Friends excursions: Spitalfields walking tour
Friday 15 September 2017 11am - 1.30pm
Meet outside Christ Church, Spitalfields, on the corner where Fournier Street meets Commercial Street, London, E1
£35. Includes a donation to Christ Church and entry to the Charnel House
Friends of the RA book first
Take a walking tour with Friends of the RA around the curious, closed world of early Georgian terraces and grand 17th-century silk weavers’ houses that marks the fault-line between the City and neighbouring Tower Hamlets.
We will learn about the history of Spitalfields through its diverse architectural treasures, including Christ Church, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1714 and the only listed mosque in England which was once also a synagogue and a Huguenot Chapel. On our tour, led by blue badge guide and Chair of the Huguenots of Spitalfields charity, Charlie de Wet, we will learn about the 25,000 Huguenots (French Protestants) who travelled to England bringing their silk-weaving skills and settled in Spitalfields in the 17th century. We will see the exteriors of houses and walk down the streets that the master weavers made their homes.
A special addition to our walking tour is a private and very rare visit to the archaeological site of the remains of a 14th-century charnel house, a repository for human remains. Originally part of an Augustinian Priory, what remains of the charnel house was discovered in 1999. We are privileged to be shown inside the protected site by an inspector of ancient monuments from Historic England, who will explain the importance of the site and how it was discovered.