A Virtual Tour led by Kevin Flude, the distinguished former London Museum archaeologist. (In London Walks parlance, Kevin’s the London Museum emeritus archaeologist!)
We drop in on London at the very end of the Saxon age — on the anniversary of Harold’s coronation — with the Norman storm still months away.
Harold’s coronation in early January 1066 is one of those moments when history seems to hold its breath. England has a new king, London is bustling, confident, the kingdom looks settled — and yet the thunderheads are gathering out beyond the horizon.
London at this moment is England’s greatest city, though not formally the capital. It’s the powerhouse Harold needs behind him, the city whose loyalty and wealth will carry him through the crises that lie ahead.
Of course, we know what’s coming: William, the invasion, Hastings. But on this day, none of that has happened. The Normans are still in Normandy. Harold is the newly anointed king in the newly built Westminster Abbey — the last crowned Anglo-Saxon monarch — and London is very much his.
On this archaeologist-guided virtual tour we explore the Late Saxon London that Harold knew: the river crossings, the markets, the defences, the churches, the political nervous system of the kingdom. And we look ahead — through archaeology and hindsight — at how William will later try (and fail) to batter his way across London Bridge, how the city will resist him, and how he will eventually break it, reshape it, and bury Anglo-Saxon England for good.
But that’s all in the future. Today is Harold’s day.
This Virtual Tour begins at Westminster Abbey, threads its way through Late Saxon London, and, with an eye on the coming storm, ends at the site where the Normans will later plant their great statement of conquest — the Tower of London.
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE GUIDING
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