Fancy travelling back in time to Georgian era London? From authentic Georgian walks, concerts, art, dining experiences and more — allow us to take you there! Powdered wigs at the ready...
Promenade down a Georgian street
London doesn't lack Georgian architecture. In some parts of town, it's almost impossible to avoid it. There are, however, a few places where you can take a stroll and feel like you've properly stepped back into the Georgian era.
Top of anyone's list should be the Huguenots' old stomping ground, Spitalfields. Princelet Street and Fournier Street are admired for their spans of early Georgian townhouses, once occupied by the silk-weaving community. You can book private tours of 19 Princelet Street, which is now the Immigration Museum, and there are occasional events in the House of Annetta, one of the few un-restored houses in the area.
Elsewhere, Camberwell Grove in south London offers a leafy boulevard of Georgian era houses, which are particularly atmospheric in the evening when the light glows through their fanlight windows.
A more modest, but just as impressively intact, thoroughfare is Little Green Street in Gospel Oak, a mightily pretty set of Georgian cottages. They've also got a link to the Kinks, but that's another story.
Otherwise, get Hazel Baker to take you on her private Georgian London Tour.
Step inside a Georgian abode at Dennis Severs' House
Most of the above are private residences (historian and writer Dan Cruickshank owns one, and very nice it is too), but not so Dennis Severs' House, a handsome dwelling on Spitalfields' Folgate Street. Not quite a house, not quite a museum, you drift from room to room, chancing upon smouldering candles and recently emptied wine glasses — all of which hint that you've just missed an encounter with one of the Jervises, the Huguenot family apparently living here. It's an eerily enchanting experience — especially at Christmas, when the house is dressed up to the festive nines.
Go to a recital at the Handel Hendrix House
George Frideric Handel was the Jimi Hendrix of his day (fitting, because both lived in the same house). As well as exploring his Brooke Street digs at the Handel Hendrix House, you can regularly catch recitals of Handel's works — some written on this very spot — with various matinees and salons around the harpsichord. The museum also hosts Georgian cookery classes and hot chocolate making workshops in its authentic Georgian kitchen. Check out the events page.
Picnic in a Georgian square
Wealthy Georgians were tempted into city life with handsome town houses, with their own squares. A number of these will only let you in during Open Garden Squares, but others allow you to perch on a bench, dip into your Jane Austen novel, and perhaps even partake in a Georgian style picnic (how about a Nelson's cake?). Try Berkeley Square, Russell Square, Canonbury Square and Bedford Square.
While we're talking squares: another quintessential Georgian experience is hanging out at Somerset House, where you can admire the courtyard's bronze sculpture of George III and wander around this Italianate mansion built to the designs of William Chambers, and completed in sections from 1779 onwards.
Peruse some Georgian art
🖼️ Visit the magnificent mélange of art that is the Royal Academy of the Arts Summer Exhibition. It started life at Somerset House in 1779, and continues to be one of London's most talk-about annual shows.
😂 Out of summer season, giggle at the scabrous cartoons of Thomas Rowlandson, also at the Royal Academy. He lampooned everyone from Napoleon to the Prince Regent. Shame he wasn't still around to do Boris Johnson.
🤩 Bask in the beauty of the witty courtesan Kitty Fisher, who played the boss move of getting Joshua Reynolds to paint her portrait (it can now be seen at Kenwood House) and also Reynolds' arch rival, Nathaniel Horne, to do the same (this portrait of Kitty is in Room 18 of the National Portrait Gallery). Kitty is well celebrated in London — there's also a Mayfair restaurant named for her, as well as a hotel suite, more of which later.
🖌️ Admire the Hogarths in the Sir John Soane's Museum Picture Room. Seminal works by the masterful satirist, including A Rake's Progress and An Election, are revealed in this unique room, which folds in three times as many paintings than it should be able to.
Study at the desk of Samuel Johnson
"Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people." Perhaps the most famous entry from Dr Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755, and which many-a-Georgian would've leafed through at the time, to glean new words. You can see the desk on which said dictionary was written at Johnson's former home, just off Fleet Street. Although, disclaimer: it could be a 'knackered' old fake. You can also see Jane Austen's desk in the British Library.
Gen up on the slave trade
The darkest chapter in Georgian London was the abominable practise of enslavement; between 1700 and 1810 — much of this falling within the Georgian era — British merchants transported almost three million African people across the Atlantic, the proceeds fortifying Britain's wealth. You can find out more about the slave trade at the London Museum Docklands' permanent London, Sugar & Slavery exhibition. Also see our guide to enslaved-person-turned-abolitionist, Olaudah Equiano.
Splash some cash at the Burlington Arcade
Echoing the grand arcades of Paris, the Burlington Arcade opened in Piccadilly in 1819, peddling French perfumes, jewellery and 'ornamental hair' pieces. With its suited and booted beadles still in situ (and making sure no one whistles) this place really is like stepping back in time. Mind you, you'll need a few bob in the bank if you're splashing out on any Strathberry bags, Roja perfume or Maunder watches. Maybe just get a shoe shine.
Eat back in time at Georgian Dining Academy
An evening of sparkling wit, historical performance, and candlelit bonhomie awaits at any of Georgian Dining Academy's dos. Dedicated to recreating the days of Georgian decadence, these occasional events unfold in authentic Georgian settings (chop houses, pubs, galleries), where you can consort with courtesans while digging into thick chops and plentiful port. They also organise private events.
Poke your head into Downing Street
The most famous Georgian building in the world is also one of the most difficult to get inside. 10 Downing Street has been the address of prime minsters since the relatively early Georgian days of 1735; back then its bricks glinted golden (they've since been painted black after London pollution got at them). You can't exactly knock on the door and expect to be let in nowadays, but you can either go on a virtual visit or sign up to the annual Open House ballot. Or just peer through the main gates.
Rest your head at Batty Langley's
While visiting Dennis Severs' House (see earlier), you may have noticed the Jervises have a neighbour in one Batty Langley. A Georgian townhouse now decked out as a luxurious boutique hotel, Batty Langley's is unabashedly Gothic Revival — marble baths, swan-shaped taps, bookshelves with secret doors, four-poster beds emblazoned with coats of arms. The Twickenham-born landscape designer Batty specialised in the grandiloquent pavilions, grottos, temples and cascades of the time, but also worked on interior design, and some of his handbooks were used to bring this hotel to shimmering life. Rooms don't come cheap, but to round off a genuinely Georgian experience in London, this is how to do it in audacious style. By the way, they have a Kitty Fisher suite.
Other Georgian goodies
- Find out more about one of the great Georgian discoveries — how to measure longitude — at the Greenwich Observatory.
- Have a mug of ale in the Lamb & Flag pub in Covent Garden, which dates back to at least 1772, although note they no longer host bare knuckle fighting.
- Visit Benjamin Franklin's former pad on 36 Craven Street, a real Georgian gem, and listen to the famed glass armonica in action.
- Explore the Georgian Hoxton almshouses that are now the Museum of the Home, complete with replica Georgian-era parlours.
- Catch a train to the ultimate Georgian holiday resort of Brighton, admiring the fantastical Royal Pavilion & Garden.
- Learn how to tell the difference between Georgian and Victorian architecture with our handy article.
