One of London’s most famous and infamous neighbourhoods. The unassuming Dr John Snow is famous for controlling the terrible outbreak of Cholera in Soho in 1854 by having the handle removed from the Broad Street pump. We will follow in his footsteps and explore the rich history of Soho and learn of its denizens in the charming Soho Square and neighbouring streets. The tour will explore in depth the work of John Snow and include the streets where the cholera outbreak occurred, ending up at the John Snow pub. We will come across Mozart and Casanova and many others and see the site of one of the world’s first nightclubs!
This tour is offered as part of London Walks. You can check their website for times and dates by clicking here. Or email Barry and he will reply with the information.
Tour of Medieval medicine in the Old City of London starting with the historic Apothecaries Hall in Blackfriars. Learn of the Four Humours (blood, phlegm, black and yellow bile). Rattus rattus caused the Great Plague of London. Walk though lanes of London from Shakespeare’s day. Lean the secret of the Barber’s pole. Queen Anne’s disastrous obstetric history and a case of iatrogenic regicide when it comes to King Charles II ‘s death. Typhus hits the judges of the Old Bailey. Then to the resurrection men at St Bartholomew’s hospital a 900 year old institution where the discovery of the circulation of the blood.
This walk is offered as part of London Walks. You can check their website for times and dates by clicking here. Or email Barry and he will reply with the information.
Themes of medical innovation and transport in Paddington. All changed. Changed utterly.
I’m not talking about how Paddington has changed. I’m talking about how something that happened in Paddington that changed the world. Learn how Alexander Fleming spotted a mould on a discarded Petrie dish which led with Florey and Chain in Oxford to develop the world’s first antibiotic. Edward Jenner’s investigation of cowpox led to the world’s first vaccine. It led to the eradication of Smallpox from the planet. Take a break for a turn to one of the wonders of the Victorian age – Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s glorious Paddington station. And for a 21st century counterpoint there’s the stunning new Paddington waterside complex.
This walk is offered as part of London Walks. You can check their website for times and dates by clicking here. Or email Barry and he will reply with the information.
Itinerary
Meeting Point
Just outside Lancaster Gate Underground Station
First stop (for any latecomers)
Italian Gardens opposite Lancaster Gate Underground Station, inside the gates of Kensington Gardens
A tour of Royal London, Buckingham Palace, St James’s Park and Whitehall but with a medical twist Everything from a surfeit of lampreys (Henry 1st) to a headectomy (Charles 1st ). Dr Barry Walsh will take us on a medical tour – we’ll make the rounds – of Westminster and share some of the extraordinary stories of famous Royal operations (including an early appendicectomy performed on a billiard table) and treatments and deaths. We’ll weave through centuries as we weave through Westminster, the Mall and end in Whitehall. By way of example, at Buckingham Palace we hear about Queen Victoria’s relationship with her devote physician Dr Reid and other doctors. At the Banqueting house we hear about Monarchs as healers (the Royal touch believed to treat the ‘Kings Evil’ or scrofula), the which provides a series of fascinating insights into Court ritual and kingship in the Stuart Dynasty.
This walk is offered as part of London Walks. You can check their website for times and dates by clicking here. Or email Barry and he will reply with the information.
Itinerary
Meeting Point
St James' Park Underground Station (Broadway exit)
First stop (for any latecomers)
Westminster Abbey, outside west entrance by bookshop
Children and childhood are the focus of this tour of the academic University quarter ofLondon beginning with the Foundling Hospital for abandoned children. We will see Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children founded in 1854. Stories of Chimney sweeps and haemophiliac princes abound in the delightfully leafy Queens Square. Obstetric histories and mental health of monarchs are discussed. Gaze at the bronze images of insects that harbour exotic infections at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases.
This walk is offered as part of London Walks and you can check their website for times and dates by clicking here. Or email Barry and he will reply with the information.
The discreet world of private medicine is uncovered in the elegant Harley and Wimpole Street. How did this evolve in the 19th Century in the impossibly wealthy Howard de Walden Estate. All will be revealed as will the biggest political scandal of the 20th Century. Mum’s the word until you join the tour! Stammering dukes, speechless Emperors and distraught divas sought cures behind these great mahogany doors. Even the Beatles make an appearance.
Great walk. And – always on our medical London Walks – the big plus: they’re guided by a doctor, a Public Health Physician.
This walk is offered as part of London Walks. You can check their website for times and dates by clicking here. Or email Barry and he will reply with the information.
Itinerary
Meeting Point
Outside Great Portland Street Underground Station
First stop (for any latecomers)
Royal College of Physicians, Regents Park
End at
Cavendish Square, near Oxford Circus Underground Station
Rooms 34 and 35 . It’s in a far flung corner of the British Museum. It’s a journey through the history, richness, complexity and diversity of the Islamic world. Welcome to one of the world’s most important Islamic collections. These two rooms illustrate the history, culture and zeitgeists (notice the plural) of the Islamic world from the time of Mohammed in 7th century to the present day. Elegant Kufic script and calligraphy, astrolabes from Old Cairo, exquisite bronze metalwork and glass from the times of the Crusades, outstanding Iznik tiles and ceramics from the Ottoman Empire… these are objects that aren’t just beautiful, they pack a great deal of historical story power.
This walk is offered as part of London Walks. You can check their website for times and dates by clicking here. Or email Barry and he will reply with the information.
1800-year-old classical early Buddhist sculptures; Hindu divinities – Shiva Nataraja, for example, doing his cosmic dance; jade items (with their Islamic influences) associated with Shah Jahan (of Taj Mahal fame); embroidered and dyed cotton and chintz textiles that stunned Europe when they reached these parts in the 17th century. To say nothing of everybody’s – well, most everybody’s – favourite: Sultan Tipu’s famous tiger mauling a British soldier. I mean the history that one work – that star item from the East India Company collection – draws together, crystallises, opens up to view is of mouth agape potency.
This walk is offered as part of London Walks. You can check their website for times and dates by clicking here. Or email Barry and he will reply with the information.
20th Century European, American and World Art including Picasso, Matisse, Dali, Rothko. The Tate Modern is evolving to include more artists from all over the globe including 40% female artists. The collection changes regularly and includes performance art in the atmospheric underground Oil Drums.
There is no need to book for this guided tour. This walk is offered as part of London Walks. You can check their website for times and dates by clicking here. Or email Barry and he will reply with the information.
Like a ward in a hospital. Dr. Barry’s making the rounds. Heroically. Not least because this is St. Giles (and Bloomsbury). St. Giles was the patron saint of lepers and cancer patients and disabled people and epileptics and the mentally ill and the sterile. To say nothing of outcasts, beggars and poor people. Gives you a feel for the neighbourhood’s past, doesn’t it – this wasn’t called St. Giles for nothing. So, pilgrims and medical students and the merely curious, what have we got here? We’ve got mental illness (she’s Dr. Barry’s most famous patient). We’ve got “dephlogisticated air.” We’ve got the physical and mental havoc wrought by duelling. We’ve got the London School of Hygiene. We’ve got appalling, beknighted, crippling male chauvanism. We’ve got the medically misguided (a miasmatist, for example) – no shortage of them. We’ve got Jenner and Blossom the cow and the Boy Phipps. We’ve got depictions of all the vectors of disease – incluing Aedes aegypti, which is busy spreading the Zika virus at the moment. We’ve got “mothers’ ruin.” We’ve got bubonic plague. We’ve got goal fever. And, yes, we’ve got leprosy – it’s a historical memory for us but horrifyingly alive in Burma and elsewhere. And Dr. Barry being Public Health Physician Dr. Barrythis isn’t just a freak show. It’s serious science, serious medicine, serious epidemiology. Serious science, serious medicine, serious epidemiology that this Public Health Physician guidecontexts all the time – the reflection, for example, that food and medicines are at risk because 20 percent of plant species are facing extinction.
There is no need to book for this guided tour. This walk is offered as part of London Walks and you can check their website for times and dates by clicking here. Or email Barry and he will reply with the information.
Walk description written by David Tucker, London Walks.
