This podcast is a “tour” of Steve’s neck of the woods in East London. Steve is our newest “signing” – he’s been with us for all of two weeks. And boy are we are thrilled to have him. If you look at his bio you’ll see why. This piece is in line with what has been the experience of so many of us since March 2020, since Covid and Lockdowns – we’re getting to know our own neighbourhoods in ways that wouldn’t have seemed possible pre-Lockdown. Because the centripetal pull of central London has all but petered out. Lockdown – in effect house arrest – means we’re doing almost all of our walking and looking and thinking within a 1 – 1.5 mile radius of our homes. It’s given all of us a fresh perspective on our “neck of the woods” and our great city generally. This podcast is the product of Steve’s repeated close scrutiny of his neighbourhood.
Steve’s first tour for London Walks is in the pipeline. It’s a virtual tour of the Bayeux Tapestry, the world’s greatest cartoon. Where else but London Walks – from whom else but a London Walks guide – will you find out how many penises are visible in the Bayeux Tapestry! Fun, huh? And, yes, the conclusion you’ve just drawn, is spot on. Steve – like other London Walks guides – knows things other people don’t know. And he’s eminently quotable – his turn of phrase laser-sharpened by all those years as a journalist and writing Lonely Planet guidebooks.
“it is possible to see a smile through a mask”
“a chance to explore my own neighbourhood”
“my part of east London”
“but look again, especially at that church”
“the four-faced liar”
“intriguing personal effects and curiosities”
“the place has a split personality”
“the stairway to heaven”
“the worst British civil disaster of World War II”
“a battery of anti-aircraft rockets”
“not something you would read in many books”
“at the bottom of the pile were the corpses of seven well-known pickpockets”
“the father of scientific boxing”
“foul play”
“a David Beckham of 18th-century London”
“he advanced the cause of Jews”
“people learned for the first time that a Jew could and would fight back”