Lesley Walks London

Kingsland to Newington Green
2021-12-04 11:00 - 13:30 (Europe/London)
A ‘Walk Hackney’ event

Along the western fringes of Hackney, this walk takes you from Kingsland to Newington Green, going through four ancient parishes. Once the hunting ground of kings, we finish in an area that became a hive of ‘seditious’ radicals and a centre for Mission which spawned today’s internationally renowned Mildmay Hospital. Led by Sean Gubbins of Walk Hackney.

More details here.

Historic Finsbury
2021-11-14 11:00 - 13:00 | Barbican Tube, Aldersgate Street, London, EC1A 4JA
A fascinating walking exploration of an area immediately bordering the old City of London to the north.

Now part of the borough of Islington, this area and adjacent Clerkenwell formed the old Borough of Finsbury until 1965. Finsbury was originally the religious parish of St. Luke’s just outside the City walls. This walk explores several centuries of history including archery fields, Elizabethan theatre, a noted artillery regiment, a plague pit, the birthplace of Methodism and a radical early metropolitan council.

This walk starts at Barbican station, ends near Old Street station and will last around 2 hours.

Pre book via Eventbrite here

Hackney Downs
2021-11-13 11:00 - 14:00
A Walk Hackney Event.

Bounded betwixt Clapton, Dalston and Shacklewell, Hackney Downs, the highest piece of open ground within 4 miles of central London, has, like other parts of Hackney, its own history to tell. Once ‘common land’, in its environs were founded Clapton F.C., schools, Hackney’s first Fire Station and the world’s oldest cycling club. Led by Sean Gubbins of Walk Hackney.

More details here.

Upper Clapton
2021-10-30 11:00 - 14:00
A ‘Walk Hackney’ event

Climb to Hackney’s highest point. Along the way we will take in Stoke Newington Common, Clapton Common, Hackney’s oldest surviving Church, see inside the former Agapemonite Church, now London’s Georgian Cathedral, and finish by admiring the views from Springfield Park. Led by Sean Gubbins of Walk Hackney.

More information

Walking the Hackney/Islington border from the Rosemary Branch to Old St
2021-10-17 11:00 - 13:00 | The Rosemary Branch, 2 Shepperton Road N1, London, 3DT, United Kingdom
‘Beating the Bounds’ to mark and confirm the borders between parishes is an ancient tradition, where the border was literally paced out, agreed and marked with stones each year. This is the second in a series of planned walks exploring the borders of today’s Hackney and Islington boroughs, looking at how this has evolved over the centuries due to a mix of changing land ownership, parish church catchments, significance of early settlements and roads, and natural features such as springs and ponds.

There’s a wealth of interest on either side of the border as we walk from the Regent’s canal to Finsbury, Shoreditch and the edge of the City in Moorfields. A varied mix of City Livery Company history, ironworks, canal basins, WWII devastation, the lost hospitals quarter, a natural swimming pool and a mediaeval well.

This walk lasts about 2 hours and ends near Old Street station.

Pre book via Eventbrite here

Haggerston
2021-10-09 11:00 - 14:00
A ‘Walk Hackney’ event

This walk tells the history of Haggerston, the northern-most and once the most rural, undeveloped, part of the ancient parish of Shoreditch. The walk will also go along Columbia Road, in neighbouring Bethnal Green. Led by Sean Gubbins of Walk Hackney.

More information

London Local Guiding Day
2021-10-09 10:00 - 16:00
Free shorter ‘taster’ walks all day in Islington, Camden, the City and Westminster

This event is usually run annually by the four London borough guiding associations. In 2020 it was ‘virtual’ owing to the pandemic, but in 2021 we are going live again. Simply turn up for hourly short introductory walks on the theme of Visions, Values and Victories, all led by qualified and highly knowledgeable guides.

I will be guiding a couple of times during the day in Islington, but do turn up anytime – my Islington guiding friends are all great!

Click here for more details

Walking the Hackney/Islington border from Dalston to the Regent's Canal
2021-10-03 11:00 - 13:00 | De Beauvoir Square, De Beauvoir Square, London, N1 4LG, United Kingdom
‘Beating the Bounds’ to mark and confirm the borders between parishes is an ancient tradition, where the border was literally paced out, agreed and marked with stones each year. This is the first of a series of planned walks exploring the borders of today’s Hackney and Islington boroughs, looking at how this has evolved over the centuries due to a mix of changing land ownership, parish church catchments, significance of early settlements and roads, and natural features such as springs and ponds.

This first walk between Islington and Hackney boroughs follows the lines of Balls Pond Road and Southgate Road, with an amble through De Beauvoir Town too. There’s a wealth of interest on either side of the border, including a leper hospital, almshouses, inns of pleasure and ill repute, pretty 19C residential roads, market gardens, a livestock market, vanished churches, factories and a manor house.

This walk lasts about 2 hours, and starts and ends near De Beauvoir Square (5 minutes from Haggerston Overground).

Pre book through Eventbrite here

Walking Tour - Clerkenwell's Monastic Quarter
2021-09-29 14:00 - 15:30 | Farringdon Station, EC1M 6BY, United Kingdom
Medieval to modern – the monasteries of Clerkenwell and their legacy today.

In medieval times Clerkenwell was an area of fields on the outskirts of the City of London, dominated by monastic institutions. The monasteries were all closed in the 1530s when Henry VIII broke with the Church of Rome but their buildings remained. Some were demolished but others were repurposed and rebuilt over the years; many of them still play a philanthropic and caring role today.

On this walk we will learn about a hospital that has provided healthcare on the same site for almost 900 years; London’s oldest parish church; a monastery that became an aristocratic Tudor mansion then an almshouse and school and remains an almshouse today; a priory with links to Jerusalem which gave its name to St John Ambulance eight hundred years later; and a nunnery which inspired the design of one of Clerkenwell’s newest buildings.

The walk will finish at the Clerk’s Well which gave the area its name; the site where parish clerks used to perform mystery plays in medieval times.

Note the walk does not include interior visits.

The walk will last about 90 minutes and will start and finish near Farringdon Station.

£9 – 12, 90-minute rate for one of the regular rota walks offered by Islington Guided Walks, also some concessions

Pre book through Eventbrite here

Dalston
2021-09-11 11:00 - 14:00
A ‘Walk Hackney’ event

An ancient hamlet of Hackney, Dalston developed, east of the Roman’s Ermine Street, from farm settlement to market gardening to brick fields to built-up suburbia by the 1860s. While still rural, Dalston was home to smart big houses, refuges for destitute women and infant orphans and a hospital for foreigners. Industrialisation brought the junction of two railways and factories. Led by Sean Gubbins of Walk Hackney.

More information

Lower Clapton
2021-09-04 11:00 - 14:00
A ‘Walk Hackney’ event.

Discover the history of Clapton, one of Hackney’s hamlets; visited by revolutionaries and royalty; home to writers; where Garrick performed; refuge for orphans. Led by Sean Gubbins of Walk Hackney.

More information

Tracing Loddiges
2021-08-21 11:00 - 13:30
A ‘Walk Hackney‘ event.

This walk takes you through the area east of Mare Street to trace where Conrad Loddiges and Sons’ Hackney Botanical Nursery was with its Grand Palm House, Camelia Houses and more, which attracted visitors to Hackney from all ove the world. We will also be taking in other places en route, many connected with Hackney’s non-conformist past. Led by Sean Gubbins of Walk Hackney.

More information

Hoxton New Town
2021-08-07 11:00 - 14:00
A ‘Walk Hackney‘ event.

This longer walk will tell you about the westernmost part of today’s Hackney, where, from the beginning of the 19th century, open fields used by Londoners to practice their archery skill was built up as Hoxton New Town. Led by Sean Gubbins of Walk Hackney.

More information

A watery wander around the Angel Islington
2021-08-01 11:00 - 13:00 | Angel Station, Islington High Street, London, N1 8XX, United Kingdom
How a natural river, wells and springs, plus both a manmade ‘river’ and a canal shaped this area.

A circular walk from Angel tube, exploring the influences of water sources. Islington and Clerkenwell developed around a hilly area with an abundance of water from natural springs, wells and the River Fleet, all now more or less hidden. The New River – an astonishing early 17C waterworks scheme with engineering and reservoirs – and the early 19C manmade Regent’s Canal and basins followed. Meanwhile, some of the springs had been turned into risqué pleasure gardens and a famous theatre, then the residential boom of Georgian and Victorian squares and streets sprung up.

This walk traces all things watery, tells of an eccentric estate owner, an evangelical Countess and a lost cricket ground.

The walk lasts 2 hours, starts at the Angel station and ends in a historic market near the start.

Details and booking

Tales from the Crypt of Holy Trinity, Cloudesley
2021-06-24 18:00 - 19:30 | Cloudesley Square, London, N1, United Kingdom
Part of the Clerkenwell and Islington Guides June 2021 Festival of Walks

A team of volunteers has researched the lives of the people who were buried in the crypt of Holy Trinity Church, Cloudesley Square, between 1829 and 1854.

This walk is designed to bring to life the varied and fascinating characters researched as part of the Tales of the Crypt project. You will meet Beadles and Builders, Slave Owners and ‘Silkee Dan’, discover scandals of embezzlement and breach of contract, explore housing and healthcare, schooling and social care, marriage and mourning in this varied walk around early/mid 19th century Barnsbury.

The tour lasts for 90 minutes approx. and ends near Cloudesley Square where we started.

This project has been generously supported with funding from the National Diocesan Fund, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Culture Seeds.

Details and booking

Walking the Islington/Hackney border from Dalston to the Regent’s Canal
2021-06-22 18:00 - 19:30 | De Beauvoir Square, De Beauvoir Square, London, N1 4LG, United Kingdom
Part of the Clerkenwell and Islington Guides June 2021 Festival of Walks

We will walk the borough border along Balls Pond Road and Southgate Road, passing the areas of Mildmay, De Beauvoir and East Canonbury. There’s a wealth of interest either side of the border, including a leper hospital, almshouses, inns of pleasure and ill repute, pretty 19C residential roads, market gardens, a livestock market, vanished churches and factories.

‘Beating the Bounds’ to mark and confirm the borders between parishes is an ancient tradition, where the border was literally paced out, agreed and marked with stones each year. The borders of today’s Islington Borough have evolved over the centuries due to a mix of changing land ownership, parish church catchments, significance of early settlements and roads, and natural features such as springs and ponds.

The walk lasts for approx. 90 minutes and ends at the historic Rosemary Branch inn, Southgate Road, near the canal – 10 minutes walk from either Haggerston or Essex Road Stations and on numerous bus routes.

Upcoming date: Tuesday 22nd June 2021, 6pm

Sorry, full, click for wait list

Clerkenwell Squares walking tour
2021-06-13 11:00 | Barbican Tube, Aldersgate Street, London, EC1A 4JA
Monastic Past to Victorian Residential:

For a built-up urban area, Clerkenwell has a perhaps surprising number of green spaces, many of them named as ‘squares’, but not always square in shape. Some are ancient open spaces dating back centuries, particularly in the south of the area closer to the City. Here, monastic houses were founded from the 12th century onwards, including St. John’s Priory and St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. Many others closer to Pentonville are the result of tremendous residential building, by three main landowners, from 1800 onwards. This walk tracks north through Clerkenwell, looking at both types of squares and their histories.

Starts at Barbican tube station, ends at the Angel.

Details and booking

'Beating the Bounds' 2
2021-06-05 14:00 - 16:00
Islington & Hackney Border, Regent’s Canal south to the City:

Continuing our exploration of the Islington and Hackney border, walking from De Beauvoir and the Regent’s canal to Finsbury, Shoreditch and the edge of the City in Moorfields. A varied mix of City Livery Company history, ironworks, canal basins, WWII devastation, the lost hospitals quarter, a natural swimming pool and a mediaeval well.

‘Beating the Bounds’ to mark and confirm the borders between parishes is an ancient tradition, where the border was literally paced out, agreed and marked with stones each year. This is the second in a series of planned walks exploring the borders of today’s Islington Borough, looking at how this has evolved over the centuries due to a mix of changing land ownership, parish church catchments, significance of early settlements and roads, and natural features such as springs and ponds.

This walk starts at the Rosemary Branch by the canal and ends near Old St Station.

Upcoming date: Saturday 5th June 2021, 2pm

Details and booking

‘Beating The Bounds’ 1
2021-05-30 11:00 - 13:00
The Border Between Islington And Hackney:

‘Beating the Bounds’ to mark and confirm the borders between parishes is an ancient tradition, where the border was literally paced out, agreed and marked with stones each year. This is the first of a series of planned walks exploring the borders of today’s Islington Borough, looking at how this has evolved over the centuries due to a mix of changing land ownership, parish church catchments, significance of early settlements and roads, and natural features such as springs and ponds.

This first walk between Islington and Hackney boroughs follows the lines of Balls Pond Road and Southgate Road. There’s a wealth of interest on either side of the border, including a leper hospital, almshouses, inns of pleasure and ill repute, pretty 19C residential roads, market gardens, a livestock market, vanished churches, factories and a manor house.

This walk starts and ends in De Beauvoir Square (5 minutes from Haggerston Overground).

Upcoming date: Sunday 30th May 2021, 11am
