Camden Guides Newsletter of Walks and Events – April 2024

Welcome to the Camden Guides newsletter of walks and events for April, and within this month’s edition we have a comprehensive range of walks over the coming months to explore many different aspects of the Borough of Camden, starting with:

Living on the Edge: Hidden Holborn and Little Italy

Some of the most interesting areas around the City of London are places lived in and worked in by people who were not based inside it but needed to be near it. A great example is the area just north of Holborn, on the north-western edge of the City.
A medieval bishop’s palace (you can still go into the crypt, built in the 1270’s): a Tudor-era pub down a narrow alley: multiple diamond dealers and the site of a famous heist by geriatric thieves (the “diamond wheezers”): London’s first social housing project: a half-timbered Tudor hall which survived the Great Fire: we see all these on the walk.
We also focus on exploring “Little Italy”: not much recognised now, in the 1800’s a few streets here were teeming with Italian immigrants, both middle-class artisans making barometers and poorer people selling ice cream and playing barrel organs.

This walk takes place on the 27th of April at 11:00 and can be booked by clicking here.

In art and in life: face to face with 12 inspiring Bloomsbury women (walk and gallery visit)

Join Elena on a guided WALK IN BLOOMSBURY followed by a visit to the newly re-opened NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY.

PLEASE NOTE THIS WILL BE A 4 HOUR EVENT (including a refreshment break).

This walk will celebrate the incredible women who made Bloomsbury a hub of creativity and empowerment.

Starting at Russell Square tube, we will meander through the streets of Bloomsbury, unveiling the fascinating stories of an incredible bunch of women who all left a mark on society in their own different ways – after all, Bloomsbury is where the “New Woman” was born at the turn of the century.

Literary giants, groundbreaking artists, intrepid explorers, social reformers, maverick medics, suffragists, suffragettes and exuberant socialites – they all defied conventions and smashed stereotypes, paving the way for future generations.

Following the walk, we will stop for a well-deserved refreshment break before heading (by bus) to the beautifully refurbished and newly reopened National Portrait Gallery on Charing Cross Road.

Here we will meet these women face to face in wonderful portraits and photographs. We will have the opportunity to connect with them on a personal level, exploring their achievements through the lens of art.

This walk takes place on the 12th and the 14th of April, and can be booked by clicking here.

Slums and Squares and Rock n’Roll

You will probably know lots of bits of the St Giles’ area: Tottenham Court Rd tube, Centrepoint, Shaftesbury Ave, Seven Dials…but you probably don’t know how the area came to be as it is. A fascinating story of ancient roadways meeting, a medieval leper colony, a failed posh residential district, a notorious Victorian slum and the most unspoilt Georgian square in London. I would be delighted to help you explore all this (and see the street where Elton John worked as a tea boy and the Rolling Stones and Genesis recorded their earliest singles).

This walk takes place on the 14th and 21st of April and can be booked by clicking here.

Humble Homes: A walking tour of workers’ housing in Camden

Be it ever so humble there’s no place like home

Join Ellika, qualified Camden Tour Guide as she explores the streets covering the foothils of Hampstead Heath and the often groundbreaking styles of domestic architecture that can be found there. Learn how the architecture influenced the lives of the residents and how the residents impacted the architecture

Visit the Iconic Isokon , the first modernist block of flats in Britain which pioneered the concept of minimalist stylish city living. Hear more about the lives of residents such as Agatha Christie, Walter Gropius and Soviet Spy Arnold Deutsch

The modernist theme continues as we explore the Fleet Road Estate – the first estate in Neave Brown’s ambitious social housing building programme during Camden Council’s golden age. The humanist approach to town drew international acclaim but lost favour in 1970s Britain – make your own mind up as to what you think about it.

Dive back in history to the Georgian workers’ cottages and cobbles of the charming Little Green St – find out why the cottages have such long gardens and perhaps recognise it from a 1960s pop video

Explore the eye-catching terraces of houses painted in their co-ordinating pastel shades – discover where the trend began and how the colours are decided …oh and make sure you take a few photos for the instagram!

This walk takes place on the 12th of May and can be booked by clicking here.

Curious Camden Town

Discover Camden Town with Elena, a resident of 30+ years.

It’s lively, it’s quirky, it’s cosmopolitan and it’s packed full of history! Camden Town is all of these things. It’s a neighbourhood that has been shaped by many communities, from the Irish to the Greek-Cypriots, each leaving an indelible mark. Charles Dickens, a very unhappy former resident, immortalised Camden Town’s poverty, squalor and deprivation in his literary musings.

Camden Town was developed at the end of the 18th century with the aim to attract the wealthy middle classes, but the arrival of the railways put a stop to those ambitious plans. On the plus side, it now boasts the best-preserved railway heritage complex in the UK!

On this walk you will hear about the gin warehouses that once lined the Regent’s Canal, the Victorian ice-wells now hidden from view and the hundreds of horses working in the goodyards. You will also discover how Camden’s numerous pubs, ballrooms and warehouses have become a mecca for music makers and music lovers over the decades.

This walk takes place on the 14th of May and can be booked by clicking here.

Gin Lane: Thieves and Thief-takers in the Night-Cellars of Seven Dials

Now it’s trendy and pretty, but 18th-century Seven Dials was notorious for poverty and crime. With no organised police force, thieves, highwaymen and fences bribed those hired to catch them, meeting in low-down dives where they spoke a secret language called flash. The notoriously corrupt Jonathan Wild captured thief Jack Sheppard more than once, but Jack made dramatic escapes from prison aided by his sexworker-partner Edgworth Bess.

With gin selling at a penny a glass, carousing was full-on in areas outsiders called rookeries, thieves’ kitchens, the Holy Land (because of the Irish presence) and, for Drury Lane’s red-light zone, Little Sodom. A range of middle-class spies, social investigators, reporters and slum-tourists came to look and sometimes participate in goings-on they found appalling and titillating. John Gay portrayed popular hero Jack Sheppard and Public Enemy Jonathan Wild in the characters of Captain MacHeath and Mr Peachum, in The Beggar’s Opera, London’s favourite theatre-piece throughout the 18th century. What fun!

This walk takes place on the 26th of May, and can be booked by clicking here.

We hope that there is something of interest in the above list, and look forward to seeing you on a walk in the coming weeks.

Our next newsletter will be on the 4th of May, although our calendar of walks is constantly updated and can be found on the home page of the Camden Guides website, click here to visit.

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