Walking with an old guidebook, and exploring the roads left behind

Julie Falconer follows a 1910 London guide

Charles and Marie Hemstreet’s Nooks and Corners of Old London, published in 1910, arranges its observations for a wanderer to visit places in order. Its chapter By Way of the Tower and London Bridge takes the reader through the Minories, past the Tower of London and west along Lower Thames Street toward the Monument and London Bridge.

References: Project Gutenberg

Julie Falconer follows that sequence on foot. She starts on the Minories, heads toward the Tower and continues along Lower Thames Street to the Monument. At the Tower she stops with the book open, then turns west so the relationship between the fortress and the riverside street is clear. The old guide gives the walk its order as well as its subject.

The Hemstreets describe the Tower as a fortress used as a palace, prison, barracks and arsenal, and recall prisoners brought through the water gate. Collins’ Illustrated Guide to London and Neighbourhood, in its 1873 edition, describes the Tower’s physical arrangement: buildings, towers and courtyards, with a broad quay on the river side and the former water entrance.

References: Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg

At the Tower, Julie compares those passages. Collins helps her read the complex as a group of structures and entrances; the Hemstreets give more attention to its roles and prisoners. The comparison is between two different guidebooks published 37 years apart, rather than two editions of the same title. Visiting the same place makes the different emphases easier to see.

Julie’s A Lady in London site also offers self-guided London walks with maps and directions.

References: A Lady in London

Pulenaz takes the older road

Pulenaz walks a stretch of old road that a newer highway bypasses. The remaining pavement, a quiet bend and an old entrance show how the line once connected places that traffic now passes by. She follows the road as a place in its own right, pausing to look back along the bend before returning.

This is a different pleasure from following a guidebook: the comparison is between two road alignments, not two editions of a text. The appeal is the small roadside detail that becomes visible when the through traffic has moved elsewhere.

At one bend the old surface continues toward the former entrance while the newer road takes a straighter line beyond it. Pulenaz compares those alignments from the same vantage point. The difference explains why the quieter stretch once belonged to a through route, instead of merely presenting empty pavement as a mystery.

What to look for in either film

A useful old-guide walk shows both the instruction or sequence and the place where it is applied. Julie’s route keeps the Minories, Tower and Monument in order; the two books make different choices about what to emphasize at the Tower.

For the guidebook comparison, start with the walk when the pleasure is following an old description on the ground. Stay for the comparison to see how two books approach the same place. Pulenaz’s road walk is the better fit for a viewer interested in infrastructure and the traces left when a route is bypassed.

Sources and attribution

1. A Lady in London

   Self-guided London walksPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 29, 2026

2. Project Gutenberg

   Nooks and Corners of Old LondonPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 29, 2026

3. Project Gutenberg

   Collins’ Illustrated Guide to London and NeighbourhoodPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 29, 2026