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
Meet at Plumstead Station, Walmer Terrace, London SE18 7FA
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
Meet outside Tower Hill Station, London EC3N 4DJ
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
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
Meet at Hoxton Overground Station, Geffrye Street, E2 8FF
