I’m walking between every station on the London Underground
There will eventually be walks between every tube station, in both directions, within the confines of the Circle Line. Outside the Circle Line, walks are done in the "into London" direction.
I illustrate each walk with some history, a little bit of "well I never!" and with various degrees of competence with cameras.
It's all in aid of the Prostate Cancer UK charity - there's a QR code with links to their fundraisers at the end of each video.
The first section of colour shows the Welsh Guards band followed by a company of Grenadier Guards changing the guard at St James’ Palace (not on Horse Guards Parade).
Nice informative video. That early 1900's aerial plan of the area around what's now called Barbican, was much more dense than I imagined - certainly far more so than now. It would have literally been lots of 'slum dwellings' and therefore a very poor (not to mention, dangerous) area. Even if WW2 had never happened, it's highly likely that that area would have seen substantial redevelopment in the 50's and 60's anyway - with most of the slum buildings demolished. So a new Arts Centre with a Concert Hall would have probably been built anyway! Albeit not in exactly the same location - but in that area. As the north side of the river (City of London) wanted to have a rival Arts Centre to the South Bank Arts Complex.
I know you go station to station but I would have liked you to start your journey from Royal Crescent near the Shepherd's Bush roundabout to your destination, or further up onto Barlby Road into Ladbroke Grove. Also noted how huge the Old Oak Common/Farm was before industrialisation, stretching from the Harrow Road in the North to the Uxbridge Road in the South and swallowing up all of what became Wormwood Scrubs in the process! There is a whole lot of history here relating to the potteries and the development of the area over 200 years. Great video though!
The way you pronounce Pall Mall is how I learned to say it growing up in Australia and when older I encountered other people who pronounced it 'paul maul'. Never liked that.
Great video. I gained many new insights into a city I lived in for almost 2 decades. I also appreciate the added info about the meaning of old English words and place names, with context from foreign languages.
Ever changing. The area between St Alphage and Moogate no longer follows the original walkway and podium. I supervised the renovation works and adaptation of St . Alphage House as part of the Stock Exchange back in the 1980s , my office was in the underground basement a floor above the Stock Exchange Pistol Shooting Club adjacent to Fore St . St. Alphage House and its sister building along with the old podium and walkway has been demolished and replaced with the edifice you now see here . A regular visitor to the London Museum and the Barbican centre just a short walk away from the site . Good to see the Globe pub still standing on the corner where many a lunchtime was spent supping and playing pool upstairs. The place where you should have finished your walk .
surprised you didn’t mention the pedestrianisation of the roads north and west of Trafalgar Square in the early 1990s where we’d all assemble to get our buses and taxis home after drinking or clubbing in the 1970s and 1980s . There’d be fights multiple vendors selling burgers (the smell of onions). It felt like a seedy spill over if the 19th century. Does anyone remember how different Trafalgar Square was only 30-40 years ago? It’s now extremely safe and fully gentrified.
So interesting about Jewin Crescent. William de Montfort was also a massive antisemite and supporter of Simon de Montfort's pogrom against English Jews in Leicester, Lincoln, Derby, Worcester, Winchester, and London
It's a wonderful place, but not the same without the Museum of London. I was there on the penultimate day. It was very crowded and had an unusual atmosphere. Kind of celebratory and sad at the same time. Apparently it stayed open throughout the night and into the next day before closing its doors for the final time.
I was born and brought up nearby, in Bedfont, and worked at Heathrow Airport for 14 years so am very familiar with the area. Less than a century ago, this area looks so rural despite being very close to London, so different to how it is now. Quite sad really that many people living in Heathrow must have lost their homes.
Milton Street is worth more of a mention for its infamous historical name. It was formerly known as Grub Street, home of notorious pamphleteers and other scurrilous hacks of the 16th-19th centuries.
The large Barbican Estate with its arts centre and also including two schools ensconced within its brutalist landscape was designed by Chamberlain, Powell and Bon architects. From the scheme's earliest iterations it was planned to have three high rise blocks on its north side. While the remainder of the buildings being long mid rise blocks which would form to "squares". One a private residents' garden while the other would be a public space. The arts centre was a later thought and hence a degree of underground construction was required to create enough space available. The northern portion runs on a different street pattern to the southern bigger part and to avoid the two halves being truncated by Beech Street this was built over linking the two. The estate's apparent predominance of elevated main pedestrian walkways well above street level are not just a product of their time as many post war schemes were planned to segregate pedestrians from motor traffic. A common theme in post war urban planning with the envisaged rise of motor car ownership. It was also envisaged that the City would be transversed by a network of elevated walkways and hence the Barbican complex was built that way and anyone entering it usually does above street level giving the impression that ground level is subterranean!
Thank you for the context regarding ruins; I feel like we still don't get a proper understanding these days on how badly London was bombed during WWII.
It might be very walkable but not very accessible with all those steps unless there are lifts ? Be interesting to know if any of the architects / planners lived in this maze.
Where do all those families get their shopping from? There doesn't seem to be a supermarket anywhere near by, they'd have a long way to walk to get a bottel of milk. It looks like a lovely place to live apart from the fact that it's so far from the shops. 😀 I really enjoyed this video, thanks.
There’s a Sainsbury’s Local near Farringdon, about ½ mile west of the starting point, and a bigger one on Holborn a few minutes walk further on. Waitrose or M&S is closer!
I’ve always felt an intense pull to this part of London. Never sure why, as I have no direct family link there. Hearing about the ancient cemetery (which I wasn’t aware of before) puts so many pieces together that it now makes complete sense!
The internet and globalisation has killed the independent retailer, for better or worse. But London was grimy in its own way then also, and was riddled with bomb damage.
The film doesnt really show the underground station , and I was trying to remember the department stores of the area, Derry and Toms used to get mentioned by Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, and Barkers of Kensington existed until some time later, but there was another that escapes me for the moment.
