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
Meet at Hackney Wick Station, Wallace Road, London E9 5LH
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
Meet at Royal Victoria DLR Station, Seagull Lane, London E16 1BZ
The Thames Ironworks was a large shipbuilding yard at Bow Creek in East London. In 1895, they formed a company football team that played in the Southern League and FA Cup. In 1900 the club was wound up and reborn as West Ham United. This walk tells the story of Thames Ironworks FC. We will visit Hermit Road and the Memorial Ground, two of the places where the club played, as well as the site of the Ironworks and a few other locations connected with the club.
Guide: Rob Smith
Meet at Canning Town Station, Silvertown Way, London E16 1DQ
This fifty-minute Virtual Walk, hosted online via Zoom video conferencing, explores the fascinating Thames Estuary, a place London has always relied on but which remains a mystery to many Londoners. Starting in East London and following the river to the sea. Your guide Rob Smith will tell you some of the stories from the history of the area, and tell you about places to visit in real life: forts built to defend London from invasion, container ports that bring goods to our shops today, hidden places for wildlife, genteel Georgian towns that have grown up a bit today, Saxon settlements and World War Two sea forts.
Virtual Guide: Rob Smith
Online Event
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
Meet at William Morris Gallery (outside front entrance), 531 Forest Road, London E17 4PP
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
Meet outside Whitechapel Station, London E1 1BY
As recently as 1979, 85% of the area around what is now Canada Water was occupied by the waters of the Surrey Commercial Docks. Since then there has been a radical transformation, the former docks and timber storage ponds becoming woodland, parks, housing and shops. A new phase of development is bringing change again. On this Guided Walk, Rob will find the buildings from the old docks that have survived, explain how the docks worked and tell the story of their complex history. He will also explain how this part of London transformed into Docklands and why it is different to Canary Wharf, its neighbour on the other side of the river.
Guide: Rob Smith
Meet at Canada Water Station, Deal Porter Way, London SE16 2YS
In 1601 Sir James Lancaster left London on the first voyage of the East India Company which, over the following 250 years, became one of the most powerful companies the world has ever seen, controlling the fate of millions of people, wielding its own army and dominating trade with South and East Asia. It was Britain's first multinational company and its effects on London were immense. This virtual walk with Rob Smith on Zoom will show you some of the legacy of the East India Company today, and where you can find them, in East London and beyond, including large houses like Danson House, parks like Wanstead and East India Company Warehouses in the City at Devonshire Square. Rob will look at how street names around the old East India Docks have a connection to the East India Company and where you can find connections to them in Croydon. There will be a look at East India Company objects can be found in museums and even in the Crown Jewels.
Virtual Guide: Rob Smith
Online Event
The Royal Group of Docks in East London were one of the largest engineering projects in London's history. Comprising The Royal Victoria, Albert and King George V Docks, when built, they were also the largest enclosed body of water in the world. They still make an imposing sight - 12 miles of waterfront undergoing redevelopment. This 50-minute Virtual Walk via Zoom tells their story. Your guide, Rob Smith, will show slides about the building of the docks, the people who built them, the technical advances that had a huge impact on London's economy, and the factories that were built alongside them. Rob will look at the communities that worked in the docks, how they struggled to improve working conditions and how they faced challenges like the Silvertown explosion of 1917 and the Blitz. You will hear about the decline of the docks and the long-running plans to redevelop them, and get to see heritage features that remain today so you can go and explore for yourself.
Virtual Guide: Rob Smith
Online Event
Blackwall in London’s Docklands has as much maritime history as Greenwich – it’s just that you have to look a bit harder to find it. In this two-hour Guided Walk, Rob Smith uses fragments of the old dockyard and street names to tell the story of the East India Company, who made Blackwall their home for almost 250 years. You will hear stories of bravery, greed and ingenuity. The walk also visits the Leamouth Peninsula, one of the most unusual places on the Thames with a maritime history of its own. Rob will also tell the stories of some of the ships built in the famous Blackwall Yard and you’ll hear how Blackwall is at the heart of communications in the 21st century.
Guide: Rob Smith
Meet at East India DLR Station, Blackwall Way, London E14 9PS
