Walk This Way!
Lambeth Tour Guides Association (LTGA) welcomes you to this winter warmer edition of its quarterly newsletter ‘Walk this Way’ We’ve had a great summer here at the LTGA, leading walks on a wide spectrum of themes across all parts of the borough, as well as providing walks for the Lambeth Heritage Festival and London Local Guiding Day. We’ve also been improving our knowledge with guest speakers and presentations for guides on important issues, ranging from blue plaques and the war graves commission to the real Windrush story.
A new intake of future guides have now started training for their accreditation on the Morley College ‘Become a Lambeth Tour Guide’ course and our regular tours of Lambeth Town Hall have commenced, as pictured above!
Here are some highlights of winter walks coming up!
Don’t forget that you could arrange a private group tour with any of our guides. It might be as part of a family event or celebration, family or friends visiting you in London and wanting to find out more about the area and its history, or something fun to do with work colleagues or a staff association or social club. You may even be a visitor to the area yourself, staying in one of the local hotels and looking for something a bit different to the usual tourist attractions. Contact us to find the right guide for you!
A new plaque in Lambeth
A new plaque has been unveiled in Lambeth. Dedicated by English Heritage and located at 121 Railton Road marks the house where political activist Olive Morris lived as a squatter in the 1970s.
Born in Jamaica in 1952 she moved to London with her family when she was nine. She was a lead organiser in Black Women’s Movement and the British wing of the Black Panthers and worked at the Brixton Law Centre before her untimely death aged 27 from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Olive Morris is one of the women featured in ‘Inspirational Women of Lambeth’ written by four members of the the LTGA to celebrate the achievements of women who lived, studied, worked or were buried in Lambeth.
Copies of the book are available from:
Clapham Books
26 The Pavement W4 0JA
Herne Hill Books
289 Railton Road, SE24 0LY
The Calder Bookshop & Theatre
51 The Cut, SE1 8LF
Lambeth Archives
16 Brixton Hill, London SW2 1ET
The Owl Bookshop
207-209 Kentish Town Road, NW5 2JU
A Place to Visit in Lambeth
Lambeth Remembers - Nurses Cross Waterloo
Across the borough people laid wreaths at war memorials during ceremonies marking Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday this November. Lambeth memorials include a statue of a First World War soldier, accompanied by a civilian memorial at Streatham Common, the Commonwealth War memorial in Brixton’s Windrush Square, and the Victory Arch at the entrance to Waterloo mainline station.
One of the most unique is the crucifix to the front of St John’s Church which was dedicated by the nurses of the King George Hospital in Stamford Street in memory of the soldiers brought back to Waterloo from the front in World War One and who sadly died of their wounds.
The location of the hospital had been the HM Stationery Office and had tunnels leading to and from Waterloo station, which were then used to bring the war wounded from the station to the hospital wards. The side of the memorial also contain the names of parishioners of St. John’s who died in the war.
It Happened in Lambeth
Jacobite Executions
Another of the four Lambeth churches named after the Apostles is St. Mark's, opposite
Oval tube station.
The location was once one of London’s execution sites. It was here in November 1746 that the last of sixteen supporters of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) and his claim to the British throne were hung drawn and quartered. They were mainly members of the Manchester Jacobite regiment which had been raised by Lancashire Catholic Francis Towneley. After the defeat of the Jacobites on Culloden Moor Towneley and members of his regiment where tried for treason and brought to Kennington dressed in highland regalia.
The executions took place between June and November 1746 and drew huge crowds, some of whom were Jacobite supporters themselves who came to pay their respects rather than gloat.
They were finally laid to rest at St. George’s in Bloomsbury where there is a plaque to their memory in the gardens.
Doing Lambeth Walks
LTGA Podcast Series
You can now hear Lambeth Tour Guides in conversation about their favourite subjects with
lots of interesting facts and stories, all drawn from research conducted for our walks in a series of podcasts produced in conjunction with Morley Radio! There are six podcasts coming up in Series One:
Lambeth Spies • Lambeth Aeronauts • Lambeth Cemeteries • Lambeth and the real Windrush Generation • Lambeth’s Kennington Heroes • Lambeth LGBTQI+
Or follow this link: https://morleyradio.co.uk/series/doing-lambeth-walks/
Join the Lambeth Tour Guides course!
You too could be taking a podcast worthy deep dive into the culture and history of Lambeth, learning how to weave fascinating narratives whilst gaining valuable guiding and research skills.
You'll enjoy regular weekend training walks and a series of in depth lectures from experienced tutors and tour guides whilst working towards your qualification at Morley College in Waterloo. Upon graduation, will have earned a shiny Lambeth Tour Guide badge and the opportunity to join the Lambeth Tour Guides Association!
As we head towards the end of the year, we wish you a restful festive break and a wonderful 2025 - remember to wrap up warm and keep #doingLambethwalks !
