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Free booking and cancellationFree payment tour, no set price, booking and cancellation are free
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Accepts electronic paymentThis tour allows payment by electronic means or credit card
Soho & Covent Garden: A Tale of Refugees, Radicals, Revolutionaries & Social Rebels
Want something a little deeper than the London popular culture tours? I'm a former economist now writing a West End musical, but also a history geek and lover of London. Let me take you through the streets of London, from the City (the old Roman town of Londinium) to Soho & Covent Garden. I'll explain how London came from being a European backwater to the largest city in the world in the 1800s. Today, London surpasses New York in diversity and has become a playground for the rich. From clean money to dirty money, I'll tell you the back story behind London's rise, not just the official version! The good, the bad and the ugly: you'll hear about it all. To access my social media sites including Instagram, Twitter and Facebook follow this link: https://linktr.ee/londoncuriosity
Tour description
Free walking tour Soho & Covent Garden: A tale of refugees, radicals, revolutionaries and sexual rebels, from Benjamin Franklin to Karl Marx, George Orwell, Oscar Wilde and beyond
Highlights of the tour include:
- Benjamin Franklin House: The London House of the intellectual driving force behind America's independence from Britain.
- Site of the old Red Lion pub: Where Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels were instructed to write the Communist Manifesto, a document that changed the world
- 22 Dean Street: The apartment where Marx started work on Das Capital and three of his children died in conditions of extreme poverty
- The Dog & Duck Pub: Where George Orwell celebrated the publication of Animal Farm
- St Anne's Churchyard: Resting place of a Corsican king who died in poverty in London in exile
- Old Compton Street: Centre of Soho's gay community, underground until 1967, when homosexuality was legalized in the UK
- 1 Greek Street: Home of one the wealthiest men in London whose money was made from the slave trade
- Soho Square: Heart of London's French protestant Huguenots, forced to flee persecution in France
The tour will end at Soho Square, a five-minute walk from Tottenham Court Road Tube Station on the Northern, Central, and Elizabeth lines.
What will we visit on this tour?
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Meeting point:Embankment station, Embankment Pl, Lo...Embankment station, Embankment Pl, London WC2N 6NS, UK
I will be next to the flower stall outside Embankment Station on the Villiers Street side (going up the hill) wearing a hat and carrying a pink newspaper.
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1Outside visitBenjamin Franklin House
The house where one of America's founding fathers lived before revolution.
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2Outside visitRoyal Society of Arts
Intellectual meeting place for London, with both Benjamin Franklin and Karl Marx as members.
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3Outside visitSt Paul’s Church Covent Garden
Famous Indigo Jones church and also the actors' church for London't theatre land.
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4Outside visitGerrard Street
Now the centre of London's Chinatown but formerly a home to high society clubs and brothels.
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5Outside visitCecil Court
Back alley linking Convent Garden to Soho and now famous a Harry Potter film set.
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6Outside visitGreat Windmill Street
Site of the old Red Lion pub where the Communist Manifesto was born
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7Outside visitOld Compton Street
Centre of London's gay community; now out in the open after decades of legal persecution that only ended 50 years ago
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8Outside visitSt Anne's Church
Churchyard that is now a park on top of plague pits
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9Outside visitDog & Duck
One of George Orwell's favourite pubs in the area.
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10Outside visitJohn Snow Water Pump
Famed for linking tainted water with a cholera epidemic and advancing medical science
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11Outside visit22 Dean Street
The apartment where Karl Marx wrote his famous book Das Capital
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12Outside visitSoho Square Gardens
One of London's oldest squares; originally housing members of the English aristocracy but later becoming a crowed home for refugees.
How much does this tour cost?
Free tours do not have a set price, instead, each person gives the guru at the end of the tour the amount that he or she considers appropriate (these usually range from €10 to $50 depending on satisfaction with the tour).