Windows and balcony Paris January 2025
Polidor Paris
Polidor

I lunched on Confit of Duck at Le Pave and then marvelled at the newly restored Notre Dame Cathedral before my mandatory visit to Shakespeare and Co. From here I strolled up the hill to the Pantheon and back down again through the wine caves of the Left Bank, over Pont Neuf and just had time for a quick dinner by Gare du Nord before catching the last train back to London.

Beneath Our Footsteps – Compiler Exhibition in Leytonstone

Beneath Our Footsteps - John Rogers, Brigitte Hart and Compiler at No.1 Church Lane Leytonstone

Back in August 2024 I collaborated with Compiler and sound artist Brigitte Hart on a walk along Leytonstone’s buried river Philley Brook (Fillebrook, Filly Brook) as part of their project Beneath Our Footsteps where local people engaged with the idea of the river. The walk and the project were a fascinating project and a great new way to highlight the presence of our lost river.
An exhibition over four days took place at No.1 Church Lane Leytonstone that brought together some of the work generated by the project.

Beneath Our Footsteps exhibition by Compiler at No.1 Church Lane
Beneath Our Footsteps exhibition by Compiler at No.1 Church Lane Leytonstone
Beneath Our Footsteps exhibition by Compiler at No.1 Church Lane Leytonstone
Digital map of the buried river Philley Brook (Fillebrook) in Leytonstone
Text by Brigitte Hart
Text by Brigitte Hart
Sound work by Brigitte Hart
Sound work by Brigitte Hart containing recordings of the Philley Brook
Sound work by Brigitte Hart
Old maps of the Philley Brook at No.1 Church Lane Leytonstone
Beneath Our Footsteps exhibition by Compiler at No.1 Church Lane Leytonstone
Beneath Our Footsteps exhibition by Compiler at No.1 Church Lane Leytonstone
Found objects near the Leytonstone source of the Philley Brook
Found objects near the Leytonstone source of the Philley Brook
Near the Leytonstone source of the Philley Brook
Near the Leytonstone source of the Philley Brook
Private view Saturday 8th February 2025, Beneath Our Footsteps exhibition by Compiler at No.1 Church Lane Leytonstone
Private view Saturday 8th February 2025

London’s Little Italy & the Legends of Islington


A walk through London’s Little Italy up to the fields of Islington

This walk is based on the first part of Chapter 8 of my book This Other London.
Starting at Chancery Lane Station on High Holborn, we go into the curious anomaly of Ely Place, owned by the Bishops of Ely and once technically part of Cambridgeshire. We visit the Old Mitre Pub where Sir Christopher Hatton danced with Elizabeth I. We go along Hatton Garden, the centre of Britain’s diamond trade, and into Leather Lane Market. The walk through Little Italy takes us in search of Fagin’s den in Saffron Hill, a place visited by Charles Dickens who drank in the One Tun pub. We walk along Hatton Wall into Portpool Lane where the Kings Ditch ran and through the Bourne Estate.

London's Little Italy
London's Little Italy
The Heart of London’s Little Italy

The heart of London’s Little Italy lay in the streets falling away from Clerkenwell Road into the Fleet Valley – Back Hill, Eyre Street Hill, Herbal Hill. From here we go up Crawford Passage to Coldbath Square and Mount Pleasant. We stroll through Spa Fields – now Exmouth Market and Wilmington Square where Merlin was said to have a cave in the heart of the hill. The Merlin’s Cave Tavern stood in Merlin House on the site of Charles Rowan House. Next we walk through Lloyd Square to Percy Circus where Lenin stayed in 1905. Back on Amwell Street we recount E.O Gordon’s powerful mythology of London at the head of the Pen Ton Mound, now the New River Head Upper Reservoir on Claremont Square. Passing down Penton Street our walk ends at White Conduit House, once a celebrated pleasure garden and the true home of cricket.

Video filmed January 2021

Walking the City of London Churches ep.10 

Starting in Old Broad Street we go looking for the Dutch Church in Austin Friars where Vincent Van Gogh Worshipped. We then go along Throgmorton Street and admire the exterior of Drapers’ Hall and Throgmorton Avenue. We emerge behind the Bank of England and get drawn into Tokenhouse Yard, Telegraph Street, Whalebone Yard and King’s Arms Yard. Then we go inside the magnificent St. Margaret Lothbury with its fascinating relics from other City of London Churches and its association with five City Livery Companies.

Filmed July 2024