London Month of the Dead - Present, Present and Future, October 2019, A series on death curated by Antique Beat and A Curious Invitation supporting Brompton and Kensal Green cemeteries

BARDS, BAWDS AND BLOOD
A Guided Walk through Historic Southwark with Pete Smith
Saturday the 26th October 2024 at 11:00 am and 2:00 pm

Not to mention booze, and a bridge once bristling with severed heads! Starting on the south side of London Bridge, between the City of London’s fire-breathing dragon and the monumental spike that reminds us of that display of traitors’ heads, this walk through what was once London’s wicked playground takes in a thousand years of dark deeds. Away from the restrictions of the City on the north bank of the Thames, this was the site of the theatres that Shakespeare and Marlowe wrote for, but it was also where Londoners came to visit the many whorehouses, to gamble and to witness animals tortured to death.

Be prepared for tales of dissection, grave robbing, a brothel-owning bishop, pubs, prisons, bear-baiting - oh, and of course a theatre or two. Along the way, you will hear when the Devil gatecrashed a play, how an elephant walked across the river, and where you could try your hand at cat-throwing.

Tickets £12 including a 20% donation toward a host of restoration projects at Nunhead Cemetery.

Pete Smith is a Devon-born academic who has lived in London since the age of ten. Since retiring as Head of English and Dean of Arts at Brunel University (a job he describes as very like managing the salad bar at Smithfield Meat Market), he has reinvented himself as a City of London and City of Westminster guide and freelance lecturer.


Image credit - Heads at London Bridge. Public domain image sourced from Wikimedia Commons.