Discover the life of Stella Gibbons, who published over 20 novels as well as Cold Comfort Farm, her first novel, which achieved widespread success. She lived on the Holly Lodge Estate, Highgate, which had been built on land once owned by Angela Burdett-Coutt. John Betjmann and J.B. Priestley lived nearby, both of whom wrote about […]
When the Puritan Protectorate ended in 1660, London's sex industry grew wildly public and was linked to both theatres and the underworld. Charles II lifted the Puritan ban on theatre-going, and by 1700 London was sex-capital of Europe. This walk starts with the stage at a time when all actresses were assumed to be prostitutes […]
Celebrate the rich history & culture of the Irish community in Camden Town at this exciting event! Join us at Camden Town Station to learn about the harsh reality of journeying to London to get away from the hardships at home in Ireland. You will hear about the influence the Irish had on building the […]
This walk behind Holborn’s main roads takes us through garden squares and tree-lines streets. Queen Square with its many hospitals and educational associations, Red Lion Square, laid out by the first professional, female landscape gardener. We pass architectural gems including the John Soane Museum, and through Sicilian Avenue; see monuments to social reformer Margaret MacDonald, […]
Meet opposite one of London’s finest hospitals and end at the chapel of a rival hospital that has been razed to the ground. Learn about the medical discoveries at University College Hospital and at the now extinct Middlesex Hospital on the other side of Tottenham Court Road. We’ll talk about the discovery of the hormone […]
A visit around the recently regenerated railway lands. The walk consists of some very interesting ‘firsts’, a lot are transport based, but also about the contrast in the life styles of the inhabitants. The area has recently undergone a massive transformation and is very much a ‘destination’ with so many new companies moving into the […]
Primrose Hill was born when navvies dug out the land by hand, bringing grime, racket, hard drinking and what some called Moral Depravity. The neighbourhood radiates brilliant industrial solutions of Victorian engineers, but who built it? This walk puts hard-living navvies at the centre of the story and tells how the area developed in the […]
Celebrate LGBT+ History Month 2026 by walking the streets where history was made. Join this guided walk through Bloomsbury and King’s Cross and walk in the footsteps of the trailblazers who dared to live, love and resist openly. With longstanding local resident and Camden tour guide Richard Cohen, you’ll uncover Camden’s deep and rich heritage […]
On this guided walk, discover the fascinating history of King's Cross, one of the most successful regeneration projects in London. 200 years ago King's Cross was a rather desolate place, marked by brick kilns, rubbish heaps and slums. The arrival of the canal and the railways changed the area forever: join Elena's walk to discover […]
Graham Greene's End of the Affair and the Ministry of Fear are directly taken from his wartime experiences and love affairs in Bloomsbury as an air raid warden. Elizabeth Bowen and Muriel Spark are other writers who transposed war time events into their literary output. Pat Barker and Sarah Waters have used the period and […]
Camden Town has been a hotbed of musical scenes and counter-cultures for over 50 years! But where did it get the grit and charm that has inspired so many musicians and writers? From open fields to steam and stench, industrial powerhouse to drinkers paradise, and from radical thinkers to musical rebellion – what is it […]
Explore the anarchist circles in London through the eye of Joseph Conrad in his Secret Agent, based on true events Conrad's The Secret Agent cast a critical eye over London at the end of the nineteenth century when the capital was home to a series of revolutionary anarchist groups. They had come to police attention […]