London Guided Walks & Tours

In this illustrated talk, Sarah Wise - author of The Italian Boy: Murder and Grave Robbery in 1830s London - takes us on a tour of some of London’s lesser-known graveyards, and surveys some of the highly unsentimental folk who profited from other people’s deaths and family bereavements. Some of them even turned to murder.

A tiny meeting house, converted from a chapel, stood at the back of number 18 Denmark Street, Soho, until the end of the 19th century. The Eclectic Hall regularly hosted a range of political radicals and counter cultural commentators, often attracting sell-out crowds. Using this venue as a prism, Sarah Wise investigates the shifting currents in ‘Soho radicalism, mapping the various currents of political radicalism packed into this tiny area of central London; and giving an idea of the audiences who came along to listen, and the atmosphere of attending such meetings.

View plague-ridden London in the period 1665-66 through the diaries of Samuel Pepys. What can Pepys's eye witness account teach us about the horrors of everyday life in the era?

From sedan chairs and hackney coaches to black cabs, gas lamps and red telephone boxes, London’s streets are full of objects that tell stories. Join Hazel Baker on this online course to learn what these objects might teach us about London's extraordinary history.

The notebooks that late-Victorian sociologist Charles Booth and his assistants kept of their explorations of late-Victorian London poverty are unparalleled in the detail and colour they provide for the modern researcher. Their inquiry led to the creation of the famous ‘Poverty Map’ - a colour-coded chart of socio-economic London lives. Join Sarah Wise to discover their significance for London's history.

The most notorious novel of the ‘slum fiction’ sub-genre, Morrison’s A Child of the Jago caused outrage, with its nihilistic depiction of a degenerate population of criminals and social outcasts. Join Dr. Sarah Wise to discover the controversy surrounding this depiction of Shoreditch.

Discover how Molly Houses grew out of taverns, coffee houses, and private rooms in urban areas like London where gay and gender-nonconforming men gathered in secret to socialize, forge communities, and express their identities.

"Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for tuppence..." Join Vanessa King to discover the impact of gin consumption on Hogarth’s London.

From poets, diarists and scientist to politicians and secret radicals, London's coffee houses became places to gossip, conspire and trade. Join Vanessa King to explore the Bitter Brews and Big ideas emerging from coffee house culture in late seventeenth-century London.