historicity

In this walk, we explore how the cities of London and Westminster birthed the first global city. In this episode, how the square mile grew to control the world’s trade and finance.We wind our way through the City of London, starting at the Monument to the Great Fire of London and ending at St Paul’s Cathedral. From 1500 or so, English merchants, cut off from Europe, were scrambling to exploit the rest of the world. A century later, the city started to develop the institutions it needed to facilitate trade, to finance the state, and to govern its own affairs. Come the 19th century, rail and telegraph, industry and empire transformed the city into the square mile we know today. But even as the temples of finance continue to reach for the sky – and as the City tries to maintain its place in the world – it’s still the product of older, smaller stories.This series was produced in collaboration with the Institute of Historical Research. Find out more at: layersoflondon.orgClick here for the map and full transcript.Follow historicity on Instagram: instagram.com/WALKHISTORICITYWRITER AND PRESENTER: Angus LockyerPRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic

In this walk, we explore how the cities of London and Westminster birthed the first global city. In this episode, how Westminster grew from a monastery to the centre of a post-imperial state. We wind our way through Westminster, starting in Victoria Embankment Gardens, by the river, and ending up in Parliament Square. We learn how a small monastery became the kernel of a royal court, which eventually moved a bit north, to Whitehall, and became a fount of fashion and favours. We also see how it was constrained by Parliament, which occupied its former palace, and gradually pushed aside. And how the state scrambled to direct and finance wars, from the middle of the second millennium, to administer empire in the 19th century, and eventually, slowly, to provide some welfare to the population of the now United Kingdom. Westminster tells the story of how power was first accumulated and reluctantly shared; how governments remain in thrall to the imperial past and reluctant to face the post-industrial present; and how its subjects have nonetheless managed to carve out some space to have their say.This series was produced in collaboration with the Institute of Historical Research. Find out more at: layersoflondon.orgClick here for the map and full transcript.Follow historicity on Instagram: instagram.com/WALKHISTORICITYWRITER AND PRESENTER: Angus LockyerPRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic

In this episode, we see how the river defined the city – and how the riverside has been transformed, first by trade, then by finance.We’re walking east from Tower Hill into Wapping, ending up next to St George’s Town Hall. The marshes and the mudflats next to the river were already filling up four hundred years ago. Two hundred years later, there was money to be made by building docks, forcing thousands to go elsewhere. By the 1960s, though, trade had moved on and the docks were closed, leaving the space empty again, to be exploited in the last half century in new profit-seeking ways. Through it all, the river attracted immigrants, eager to work, but vulnerable to the relentless demands of the market, the irregular rhythms of charity, and the simmering resentment of those who believed they were here first. We pick up their story in the next two episodes.Click here for the map and full transcript.Follow historicity on Instagram: instagram.com/WALKHISTORICITYWRITER AND PRESENTER: Angus LockyerPRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic