London Unseen: self-guided walks
London Unseen are pleased to highlight a selection of fantastic community-based trails and walks that you can download and explore at your own pace.
If you have a walk you would like to share please let us know.
In conjunction with Everyday Muslim and the Institute of Historical Research - Layers of
London, a collection of trails has been produced that draws on the Everyday Muslim
archives to showcase Muslim heritage in and around London. Distinguished and celebrated
for its diversity, this collection reveals the hidden history of everyday Muslim Londoners,
from a female convert with aristocratic roots and the first South Asian magistrate to a World
War II veteran, Black Muslim activist and a female poet, playwright, and actress.
The trails can be undertaken virtually from the comfort of your home or in person for the
more adventurous. Whichever way you experience the trails, it will provide an intriguing
snapshot of the lives and places of some important Muslim figures and the Muslim heritage
of London.
Everyday Muslim Heritage and Archive - Collections
Main Page
Everyday Muslim Heritage and Archive - Trails
Lady Khalida Buchanan Hamilton – Aristocrat and early convert to Islam and president of the Muslim Society of Great Britain.
Youssif Ali – Lascar and World War II soldier.
Muhammad Khaja – Activist and community chaplain.
Habib Hussain – From Station Master for London Transport to magistrate.
Aga Rais Mirza - Graduate from the London College of Printing in 1962 and community advocate.
Hodan Yusuf - Writer, Poet, Activist, Actress and Playwright
Project researcher: Tabassum Hawa
The Jews of London is a free self-guided walking tour presented by the United Synagogue, the largest synagogue body in Europe.
The tour begins at the Barbican and ends at Fournier Street, Spitalfields taking in nearly 1,000 years of Jewish history. The tour begins by asking: how did the first English Jews live? What brought them to London? And how were they received? Over fifteen stops, we then take in the expulsion of 1290 and the Jews' readmission more than three centuries later.
We explore the establishment of the modern Jewish community and the growth of the Ashkenazi sector in particular, look at diamonds and disputes, the formation of the United Synagogue, the seismic changes brought about by Jewish immigration from eastern Europe, the development of kosher food, Jewish schools, and the move from the East End to London's suburbs.
Easily accessible from any mobile device, the stops are accompanied by focused podcasts, each around six minutes long, with depth on related issues aided by images, maps and further sources.
The length and pace of the tour can be determined by the explorer. Covering a distance of just under 2.5 miles, we anticipate that the tour can be completed in under four hours without rushing each stop.
The United Synagogue (US) is the spiritual home for more than 50,000 people belonging to some 60 local synagogue communities across the UK. US communities are there for people of all ages to come together and celebrate authentic, modern, Torah Judaism which is welcoming to all.
Founded by an Act of Parliament in 1870, the United Synagogue supports its communities and members through social and educational initiatives, activities for young people and social action and community care projects. The US also serves the UK Jewish communal infrastructure through the provision of kosher food, marriages, matters of Jewish law and burial and cemetery management.
Thanks to David Nielsen, Marketing Manager at United Synagogue for providing this information.
In 2021 Haringey Council marked Women's History Month by launching a new web resource - The Haringey Women's History Map. Three beautifully illustrated maps highlight the lives and accomplishments of many women who have contributed, influenced, and helped shape the area we know today.
From the archives of Bruce Castle Museum, the Haringey Women's History Maps bring together the stories and lives of around 250 women who lived or worked in Haringey.
Download the Tottenham Women's History Map and discover the fascinating lives of local women including - the philanthropy of Priscilla Wakefield, the vision of teacher Blanche Nevile or the crafts of Annie Bradley or textile designer Althea McNish.
The map can be enjoyed either from home or whilst out on a walk - whatever way, you can download a map and its corresponding legend and information and can explore the area by following the number sequence or you can make up your own route - and be inspired by our Haringey Women's History.
Thanks to Elena Pippou, Cultural Officer at Haringey Council and Deborah Hedgecock at Bruce Castle Museum for providing this information.
Bengali people have lived in London for nearly 400 years. Explore Banglatown and the Bengali East End.The 'Bengali Cultural Walk' offers a fascinating insight into the British Bengali community's significant contribution to contemporary UK culture.
This booklet was compiled and written by Dan Jones, a youth worker in Tower Hamlets from 1967, now working for Amnesty International. It was largely based on research by Daniele Lamarche of Shadinata Trust, and by Jo Skinner, Chris Lloyd and Ansar Ahmed Ullah of Tower Hamlets Council.
This walk was accessed via the Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives website. holds outstanding and unique resources for the study of the history of London’s world famous East End. We cover the London Borough of Tower Hamlets which was created from the former Metropolitan Boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney. Through an extraordinary range of original documents, images and reference books the collections document the changing local landscape and lived experiences of individuals and communities in Tower Hamlets.
Our Grade II listed library building dates from 1860 and is conveniently located in Mile End. The extensive local history library covers a vast range of popular subjects such as migration and communities, local industries and political movements and includes thousands of photographs and press cuttings as well as rare publications. Stored on hundreds of linear metres of mobile shelving in our climate-controlled strongroom, the archive collections are spread across a variety of formats, from medieval parchment to digital audio and video. For further details see our collections page.
A series of downloadable booklets and trails from the Ideas Store. Explore the Bow Heritage Trail, Walks in the Isle of Dogs, Walks in Wapping and Limehouse amongst others here: Local History Walks
Online Exhibitions include:
Incredible Edible Lambeth is a membership organisation that wants to create connected communities through the power of food.
They encourage people to look at their local patch and see how they can transform it into a food growing space. Their aim is to galvanise people and communities through growing and celebrating food.
Over the past couple of years, they have been creating walking trails to help people find some of the hidden green gems in the borough. Each beautifully illustrated map has a written description of the route.
If you’re in Lambeth, why not explore the offerings of the earth and the communities that thrive there, by taking yourself on one of their self-guided walks.
The group has also been mapping community food projects in Lambeth.You can look these up on their map, and add any others that you may know about by becoming a group member for free.
The Line is London’s first dedicated public art walk. Follow the route, which runs between the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the O2 along the Greenwich Meridian.
You can explore nature, art and heritage through this outdoor exhibition programme.
Download the free Bloomberg Connects app to be guided through the walk: listen to artists introduce their work along the route; hear stories about the heritage and architecture there; watch artists’ films; read about the wildlife. And you can also stop to breathe whilst listening to mindfulness meditations.
If you can’t (or don’t want to) get out, you can still enjoy exploring parts of London using Historic England’s Self-Guided Virtual Tours.
Do the Queer Soho walking tour to learn about historical research spanning more than 130 years of Queer history and life in this area - from the Victorian era to the present day.
In their Spotter’s Guide tour, it is the buildings of Soho that feature. If you’re into architecture, this tour will teach you about the best examples of early Georgian homes. You’ll also learn some key architectural features and terms.
This is Britain’s first ever Muslim heritage trail. But that’s not the only ‘first’! The trail incorporates the country’s first ever purpose-built mosque, the Shah Jahan; the first ever burial site dedicated to Muslim soldiers, the Peace Garden; and Britain’s first Muslim cemetery, in Brookwood.
This trail also includes a cemetery walk which points out some of Brookwood’s most famous Muslim burials: the Qu’uran translator, Marmaduke Pickthall, and one of Britain’s first Muslim peers, Lord Headley.
You can download both parts of this trail on the everyday muslim website.
Geoff Simmons’ downloadable trail pinpoints key London locations relevant to ‘modern’ Irish history.
A helpful guide and pointer to learning about parts of this community’s history, this trail is best done by bicycle. You’ll ideally need a phone or a good map to navigate from one point to another - and you can use the links included in the trail to learn more.
Geoff offers you a short circuit, which begins and ends in Parliament Square, and an extended trail that leads all the way into south east London. Pump up your tires, fill your water bottles, and enjoy the ride!
If you want to learn more about the Tooting-Wandsworth areas and their communities, Geoff has lots of self-guided downloadable walks around the SW London area.
We recommend you start with the First Lady Sadie tour, all about Louisa Marshall, one of the ‘lost women of British jazz’. Raised in extraordinary poverty into a world of asylums, workhouses and domestic service, she travelled the world, played with some of the greatest musicians of the age and is believed to be the first British female musician to feature on a jazz recording.
And for another bicycle tour, follow Geoff's Tooting Black History Cycle Trail, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, and a reassessment of his approach to communicating history.
Walk East director, Graham Barker, has written a number of Walks of the Month for East End Life.
His self-guided tours are aimed at residents of Tower Hamlets, to guide them through exploring the borough’s heritage, green spaces, landmarks and community venues.
You can download a selection of these community-based walks.
Launched for their Open House Festival in 2020, these self-guided tours focus on outdoor and publicly-accessible spaces.
Either walking or by bicycle, you can explore the architectural highlights that many of London’s borough’s have to offer. There’s also an audio tour about Marylebone.
Access all their self-guided tours on their website.
The Penge and Cator Parks Walk was devised by Keith Rodwell to include all the parks and open spaces in the Penge and surrounding areas in a single walk.
This was done as a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Penge Green Gym (aka the Friends of Winsford Gardens). Penge Green Gym have been working for more than a decade to transform Winsford Gardens into a safe and welcoming environment for the local community and urban wildlife.
Whilst this parks trail doesn’t include much historical detail of the sites within it, you can find that information on the Penge Heritage Trail instead!
Abney Park is a small, volunteer-run charity working in partnership with Hackney Council to bring Abney Park’s unique wildlife, bio diversity and cultural heritage to life.
They've created a number of audio and written self-guided trails which help you to explore the site.
Look at the symbolism of memorials; find out about the 18th and 19th century abolitionists who are laid to rest there; listen to performances and meditations; or do a tour which explores the natural wonders of the park.
A beautifully hand-illustrated self-guide map brings alive Anglo-Sikh history in the Trafalgar Square and Whitehall area.
Background
In 2010 Rav Sigh was at Trafalgar Square, attending the annual Vaisakhi celebrations. He was amazed at how thousands of Sikhs were gathered in the Square, and yet it seemed no one knew the story of the war cry of General Havelock to his Sikhs at Lucknow in 1857 and his message of thanks to his regiment, the Ferozepure regiment of Sikhs, memorialised in the centre of London.
Rav imagined seeing groups of UK Sikhs learning their Anglo-Sikh heritage and people starting their own journeys of discovery. And so, the initiative ‘A Little History of the Sikhs – Walking Tours, Day Trips and Study Visits’ began.
On 29 April 2017, Rav found himself given the opportunity to share ‘A Little History of the Sikhs – Trafalgar Square and Whitehall’ with Sikhs, tourists and passing Londoners who enjoyed the Mayor of London’s Vaisakhi in the Square event.
Rav's self-guide walking tour map for the centre of London was researched, designed and produced in collaboration with London Odyssey and Ajit Singh from UK venues Printing.
Download the self-guide map and enjoy the insights.