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LONDON FOOTSTEPS goes behind the familiar images, stories, events and tourist attractions of London by creating a series of walks and talks to reveal wider and often little-known aspects of city life past and present that is so rich in culture and traditions.
The group walking tours are friendly and informal. Talks are popular with clubs, organisations and societies who invite guest speakers to their meetings.
Coffee Everywhere
Traditional Pageantry
Famous figures
World-class museums
Changing For The Future
The past is not always obvious in the City. Buildings are higher and incorporate moderns systems and designs yet exploring architecture of the 21st century there are historical gems worth exploring and admiring. It is only right that London looks forward but that does not mean destroying the past and abandoning the rich history and heritage of previous centuries.
One recent building to dominate the area close to Bank Station is the Bloomberg headquarters. This was the site of the Roman Temple of Mithras, uncovered by archaeologist in 1954 during the construction of an early post-war office block. It caused a lot of public interest at the time yet was rarely visited until the Bloomberg project was give the go-ahead and a reconstruction of the Temple was included as a visitor attraction of how the Roman community lived and worshiped in this part of the City.
Ignoring what happened so long ago may seem irrelevant in a modern world but we can still learn about the successes that help to create the London of today. History and tradition can be a platform for future ideas so what earlier generations achieved can help us to plan for the future. And that also can apply to the mistakes that were made.
There are many examples. It was Sir Christopher Wren who first suggested riverside walks with gardens and green spaces along the River Thames. His progressive ideas were a necessary solution but rejected.
Two centuries later as the industrial revolution was choking the importance of diminishing green spaces,. Victorian engineers and early environmentalists knew something should be done to encourage better opportunities for a rising population that were rarely able to escape from their squalid and unhealthy living conditions. And that is why the Thames Path is such a important step towards making the City one of the greenest cities in the World. It became part of the sanitation project to tackle the toxic state of the river and created The Embankment. South of the river was also considered the industrial part of London at that time. Warehouses, dockside industries and coal-burning factories, waste in the streets and pollution, toxic and ubntreated water supplies. Sir John Evelyn could also see what was happening and petitioned Parliament and King Charles the Second to do what we might say was the proplem of these foul and unhealthy conditions.
Again, nothing happened. The smogs got worse after the second World War- and it wasn't until the Clean Air Act of 1965 was enforced to end this wretched way of life for thousands of Londoners.
The LONDON FOOTSTEPS approach is not to solve issues but to raise awareness. There will always be ideas, answers and innovations from the past which can be applied to a A CHANGING CITY . To forget about our history is unforgiveable - and hearing more about it on walks and in talks can be so beneficial.
The past is not always obvious in the City. Buildings are higher and incorporate moderns systems and designs yet exploring architecture of the 21st century there are historical gems worth exploring and admiring. It is only right that London looks forward but that does not mean destroying the past and abandoning the rich history and heritage of previous centuries.
One recent building to dominate the area close to Bank Station is the Bloomberg headquarters. This was the site of the Roman Temple of Mithras, uncovered by archaeologist in 1954 during the construction of an early post-war office block. It caused a lot of public interest at the time yet was rarely visited until the Bloomberg project was give the go-ahead and a reconstruction of the Temple was included as a visitor attraction of how the Roman community lived and worshiped in this part of the City.
Ignoring what happened so long ago may seem irrelevant in a modern world but we can still learn about the successes that help to create the London of today. History and tradition can be a platform for future ideas so what earlier generations achieved can help us to plan for the future. And that also can apply to the mistakes that were made.
There are many examples. It was Sir Christopher Wren who first suggested riverside walks with gardens and green spaces along the River Thames. His progressive ideas were a necessary solution but rejected.
Two centuries later as the industrial revolution was choking the importance of diminishing green spaces,. Victorian engineers and early environmentalists knew something should be done to encourage better opportunities for a rising population that were rarely able to escape from their squalid and unhealthy living conditions. And that is why the Thames Path is such a important step towards making the City one of the greenest cities in the World. It became part of the sanitation project to tackle the toxic state of the river and created The Embankment. South of the river was also considered the industrial part of London at that time. Warehouses, dockside industries and coal-burning factories, waste in the streets and pollution, toxic and ubntreated water supplies. Sir John Evelyn could also see what was happening and petitioned Parliament and King Charles the Second to do what we might say was the proplem of these foul and unhealthy conditions.
Again, nothing happened. The smogs got worse after the second World War- and it wasn't until the Clean Air Act of 1965 was enforced to end this wretched way of life for thousands of Londoners.
The LONDON FOOTSTEPS approach is not to solve issues but to raise awareness. There will always be ideas, answers and innovations from the past which can be applied to a A CHANGING CITY . To forget about our history is unforgiveable - and hearing more about it on walks and in talks can be so beneficial.
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