Fanny Wilkinson

On this day in 1951 Fanny Wilkinson , the first woman to become a professional Landscape gardener died at the age of 96.

On this day in 1951 Fanny Wilkinson , the first woman to become a professional Landscape gardener died at the age of 96. This year marks 170 years since her birth. Follow the link below to read the tribute Sue wrote for Pascal Theatre to one of her favourite Bloomsbury women.

https://www.pascal-theatre.com/biographies/fanny-wilkinson/

There will be a walk in June to mark the event.

The gardening expert who influenced Ada Salter’s Beautification of Bermondsey

John Boughton (Municipal Dreams) has written this interesting and thoughtful review of Behind the Privet Hedge: a newly published biography of Richard Sudell by Michael Gibson.

Our next Ada Salter: Beautifying Bermondsey walk is on 4th August.

Oonagh took a journalist for a walk….

Back in February, Oonagh took reporter Sophie Dickinson from The Telegraph for a walk around Fitzrovia and Soho following in the footsteps of novelist Joseph Conrad’s Secret Agent.

Click on the link below to read the article

I discovered communist London on a literary walking tour

Conrad’s Secret Agent and the Anarchists was one of six different literary-themed walks we offered for the Footprints of London Literary Festival. If you missed the festival look out for our literary themed walks throughout the year.

Next up is Sue’s new Waterloo in Fiction walk tomorrow evening. There’s still just time to book.

Tracy Chevalier’s Burning Bright brings William Blake’s Lambeth to life, Michael Sadleir’s Forlorn Sunset explore’s the seamier side of Victorian London, while for Sam Selvon’s Lonely Londoners of the 1940s, the station is a place of nostalgia. Above all, it is a place of arrival and departure.

What’s to come?

Not so many public walks this month as we have a number of private commissions. We offer all of our walks for private groups and we are very happy to design a bespoke walk for you.

As usual we are supporting London Open Gardens this weekend and Sue’s walk, Fanny Wilkinson’s Green Lungs for London is sold out!

A month of Literary Walks

Once again we are delighted to be taking part in the Footprints of London Literary Festival throughout March.

We have walks in Bloomsbury, Fitzrovia, Islington and Waterloo, including two new ones this year: Finsbury in Print: from Black Dwarf to Spare Rib and Waterloo in Fiction as well as some old favourites

Last week Oonagh took a journalist from the Telegraph for a sneak preview of her Conrad’s Secret Agent and Anarchism in Fitzrovia, walk.

You can find details of all our walks here

Ten years of Capital Walks in London!

Happy New Year! This year Capital Walks in London celebrates our tenth anniverary. For the past ten years, Oonagh and Sue have been delighted to take you off the beaten track and to introduce you to some of our hidden hero(ine)s and favourite people and places.

Over that time, we have led walks in Angel, Archway, Barking, Bermondsey, Bloomsbury, Bow, Clerkenwell, Crouch End, Finsbury, Fitzrovia, Hackney, Holloway, Holborn, Newham, Poplar, Somers Town, Stoke Newington and the City.

We have added new walks each year and 2024 will be no exception. We also have a bigger project planned that we are keeping under wraps for the moment.

First of our new walks for 2024, is Oonagh’s Marx, Lenin and Anarchism: Revolutionaries in Fitzrovia on 13th January.

And on 17th February Sue has a new walk in Waterloo, exploring What’s Behind the South Bank.

Moving into March, we have new literary walks in Waterloo and Clerkenwell, so keep an eye out for those and for news of our bigger project!

Thank you to everyone who has walked with us and shared our enthusiasm over the last ten years. We look forward to seeing you again on a walk soon!

Put a spring in your step …

This March our walks all have a literary theme. Oonagh takes us around 19th century Fitzrovia in the company of Joseph Conrad and the Anarchists and explores Bloomsbury as depicted in the novels of the second world war. Sue is also in Bloomsbury, following in the footsteps of crime novelist Dorothy L Sayers and exploring how solitary walking influenced the writing of Charlotte Mew, Dorothy Richardson and Virginia Woolf.

See here for dates and details

They are all part of the Footprints of London Literary Festival

Virtual tours for 2021

Oonagh and Sue have gone online! Lockdown has enabled us to try out new formats and this is our schedule of virtual tours for January 2021. Each tour is available via Zoom and full details of the link will be sent when you book via Eventbrite.

January 11 Anarchism in Fitzrovia 7pm £6

Revolutionaries in exile dreamed of transforming the world from Fitzrovia in the late nineteenth century, as described in Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent.

Book here

January 15 Ada Salter: Beautifying Bermondsey 7pm £6

Our popular walking tour goes online online. Learn about this inspirational woman, who transformed a Docklands area with housing, flowers and trees.

Book here

NO MORE WALKS FOR A WHILE….

IN LINE WITH MANY OTHERS OUR RESPONSE TO THE MOST RECENT GOVERNMENT GUIDANCE ON COVID-19/CORONAVIRUS IS TO CANCEL OUR WALKS AND TOURS FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS. STAY SAFE AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO WALKING WITH YOU AGAIN SOON.

Sue & Oonagh

Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day 2020

All our walks this March have a women’s theme. There are spies and socialists, politicians and pacifists, suffragists and scientists, medics and mystery writers.

And of course we take you to to some lovely and lesser known London places.

Our new Newsletter is now out and you can see a complete list of forthcoming walks here.

#womenshistorymonth #IWD2020