Non Touristy Things to Do In London - Dickens Museum and Foundlings

can I help it if I fall in love can I help it here tell me who stabbed me vitals pip pip hello everybody and welcome to joules guides in which I wander around London and tell you fascinating facts about this wonderful city today we are going to be wandering around it's it's Bloomsbury but it's it's kind of around lambs conduit Street and in that kind of area anyway trust me it's gonna be fun lots of irreverent chats lots of hilarious anecdotes and some male grooming tips who knows actually if you're down here in boaty Street or however you say it let Charles Dickens Museum he moved there with his wife in 1837 worth a visit he actually see those rooms aren't there he actually wrote Oliver Twist & Pickwick Papers in in those very ones have you know do you turn away come back again someday if you don't mind a big Godfather's day this is the disk and chair which transmissions right many of his later works his actual staff and they've got notes of his writing materials and stuff like that over there but I feel a bit bad disturbing all people in here so let's get out of him he was obviously doing all right for himself I mean a decent-sized property this is a Charles Dickens outfit you want your water some James's Palace yeah that's actually his it wasn't very tall is it there was a time when I cried now I awake until this isn't lambs conduit Street one of my favorite streets in London actually because it's got partially pedestrianised very beautiful and the great thing about it actually is that they don't have any chain stores only that says no Starbucks or anything or like some prayers or anything like there's anything wrong places quite nice though everything's independent even the supermarket is independently say the people's supermarket it run by the community here would be remiss of me not to mention this my friend Jermaine's favorite street whatever he comes to London he's from Lana he moved to the Arctic Circle God knows why he's humping drones and north of Norway as I Barbra Force hello Jemaine in bardufoss but we always end up in the perseverance pub whenever he comes to London it lovely shops cafes wine cellars this Undertaker called a France and son they've been undertakes for 400 years I mean they descended from mr. France who was originally in power mal and he was the guy who organized Nelson's funeral so run that's why you've got hms victory in the window and also a mini Nelson's coffin funerals cremations embalming how nice I mean it was kind pickled in rum when he arrived they didn't pickle him run for sailors pickled him in rum so to preserve his body and sailors may actually taking cheeky sips from the rum that he was pickled in that's why they call it tapping the Admiral a cheeky cheeky drink of whiskey or something tapping the Admiral in many places in London make the claim to have the narrowest street I'm one of my favorites there it is in fact there you go emerald courts that is pretty narrow I think that's one of the narrowest and it doesn't even smell of urine sorry opposite emerald court the one of the narrowest streets in London is number 18 that's where sylvia plath ins head hughes the famous poet he they got married st. George and Martha Church they spent their honeymoon night now where their first night there we came together in that church of chimney sweeps with nothing but love and hope and ourselves sounds very romantic doesn't it but then she did end up killing herself so that's a lot for you [Music] if you don't answer I think I'm gonna cry again Valentine's Day but by the time this goes out it won't be Valentine's there anymore by the way looking long yard this is the reason this is called lambs conduit Street because it was was it William William lamb 1570 215 something he paid 1,500 quid to restore some pump for the benefit of the public spell with the CK on the end there was a tributary from the river fleet because they later on replaced it with the the new river started serving people water and that actually still serves people today the new river I believe I've been around it collected or something [Music] can you see that I will see premiers now [Applause] we didn't have any locks before the war but after the Luftwaffe bombed us to smithereens there they started building all this to replace all the social housing and this what this one was for the fourth one in London I think will the first ten story residential tower block anyway called lemon spree named after that blimmin spree bloke after whom Bloomsbury is named here the guy who bought land in the 1200 in 1949 and actually that's quite a nice one I think some of the earlier blocks were actually quite nice that I fired quite like a place in there like all what balconies is something more than can be said for me [Music] Russell Square in case you're wondering why it's got the statue of Francis that you could Bedford over there it's because you could dukes of Bedford they owned loads of land in Bloomsbury these all divided up into big estates the Earl of Southampton or something Duke of South Hampshire and that's why that's called Southampton row and dukes of Bedford they all owned loads of land around here but that hotel over there which I call the hotel Russell but it's actually called some other name now it's what is it Kimpton Fitzroy Fitzroy after Charles Fitzroy Dahl now he was the guy who designed a lot of the Titanic so the beining room which was in there was actually designed by Fitzroy Dahl that bloke who did the Titanic it's like the blueprint for the actual dining room on the Titanic and what did they go and do well you renovated it I know who makes those decisions I just don't get it you can go in there that they do still have another thing which which they had on the Titanic's well there's a little dragon on the staircase inside it's worth going to have a look he's quite cute Lee is a very beautiful interior of the hotel this is the square we're in one of the early episodes of Sherlock you know the new BBC one and I think dr. Watson is being convinced by a friend to go and join Sherlock at 221b Baker Street to be his roommate you see that just down here outside the President Hotel in Guilford Street is a special place for Beatles fans it's a long way I have come I don't wanna you sure some love to this is called Queens Square Gardens and yet another square in the Bloomsbury area is it called Queens Square because well there's a statue over there of Queen Charlotte and she was the wife of King George the third the crazy one and he was getting treatment around here for his madness and so she rented like the basement of that table over there so she was preparing food in there for the King saw treating well would be a good good wife she's Epling drops a bomb here in the First World War blew all this stuff to smithereens it looks like that stuff survived which is quite nice I rather like this the reason there's no handle on it this isn't the pump where Jon Snow came and removed the handle that was in Soho but they also after he discovered the cholera was spread by water they removed the handles too from this pump anyway that's what some bloke told me down the pub down here actually it's now called Boswell Street in the run-up to the First World War a bunch of poets were living in a house just down here which I'm not gonna walk up there because it's been destroyed and hit mr. looks really ugly now Robert Frost Ezra Pound Edward Thomas they were encouraged to browse in this bookshop but then they actually took lodgings there has some of them in the ramps of World War one and I believe Wilfred Owen also lived in there we certainly used to visit and he was one of the most famous World War 1 poets wasn't he - Owen well passing barrels - these who died as cattle only the monstrous anger of the guns only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle can patter out their haste be aware that great poets yeah I can yeh dulce de coeur mist pro patria mori Monte just around the corner from there by the way is Great Ormond Street Hospital which opened in 1852 with ten beds in those days but it was so it was the Britain's first children's hospital hospital especially for children I was in there actually when I was a kid when my testicles to a massive size yeah yeah I had something called an hydrocele operation my mum I think I was in there with my brother he had it as well for some time we considered changing our names to bust the gonad I don't know but I know it late I don't know exactly what most men are then if you know that it's hair of one testicle slightly larger than the other how do I get on to this in order to ascertain whether I was normal or not my mother went to the Victoria and Albert Museum to go and look at the statue of Achilles I don't know why anyway so they were doing some renovation there they had a they had a sheet over and over all some of the statues whilst they were renovating some of this stuff anyway she snuck into a room it was cordoned off where the Achilles statue was to she crept it she was like looking at these testicles underneath this thing in the god what I'm using actually if it wasn't so childish so we're in Brunswick square now see this building over here on the corner it's a blue plaque on there and that's where JM Barrie lived who wrote Peter Pan tell me a lot of people don't realize but a lot of the proceeds from Peter Pan he donated them to the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital and they still benefitting from it today it's quite amazing and in the stage directions for Peter Pan and Peter Pan flies in so here's window up there it's quite nice what is it Barnard Street in the corner of Brunswick square chorim fields over there it's got a beautiful gardens with play sandpit and climbing frames and stuff for kids and you're only hung out in there if you're with a child and I think just a on a personal note it's not a particularly good idea to stand outside with big mutton chops and a flat cap and a Mac filming the gardens because you will you will be approached by a bloke going excuse me do you mind you might tell me what you're filming here because you are filming children I promised my friend Matthew that I would lament with him the change of name from the Renoir cinema to the Kherson bloomsbury over here I'm more upset to be honest about Lee's hercule I sort of the bronze extended down this street incidentally since I'm telling you my life story for some peculiar reason this is the only time I've ever been to a shrink was down here I found myself going completely mad he's mad sir and it was down there he was called Ajax I'm sure that wasn't his real name Ajax in a stupid thing about it is that they said to me what is the thing that you if you really have to say what it is that you're having trouble with what would you say it is and I said well okay if I really have to single out one thing I'd say that if you give me a choice like two things I never really know what to have if you say there do you want spaghetti or don't fish just cannot make a decision I need to cannot do it I kind of rot and that's in the whole of life I can't make decisions and they said okay so because which type of therapy would you like would you like the traditional type of therapy or would you just told you that's in firming the trouble I have I can't make a decision as you think through things is ridiculous so Pam here is the foundling Museum see Thomas coram that's what after whom this field is named he was a mariner ship builder and when he came back from sea once he was very upset about the sheer number of babies and children who have been abandoned by their parents at a young age so he started a foundling hospital actually the gates over there to the field where the children are playing that's the original gates to the hospital like they've taken the hospital bound now but it campaigned for 17 years until Georgia second actually gave him a royal charter to open up this hospital he did a very good job now you've got this foundling Museum which is worth the visit it's very good [Music] let here's Thomas quorum there is but no behind him on the railing here that just looks like someone's left their mitten here but that's that's actually an art installation that's made about is why Tracey Emin so she doesn't she doesn't only do sculptures of her unmade bed with her dirty knickers sort of strewn across it she does stuff like that the museum tells the story of the foundling hospital which was set up in 1739 to take care of children who would otherwise have been abandoned so we have artifacts that that relate to that story but also an amazing art collection this is the first painting that was ever given to the foundling hospital and it's a portrait of Thomas coram by william Hogarth who was a great supporter of the hospital I keep seeing stuff to do with Hogarth so that's the really unique thing about the foundling hospital right from the very start there was a whole group of artists and creative people who got involved in supporting the charity and helping it to establish it became quite a fashionable venue for Londoners who were well-off to come and visit and and the idea was that they would give donations while they were here it's room it's called the court room and it's where the hospital's governor's would meet all the paintings in here and all the plaster work the furniture the sculptures everything was donated by the artists who made it the founding hospital was the first ever children's charity in the UK and also its first public art gallery so the first public space where you could come and see British artists work just doing some research for my my facial hair and he is perfect that's the look I'm going for this is some of our collection of tokens and these were unique objects which were left by mothers when they brought their child into the hospital that's right so the idea was that if they were able to come back and reclaim their child they would be able to describe the token and that confirmed that they were that child's yes that's right yeah we know that Dickens was lived in the area and he came to church here regularly for a couple of years and so he knew the hospital quite well and he wrote some stories that were based on the hospital and some articles about it I mean it's so basic a thing you know some of them obviously didn't have very much at all that they could leave or afford to part with and then there are other things that are very much kind of love token so a lot of these coins that are bent like this one that was a common thing to do as a kind of love gift so some of the coins are much older even than the hospital itself because they were things that people could have called to part ways so they weren't sort current money at the time you know so some of them are very oh we've got one that's Elizabethan I think so as old as that it didn't I have to say it didn't happen very often thirdly it was a very small proportion of children where the parents were able to come back but we do have some cases of parents and children being reunited reckon it's real or not real as well let's see no that's a real one that's a real love it looks like it could be an installation can I help can I help it if I'm big do you want me to turn away come back again someday you don't mind me it's nice you don't have to walk through that horrendous monstrosity you can't just walk around there and you're here it's March Mon the street which is really nice another one of these streets with loads of blue planks which is my most favorite yeah I think my most favorite one is that one there that Kenneth Williams you know Kenneth Williams matron he lived there with his parents and city was Bertie actually above his dance a hairdressers and there's still a hairdresser there now which is quite nice this streets really nice um he's very very students he lots of students here lots of vegan cafes and that unsurprisingly and lots of people staring at their phones outside cafe so if you want to come and stare at your phone this is a place to do it I'm actually down there on and the other sets also Lenin lifts around here but actually to imagine him walking down these streets it's quite incredible I think and all I mean you're so down here on the streets you can try so down here on the street you see here you don't miss these these are all an installation it's actually an artist installation by a guy called John Aldous the children's tokens that we saw in the museum left by the parents nice idea [Music] this is the lamb pub named after William lamb they've got up there these parish boundary markers st. Pancras Parish and then that way is st. Andrews of Holborn I think it's st. Andrews Holmen by the way I must say thank you to Eric Hall who requested me to make this video I've been meaning to make a video about this area anyway but he kindly sent me a load of stuff about it and it really helped me to make the video so thanks Eric much obliged to you snob screens over at the bar which a place there so then if if you were a little bit upper-class like me and you didn't want the riffraff observing you whilst you're the bomb people on the other side of the poppy pizza you could just close the screen and people would be able to see or maybe you were I know having an illicit affair with the young lady pack or young gentleman and anyway thanks watching me drop my videos don't forget to watch all the other films that I've got on my channel click on one of playlists there's over 150 and if you want to private go to 12 London you can just get in touch on my website or leave a donation or whatever become a patreon see you next time folks [Music]

Channel: Joolz Guides - London History Walks - Travel Films

Views: 216,510

Keywords: London, tourism, travel guides, julian mcdonnell, joolz guides, hidden London, charles dickens, london history, non touristy things to do in london, untouristy london, travel guides uk, joolz guides london, charles dickens museum, foundling museum, foundling museum london, lambs conduit street, bloomsbury tour, Russel Square, russell square london, kimpton fitzroy london, Bloomsbury walking tour, peter pan, london walks, london travel guides, dickens museum

Id: MAZ3E2E0e2A

Length: 20min 33sec (1233 seconds)

Published: Sun May 26 2019