Ever wondered who was England’s ‘polyamorous’ king, where in the West End there are secret sex tunnels used by a former monarch, and why you should never trust someone named Molly White? You’ll learn about all that and more in this comprehensive walking tour of the West End.
From life as one of the biggest slums in London, to a red light district and a flourishing working-class market, Covent Garden and Seven Dials had long and sometimes sordid histories before they became the bougie shopping locations we know them as today.
The brilliant Misfits of Covent Garden Walking Tour, run by Rebel Tours, reveals the alternative and fringe histories of WC2. My tour is led by seasoned storyteller Charlotte, who is warm and captivating as she feeds us tidbits about the Fourth Earl of Bedford, King Charles II and West End actress and OG It Girl Nell Gwynn. She walks and talks us through the area that has been home to a booming palmistry industry, the first women entrepreneurs (wily brothel owners posing as proprietors of ‘coffee houses’), unlicensed gin shops, and proto curry houses.
You’ll visit sites like St Paul’s Church (AKA the actor’s church, home to memorials for Charlie Chaplin, Barbara Windsor and Noel Coward), a children’s playground built atop a burial ground, one of Britain’s first housing associations, former Mollyhouses (safe spaces for homosexual men in the 18th and 19th centuries), and an erstwhile police station that held some very high profile in-mates. And all the while you’ll be plied with fascinating facts, have some common misconceptions debunked, and hear some excellent pieces of historical gossip.
