Alison Turner - London History Walks

27/08/2024

The dome of St Mary Abchurch, City of London

20/08/2024

Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast looking vintage in the moody early light this morning.

12/06/2024

Themed cupcake on the Tube seems a very appropriate way to celebrate a splendid evening at the _com party. 🎉Happy 20th birthday you fine people, & keep feeding us facts about The Smoke!

20/05/2024

Before my garden walk I also had the treat of witnessing this chap with his pigeon-scaring Harris Hawk in Paternoster Square. Intriguing fact: the males used as avian bouncers are smaller and less aggressive than the females. (Cue a chorus of uh-huhs… 😹)

20/05/2024

Reflection Pool framing Wren’s masterpiece beautifully for my Secret City Gardens walk today for Aldersbrook Horticultural Association 😍🌹🌳

17/05/2024

Fabulous sculpture of ‘King Arthur’ at Tintagel that cleverly hints at his legendary status. (We don’t really need the sniffy explainer from English Heritage that ‘it doesn’t represent one person but the general history of the site’.) Don’t mess with the magical!

30/04/2024

Marvellous last hurrah of the tulips banked outside the Royal Exchange.

18/04/2024

With the weather set to improve next week (says the Met Office..) I have fired up my Secret City Gardens walk for 1115am Saturday 27 April. We’ll see a medieval cloister garden, a blitzed church where a headless co**se was buried, the lakeside gardens of the Barbican and more. Horticulture and history in one entertaining package! See bio for link 😎 (flash sale on now) Chin chin!

18/04/2024

Spring is forecast (finally) to arrive next week! (©Met Office) And so I'm grabbing the chance to roll out my Secret Gardens of the City walk at 1115 on SATURDAY 27th April. We will visit hidden gems and pocket parks with some fascinating history - from a medieval cloister garden via a blitzed churchyard with a sinister history, to a contemporary garden with a view of a City icon and more. As it's short notice there's a *Flash Sale* so grab your place now!
Walk is around 100 mins and 1.7 miles, with some stairs. We will end up in a historic pub for those who wish to join :) https://tinyurl.com/Secret-Gardens

11/04/2024

Astounding Roman villa wall painting unearthed from beneath the lava layer at Pompeii. Depicts Helen of Troy (that nose reminds me of Virginia Woolf) meeting Paris. Love the dog’s expression. Picture credit: Sara Terracciano; story from Pompeii’s most stunning secret: pristine Helen of Troy fresco

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/7e8f365b-1a95-42e7-8c47-4111170960d5?shareToken=0ee1423fe02ceecba4c7a52bf5a95c1a

27/03/2024

A peculiarly English tale 😹 (via )

23/03/2024

To a christening at the splendid St Mary & St Joseph Popla. Architect Adrian Gilbert Scott of the famous family. I’m calling it Stalinist Gothic.

21/02/2024

Join me on Saturday 9th March for a fabulous Spring walk around photogenic Spitalfields with London's most extensive collection of Georgian houses, a spooky bone house, a murderous pub, plus a rich history of immigrants inc Huguenot silk weavers, Jews & Irish. https://www.londonhistorywalks.co.uk/store/p17/Outcast%21_Tales_of_old_Spitalfields.html #

Saturday 9th March from Liverpool Street station. 1115 for an 1130 start.Spring is in the air and it's the perfect time for a stroll around Spitalfields - one of London's most historic and photogenic areas. We'll be peeling back the layers of history here to discover the many different peoples who h...

20/02/2024

This view never fails to make me go aaah!

19/02/2024

More images from stunningly well preserved Georgian Spitalfields, my latest walk. Huguenot silk weavers & Jews fleeing religious persecution, Irish fleeing famine and 10000 unexpected skeletons…💀 See bio for website: walk runs again Sat 9 March!

19/02/2024

I had the best time hosting this bunch of jolly and well informed walkers on my latest tour: Outcast! A walk round Old Spitalfields. Running again on 9 March! See bio for website link. More pics of Insta-favourite Spitalfields to follow…😍

24/12/2023

Wishing everyone and espesh my lovely walkers a Very Merry Christmas. This was my final Christmas walk ending at Leadenhall Market but this year we covered a lot of historical ground, meeting new Troublesome Women, delving into the edgy past of Wapping, witnessing the Bermondsey Uprising - and getting lucky with the weather in the one, the only, City of London. Where history began. 😎

24/12/2023

I met a new gentleman friend im the crypt of St Olave’s Hart Street after attending a Christmas service today. Perhaps Dickens, who dubbed the church St Ghastly Grim, encountered him too.
Pepys called it ‘our little church’ - his house was just over the road. Incredible to think the place was already 300 years old when Mr and Mrs Pepys were parishioners here. A lovely spot with a warm welcome from Rector Arani Sen ☺️