Private walks

Belgravia is characterised by grand terraces of white stucco houses, and many of its houses are among the most expensive anywhere in the world, costing up to £100 million. It has been one of London's most fashionable residential districts from its beginnings. However, many years ago, it was known as the 'Five Fields' and became a dangerous place due to highwaymen and robberies.

Nowadays Belgrave Square, one of the grandest and largest squares, is the centrepiece of Belgravia, and was designed by architect George Basevi for the Earl Grosvenor, later to be the Duke of Westminster, in 1826.

After World War II, some of the largest houses were increasingly taken over by embassies, charity headquarters, professional institutions and other businesses. Belgravia has become a relatively quiet district in the heart of London, contrasting with neighbouring districts, which have far more busy shops, large modern office buildings, hotels and entertainment venues.

Here we will cross paths with novelist Jane Austen, Mozart, playwright Noel Coward, actors Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, rock musician Mick Jagger, poet Oscar Wilde, social reformer William Wilberforce, actress Lily Langtry, novelist Arnold Bennett, film star Julie Andrews, Mary Shelley author of Frankenstein, author Ian Fleming, composer Felix Mendelssohn and poet Alfred Tennyson.

Belsize Park is an area of London known to a few, but, situated right next to Hampstead, it is a haven for professional couples, young families and celebrities alike. Many of the buildings, whether Victorian, Queen Anne or Arts and Crafts in heritage, are acknowledged as the finest of their kind, and tree lined streets and wide pavements make walking here a pleasure. It is minutes from some of London’s most stunning green spaces, offering a welcome escape from the bustle of the capital. A short stroll south to the top of Primrose Hill is rewarded with a stunning panorama of the city. There is a real community feel centred around picturesque England’s Lane, which is lined with cafes and independent boutiques. The name is derived from French bel assis meaning well situated.

It has many well-known cultural figures, including sculptor Henry Moore, singer and musician Kathleen Ferrier, singer Gracie Fields, poet Stephen Spender, composer Frederick Delius, actor Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage), ballet star Tamara Karasavina, musician Cecil Sharp, illustrator and author Kate Greenaway, author Robert Louis Stevenson, composer Edward Elgar, psychologists Sigmund and Anna Freud.

Bloomsbury is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual and educational institutions. It includes many of the UK's most iconic buildings, such as the British Museum.

Bloomsbury began to be developed in the 1600s under the Earls of Southampton, but it was primarily in the 1800s, under the Duke of Bedford, that the district was planned and built as an affluent Regency era residential area by famed architect and developer James Burton. The district is known for its numerous garden squares, including Bloomsbury Square, Russell Square and Bedford Square.

We trace the lives of novelist Virginia Woolf, writer and philosopher Bertrand Russell, architects John Nash and Augustus Pugin, novelist Charles Dickens, artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, musician Bob Marley, social reformer Rammohu Roy, naturalist Charles Darwin, economist and author Maynard Keynes and poet W B Yeats.

Chelsea’s reputation as London's bohemian quarter, the haunt of artists, radicals, painters and poets, originated in a period during the 1800s, when the area became a Victorian artists' colony. Painters such as James Webb, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, JMW Turner, James McNeill Whistler, William Holman Hunt, Louise Jopling, Augustus John and John Singer Sargent all lived and worked here. It became prominent once again as one of the centres of Swinging London in the 1960s.

King Henry VIII acquired the manor of Chelsea in 1536, and two of his wives, Catherine Parr and Anne of Cleves, lived in the Manor House. Princess Elizabeth - the future Queen Elizabeth I - resided there, and Sir Thomas More lived more or less next door at Beaufort House. Sir Hans Sloane bought Chelsea manor in 1712 and his name appears on, for example, Sloane Square and Sloane Street. The best-known building is Chelsea Royal Hospital for old soldiers, set up by Charles II (supposedly on the suggestion of mistress Nell Gwyn), and designed by Sir Christopher Wren, which opened in 1694.

Unlike areas of London such as Bloomsbury and Soho, Chelsea did not undergo systematic building development. It remained rural and served London as a market garden. However, perhaps owing to its proximity to expensive Belgravia and its location right by the River Thames, it has always been a popular location for the wealthy. Attractive and well-designed houses were built and, as a result, many beautiful small streets and corners exist.

We will explore the lives of painters John Singer Sargent and Louise Jopling, Rolling Stones Keith Richard and Mick Jagger, novelist George Eliot, composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, author Bram Stoker, film director Joe Losey, painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, actor and film star Peter Ustinov, Margaret Thatcher, architect Richard Norman Shaw, designer Mary Quant, novelist P L Travers, author John le Carré.

Covent Garden Market is today a shopping arcade with restaurants and a pub. The central hall has shops, cafes and bars alongside the Apple Market stalls selling antiques, jewellery, clothing and gifts. There are additional casual stalls selling pre-loved items in the Jubilee Hall Market on the south side of the square. There are many famous theatres in the area, including Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Lyceum theatre, Novello theatre and Wyndham theatre.

The Russell family, who became the Dukes of Bedford, were granted the Covent Garden land in 1552 and held it until 1918. St Paul’s Church & churchyard were completed in 1633 by architect Inigo Jones who also laid out the piazza in the form it is today. Street entertainment at Covent Garden was noted in Samuel Pepys's diary in May 1662, when he recorded the first mention of a Punch and Judy show in Britain.

It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House, itself known as Covent Garden. The area has long been known for entertainment, food and shopping, with 13 theatres and over 60 pubs and bars. Rules restaurant in Maiden Lane is London’s oldest restaurant, dating back to the 1700s.

Famous residents include ballerina Margot Fonteyn, novelist Jane Austen, musician Thomas Arne, author Samuel Johnson, French philosopher Voltaire, artist JMW Turner, inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin, author Charles Dickens, poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, author James Barrie, architects Inigo Jones and Robert Adam, novelists Graham Greene and Rudyard Kipling.

Hampstead is famous for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical, and literary associations. It has some of the most expensive housing in London and has more millionaires than any other area of the United Kingdom.

The growth of Hampstead is generally traced back to the 1600s when medicinal qualities of the local waters (mineral water impregnated with iron) were discovered. A pump room and assembly room were soon established, supplied by water from nearby springs. Elegant housing followed, particularly around Frognal, an area which meanders gracefully just west of Hampstead village, and became popular and fashionable.

Within Hampstead is London's largest ancient parkland, Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly open expanse of land. This includes the well-known view of the London skyline from Parliament Hill, which is legally protected.

Hampstead includes Hampstead Heath, a popular place for Londoners to walk and take the air, and has three open-air public swimming ponds. An important feature is the Isokon building, built in 1934 as one of Britain’s earliest examples of Modernist architecture. Its apartments became famous at the centre of London cultural and intellectual life in the 1930s as well as in the post war period, and it was in this area that the British Modernist school of art, featuring Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, began.

We will follow in the footsteps of author Robert Louis Stevenson, ballet star Tamara Karasavina, psychologists Sigmund and Anna Freud, composer Frederick Delius, architects Richard Norman Shaw and Maxwell Fry, singer and musician Kathleen Ferrier, social reformer Beatrice Webb, actor Dirk Bogarde, composer Edward Elgar, painter Ben Nicholson, model Twiggy, illustrator Arthur Rackham, sculptor Henry Moore.

Hampstead is famous for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical, and literary associations. The growth of Hampstead is generally traced back to the 1600s when medicinal qualities of the local waters (mineral water impregnated with iron) were discovered. A pump room and assembly room were established, supplied by water from nearby springs. Elegant housing was built and Hampstead became popular and fashionable. It has some of the most expensive housing in the London area and has more millionaires within its boundaries than any other area of the United Kingdom. Hampstead village has elegant shops and restaurants.

Within Hampstead is London's largest ancient parkland, Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland which includes the well known and legally protected view of the London skyline from Parliament Hill.

The Heath, a popular place for Londoners to walk and "take the air", has three open-air public swimming ponds. A major landmark is the Isokon building, built in 1934 as one of Britain’s earliest examples of Modernist architecture. Its apartments became famous as being at the centre of London cultural and intellectual life in the 1930s as well as in the post war period, and it was in this area that the British Modernist school of art, featuring Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, began.

We will become acquainted with singer and actor Paul Robeson, painters John Constable and Mark Gertler, musician Sir Thomas Beecham, author D H Lawrence, architect George Gilbert Scott, social reformer Marie Stopes, novelist Kingsley Amis, author John Le Carré, poet John Keats, composer Frederick Delius, sculptor Henry Moore.

Marylebone is one step away from Oxford Street and is rarely explored, but it is highly desirable as a residential, if expensive, area. In the 1700s it was known for the entertainments in Marylebone Gardens, the scene of bear-baiting and prize fights by members of both sexes, and for the duelling grounds in Marylebone Fields. Much of the area was developed by the Dukes of Portman as the Portman Estate in the late 1700s, and many elegant Georgian town houses and mews remain. The family of Baron Howard de Walden acquired the land through marriage in the 1870s and now the Estate owns, leases and manages the majority of the 92 acres of real estate in Marylebone.

The Wallace collection, in Hertford House, contains a superb collection of art, while there are elegant and leafy residential areas such as Manchester Square, Bryanston Square and Montagu Square.

Among the well-known residents are composer Hector Berlioz, poet Byron, Marie Louise Christophe who was Queen of Haiti, musician Paul McCartney and actor Jane Asher, poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, architect John Nash, painter Berthe Morisot, Arthur Conan Doyle (author of Sherlock Holmes), pioneer physician Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, modernist poet T S Eliot and author Anthony Trollope.

Mayfair is one of the most expensive districts in the world. It is named after the May Fairs that used to take place in the 1600s and 1700s and has always been a fashionable and wealthy area of London. The Grosvenor family (who became Dukes of Westminster) acquired the land through marriage and began development, including Hanover Square, Berkeley Square and Grosvenor Square, surrounded by high-quality houses, as well as St George's Church in Hanover Square. By the end of the 1700s, most of Mayfair had been rebuilt with high-value housing for the upper classes. The decline of the British aristocracy in the early 1900s led to the area becoming less residential, with many of the fine houses converted into offices for corporate headquarters and embassies.

People who lived and worked here are statesman Dwight D Eisenhower, poet and painter William Blake, Jimi Hendrix, Admiral Nelson and his mistress Emma Hamilton, the Beatles, satirist and poet Richard Sheridan, Irish nationalist Daniel O’Connell, Handel, architect Colen Campbell, women’s reformer Caroline Norton, statesman John F Kennedy, writer William Somerset Maugham, poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, romantic novelist Barbara Cartland, actor Henry Irving and nurse Florence Nightingale.

Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, Soho has been one of the main entertainment districts of London since the 1800s. The area was developed from farmland by Henry VIII in 1536, when it became a royal park. In the late 1600s, buildings started to be developed for the upper class, including the laying out of Soho Square in the 1680s. St Anne's Church was established during the 1600s, and remains a significant local landmark.

For much of the 1900s Soho had a reputation as a base for the entertainment industry, in addition to its night life and its location for the headquarters of leading film companies. Since the 1980s, the area has undergone considerable gentrification.

It is now predominantly a fashionable district of upmarket restaurants and media offices. Within Soho is London's Chinatown, centred on Gerrard Street and containing several restaurants.

Soho has always been known for its alternative music and artistic scene, and we will meet the Rolling Stones, diarist and philanderer Casanova, social reformer Karl Marx, Mozart, author Samuel Johnson, painter Joshua Reynolds, poet Percy Shelley, the artist Canaletto, actor David Garrick, illustrator William Hogarth, architects Sir Christopher Wren and Henry Flitcroft, poet Percy Shelley, war heroine Mary Seacole, David Bowie and painter Angelica Kauffman.

During the restoration of the Catholic monarchy (Charles II) in the 1600s, St James was developed into grand residences for the British aristocracy. It was once part of the same royal park as Green Park and St. James' Park. In the 1660s, Charles II gave the right to develop the area to Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans, who initially developed St James' Square. In the 1800s the first gentlemen's clubs appeared. St James/Westminster has been the centre of the UK Royal Family and Government for hundreds of years.

Westminster Abbey became the traditional venue for the coronations of the Kings and Queens of England from 1066 onwards. From about 1200 the Palace of Westminster, near the Abbey, became the principal royal residence. Since the early 1500s, after King Henry VIII moved his court to the Palace of Whitehall, the Palace of Westminster has housed the UK Parliament.

Until the Second World War, St James remained one of the most exclusive residential enclaves in London. Notable residences include St James' Palace, Clarence House, Marlborough House, Lancaster House, Spencer House, Schomberg House, Norfolk House and Bridgewater House.

We trace the steps of novelist and ex-slave Olaudah Equiano, statesman Winston Churchill, musician Frederic Chopin, Queen Mary, painter Thomas Gainsborough, statesman Charles De Gaulle, writer and philosopher John Stuart Mill, Sting and Trudie Styler, playwright Ben Jonson, explorer Lawrence of Arabia, architect Richard Norman Shaw, actor and director John Gielgud, WWI poet Siegfried Sassoon, computer pioneer (and daughter of Byron) Ada Lovelace, Charles II mistress Nell Gwyn.