WALK: Historic Hoxton with Lesley Thompson

Once a run down area on the edge of the East End, now an amazing mix of old and new, the dilapidated and fashionable, Tudor retreats, almshouses, elegant squares and workhouses.

This walk explores Hoxton's origins as a mediaeval settlement in Shoreditch parish and its rises, falls and regeneration over the centuries. Hear of houses for the wealthy in the 16C 'countryside', a connection with the Gunpowder Plot, a place of entertainment, then a descent into poverty, workhouses and burial grounds. A radical and campaigning 19C parish administration generated electricity from waste in a building that still stands and 21st century Hoxton is again fashionable today.

Meet outside Hoxton Overground station, ends in Hoxton Street