Patrons: East London walking tour
Saturday 6 May 2017 10am - 12pm
East London. Full directions provided on RSVP.
£10. Patrons only.
Join the Royal Academy’s Secretary and Chief Executive, Charles Saumarez Smith, on a walking tour of the East End taking inspiration from his new book ‘East London’; an engaging insider’s guide to the streets of the East End, from Spitalfields to Stratford.
East London has changed more dramatically than any other part of the city over the last thirty years. From a desolate, and in many places derelict, state after the bombing of the Second World War, it has become one of the most fashionable neighbourhoods in the world, with new developments in Canary Wharf and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, as well as Spitalfields Market and Brick Lane.
Charles Saumarez Smith, who has lived in the area since the early 1980s, will take you on a guided tour, describing the unique character of spaces and places, new and old, from Wapping in the south through Spitalfields and Bethnal Green to Hoxton, Haggerston and Hackney in the north.
Those who subscribe to Charles’ blog will be familiar with his keen observations of East London architecture.
Charles Saumarez Smith CBE has been Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts since 2007, and is also Visiting Professor of Cultural History at Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of The Company of Artists: The Origins of the Royal Academy of Arts in London and The National Gallery: A Short History.