Is the Gothic a thing of the past? Or does our contemporary culture haunt us the same way that the anxieties of the Victorian age bled out onto the pages of titles such as Frankenstein or Dracula? How do our worries about the future connect with those who lived through the Age of Reform? You…
Tag: dissenters
Hackney Changemakers: Amy Todd
Since 2012, I’ve been telling the remarkable story on walks of the Dissenters of Newington Green and a remarkable ‘church’ where anybody and everybody is welcome. You don’t even have to believe in God to attend the Sunday service (motto: “Believe in good”). Many of us will be familiar with the Enlightenment icon Mary Wollstonecraft…
Look Up For Inspiration: Alternative Statue Tour
We’re very lucky in Hackney to have a tradition of changemakers and pioneers. The history here is full of brave figures who stood up for everything from the Abolition of Slavery through to gender equality and no war. It carries on today, with a river of consciousness that manifests itself in contemporary activism and also…
Journey to Future Hackney
If the exciting radical past of radical Hackney was the pizza of conventional tourism where I started, then eventually I would always end up with a big long stringy piece of cheese stretched out between it and my face. This was the future
Focus on the Positive – IWD 2019
This International Women’s Day, I will be offering another walk featuring the heroic Mary Wollstonecraft and other inspiring female writers and fighters in Hackney for social justice who don’t get the recognition they ought to, like
Finding the Gold in Hackney
Finding the gold on the streets of Hackney with William Blake and the curious of London…
Never the Bride: Mary Wollstonecraft and the Crash of Wedding Symbols
Symbols matter. There’s a serious bit of state theatre going on this weekend apparently (Hackney Tours is too busy being out on the street to follow the media) and it’s all about reinforcing the ancient (feudal?) concept of monarchy. Apparently we’re paying for an elaborate spectacle that is designed to reassure us that being Subjects…
Hackney Tours Tomorrow’s World
It’s apt that the exhibition Tomorrow’s World at Atom Gallery on Green Lanes– opening tomorrow, naturally – should explore ideas of Utopia and Dystopia so close to Newington Green. This is where
Really Discover East London!
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…
October Walks & Runs with Hackney Tours
Autumn is upon us, judging by those clouds outside. All the more reason to get out and enjoy the changing of the seasons as the leaves turn brown and thoughts turn to Halloween, Bonfire Night and our other rituals marking the passing of time. As mounting research shows, it’s good to be amongst nature; you’ve…
Walking Tour of London 2012 Olympic Park as seen in Guardian newspaper
NEVER MIND THE ‘LIMPIKS WALKING TOUR, AS SEEN IN GUARDIAN ONLINE: Sat 10 & 24 March 12pm Hackney Wick Rail 1.5-2hrs; ends at Olympic Park View Tube (Pudding Mill Lane DLR) £10 (£8 concs) in advance (book here) or £12/£10 on the day It’s huge, it’s in Hackney
NEVER MIND THE ‘LIMPIKS WALKING TOUR SAT, AS SEEN IN GUARDIAN ONLINE
The walking tour we gave the Guardian newspaper is now online, and we’re running the tour this Saturday, so come on down and check it out! NEVER MIND THE ‘LIMPIKS WALKING TOUR, AS SEEN IN GUARDIAN ONLINE: Sat 25th Feb, 11am Hackney Wick Rail 1.5-2hrs; ends at Olympic Park View Tube (Pudding Mill Lane DLR)…
Hackney Tours: East LDN Creative Exploration 