My Manor (End of the London Villages Walks)

Eric's behaviour  is now questioned

Yesterday was the end of the rather splendid London Walks led by Paul Sinclair and booked through London's CityLit (100 years old next year).



We started where we finished last week at the Argyll Arms and then onto Langham Place where the BBC is situated with it's controversial statue by Eric Gill. (I'm a fan of his brother Max's maps)


 Just nearby is the Langham Hotel where the idea of afternoon Tea was fostered and also the rather splendid All Souls Church designed by Paul Nash.

All Souls  designed by Paul Nash

Langham Hotel - home of Afternoon Tea

We went on to Oxford Market - this is associated with The Earl of Oxford and radicals  who met there rather than the later Oxford Street shopping road, we then walked on the Surprisingly 'High' Church of  All Saints in Margaret Street- I was also surprised at the number of people inside laid out and snoring!

As well as being beautifully decorated with stained glass windows the church although an Anglican church it has confession!

Paul talks about Oxford Market 

A lovely high Church - with snorers

We walked through an area associated with Charles Dickens towards the famous BT Tower (where I worked for a few years) and also saw Boulting's Stone Manufacturers and it's Art Nouveau lettering .

Look at the letters

Just close by was another pub I know well The Green Man, it's about 38 years since I first visited this when I was at ITN (ITV's News Organisation) before it moved to Gray's Inn Road.

Green Man - A short dash  from ITN's Wells St Offices

Here's one of many places with a Dickens Blue Plaque - it was an area also associated with Brothels, Royalty and a possible Jack the Ripper connection.

Dickens lived here

Another place with memories for me

There's a workhouse nearby (now preserved) - that helped inform Dickens writing too.

The Workhouse

 we walked through the Robert Adams designed  Fitzroy Square where Virginia Woolf  lived (as did GB Shaw).

Fitzroy Square - like so many we've seen has evidence of stops and starts of the build as funds became available 

And we looked at Heals the famous furniture store whose site once abutted farm land:

Heals in Tottenham Court Road - a modern day connection to the Arts and Crafts movement