London calling.
London Walks connecting.
This… is London.
This is London Walks.
Streets ahead.
Story time. History time.
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A very good day to you, London Walkers. Wherever you are. It’s July 4, 2025 – American Independence Day.
Revisiting this one.
Two years ago the July 4th piece was titled, “What happened in London on July 4, 1776.”
It was partial coverage. A taster. What it wasn’t was exhaustive and comprehensive.
So two years on, I thought we’d take another look, find out a bit more.
Of some note, a couple of the changes since that July 4th, 2023 piece. Starting with AI. For example, the London newspaper scene in 1776. London was awash with newspapers. AI informs us there were 53 newspapers published in London on July 4, 1776. Two years ago it would have taken a lot of sifting and winnowing – a lot of digging and counting – to get an approximate measure of the robust London newspaper scene on our day in question. Two years on it’s a matter of dreaming up the question and putting it to AI. And hey presto, you’ve got your answer: 53 newspapers.
I’ve got ready access to nine of the 53. For the record, I haven’t the foggiest how many of the others have survived.
Anyway, I thought what we’d do today is take a look at those nine and steer a course that doesn’t cover the same ground that we went over two years.
So beginning with the St James’ Chronicle we get this item on Page 3. For the record, the St Jame’s Chronicle was a four page newspaper. Anyway, on page 3 the Chronicle says, “The news expected from America is, that either General Howe is in quiet possession of New York, or that he has been under the necessity of laying that beautiful town in ashes.”
It’s not much to go on is it. And we of course have to remember the delayed fuse nature of news in 1776.
By way of example, what happened in Philadelphia on the afternoon of July 4th, 1776. Yes, that’s right, the United States Declaration of Independence. It was adopted unanimously by the 2nd Continental Congress. What happened that afternoon in the Pennsylvania State House – later renamed Independence Hall – was world-changing, the most important historical event of the last 250 years. And let us not forget, it was a brave thing those delegates did. They knew full well they were committing an act of treason against the crown. High treason was punishable by torture and death.
For the record, it would be nearly a month – August 2nd, 1776 – before the Declaration of Independence would be signed. 251 years on – today – the coverage would have been live. Everybody around the world would watch it in real time, as it happened. Not so in 1776. London was going to bed, none the wiser, when Declaration of Independence was being adopted. And indeed it would be several weeks before the news of the Declaration of Independence reached London.
So on July 4th, 1776, as far as they knew Londoners thought everything was in hand. Starting with New York. Either General Howe was in possession of New York. Or he’d Carthaged it, burned it down.
Well some Londoners thought everything was in hand. Others – perhaps those of a more nervous disposition – almost certainly had some misgivings. It was maybe like living in an earthquake zone and sensing just a hint of a preliminary tremor. And worrying that it might be heralding something far bigger.
For example, the mention of the embargo in the St James’s Chronicle. That surely was a telltale wet finger thrust up in the air. The Chronicle spoke of a fresh order that no ship was to take arms or ammunition to any part of His Britannick Majesty’s Dominions. And that any vessel caught doing so would result in the forfeiture of the ship as well as the cargo. And that the ship’s officers would be imprisoned. And that said order would continue in force as long as the Americans “continue in arms against their Sovereign.”
The clear implication being that the uprising over there was no longer confined and local. It was at least in part being fuelled by other players in other lands, other lands across the briny deep. If I’d been a conservative, patriotic Brit reading that in my club in St James’s on July 4th, 1776 I would have turned to my fellow clubman the next chair over and said, “you seen this, Charles, this doesn’t sound good at all.”
In that same vein, this item on page four of the Chronicle: “Authentic advices received within these few days, say, that Spain declines giving any satisfactory Answer to the Complaints made by our Court, respecting the Trade, carried on between that kingdom and our refractory brethren in America.
Refractory Brethren. Little did they know, eh.
And more faggots to the flames, American privateers were playing havoc with British shipping. The Hope, for example, sailing from Cork, bound for Halifax. An American privateer said, I’ll have that, thank you very much. Seized it, sailed it to Boston. Its cargo: 95 barrels of gunpowder, 1,000 stand of arms, entrenching tools, travelling carriages, etc.
But brethren, refractory or otherwise, is the right word. I’m looking now at the front page of the Morning Post on July 4, 1776. it’s also running the story about General Howe either being in quiet possession of New York or, failing that, being under the necessity of laying that beautiful town in ashes.
And then immediately underneath the General Howe news, which isn’t news of course, it’s speculation, immediately underneath it we read: “A very elegant monument adorned with various military trophies is erecting at Philadelphia to the memory of General Montgomery, by order of the Continental Congress. It’s almost Alice in Wonderland curious, the Morning Post running that little tale and for good measure tucking it in immediately underneath the General Howe might need to put the torch to New York City item.
No, I didn’t know either. General Montgomery was born in Ireland. He joined the British army. Fought in the French and Indian War. Didn’t get promoted fast enough to suit his wishes. So he did what you do. He quit the British army and joined the American cause. Became a brigadier in the Continental army. Led its invasion of Canada. Its capture of Montreal. And its attack on Quebec City. He was killed on December 31st, 1775, leading from the front, leading his troops on the assault on Quebec. So in the end he was an American hero and thus the statue.
Now it seems the Morning Post was a little bit wide of the mark in its information. The monument – it was the first official monument commissioned by the American government – was made in France and shipped to America. That’s got a familiar ring to it. Think Statue of Liberty. Benjamin Franklin was entrusted with securing a sculptor. He plumped for Louis XV’s personal sculptor. The monument was intended for Independence Hall in Philadelphia but in the event it ended up in New York City. It was installed in St Paul’s chapel there. And it’s still there. That’s my next errand for my grear pal, David Hall, who lives in Manhattan. Hey David, could you do me a favour, could you please go to St Paul’s Chapel in your town and photograph the monument to General Richard Montgomery. You’ll find it in the east window of the chapel. For the record, that spot was a place of worship for another General. General George Washington during his time in New York City. Everything comes together there because the remains of that Irish-born turncoat General Richard Montgomery are buried beneath the monument. He had been buried in Quebec but in 1818 he was furloughed, permanently furloughed. Sent on his last post to St Paul’s Chapel.
Well, make of it what you will. I’m thinking of that plaque on a house in Gloucester Place that reads: American patriot Benedict Arnold lived here. One man’s traitor is another man’s patriot.
But Richard Montgomery seemed to be that rarest of phenomena, a British turncoat, a British newspaper editor still saw fit to salute.
It’s a cliche that times and circumstances change but the human heart remains the same. We identify with people who lived 250 years before our time. “Yes, they shaved their heads and wore powdered wigs topped with funny hats and the rest of their outfits were pretty strange and their guns weren’t as efficient as ours and it took them two to three weeks to cross the Atlantic and they didn’t have cars or computers or electric guitars or cellphones but otherwise they were pretty much like us.”
I’m not so sure about that.
I’m thinking about the British Evening Post’s July 4th 1776 list of new poetry publications.
You’ll find it on page 3, right-hand column. All the newspapers incidentally, at least the ones I looked at, were four pages long. And cost 2 1/2 pence. But the price was about to go up by half a pence, to thruppence. I’m thinking maybe I’ll take that ball and run with it in a future “edition” of London Calling.
Anyway, sure enough, there it is, a big ad over on the right-hand column of page three of the British Evening Post.
The headline is New Poetry.
The sub-heading: This Day Were Published.
And where were they published, where could you pick up a copy of any of these brand new poetic effusions. Why, more or less where Hatchards stands today. There on Piccadilly. The business was J. Almon’s – he was obviously a bookseller – and his establishment was directly across Piccadilly from Burlington House. Yes, pretty much where Hatchard’s, London’s oldest bookseller stands today. But in 1776 Hatchards was still 23 years in the future. I wonder if they know about their bookselling predecessor right there, where they are today.
Ok, kept you waiting long enough. Here are some of the Poetry Tomes that were published in London on what would become American Independence Day. July 4, 1776.
Heading up the list: America: An Ode to the People of England. Price: 6 shillings.
And there was an Ode Occasioned by Sir William Browne’s Legacy of Two Gold Medals for the Encouragement of Poetry at Cambridge. It was also six shillings.
Fair to say, I think, that America was taking up a lot of space, rent free, in the mind of the British reading public – be it newspapers or poetry – on this day of days. Because also making the new poetry list, published this day, was a volume titled Mac Fingal: A Modern Epic Poem written at Philadelphia.
Another volume was titled An Asylum for Refugees. That’s a subject that interests me. But I think I’d rather have it in prose than poetry.
But for me the clincher, the reason I think that maybe their mental landscape was significantly different from ours, was the volume titled Ode to Mr Pinchbeck, on his Newly Invented Patent Candle Snuffer.
Though come to think of it, that’s the one volume I would buy. I’d be overcome by curiosity. And it was only six pence.
Refractory Brethren and an Ode to a Newly Invented Patent Candle Snuffer – do takeaways get any better than those two?
There you go. There’s London for you on July 4th, 1776. But I guarantee you we’ll be back here. 250-year-old London newspapers, they’re a trip to the far side of the moon. What’s not to like.
You’ve been listening to This… is London, the London Walks podcast. Emanating from www.walks.com –
home of London Walks,
London’s signature walking tour company.
London’s local, time-honoured, fiercely independent, family-owned, just-the-right-size walking tour company.
And as long as we’re at it, London’s multi-award-winning walking tour company. Indeed, London’s only award-winning walking tour company.
And here’s the secret: London Walks is essentially run as a guides’ cooperative.
That’s the key to everything.
It’s the reason we’re able to attract and keep the best guides in London. You can get schlubbers to do this for £20 a walk. But you cannot get world-class guides – let alone accomplished professionals.
It’s not rocket science: you get what you pay for.
And just as surely, you also get what you don’t pay for.
Back in 1968 when we got started we quickly came to a fork in the road. We had to answer a searching question: Do we want to make the most money? Or do we want to be the best walking tour company in the world?
You want to make the most money you go the schlubbers route. You want to be the best walking tour company in the world you do whatever you have to do
to attract and keep the best guides in London –
you want them guiding for you, not for somebody else.
Bears repeating:
the way we’re structured – a guides’ cooperative –
is the key to the whole thing.
It’s the reason for all those awards, it’s the reason people who know go with London Walks, it’s the reason we’ve got a big following, a lively, loyal, discerning following – quality attracts quality.
It’s the reason we’re able – uniquely – to front our walks with accomplished, in many cases distinguished professionals:
By way of example, Stewart Purvis, the former Editor
(and subsequently CEO) of Independent Television News.
And Lisa Honan, who had a distinguished career as a diplomat (Lisa was the Governor of St Helena, the island where Napoleon breathed his last and, some say, had his penis amputated – Napoleon didn’t feel a thing – if thing’s the mot juste – he was dead.)
Stewart and Lisa – both of them CBEs – are just a couple of our headline acts.
Or take our Ripper Walk. It’s the creation of the world’s leading expert on Jack the Ripper, Donald Rumbelow, the author of the definitive book on the subject. Britain’s most distinguished crime historian, Donald is, in the words of The Jack the Ripper A to Z, “internationally recognised as the leading authority on Jack the Ripper.” Donald’s emeritus now but he’s still the guiding light on our Ripper Walk. He curates the walk. He trains up and mentors our Ripper Walk guides. Fields any and all questions they throw at him.
The London Walks Aristocracy of Talent – its All-Star Team of Guides – includes a former London Mayor. It includes the former Chief Music Critic for the Evening Standard. It includes the Chair of the Association of Professional Tour Guides. And the former chair of the Guild of Guides.
It includes barristers, doctors, geologists, museum curators, a former London Museum archaeologist, historians,
university professors (one of them a distinguished Cambridge University paleontologist); it includes a criminal defence lawyer, Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre actors, a bevy of MVPs, Oscar winners (people who’ve won the big one, the Guide of the Year Award)…
well, you get the idea.
As that travel writer famously put it, “if this were a golf tournament, every name on the Leader Board would be a London Walks guide.”
And as we put it: London Walks Guides make the new familiar
and the familiar new.
And on that agreeable note…
come then, let us go forward together on some great London Walks.
And that’s by way of saying, Good walking and Good Londoning one and all. See ya next time.