Join me on a free, leisurely five-mile ride around the Thames area of Southwark, exploring the links with Shakespeare, Dickens, Keats and Chaucer.
In Jacob’s Island, the warehouses are roofless and empty; the walls are crumbling down; the windows are windows no more; the doors are failing into the streets; the chimneys are blackened, but they yield no smoke. Thirty or forty years ago, before losses and chancery suits came upon it, it was a thriving place; but now it is a desolate island indeed. The houses have no owners; they are broken open, and entered upon by those who have the courage; and there they live, and there they die. They must have powerful motives for a secret residence, or be reduced to a desitute condition indeed, who seek a refuge in Jacob’s Island.”
The free two-hour ride is part of the Bermondsey Carnival and will set off from (and return to) Southwark Park at noon, and again at 3pm, from the Cycle Parking next to the Park (cycles cannot be taken into the Carnival). Book at http://cycleconfident.com/courses/led-rides/ or just turn up on the day.
Catch glimpses of Shakespeare's world
Discover sites that featured in Dickens' novels
and places Dickens passed
see where Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims set off from
and take a selfie sitting alongside the poet Keats in the shadow of the Shard
