This walk with Rob Smith along the River Lea takes us through the Olympic Park, passing London Stadium and many former industrial sites before reaching the beautiful tide mills at Bow. It then takes us to Canning Town to see the last loops of the Lea before it joins the Thames at Trinity Buoy Wharf. The Lea is one of the longest and most important tributaries of the Thames. It has formed the boundary between the Saxons and the Danes, been home to medieval mills and numerous other industries. This is one of series of walks by Rob which will look at the history of the River Lea, tracing its 42-mile course to the Thames.

Guide: Rob Smith

TICKETS

Meet at Hackney Wick Station, Wallace Road, London E9 5LH

Using old maps and photographs as we walk, with a chance for questions and discussion, this walk from East India DLR Station to Canary Wharf looks at the East India Company and the ruthless sugar traders that built warehouses in the area around Canary Wharf using profits made from the labour of enslaved Africans. You'll see what is left of the East and West India docks, built for sailing ships in the early 1800's.

Guide: Rob Smith

TICKETS

Meet at East India DLR Station, Aspen Way, London E14 9GF

This sixty-minute Virtual Walk explores the buildings of the London Borough of Newham, the southern part of which is dominated by the vast Royal Docks and the industries that built up around them. These have been partially redeveloped with some striking new buildings like the University of East London's Halls of Residence and the Crystal, the new home for the Greater London Assembly, while some of the heritage of the old docks remains. And Newham also offers much more than Docklands: you'll find a 12th century church, a memorial to Tudor Martyrs, a fine theatre and plenty of civic pride. The borough has some marvellous former industrial buildings along the River Lea and is home to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with buildings that put London on the world stage as part of London 2012. Whatever your taste in buildings, you are bound to find something you like.

Virtual Guide: Rob Smith

TICKET

Online Event

The roads and riverside of Limehouse reveal evidence of its age-old connections with the sea and maritime trades, of its long journey from tiny riverside village – one of the “tower hamlets” – to today’s modern docklands area. Sailors passing through made it a truly cosmopolitan area – home to London’s first Chinatown – a bustling hive of industry with a dark side which philanthropists sought to address and some writers sought to exploit in sensational stories. Our Guided Walk takes us to the sublime St Anne’s church and Narrow Street’s fine 17th century house-fronts, to palatial sailors’ hostels, well- preserved 19th century warehouses and one of the very oldest urban railway viaducts, taking in splendid river views to Canary Wharf and the City along the way.

Guide: Andrew Parnell

TICKETS

Meet at Westferry DLR Station, London E14 8AS

There’s so much more to Walthamstow than just its famous mile-long Market. The grand tombs in St Mary’s Churchyard offer a bit of a clue. Starting at the teenage home of William Morris, later home to publisher Edward Lloyd, who brought to us the tale of Sweeney Todd, and today home to the William Morris Gallery, this Guided Walk takes in a set of mews built by a local butcher/property developer, a theatre hidden within a school and a remnant from Robert Smirke’s General Post Office before visiting the real and original Walthamstow Village with its Ancient House, almshouses, workhouse and church to hear how Lord Mayor of London George Monoux was a great benefactor to the area and finishing in an industrial park which is not only home to the jaw dropping God’s Own Junkyard but the Wild Card Brewery and Mother’s Ruin Gin Palace too.

Guide: Joanna Moncreiff

TICKETS

Meet at William Morris Gallery (outside front entrance), 531 Forest Road, London E17 4PP

Shadwell, developed to equip ships for imperial interests and explorations in the Age of Sail, was home to wealthy merchants and many small businesses. To make those possible, large numbers of ordinary folk provided services, making the area a multicultural hub where escaping slaves hid out, fed-up sailors started new lives, river pirates spied opportunities and women provided the comforts of home in lodging-houses, taverns and brothels. Of course, women were also seamen, pirates, slaves and merchants. Outsiders came to experience the many opium-dens that were standard places of unwinding for seafarers. Shadwell Basin is the only one left of three early docks located in the area. On this walk we pass remnants of all these phenomena as well as river stairs, imposing warehouses, green spaces, the Thames Path and numerous appealing pubs.

Guide: Laura Agustín

TICKETS

Meet at Shadwell Overground Station, outside exit on Cornwall Street, London E1 2QE

In 1897, Chingford was ‘cut off, as it were, from the rest of the world.’ It is not cut off now, but it has a very different history to its near neighbour Walthamstow. Epping Forest has played an important part in that history and on this walk using old maps we will see how the area has evolved but also see what remains from the past. Hidden among allotments and a tip can be found a 17th century dovecote which is all that remains of one of Chingford’s lost manor houses. Characters who have made their mark on Chingford include T E Lawrence, Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria and Ivor Novello. Some paths on the walk may be muddy so please wear appropriate shoes.

Guide: Joanna Moncreiff

TICKETS

Meet at Chingford Railway Station, Station Road, London E4 6AL

Women reigned in Rag Fair, which extended from Tower Hill along Rosemary Lane into Cable Street in the 17th-19th centuries. Poorer women sold old clothes, thieved and worked in the brothels of Damaris Page, called by Samuel Pepys 'the most Famous Bawd in the Towne’. We wend through back-alleys to one of the first London Docks, around whose walls a myriad of small businesses set up to service ships and sailors. Fans of Call the Midwife will be interested to see where young Mary escaped from one of the notorious brothel-cafés of Cable Street in the 1960s era of decline. We see where two local women lived who were accused of witchcraft and where the artist JMW Turner spent romantic  - and unmarried - weekends. In short, on this walk we focus on a lot of residents rarely mentioned in histories of the docks. Great pubs await near the final stop.

Guide: Laura Agustín

TICKETS

Meet outside Tower Hill Station, London EC3N 4DJ

In 1897, Chingford was ‘cut off, as it were, from the rest of the world.’ It is not cut off now, but it has a very different history to its near neighbour Walthamstow. Epping Forest has played an important part in that history and on this walk using old maps we will see how the area has evolved but also see what remains from the past. Hidden among allotments and a tip can be found a 17th century dovecote which is all that remains of one of Chingford’s lost manor houses. Characters who have made their mark on Chingford include T E Lawrence, Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria and Ivor Novello. Some paths on the walk may be muddy so please wear appropriate shoes.

Guide: Joanna Moncreiff

TICKETS

Meet at Chingford Railway Station, Station Road, London E4 6AL

This two-hour guided walk looks at the exteriors of very different buildings, all built during the Twentieth Century. From the grandeur of the famous Hackney Empire, the civic pride of Hackney Town Hall, and the post war simplicity of Brett Manor to more recent buildings like Sutton Square and Hackney Academy, Hackney has a range of buildings built in response to a variety of needs. Rob Smith will talk about the buildings and some of the social history context in which they were built.

a Spitalfields Music Festival 2025 event

Guide: Rob Smith

TICKETS

Meet at Hackney Central Overground Station, Amhurst Road, London E8 1LL

On this walk, Sue will take you to the site of a Tudor royal house which became an asylum before being destroyed by bombs; the evidence that remains of the Salvation Army’s dominance over the area, including the Mothers’ Hospital and Congress Hall and a site which has been a girls’ school since the 1600s. You will also hear about the many characters of the area – prison reformers, actresses and playwrights – as well as learning about the pond and the chapel.

a Spitalfields Music Festival 2025 event

Guide: Sue Doe

TICKETS

Meet at Clapton Pond, E5 0QA

Spitalfields lies right next door to the City, London’s financial district, but the contrast between the character and history of the two areas could hardly be greater. Today, Spitalfields is a place of street markets, not financial markets, of lively clubs, restaurants and bars. In the past, like the rest of London’s East End, Spitalfields’ dark streets and alleys discouraged visitors. It had a reputation for lawlessness, but also for creativity, radicalism and humour.  It was a place where businesses grew, using cheap labour and skills provided by waves of immigrants who settled in the area. On this walk, we will see some of those immigrants’ homes – from hostels to grand Georgian houses – and their places of worship. We will pass through atmospheric alleyways which recall the past and along a street world famous for its markets, clubs and curry houses!

a Spitalfields Music Festival 2025 event

Guide: Andrew Parnell

TICKETS

Meet at Aldgate Underground Station, London EC3N 1AH

This Guided Walk follows the route taken by Charles Booth in 1898 to research his famous poverty maps and includes a wider history of Whitechapel. Along the way we experience one of London's most historic and vibrant quarters, coloured by 400 years of immigration. The voices of writers such as Jack london, Israel Zangwill and Samuel Pepys vie with contemporary accounts to paint a picture of a constantly changing environment and population. As the City of London encroaches onto the ancient land of Whitechapel and Spitalfields we discuss the implications for present and future populations.

a Spitalfields Music Festival 2025 event

Guide: Sean Patterson

TICKETS

Meet at Middle of Altab Ali Park, Aldgate East, Adler Street, London E1

While a certain sporting event in 2012 has transformed the area west of Stratford, the Lower Lea Valley between Stratford and the Thames still retains a post-industrial feel. In this Guided Walk, Rob Smith looks at the industrial heritage of the area and the fantastic Victorian (and earlier) architecture that remains. He will talk about how the Lea was important to the development of London. You will see buildings associated with railways, printing, canals, sewage, mills, shipbuilding and gas supply, and see what is planned in the area for the future.

Guide: Rob Smith

TICKETS

Meet at Stratford Station, Station Street, London E15 1AZ

This sixty-minute Virtual Walk explores the wonderful variety of buildings in the Borough of Hackney from Tudor Sutton House to modern Bridge Academy. Once a village outside London, with its parish church, houses of the wealthy and its old Town Hall, in the Victorian period Hackney’s population boomed and elegant town houses started to be joined by furniture factories and warehouses. By the 1930s the mix included wonderful examples of civic pride like Haggerston Baths, Shoreditch Town Hall and Hackney Police Station as well as innovative social housing. More recently, Hackney has had a programme of building new schools and converting 20th century warehouses for a changing population. Whatever your taste, you are bound to find buildings you like on this virtual walk.

Virtual Guide: Rob Smith

TICKETS

Online Event

Come on today’s walk and find out what makes Whitechapel such as wonderful but also wicked place. An area that has welcomed both Lenin and Stalin and had been home to Mr Tescos, the Krays and Jack the Ripper. You will find out about the Elephant Man, William Booth and the Salvation Army, the bell foundry that made Big Ben and where the "white" chapel really was. And – how does your guide know all these stories – well she is Whitechapel-born herself!

Guide: Daniella King

TICKETS

Meet at Whitechapel Station, 277 Whitechapel Road, E1 1BY

This two-hour walk looks at the exteriors of very different buildings, all built during the 20th Century. From the Edwardian splendour of the former public baths, a school designed by Erno Goldfinger, a factory that made aircraft landing lights, to more recent works like the Geffrye Museum Extension. Guide Rob Smith will talk about the buildings and some of the social history context in which they were built.

Guide: Rob Smith 

TICKETS

Meet at Hoxton Overground Station, Geffrye Street, E2 8FF

One of Rob Smith’s series of walks along the Thames going East, this Guided Walk takes us from Rainham where we'll visit the gardens of Rainham Hall - a house built by a ship’s captain who operated his shipping fleet from the village when it was a busy port – before crossing the site of a former military training camp until we reach the Thames, where we'll look at the history of industry in the area. Then it is a peaceful stroll along the Thames through an area that is now an RSPB nature reserve but once rattled to the sound of machine gun fire. The walk ends in Purfleet which used to be a popular destination for day trippers and Dracula!

Guide: Rob Smith

TICKETS

Meet at Rainham Station, Ferry Lane, London RM13 9HY

One of a series following the Thames from London looking at industrial, maritime and military history, this Guided Walk takes in an area that was once dominated by the testing grounds of the Royal Woolwich Arsenal. We'll walk along canals that were once used for carrying gunpowder, see the site of storage facilities for cordite, land where tanks were tested and a stretch of water once used for testing torpedoes. This stretch of the Thames features a dangerous bend called Tripcock Ness – we’ll go past a lighthouse which still marks the area, and hear tales from the river. In the 1960s, the area was built on to create a New Town within the boundaries of London - Thamesmead. We’ll look at the idealism of the plan and how Thamesmead is developing today. The walk also visits Medieval Lesnes Abbey, before finishing at Abbey Wood station.

Guide: Rob Smith

TICKETS

Meet at Plumstead Station, Walmer Terrace, London SE18 7FA

From fishing fleet to feminist icons. The Suffragette Line owes its new name to local Annie Huggett. There's more to Barking than you might think. Join Sue to find out more. This circular walk takes us past landmarks associated with its medieval abbey, its once huge fishing fleet, the noxious industries and civic pride of the 19th and 20th centuries, right up to today's riverside regeneration. Along the way we learn where Capt. Cook was married and where a local suffragette entertained Mrs Pankhurst. We find out what links prison reformer Elizabeth Fry to Barking's stunning Sikh temple and why there is a memorial to the victims of asbestosis.

Guide: Sue McCarthy

TICKETS

Meet at Barking Station, Station Parade, London IG11 8TU

See the architectural treasures of Barking and Dagenham in this Virtual Walk, part of a series by Rob Smith on the best buildings in London Boroughs. Barking was home to one of the most powerful medieval religious houses in the country, of which you can still see the ruins. Another medieval survivor is Valence House, home to the borough museum. There are the beautiful Eastbury Manor House - one of London's best Elizabethan buildings - and the buildings associated with Barking's huge fishing fleet by the River Roding. Rob will also explain how the area became industrialised in the 20th century with the building of the huge Ford works, Barking Power Station and the Becontree Estate - built for Ford workers - and will discuss the buildings being built in the borough today.

Virtual Guide: Rob Smith

TICKETS

Online Event

Monica Ali’s book Brick Lane recounts the experiences of Nazneen, a young woman in Bangladesh who, after an arranged marriage, travels to live with her husband in Tower Hamlets. From being a passive, shut-in migrant Nanzeen becomes an autonomous working woman. The Bengali migration to London goes back 400 years to lascar seamen hired by the East India Company and continued into the 20th century. The clothing sweatshops Bengalis worked in began to die out in London, though women like Nazneen continued to do piecework-sewing in their homes. Meanwhile migrants founded and worked in restaurants serving modified Bengali dishes. Come see back-streets and estates of a highly diverse area socially and architecturally, while listening to the words of Nazneen, her family and friends as they adapt to a new life. It's a London most Londoners don't know.

Guide: Laura Agustín

TICKETS

Meet outside Whitechapel Station, London E1 1BY

Dagenham is instantly associated with the huge Ford factory that opened in 1931. However, the Dagenham Dock has an industrial history going back to the early 1800's. This Guided Walk will look at a complex history that includes explosives manufacturing, shipbuilding and power generation. You'll get to see the site where the last battleship built on the Thames was completed, London's other flood relief barrier, oil storage depots, scrapyards and a fantastic stretch of the Thames which is an empty white patch on the A-Z. This is a longer walk - around 5 miles - but fans of Patrick Keiller's Robinson films, and Iain Sinclair's books will enjoy being in this extremely off the beaten track part of London.

Guide: Rob Smith

TICKETS

Meet at Dagenham Dock Station, Chequers Lane, London RM9 6PR

This Guided Walk looks at the history of Barking and some of its historic buildings. Barking Abbey was once one of the largest and most important religious houses in England, where William the Conqueror made his home while the Tower of London was constructed. The walk visits the ruins of the Abbey and the atmospheric churchyard where sea captains are buried. In the 1800's Barking was home to the Short Blue Fleet - the largest fishing fleet in England. You’ll see the Town Quay and the Ice House Quarter - remnants of Barking's fishing past - and hear stories of the life of a fisherman. You’ll also be shown examples of civic pride, like the impressive Town Hall, a modern folly and a railway station inspired by Rome.

Guide: Rob Smith

TICKETS

Meet at Barking Station, Station Parade, Barking IG11 8TU

In the 1980 classic thriller The Long Good Friday, Bob Hoskins’ character, Harold Shand, gives his view on the future of Docklands: “I believe this is the decade in which London will become Europe's capital. Having cleared away the outdated, we've got mile after mile and acre after acre of land, for our future prosperity. No other city in the world... has got right in its centre, such an opportunity... for profitable progress.” While things don't go well for Harold - his vision of the future proves fairly accurate and the old docks are redeveloped and London does host the Olympics. On this Guided Walk, Rob visits many of the East London locations from the film -- some recognisable, some changed beyond Harold's wildest dreams -- and also talks about the recent history of Docklands that brought the changes about.

Guide: Rob Smith

TICKETS

Meet at Tower Hill Tube Station, Trinity Square, EC3N 4DJ

In 1514 the warship Great Harry - the pride of Henry VIII's fleet - was constructed at Woolwich Dockyard which went on to be the site of shipbuilding and repairing for nearly 350 years with huge store houses, dry docks and a ropery which was one of the largest in the world. In 1869 the dockyard closed but you can still find traces of it and this Guided Walk will reveal its remaining features and tell the stories of the ships built there and the people who worked there. We will also explore the industrial area that replaced the dockyard and has its own story to tell.

Guide: Rob Smith

TICKETS

Meet at Woolwich Dockyard Station, Belson Road, London SE18 5JY

This walk with Rob Smith from Royal Victoria Dock to Pontoon Dock looks at the vast Royal group of docks, built for steamships by entrepreneur engineers and at some of the industry that was created by the docks. Rob will also talk about the dock workers strike of 1889 and the creation of the Port of London Authority. One of a series of walks by Rob covering different periods in the development of the Port of London from the Romans to Canary Wharf, uncovering some of the legacy of the Port of London through street names, mooring posts, cranes, plaques etc. and using old maps and photographs.

Guide: Rob Smith

TICKETS

Meet at Royal Victoria DLR Station, Seagull Lane, London E16 1BZ

Once a tiny hamlet on the ancient highway between Epping and London, then a desirable country retreat for merchants and financiers, Leytonstone developed as we know it today when the railway came. As we walk along the High Road, we will see glimpses of its past in some surprising places! We hear about the woman who set up an industrial school for girls; the internationally renowned naturalist, known as the “Queen of Slime Mould”; the cancer specialist who courted controversy when he treated the heir to the throne of Germany; as well film maker Alfred Hitchcock and highwayman Dick Turpin.

Guide: Sue McCarthy

TICKETS

Meet at Leytonstone High Road Station, London E11 4RE

Take the train to the end of the new Elizabeth Line for this Guided Walk and find some great views and a few hidden gems. The new line takes you in style to Abbey Wood – find out what lies beyond the station. You’ll discover some tranquil parts of London, lots of history and amazing views of the capital.

Guide: Rob Smith

TICKETS

Meet at Abbey Wood Station, Wilton Road, London SE2 9RH