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May 2023
Art and Industry in East London
Roughly following the line of the Greenwich Meridian from the Bow Back Rivers at Pudding Mill Lane , this east London walk traces the industrial heritage of lower Lea Valley from fine porcelain in the 18th century, through gasworks, gin, cosmetics and explosives to film studios. As we go we follow part of The Line, London’s first dedicated modern and contemporary art walk. We finish at the now green oasis of Cody Dock with the chance for refreshments before the a short walk to Star Lane DLR station.
Ada Salter: Beautifying Bermondsey
Ada Salter was the first female mayor in London and the first Labour woman mayor in the British Isles. With her husband, local doctor and MP Dr Alfred Salter, she made a significant impact on health, housing, employment and labour relations, helping to make Bermondsey world famous for its flowers and its Garden City estate, still occupied today. Find out about the legacy of Ada on this charming riverside walk, which tells her story from the Bermondsey Uprising of women jam factory workers in 1911, to her years as a pacifist in the First World War, and her radical policies as a Bermondsey Councillor.
Wednesday 10 May 11am – Guide – Sue
The Garretts of Gower Street
Doctor, decorator, prisoner, politician, militant suffragette and mathematical genius. Join Sue in Bloomsbury to explore the life and legacy of the extraordinary women of the Garrett family.
Millicent led the non-violent suffragists, Elizabeth was the first woman to qualify in England as a doctor, Louisa ran a military hospital in WW1, Agnes and Rhoda established a top interior design company, Fanny was a landscape gardener, Philippa a brilliant mathematician and Amy set up a progressive school.
See the places they lived and worked and the legacy they left behind.
Capital Ring – Stoke Newington to Hackney Wick
For most of this section of the Capital Ring we follow London’s second greatest river, the River Lea and the Lee Navigation. We walk downhill through Springfield Park to join the River and finish by the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, a short walk from Hackney Wick Station. We pass the railway arch where A V Roe built his tri-plane and made the first all-British powered flight, see the remains of the filter beds that provided drinking water for East London and encounter an outpost of Eton College.
Wednesday 24 May 11am – Guide – Sue
June 2023
Rebels and Bluestockings: the New Woman in Bloomsbury
Free-spirited and independent, educated and uninterested in marriage and children, the figure of the New Woman threatened conventional ideas about ideal Victorian womanhood. On this walk we will discover how Kate Greenaway, a female artist from a working class background, Eleanor Marx, a regular at the British Library Reading Room and the archeologist Mary Brodrick found a life outside conventional Victorian norms. The founding of Bedford College, led to higher education for women, and the creation of College Hall enabled women students to study independently.
Sunday 4 June 1pm – Guide -Oonagh Gay
Bicycles and Bloomers: the New Woman in east Bloomsbury
Walking through east Bloomsbury’s quiet streets and squares we discover the rich history of women who seized new opportunities for education, employment and independence in the rapidly changing world of the late 1800s and earl 1900s. We learn about some of the women who lived, loved, worked and studied here and the institutions they established. We see where early women Doctors trained, where women art students lived, meet the first female Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and encounter poets, social activists, an advertising copywriter who became a famous detective writer.
Sunday 18 June 2pm – Guide – Sue
July 2023
Radical Women of the East End
Retrace the steps of the most famous radical women associated with Bow, starting with the Bryant and May matchwomen. Sylvia Pankhurst established the Suffragette East London Federation here, campaigning not only for the right of women to vote, but also to establish their social and economic freedom. Minnie Lansbury died here, after a heroic fight for justice for local residents in the Poplar Rate Strike. We will re-locate past struggles for social justice and take a look at the modern Bow on the way.
Saturday 15 July 2pm – Guide – Oonagh
Capital Walks in London 