Category: World

Posted on

ROMAN LONDON – ARCHAEOLOGY VIRTUAL TOUR

Painting of the Roman Forum of London from the air
Painting of the Roman Forum of London from the air


Sunday 11th April 2021 6.30pm

The virtual walk looks at the amazing archaeological discoveries of Roman Londinium

Archaeology has transformed our knowledge of Roman London and this walk takes us around the amazing archaeological discoveries and the stories they reveal.

We disembark at the Roman Waterfront by the Roman Bridge, and investigate the circumstances which lead to the foundation of London. Then we walk up the hill to the Roman Town Hall, past the houses of its wealthy citizens. At the Forum we look at the market and discuss Roman local politics. We proceed through the streets of Londinium, with its vivid and cosmopolitan street life and to the site of the excavation called ‘the Pompeii of the North’. Then we worship at the Temple of Mithras, and finish with Bread and Circus at the Roman Amphitheatre.

.This is a London Walks Guided Walk. Look at their web site for a list of other of their amazing walks

To Book:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/roman-london-virtual-archaeology-walk-tickets-137340139053

Posted on

Life Scientific vindicates Florence Nightingale’s Wards

Cath Noakes, an expert on ventilation and Covid talking on Life Scientific today on BBc Radio 4 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000rcnl) reported on experiments using a Nightingale Ward design and found it was likely to cut down the spread of infection by 4 times.
This was by

1. use of high ceilings

2. Big Windows that could open top and bottom

3. Radiators with ventilation grills behind them

She noted that most Florence Nightingale wards have since been modernised with low ceilings, smaller sealed windows and radiators replaced.


Her message was that ventilation is, with distance, one of the best ways of cutting the spread of infection.

Here is an image of Dorcas Ward st St Thomas’s Hospital, London.

Black and white photograph of Dorcas Ward, St Thomas Hospital showing high ceilings.
Posted on

FLOWER OF CITIES ALL – THE CITY OF LONDON FROM CHAUCER TO SHAKESPEARE

Every Thursday (from Jan 7th 2021) at 6.30pm Exit 2 Bank Underground Station

A walk which explores the City of London that was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666. By 1400 London was dominating the affairs of the Kingdom in spectacular fashion and had grown into a sophisticated medieval Capital, competing against the great capitals of Europe.

We will walk in the footsteps of Geffrey Chaucer, in the muddy City Streets, exploring the unhealthy conditions and poverty amidst great riches and pageantry. It was a cosmopolitan City with colonies of Italians, Germans, Dutch, and French who lived cheek by jowl with native Londoners.

By the 16th Century despite repeated visitations of plague, the huge influx of newcomers created non-stop growth in London. There was a corresponding increase in trade, in crime, in violence, and in creativity.
There were riots against foreigners, riots against May Revels, and burnings at the stake of both protestants and catholics as society struggled to cope with the impact of religious change.

With so many young people drawn into the City to work in its expanding industries, entertainment grew more sophisticated and poets could make a living penning entertainments to the masses. The London landscape changed dramatically as new renaissance inspired architecture began to replace the medieval timber framed buildings and the old medieval monasteries were pulled down.

We explore London in one of its greatest periods of change. The walk is given alternately by Kevin Flude & Leo Heaton

This is a walk for London Walks

Posted on

Myths, Legends And The Origins Of London Virtual Walk

Sunday 3rd January 2021 6.30pm

The walk is led by Kevin Flude, a former archaeologist at the Museum of London, who has an interest both in the archaeological evidence as well as the myths and legends of London’s origin.

The walk will tell the story of the legendary origins of London which record that it was founded in the Bronze Age by an exiled Trojan called Brutus. The new City was called Troia Nova or New Troy, which became corrupted to Trinovantum, and then changed to Lud’s Dun and eventually Londinium. The legends provide a host of characters in the rich mythic past of London. Kevin will tell the stories, and relate some to the archaeological evidence.

The route starts at Tower Hill, then down to the River Thames at Billingsgate, London Bridge, up to the Roman Forum at the top of Cornhill, into the valley of the River Walbrook, passed the Temple of Mithras, along Cheapside to the Roman Amphitheatre, and finishing up in the shadow of St Pauls.

This is a London Walks Guided Walks. Look at their web site for a list of other of their amazing walks.

To buy tickets click here:

Posted on

Flower Of Cities All – Medieval London History & Archaeology Virtual Walk.

Sunday 22nd November 2020

The walk is led by Kevin Flude, a former archaeologist at the Museum of London, a Museum Curator and University Lecturer.

A walk which explores London in the Middle Ages, from 1066 to the end of the 15th Century. In 1066 London was not yet the formal capital but as London expanded it took over from Winchester. By 1400 London was dominating the affairs of the Kingdom in spectacular fashion and had grown into a sophisticated medieval Capital. The Walk takes us from Westminster to Bishopsgate. and to the site of one of the few remaining medieval Churches at St Helens. We follow the route of the 15th Century London Lickpenny poem and look at everyday life in the City in the main markets streets of Cornhill, Poultry, Bucklersbury and Cheapside. We also visit the Guildhall and the City Wall. We will walk in the footsteps of Geoffrey Chaucer, in the muddy City Streets, exploring the unhealthy conditions and poverty amidst great riches and pageantry. We will see where the Italians, the German, the Dutch, the Jews, and the French lived cheek by jowl with native Londoners and immigrants from the Midlands.

This is a London Walks event. Look at their web site (www.walks.com) for a list of other of their amazing walks.


TO BUY TICKETS CLICK HERE:

Here is a short podcast to go with the walk.

This is a London Walks event by Kevin Flude

Posted on

The Decline and Fall of ​Dark Age London​ Archaeology Virtual Walk

Sunday 1st November 2020 ​

The first British Brexit?   The Roman Britains kicked out the Romans in 407AD, and then asked them to come back  after a catastrophic collapse.  Faced with plaque, civil war, invasion, mass  immigration,  industrial decline, reversion to barter the authorities struggled against anarchy and the Dark Ages.

Or was it?   Wasn’t it a rather a transition into the Late Antique period in which life for most people went on much as before except paying taxes to local rulers not to distant Romans?

This virtual walk explores why the Roman system in London broke down, and what really was the impact of the end of the Roman system in London.? What is the evidence?  Can we do much more than guess?  How should we regard the written records? We tramp the virtual streets of London in search of the light to shine on the Dark Ages.

This is a London Walks event by Kevin Flude.

To Book for this walk click here

Also given as a physical walk at 2.30 pm on Saturday, September 28, 2019. The meeting point was exit 2  St. Paul’sTube.

Posted on

The Archaeology and Culture of Roman London Virtual Walk

October 25th, 2020 at 6 p.m. (UK time)

 

This virtual walk is about the amazing archaeological discoveries of Roman London, and an attempt to bring to life through archaeology and Roman literary sources what it was like to live in a provincial Roman Capital..

We begin with a walk around the circuit of the City Walls, and walk to the River to discuss the origin of the London Bridge before striking inland to   explore Roman Government on the site of the Roman Town Hall or Forum.  We walk to what has been  called the ‘the Pompeii of the North’., past the Temple of Mithras, along the main Roman way to the  Bath House &  Amphitheatre before ending in the shadow of St Pauls.

To book click here:

This is a London Walks event by Kevin Flude. For more great London Walks events click here:

Previously run on Aug 3 2019 London Bridge Underground Tooley Street Exit