Radical History Lover? Curious Local? Love Photography? Something for Everyone…

It’s been a busy summer, so you may have missed the Hampstead Heath walk for Hackney Council or the literary adventure that was our trip to a Margate book festival in the guise of Half Day Holidays.

I took some Wickers around Hackney Wick to show them their backyard in a different light and several groups of Hackney kids to Westminster to connect with Parliament. Challenges are always good – like explaining representative democracy to a 10-year-old who just wants to know when lunch is!

September sees three different walks but they all have one thing in common – exploring East London and seeing it in new ways:

WALK 1

First up is another Council walk on Sat 16th September, this time around Millfields in Clapton. We’ll see a mosque, a wonderful park, a historic nature reserve and then the area’s newest train station. We love the Overground (AKA the ‘Ginger Line’). For more info, click here and scroll down to themed walks.

WALK 2

Want to put things like Trump, fake news, Twitter Wars and Brexit in a historical context? How did we get where we are today? How did Hackney once have better universities than Oxford or Cambridge?

Sunday 17th we’ll be hearing the amazing stories of the Hackney history-makers who blazed the trail for gender equality, suffrage, education and religious toleration on a walk for the exciting new initiative NG Dissenters.

Thanks to a HLF grant, we’re helping Newington Green Unitarian Chapel (aka New Unity, where everyone is welcome, regardless of creed or even no creed at all!) get the word out about the world-changing figures that have passed through Newington Green.

This includes the likes of ‘Founder of Modern Feminism’ Mary Wollstonecraft and the world famous writer and thinker Thomas Paine. If you haven’t heard it, it’s quite a story. And the values are as relevant as ever…

It ends with an optional poster making workshop, so it really is value for money. Book here. If you move quickly you can take advantage of the early bird offer!

WALK 3

Finally Friday 29th September is the last in the current series of the massively popular Economy of Hours photowalks with myself and photographer Frank Da Silva. This time we’re focusing on night time photography. It’s almost full, but if you click here quickly, you may be lucky.

AND FINALLY…

If you’re interested in getting a feel of the area, or want to collaborate on something experimental, get in touch for private hire or to talk about cooperation. One of the key things about these walking tours is that they encourage active participation, not passive consumption. So whether you dig Debord, you’re keen on community or you’re hungry for history, get on board and let’s explore together!

Happy walking,
Simon