Welcome to the October issue of our walks of events newsletter, which is a week late due to some website issues last weekend. Thankfully all now fixed.
We start with two walks that take place this weekend. One today, Saturday and one tomorrow, Sunday, so if you would like to explore some very different aspects of Camden we have two options for this weekend, and a range of events over the coming weeks.
Gin Lane: Thieves and Thief-takers in the Night-Cellars of St Giles
The Seven Dials area of St Giles is now pretty, but in the 18th century it 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. Notoriously corrupt thief-taker Jonathan Wild captured popular 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 called, by outsiders, 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 join in goings-on they found both appalling and titillating. John Gay portrayed Jack Sheppard and Jonathan Wild in the characters of Captain MacHeath and Mr Peachum in The Beggar’s Opera, London’s favourite play throughout the 18th century.
This walk takes place on the 11th of October, and can be booked by clicking here.
Rebels and Blue Stockings: The New Woman in Bloomsbury
Free-spirited and independent, educated and uninterested in marriage and children, the figure of the New Woman threatened conventional ideas about ideal Victorian womanhood. On this walk we will discover how Kate Greenaway, a female artist from a working class background, Eleanor Marx, a regular at the British Library Reading Room and the archeologist Mary Brodrick found a life outside conventional Victorian norms. The founding of Bedford College, led to higher education for women, and the creation of College Hall enabled women students to study independently. Discover these fascinating women in a stroll through Bloomsbury
This walk takes place on the 12th of October, and can be booked by clicking here.
Bloomsbury Festival – Ballad Walk of St Giles and Seven Dials
Discover dramatic stories of 17th to 19th century St Giles-in-the-Fields and the trades and printing industry of Seven Dials. Through song and ballads this walk brings first-hand experience of street life in the area during the times of Pepys and Dickens.
Singer and researcher Vivien Ellis with Camden Guides lead you through a ballad walk which provides a direct connection to the characters and stories of the past.
The ballads have been researched and gathered by Vivien with a group of volunteers and the support of the University of Cambridge Rare Books Library, British Library, Charles Dickens Museum and Camden Archives.
This walk takes place on the 17th, 18th and 19th October 2025, and can be booked by clicking here.
Bloomsbury Festival – Ballad Walk of Dickens
The William Miller Collection of sheet music at The Charles Dickens Museum is a treasure trove of songs inspired by Dickens, his characters and stories.
Singer and researcher Vivien Ellis takes songs from this remarkable collection to bring the world of Dickens to life in the streets he knew. Starting at the museum, home to Dickens as a young writer, this walk will end at the Foundling Museum, a route Dickens regularly took.
This walk takes place on the 17th, 18th and 19th October 2025, and can be booked by clicking here.
From Art to Anarchy: Hampstead and the Spanish Civil War
This 90-minute guided walk is led by Can Yildiz, oral historian and accredited Camden guide.
Meet outside Hampstead Heath Overground Station and uncover the hidden radical history of Hampstead on a walking tour tracing the lives of artists, writers, and exiles who fought for social change.
Explore how creativity and activism intertwined, as Hampstead became a hub for voices challenging injustice and supporting international struggles, including the Spanish Civil War. Along the way, hear stories of courage, collaboration, and intellectual ferment, discovering how exile and radicalism shaped the area’s distinctive character.
By the end of the tour, near Chalk Farm Underground Station, you’ll see Hampstead not just as a picturesque village, but as a living archive of ideas, activism, and international solidarity, quietly woven into its streets.
A fundraiser for Torriano Meeting House
This walk takes place on the 26th of October and can be booked by clicking here.
Garden of eternal rest: twilight walk of St. Pancras Old Church graveyard
As November nights draw in and the last light fades over the old gravestones, come and discover the secrets of this quiet garden that once was a burial ground. Join Elena, an accredited Camden Tour Guide and local resident, on a twilight walking tour starting at St Pancras Old Church, with a fascinating history that goes back 1500 years.
We will uncover many hidden stories – sometimes tragic, sometimes romantic, sometimes almost unbelievable: we will hear about resurrectionists going “fishing”, discover the truth behind the myth of the legendary and much missed Hardy tree and learn how the two most famous horror characters of all times are inextricably linked to this place.
We will meet famous writers, genius architects, WW2 most unlikely hero and even a gender-fluid 18th century spy. By unearthing their stories, we will bring them back to life.
This walk takes place on the 5th of November and can be booked by clicking here.
Our next newsletter will be on the first Saturday of November.