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Last week I visited the new exhibition 'Royal River' at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. It gives a splendid view of how the Thames has been used for royal pageants and London events over the centuries. Anne Boleyn was brought by boat from Greenwich to the Tower of London, where Henry VIII received her before her coronation the next day in Westminster Abbey. Nelson's body was rowed from Greenwich to his state funeral in a river procession accompanied by over 60 boats. The banks of the river were the site of pleasure gardens on both sides at Vauxhall and Ranelagh, and Doggett's Coat and Badge race has been rowed annually on the river for over 300 years.
It occurred to me ...
I have been attending my training as a London ambassador for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. I met lots of people enthusiastic and knowledgable about London as we sat around tables doing group exercises on London sights and how to enjoy them. It's all very focused on central London sights though. Someone mentioned that the guided tours to the Olympic site are sold out and even tours to nearby areas such as Shoreditch are booked up until October. Footnotes Audio Walks have the advantage that they never sell out, you can do them when you like. If it is raining you can just put it off till another day. And the Shadwell and Wapping and Whitechapel to Spitalfields walks are nearby the Olympi...
When we launched Footnotes Audio Walks we produced cassette tapes! Remember them? Now we find that very few people are ordering CDs and we have decided to phase them out. We will indicate which walks are still available as CDs on the website but we are no longer going to record new walks on CDs. Of course, if you are desperate for a CD you can always contact us and we will burn one for you, but it probably won't be packaged with a pretty cover and map.
Last year Footnotes Audio Walks was commissioned to produce an anniversary walk for Spread the Word, an organization that supports aspiring writers and uses writing ventures to interact with local communities. The project, 'My O...
We hope those of you who did Footnotes walks over the Easter holidays enjoyed them.
We have finally solved a puzzle connected with the South Mayfair audio walk – the identity of the sculptor responsible for the unusual number plaque over the doorway of No. 25 South Street. I recently spotted letters at the base of the plaque in a photograph, and hot-footed it into Mayfair armed with binoculars. There was the answer: "Reid Dick 1935". You can discover more about Sir William Reid Dick and No. 25 if you click onto the Puzzle Corner of the website London Remembers, a fascinating compilation of London memorials. If you have any idea what the cavorting figures represent, do let us kn...
Looking for something to do over Easter? Why not try one of our Footnotes Audio Walks? This is the perfect time of year for walking. Cities and countryside are at their best, and your energy levels are rising with thoughts of warm summer months.
For Londoners I'd suggest Footnotes audio walk Highgate. The village was a popular health spa in the nineteenth century and this is reflected in its handsome Georgian architecture and lavish open spaces like Waterlow Park with stunning views over London.
Liverpool also has an enticing audio walk which will take you through its historic commercial area (and the Cavern of Beatle fame) down to the Merseyside, from where you can enjoy ...
'We know ... how absolutely foul to the polite ear is the name of Fitzroy Square.' So writes Anthony Trollope in 'The Small House at Allington', as though he had forewarning of the braying donkeys in our new Fitzrovia walk. There would have been plenty of farmyard noises from the disorderly May Fair, mentioned but not heard, on Footnotes Mayfair South audio walk.
Testers of Soho reported spending a delightful hour in The Phoenix Garden (pictured) at about this time of the year, listening to the chorus of mating frogs in the small pool behind the bench they were sitting on. If goldfish had a voice you could hear them in the hidden waters of the Tyburn which we take you to on Mayf...
Our first London audio guest walk is now available as an MP3 download.
Fitzrovia by Dave Head will spring surprises on those who are familiar with our regular walks. Dave guides you, quite literally, step by step in and out of Fitzrovia's alleys, mews and squares, past pubs with colourful histories, below lofty haunts of musicians, artists and pop stars.
What other audio walk features braying donkeys?
Download Fitzrovia from our website and let us know what you think. We'd love to hear from you on: info@footnotesaudiowalks.co.uk
Until now the Footnotes Vauxhall audio walk has lacked real recommendations for somewhere to eat. I have just discovered the wonderful Brunswick House café, opposite the underground station where the walk starts and ends. It is in the listed Georgian mansion built in 1758 by the Duke of Brunswick, which remains incongruously among all the new roads and high rise buildings now cluttering Vauxhall Cross. Most of the building is occupied by Lassco the architectural salvage company, so after a bite to eat you can have fun looking round second hand sinks, doorknobs, banister rails, mantelpieces and much more. A treasure trove with a café attached.
Another new eating opportunity i...
If you are looking for somewhere out of the ordinary to take children during half term, why not try one of the highlights of our Bloomsbury Science audio walk – the Grant Museum of Zoology? The Grant has moved from its former cramped basement home on Gower Street to a magnificent new gallery at The Rockefeller Building, 21 University Street, a few yards from the entrance to UCL. It's packed with fascinating exhibits – including the bones of a Dodo and runs a programme of events aimed at young visitors. The staff are bent on making it fun for children as well as educational – at Halloween they hung skeletons from the surrounding balcony! A visit at an impressionable age might inspi...
Walking along the Euston Road from King's Cross on my way to the Wellcome museum, it occurred to me that I might see whether it is possible to admire the inside of the newly restored station hotel at St Pancras. It features in our Euston to King's Cross audio walk, but the last time we updated the walk, renovation works were still underway.
I walked along the high level cobbled carriageway above the Euston Road and found an entrance. There were no labels indicating where one might go and it takes a bit of nerve to enter a place that does not obviously welcome casual outsiders, but once inside there was no problem at all. I told someone who greeted me that I was keen to see the...
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