Tales of love, bravery, crime and friendship from Italian Clerkenwell 1830-1950

From the mid 19th Century to the Second World War the streets of Clerkenwell around Saffron Hill were known as Il Quartiere to the Italian residents. This walk will explore every day life in London's Little Italy, introducing the characters who made up this world within a world beneath the viaducts of the Clerkenwell Road. There are love stories, tragedies, tales of bravery and fortitude, as well as crime and poverty. In this 90 minute walk Rob Smith uses stories fron newspapers, photographs and the oral histories recorded by Olive Besagni in her book A Better Life, to conjur up the street life of a century ago into the now quiet Clerkenwell side streets.

Reviews of this walk

"An interesting and very well informed trip around the Little Italy area of London. Rob brought the area to life with snippets of the lives of the characters who inhabited the area through the last couple of hundred years. Enjoyable and informative, with a nice follow up email suggesting further reading" Elaine C

"Rob was very informative and shared many unique facts and interesting details all along the tour. Highly recommended!" LMG

Description supplied by the event organiser.