London History

londonguidedwalks.co.uk
  • 4.7 (47)
  • History
  • Weekly

The London History Podcast uncovers the stories, people, and places that have shaped London over 2,000 years. Hosted by historian & tour guide Hazel Baker, each 20–40 minute episode feels like an audio walking tour, covering everything from Roman Londinium and medieval guilds to Dickensian streets, Georgian scandals, and modern social change. Perfect for curious Londoners, visitors, students, and history lovers who want to go beyond the usual tourist highlights.

  1. 4d ago

    166: The Explorer's Room: Guns, Gear and Victorian Travel

    A water filter, a hunting knife and your own portable bath. What else did a Victorian traveller need before leaving London? Join Hazel Baker as she explores the shops that equipped Victorian journeys — including the intriguing Explorer’s Room at S. W. Silver & Co. on Cornhill. Here, officers, missionaries, emigrants and explorers could find everything from tents and travelling furniture to firearms. An October 1869 advert uncovered through Hazel’s research reveals a connection with Edward London, the gunmaker based at 51 London Wall. His guns were displayed in the very room where customers could assemble the rest of their travelling kit. Hazel is joined by Lucas Micallef, who is researching and reviving the Edward London name. Together, they explore surviving firearms, remarkable craftsmanship and the family stories that help bring a historic business back into focus. Discover a Hackney minister who carried Edward London pistols to Egypt and Palestine, an unusual cane air gun, and the technological changes behind Victorian gunmaking. We also look beyond the romance of polished walnut and folding baths to consider how exploration, commerce and empire shaped these journeys. Have an Edward London firearm, case, label, receipt or family story? Please get in touch with Hazel or Lucas; your discovery could help uncover the next chapter. Explore the streets behind the stories with London Guided Walks. Find our public walks and private tours at https://londonguidedwalks.co.uk

  2. Oct 9

    165: Inside Kensington Palace

    In this episode of the London History Podcast, Hazel Baker is joined by City of Westminster tour guide Phil Scott for a reign-by-reign exploration of Kensington Palace. Together, they trace its story from its origins as Nottingham House in the Middlesex countryside, through William III and Mary II’s transformation of it into a royal palace, to its spectacular Georgian state rooms and its defining Victorian associations. They discuss Queen Mary II’s hands-on involvement in furnishing the palace, including her remarkable collection of East Asian porcelain; William Kent’s theatrical King’s Staircase and remarkable Cupola Room; Queen Caroline’s influence on Kensington Gardens and the Serpentine; and the difficult, closely supervised childhood of the young Queen Victoria under the so-called Kensington System. The conversation also explores Queen Anne’s extraordinary relationship with Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough; the palace’s connections to the transatlantic trade in enslaved people; the private and public lives of Princess Margaret, Diana, Princess of Wales, and more recent royal residents; and the overwhelming outpouring of mourning outside the palace after Diana’s death in 1997. Whether you are planning a visit, revisiting a favourite London landmark, or simply enjoy royal history with all its personal drama and political consequences, this episode offers a vivid introduction to Kensington Palace and the people who shaped it. londonguidedwalks.co.uk/podcast

  3. Sep 25

    164: Edwardian London: Mario Theodorou’s Historical Thrillers

    Step into the restless, glittering and deeply unequal London of 1904 with author, screenwriter and director Mario Theodorou, creator of the Felix Grey Mysteries. Mario joins Hazel to explore the Edwardian capital behind his historical thrillers: a city of political power, royal intrigue, rapid technological change and growing demands for social reform. At the heart of the novels is Felix Grey, an idealistic and inexperienced young Prime Minister drawn into dangerous mysteries of abduction, conspiracy and corruption. Together, Hazel and Mario travel across Edwardian London—from Downing Street, Parliament and Buckingham Palace to Fleet Street, the Savoy, the Tower of London, Bow, Old Kent Road and Sailortown. They discuss gentleman’s clubs and imperial power, the changing character of the capital, workers’ rights, the Bryant & May matchwomen, suffrage, the press, secret passages, and the tension between the old Victorian order and a more modern, uncertain future. Mario also shares how his film background shapes the sensory world of his fiction, from the smell of ink on Fleet Street to the energy of the docks, and why he hopes readers will begin to see London as a lived-in city of overlapping stories rather than simply a tourist destination. A richly atmospheric conversation for anyone who loves Edwardian London, historical fiction, political intrigue and the hidden histories beneath the city’s streets. London History Podcast Website

  4. Sep 11

    163: Fighters and Fashion: The Story of Georgian London's Public Combat

    Spotify episode description London’s forgotten fighting history comes alive in this episode of the London History Podcast. Hazel Baker explores the brutal, theatrical and hugely popular world of Georgian bare-knuckle boxing — a sport that shaped London’s streets, entertainments and social life. From James Figg, celebrated as the “invincible master,” to Jack Broughton’s influential rules of combat and Daniel Mendoza’s revolutionary style, this episode follows the fighters who made the ring a defining feature of eighteenth-century London. Hazel also examines women’s involvement in the boxing world and the writing of Pierce Egan, whose accounts give us a vivid window into the culture of prizefighting. Discover how boxing moved from taverns, amphitheatres and the margins of the city into the centre of popular London life — and why its legacy still matters today. In this episode: The rise of prizefighting in Georgian LondonJames Figg and the early fighting schoolsEntertainment, gambling and the city’s rougher edgesWomen in the boxing worldJack Broughton and the first formal boxing rulesDaniel Mendoza and the changing art of combatPierce Egan and the storytelling of the ring For full show notes, sources and more London history, visit the London History Podcast website.

  5. Jun 26

    162: Building Tower Bridge

    How Tower Bridge Was Built: The Untold Story of London's Most Famous Bridge Discover the remarkable history behind Tower Bridge, one of London's most iconic landmarks. Learn how political battles, engineering innovation, and Victorian ambition transformed a transport crisis into one of the greatest bridge-building achievements of the nineteenth century. 00:00 Building Tower Bridge 01:00 Why London Needed a New Thames Crossing 03:00 The Engineering Challenge 05:00 Early Designs and Political Battles 06:00 Choosing the Bascule Design 06:30 Horace Jones and John Wolfe Barry 08:00 The Tower Bridge Act of 1885 10:00 Building the Foundations Beneath the Thames 12:00 The Six Divers of Tower Bridge 14:00 Constructing the Steel Superstructure 16:00 The Revolutionary Hydraulic System 18:00 Victorian Engineering and Safety Standards 20:00 Costs, Delays and Human Sacrifice 22:00 Legal Disputes During Construction 24:45 Why Victorian Critics Hated Tower Bridge 27:30 The Grand Opening of 1894 29:00 Tower Bridge's Lasting Legacy

  6. Jun 12

    161: Life Below Stairs

    Below Stairs London: Tracing Victorian Servant Life in Belgravia and MayfairHazel Baker guides listeners through surviving street-level traces of Victorian servant London—area steps and railings, coal-hole covers, bell systems, mews alleys, and service districts—showing how London’s architecture encoded a rigid “upstairs/downstairs” hierarchy and enforced servant invisibility. Using census figures, she explains domestic service as Britain’s largest employer of women, driven by coal soot, class display, and tax incentives against male servants, then outlines household ranks from butler and housekeeper to scullery maid and mews staff. She describes the physical toll of long days, the servant supply chain at Shepherd Market, mews history and later gentrification, and surviving examples including Hyde Park Gardens Mews, Belgravia Mews West’s Star Pub, Bathurst Mews stables, and 18 Stafford Terrace (Sambourne House). She critiques period dramas for softening labor and highlights servants’ documented sexual vulnerability and limited protections.00:00 161: Life Below Stairs00:12 Introduction01:55 The Scale of Servant London14:20 The Architecture of Invisibility17:02 Coal Holes & Bell Systems22:38 The Mews28:50 Shepherd Market33:23 A Day in the Life37:00 Downton Abbey vs. Reality40:04 Sexual Vulnerability & Structural Silence44:47 Why Did Servants Stay?46:32 18 Stafford Terrace48:54 The Dual City51:43 Outro & Related Episodes

  7. May 29

    160: Soho Square’s Untold Stories: From Charles II to Mary Seacole

    Host Hazel Baker and Westminster guide Philip Scott record in Soho Square, tracing its shift from Middlesex countryside and royal hunting ground—where “Soho!” was cried—to a late-1600s development originally called King Square for Charles II, whose weathered statue remains after being moved and later returned. They highlight residents and landmarks, including Mary Seacole’s blue plaque and her Crimean War work after being refused by Florence Nightingale’s nurses: she built the British Hotel, treated soldiers and went to battlefields, later publishing her 1857 autobiography and receiving a benefit concert. They discuss Seacole’s rediscovery from the 1980s and her statue near Parliament, the square’s 1925 mock-Tudor gardener’s hut and tunnel myth, Huguenot immigration and the French-language Protestant church, Theresa Cornelis and Casanova, and trivia about entertainer Danny La Rue, buried near Seacole. The episode ends promoting a Soho walking tour.

  8. May 22

    159: Unveiling London's Victorian Vampire Legacy

    London’s Dracula Connections: Victorian Vampires, Penny Dreadfuls & the Lyceum Theatre (World Dracula Day Special)On World Dracula Day (26 May), London History Podcast host Hazel Baker speaks with Lambeth tour guide and Gothic novelist David Turnbull about how a century of Gothic writing and London locations shaped Bram Stoker’s Dracula. They trace early vampire traits through Coleridge’s Christabel, Byron’s circle and the Villa Diodati summer, Polidori’s The Vampyre, and the influence of penny dreadfuls like Varney the Vampire and Lloyd’s publications, before moving to Fleet Street magazines and Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla. The conversation highlights Stoker’s Lyceum Theatre work under Henry Irving, the Beefsteak Room’s literary influences (including Burton and Vambéry), Stoker’s research at the British Museum and London Library, and Dracula’s London settings from Piccadilly and King’s Cross to Hampstead. They discuss Dracula’s slow initial success, rivalry with The Beetle, and its 20th-century rise via Hamilton Deane and Bela Lugosi, ending with Turnbull’s Dracula-influenced novel The Hurdy Gurdy Man and related London tours.00:00 Introduction05:39 The Romantic Poets & Vampire Origins17:17 Penny Dreadfuls & Fleet Street31:57 Dracula's London Locations36:19 Dracula's Rise to Fame See Show Notes

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4.7
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About

The London History Podcast uncovers the stories, people, and places that have shaped London over 2,000 years. Hosted by historian & tour guide Hazel Baker, each 20–40 minute episode feels like an audio walking tour, covering everything from Roman Londinium and medieval guilds to Dickensian streets, Georgian scandals, and modern social change. Perfect for curious Londoners, visitors, students, and history lovers who want to go beyond the usual tourist highlights.

Information

  • Creator
    londonguidedwalks.co.uk
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    169
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 155245
  • Show Website
    London History

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