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 the space between the two filled up, with lawyers, journalists, and more.We walk from the City of London to the edge of Westminster, starting at St Paul’s Cathedral, and ending at Somerset House. We explore how wealth and power created a magnet for other communities, industries, professions. Initially, the north bank of the river was occupied by the church. By 1500, however, there were lawyers in the Temple and aristocrats further west, soon to be joined by writers and academics. By the second half of the 19th, there were newspapers in the east, universities in the west, and plans to improve the city by clearing out the slums. The monks, the aristocrats, and the journalists are no longer around. But their stories, together with those of the lawyers and the academics, reveal how the City and Westminster were connected, serviced, and sometimes constrained.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