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The real London of Wolf Hall

With the screening of the first TV episode of The Mirror and the Light, the final instalment of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, interest in all things Tudor is reaching fever pitch. The BBC has scoured the country to find suitably sumptuous locations to form an appropriate backdrop to the epic storytelling and larger than life characters. But there are numerous London locations linked to the…

#hilary mantel #the mirror and the light #the mirror and the light locations #The Real London of Wolf Hall #The Tudors London guided tour #Tudor London #Tudor London walk #Wolf Hall #wolf hall locations

Saloop - the forgotten pick-me-up

Often when we are researching new tours, an unexpected nugget of information will pop up its head. Michael Duncan had just such an experience while researching his new walking tour Aldwych – before and beyond. You can join Michael for his tour in 16th June at 10.30 am, booking details are here. When I was researching my new walk exploring the Aldwych, I came across a long lost London drink that…

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#aldwych tours #london guided tours #London walks #saloop

The Queen of the Blues vs The Queen of Hell

Michael Duncan introduces us to a few of the colourful characters from his walking tour The Haves and Have-nots of Marylebone. You can join him on Sunday 26th November to discover more, follow the link for details and booking. The Blue Stockings are little talked of nowadays but in the mid to late 1700’s they were a radical group seen by some as pioneers of feminism. They were co-founded by…

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#Elizabeth Home #Elizabeth Montagu #Home House #Marylebone walking tour #Montagu House #The 8th Earl Home

Contrasting Cousins

Michael Duncan gives us a sample of some of the characters from his Style and Scandal in St James’s tour which he will next be running on 8th October. There is a link at the bottom of the post if you want to join him to hear more! If you take a walk round St James’s, the Spencer family seems to pop up everywhere. The beginning of their association with the area came with the building Spencer…

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#City of Westminster guided tours #Georgina Duchess of Devonshire #Lady Caroline Lamb #London walks #St James&039;s Scandals #St James&039;s tour

Our Favourite Objects From The Museum of London

The Museum of London closes its doors this weekend, in preparation for the move to Smithfield where it will reopen as The London Museum. As London guides, the Footprints of London team have been inspired by the Museum of London over the years. We are all a little bit sad about the current site closing, even if we are excited about the possibilities of the new home for the Museum of London. With…

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#museum of London #museums #Roman London

Voyage of discovery

We’ve been working with InvestIN for a number of months preparing and planning tours for over 250 students attending their Sustainable Engineering: The Young Engineer Summer Experience 2022 course. As always, we planned for as many eventualities as we could. But every now and again, something wonderfully unexpected (and perfectly timed) happens that perfectly illustrates a point you happen to be…

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10 Things In London That Have Moved From Their Original Location

London has many old buildings, memorials and institutions, but they are not always in the same place they originally were. The Footprints of London guides choose their favourite things in London that have moved from their original Location. 1 St Andrews Church Kingsbury – Rob Smith There are a few buildings in London that have been partially…

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#arsenal #brentford #buildings #memorials #monuments #obelisk #st pauls

A Dickens of a Podcast

David Charnick was recently asked to help historian Dan Snow with an episode of History Hit podcast, based around David’s walk “A Dickens of a City“ It was on 8 December, a cold but clear Wednesday morning, that I met a genuine giant of history called Dan Snow. I had the honour of giving my tour ‘A Dickens of a City’ to Dan and his people, to…

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#Charles Dickens #Dan Snow #History Hit #Podcast #Southwark

Our Favourite Richard Rogers Projects

December saw the sad news of the death of Richard Rogers, one of the architects who have made a major contribution to the look of modern London. We look at three of our favourite Richard Rogers projects. The Lloyds Building – chosen by Marylin Greene One of the things I like most about the City of London is the juxtaposition of different periods of…

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#architects #architecture #City of London #Lloyds Building #Newham #Richard Rogers

Exports and extinguishers

With Literary Footprints 2021 nearly upon us, David Charnick tells us about a London building with a remarkable heritage in both the factual and fictional London spy scene. You can hear more on Dave’s tour Secret Writing which he is running as part of our October literary festival, as a walking tour on Saturday 2nd October and the virtual version on Monday 11th October (both start at 11.00 am).…

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#Broadway Buildings #Casino Royale #James Bond #Literary Footprints 2021 #Literary London #London literary festival #London literary tours #London literary virtual tours #London literary walks #London spy stories locations #London spy stories tour

The Mayfair House Where Sean Connery Was Cast As Bond

With the new James Bond film “No Time to Die” finally released, Michael Duncan looks at the house in Mayfair where Sean Connery was cast in the role Bond. You can find out more in Michael’s walk James Bond and the Spies of Mayfair. No 3 Audley Square in Mayfair was pronounced London’s most expensive rental property by the Daily Mail in 2014 which said it would cost any resident more than…

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#Cubby Broccoli #Films #James Bond #Mayfair #No Time To Die #spies #spy stories

Our Top Ten Historic London Hospitals

London’s hospitals have hardly been out of the news during the current pandemic. With resources stretched to the limit by the volume of COVID admissions, NHS hospital staff have been rightly lauded for their superhuman efforts to keep us safe during this difficult time. By way of our own small tribute to our amazing NHS staff, we asked our guides to come up with their top 10 of the capital’s many…

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#Endell Street Military Hospital #historic London hospitals #history of London healthcare #Moorfields Hospital #Mount Vernon Hospital #Royal Herbert Hospital #Royal London Hospital #St Bartholomew&039;s Hospital #St George’s Hospital #St. Bernard’s Hospital #The Maudsley Hospital #The Middlesex Hospital

Footprints turns 10 - My time with Footprints by David Charnick

Footprints turns 10 – My time with Footprints by David Charnick

Next up in our occasional series commemorating our first 10 years is David Charnick: The first I heard about Footprints of London was in 2013, when I was training to be a City of London guide. One of the founder members, Dave Brown, came to talk to us about Footprints at an evening training session. It seemed like an excellent idea, so after establishing myself as a guide, I applied to join…

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Footprints turns 10 - My time with Footprints by Richard Watkins

Footprints turns 10 – My time with Footprints by Richard Watkins

Next in our occasional series of guide reminiscences marking our first 10 years comes from Richard Watkins: The ten years of Footprints virtually follows my guiding career which began in July 2012 and I have been a Footprints member since then (save for a few years). In that time, I have built up my walks, and done a variety of tours, including for a hen party. I have also given U3A talks and…

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Footprints turns 10 - my five years by Marilyn Greene

Footprints turns 10 – my five years by Marilyn Greene

As a part of marking our first 10 years, we asked our guides to come up with some of their personal memories of their time with us. Marilyn Greene is first out of the gate: I’m a relative newcomer to Footprints of London having only been part of the organisation since 2016 (just over a year after having qualified as a City of London Guide but with many years of previous experience guiding…

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#Dickens guided tours #Fleet Street guided tour #Hampstead tour

Footprints of London turns 10!

August 2021 will mark the 10th anniversary of the founding of our guided tours company Footprints of London (FPoL). But how did it all start? In 2011, the recent graduates of the Clerkenwell & Islington Guiding Course had just completed their exams and were wondering what the next step might be. How could they venture on the streets with their newly written guided walking tours and crucially, how…

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Ten from Number 10

Today, 3rd April is the 300th anniversary of the coming to office of Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. To commemorate this, we asked our Footprints guides to write about a Prime Minister of their choice who has a connection with a particular London building or buildings they know. The ten Prime Ministers discussed below have therefore not been chosen on the basis of any of…

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#Earl of Derby #Earl of Rosebery #Earl of Shelburne #Harold Wilson #Lord John Russell #Robert Gascoyne Cecil #Sir Robert Walpole #Sir Winston Churchill #Spencer Perceva #William Pitt the Elder

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