Welcome to the July newsletter from Camden Guides.

A couple of months ago, our newsletter covered Peter Axson’s sponsored bike ride for the Jane Duffield Bursary Charitable Trust.

The Jane Duffield Bursary Charitable Trust was set up in late 2020 in memory of our friend Jane Duffield. Jane was an inspirational teacher who was for some 17 years a teacher, Literacy Co-ordinator, Head of Key Stage and ultimately Assistant Head of Richard Cobden Primary School in the London Borough of Camden. While she was teaching Jane was also following her interest in tour guiding, qualifying as a City of London Guide, a Westminster Guide, and a  Clerkenwell and Islington Guide (receiving the Guide of the Year award on this course). After 10 years as a part time guide she gave up her teaching post to train as a Blue Badge Guide, covering not only the whole of London but also other areas  such as Windsor, Oxford, Bath, Stonehenge and Stratford upon Avon. She qualified as a Blue Badge guide in 2015 and went on to qualify as a London Borough of Camden tour guide, the borough where she had lived and worked for so long.

Peter has now completed the first bike ride, and can be seen here crossing Tower Bridge (in blue on the right):

Peter provided the following update:

Thanks for all those who sponsored me, your generosity has raised enough to fund three bursaries to allow three more students to benefit from a Guiding course.

The London 100 was cruel. I completed it in just under 10 hours having had several punctures. Actual cycling time 7 and a quarter hours, with 2 and ¾ hours learning how to change inner tubes – a skill last used as a teenager.

Sadly phase two of the London-Brighton has been delayed until September due to a cycling accident three days after completing the London 100.

The good news is the site window for sponsorship has been extended and even better news the Charity has now been recognized by HMRC so all future and (hopefully)  those received to far will be able to receive gift aid further boosting the benefit to the charity.

Donations can continue to be made by clicking here, and are very gratefully received.

Now some updates on walks by Camden Guides for July and August, with the first walk taking place today.

For the Many: Chartists and Marxists in Soho

The Chartists were a formidable mass movement to extend the right to vote for the working classes. They were active in Soho and there were several links with Karl Marx, who famously lived in Dean St. Other inhabitants included the poet and artist William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley, who made the phrase ” Ye are many – they are few” famous in his poem about the massacre of protestors in 1819 nicknamed Peterloo.

Take a fascinating stroll through Soho and learn more about its radical past

This walk takes place on the 6th of July at 2pm, and can be booked by clicking here.

Hampstead: the village on the hill

You probably know Hampstead as a very attractive area of very posh houses and very famous people. But why is it so lovely to walk around?

It’s a lot to do with a hill which prevented major roads and any railways being built: so uniquely in London it preserves a Georgian village streetscape. It also had many springs which supported a Tudor laundry business and then a fashionable Spa attraction in the 1700’s.

And its healthy air and great views have always made it an attractive place for the wealthy, and for artists, writers and entertainers. So there are plenty of lovely houses to see: but this walk also explores buildings such as old workhouses and bath houses which remind us that plenty of “ordinary” people lived there too!

But above all its a beautiful old village on a hill: do come and explore it!

This walk takes place on the 21st of July at 2pm and can be booked by clicking here.

Secrets of St. Giles: a walk through London’s infamous past

Join Elena to discover the fascinating history of St. Giles.

We will delve into the darker chapters of London’s past as we uncover the secrets of this infamous neighbourhood. We will wander through the alleys where tales of poverty and crime once echoed (Dickens will get a mention or two, of course…) and discover the remnants of centuries-old buildings that bear witness to St Giles’ tumultuous history.

As we wind our way from the ancient church built on the site of a leper colony to the site of the infamous rookeries and gallows, now replaced by some of the most striking modern architecture in London, we’ll talk music, pubs, executions and developers’ greed. There is something for everyone on this walk!

This walk takes place on the 20th of August at 11am and can be booked by clicking here.

Our next newsletter will be on the first Saturday in August.