Spitalfields and London's East End - Private Tour

London is a city of contrast. London's "Square Mile" or financial district with its skyscrapers, historic churches and city workers sits cheek by jowl with Spitalfields and the traditionally working-class East End. For centuries, Spitalfields has been a place of immigration with generations of French Huguenots, Jewish, Irish and, most recently, Bengali people fleeing religious persecution, famine, poverty or war. Now it's a magnet for young Londoners and international students. Where once there were clothing sweatshops and overcrowded slums, we will see gentrified streets of Georgian housing, silkweavers' attics, soup kitchens and warehouses converted into artists' studios, stylish restaurants and hip offices. We will stroll through Spitalfields Market, see London's oldest surviving synagogue and visit Brick Lane, home of the "curry". Along the way we will take in some street art and hear stories of the "Kindertransport" and Eastenders who got rich. I can customize this tour according to your interests

Meeting point: outside the front of Aldgate Underground Station This walking tour will take 2 1/2 to 3 hours and will finish at Liverpool Street Station where there are taxis, buses, underground and mainline trains for onward travel. There will be a comfort and refreshments stop at Spitalfields Market. Our walk will include: * St Botolphs Church, traces of Roman London and the City of London skyscape * Bevis Marks synagogue * Converted East India Company warehouses & The Magpie pub * Hawksmoor's Christchurch Spitalfields * Petticoat Lane * Brick Lane and the Jamme Masjid mosque * Silkweavers' homes and a secret synagogue in Princelet Street. * Old Truman Brewery with its pop-up shops, street food and street art * YBA (Young British Artists) Studio in the Tenter Ground * Annie Besant and the striking matchgirls - Hanbury Hall * Spitalfields Market - the Covent Garden of East London, now selling street food, clothes and craft * St Mary's Spital and medieval London beneath our feet * Liverpool St Station