If you walk around the streets to the north east of the Strand and Aldwych today, you can see hardly a hint of a fascinating old area.

It was a notorious London slum, the last of the west-end, centre of prostitution and Victorian pornographic literature. It had a vibrant street market where the butchers became local grandees, and some prestigious theatres. It also attracted some idiosyncratic characters and contained some rare surviving architecture going back to the sixteenth century.

Using old maps, images, extracts from Dickens and Pope et al and remaining signs today, Richard’s virtual tour leads you through the history of an area long swept away.

Note: This tour deals with some adult themes.

This is the first in a pair of tours, the second one of which features the grand Aldwych, Kingsway road development that replaced this neighbourhood.

This is a live virtual tour hosted via Zoom video conferencing where your guide will give an illustrated presentation of the tour route with an accompanying talk. There will be opportunities for questions and interaction both during and after the virtual tour.