Your London Legacy

Today’s brilliant guest is journalist and author, Andy Bull, who has lived in London for the best part of 40 years. Author of two books about London, on today’s podcast we talk about Andy’s book: Secret Twickenham, Whitton, Teddington, and the Hamptons. Now I’m sure all of you will have heard of the Cavern Club in Liverpool where the Beatles made their name, but chances are you’ve never heard of the Eel Pie Island in Twickenham—which in the 60’s was a favorite spot for the likes of the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and Rod Stewart to play. These parts of west London are home to many secrets and have many glorious stories to reveal, and Andy is the perfect host. Listen in as we dive into the Thames which was once full of salmon, eels, and trout—take a trip around Henry the VIII’s Hampton court palace, and wander around the film studios at Teddington, and the home of English rugby. This is Your London Legacy. “The wonderful thing about London is anyone can be a Londoner, wherever you’re from, whatever your background, if you want to understand the values of London and respect London—you’re welcome.” 15:00 Once people started to get free time in the modern era of London, they began to spend it down by the river on the Thames. Centuries back it was a burgeoning hotspot of trade and recreation, and because of that there are a wealth of secrets and history in every bend and path along its shores. These secrets are the foundation for Andy’s book about Twickenham, Whitton, Teddington, and the Hamptons. He has curated a selection of them that he found most interesting—one of which deals with the music hotbed of Eel Pie Island. Eel Pie Island became a musical venue due to a man of the name Arthur Chisnall, a frustrated sociologist with an interest in youth subculture. He worked on creating a rundown hotel on this small spit of island in the middle of the river into a music venue. In coordinating with authorities, you needed a special Eel Pie Island passport to cross over on a rowboat and listen to the bands—something done to keep an eye on youth who might go off the rails. It was set up to encourage healthy community and creativity under the guise of being a rebel headquarters for upcoming musicians and one of the birthplaces of rock ‘n roll. “What I aimed to do was pick out lesser known things—things which people who lived in those areas their whole lives might not know about, or aspects of those things they may not have known about.” 28:40 In the 18th and 19th century the market gardens covered about 40% of Twickenham and the Hamptons while employing around 15,000 people—essentially feeding London. The Thames back then was teeming with salmon and trout, but in time due to pollution the fish disappeared. This bothered a local angler who went on to pioneer fish farming (still a theory at this point), and in conjunction with the Thames conservancy, they released 200,000 small fish into the river after just five years. This technology was spread the help rivers all across the globe, all stemming from the Francis Fish Hatchery. These are but a few of the secrets Andy’s book holds and stand out as a testament for the rich history of London and the stories hiding in every nook and cranny. Links http://www.andybull.co.uk/ (AndyBull.co.uk) https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08HDK3WH6/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4 (Secret Twickenham, Whitton, Teddington, and the Hamptons) New Book – https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/en/Andy-Bull/dp/1912716194 (Pilgrim Pathways)

As you wander round the streets of our magnificent capital city today, you’ll probably most likely be aware of all the shops and offices, albeit deserted if we are still in lockdown. What you will not see so much of are the relics of London’s glorious industrial past, unless of course, that is you know where and what to look for. From brewing giants such as Guinness, toy manufacturers like Airfix and Lesney who made the world-famous matchbox cars, to the aircraft makers like De Haviland and Handley Page—these and many more instantly recognisable brands had major and often iconic bases in London. Urban archaeologist Mark Amies author of London’s Industrial Past understands the importance of our magnificent machine age, when London was once the powerhouse of the world. Join us as we wander the street of London in search of what once was Londoners very essence. This is Your London Legacy. “If you’re not careful—there are bits of London that you’ll never go and see.” 6:50 Mark’s love for London’s industrial past and architecture in general might trace back to car rides with his father. He would sit in the back of the car as his dad pointed out buildings and what factories they used to be, the people that worked there. There were stories hiding there, histories fading to mist, and Mark found himself yearning to dig into those histories and uncover what used to be there. These places were once social hubs, where people met and went out after work to bond and form relationships. While Mark admits not all factory work was glamorous or free of danger, the social impact of industrialization is undeniable on a social level. “Fortunately for me, they thought I was some kind of expert. I always thought myself more of an enthusiast.” 14:00 The road to Mark’s book was a long one, but started off when he was looking to do something more with his life outside of work. So, he went back to his passion for London’s history and started a blog—back when blogs were the cool thing to do. This led to him writing a few pieces for the Londonist, which can still eb found today, and ultimately led him to filling in slots for BBC Radio London on the Robert Elms program. It was on Mark to take his experience there and approach publishers directly, without an agent, to propose his book: London’s Industrial Past, which he landed by letting his enthusiasm and background shine. And the book is remarkable, not only for its written content but the images that accompany it. Some of these were holdovers from companies wanting giant, wide flyover pictures of their factory and grounds to show off in boardrooms—and the detail you can see in them is remarkable. The book covers industry from aeronautics, to biscuits, to toys—and covers a wide breadth of the history and modern day usage of the facilities—since some were located on areas that formed into their own miniature cities, with businesses and healthcare facilities built specifically for the workers there. London’s Industrial Past is a remarkable read, and guess what—Mark is working on a second, more specific and focused book about London’s past as we speak. Make sure to keep your eye on him via social media, and as he would want, keep your eye on the hidden histories of London as well. Links Mark Aimes Twitter: https://twitter.com/yesteryeartweet?lang=en (YesterYearTweets) https://twitter.com/PastLondon (PastLondon)

Today’s brilliant guest is responsible for what can probably be described as one of London’s absolute best secrets, The London Metropolitan Archive. Geoff Pick is Director of this amazing London based resource. Just imagine over 100km of archives jam packed full of amazing historical and contemporary material with over 1000 years to choose from. Well that is Geoff’s job. Geoff is an adopted Londoner from Wigan who was recently awarded an OBE for services to the management of records and archives in the capital. He joined the LMA in 1986 and became Director in 2013, having worked as a professional archivist since 1978. Under his direction, the LMA has played a pioneering role in areas such as digital archiving, engaging with the public, and promoting diversity through work with the LGBTQ+ and BAME communities. In this fascinating episode Geoff explains his love and passion for his work and takes us through some of the LMA’s outstanding archive material, from the City’s Magna Carta in 1297, the collection for John Keats, an amazing character called Cy Grant, right up to date with the digital collection of the National HIV Story Trust and work with LGBTQI communities. When lock down is over, the first thing I am going to do is get myself down to the LMA – and you should too. Meanwhile, be inspired and enjoy my chat with Geoff Pick. This is Your London Legacy. On being an archivist: “…that balance between the practical and the historical. Looking at fantastic historical material but then making it available for people to research…for an 8-year-old school girl to someone in their 90’s doing their family history.” 9:00 We all love museums. The thrill of seeing and learning something new while coming closer to history. Geoff often gets asked – well what is the difference between a museum and an archive. While they have some overlapping similarities, most patrons of the archive come for a specific research purpose. They may be working on their PHD, or be researching their family history, and they will stay from dusk till dawn. “The Hadron Collider at CERN creates enough data – if you put it on DVD’s – to go from here to the moon in just a single day.” 16:30 One topic that came up was just the sheer amount of information that gets put out into the world today. Journal articles, newspapers, online stories, blogs, reports – the list goes on and on. Geoff undoubtedly has a monumental task on his hands keeping everything organized and also making room for new entries into the archive from modern times. It is a job that is certainly worth it, as he gets to experience working with older documents and manuscripts from over 1000 years ago. He says there’s nothing quite like having the tactical and physical experience of working with those documents – like the writings of a monk from the 1400s. 24:35 The archive holds so many wonderful and important documents along its kilometres of sprawl – and we’re lucky enough to have Geoff handpick several and explain their significance to today and his own life. This includes a letter from John Hancock, a signer of America’s Declaration of Independence, to London for thanks in supporting their freedom, a stance likely taken to continue to bolster trade between the city and the New World. He also chose a letter from Keats to his fiancé that was delivered in a mailbox at the Keats house that you can actually go see – it was a letter before he went to Rome for tuberculosis treatment and died, leaving the epitaph of “Here Lies One Whose Name Was Writ in Water”. These are just a few of the gems Geoff picked – not to mention his extensive work and outreach he undertakes on behalf of the archive. You can do some research yourself and find more here at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/history-and-heritage/london-metropolitan-archives (London Metropolitan Archives.)

The fear of losing your mind has to be one of the scariest things you could ever endure—and the worry that a loved one will forget who you are, or start acting in a way that is totally opposite to how they have all their lives, is too much for most to imagine. This week’s brilliant guest, Jules Montague, is a Consultant Neurologist here in London. Her clinical specialty is “young onset dementia” with patients who develop memory and behavior changes as early as their twenties—and some of her most challenging work is in the intensive care setting, where she sees patients who have suffered catastrophic brain injuries. Jules’ most recent and bestselling book “Lost and Found: Why Losing Our Memory Doesn’t Mean Losing Ourselves” is profound and deeply touching, drawing on many real life personal experiences of patients whose minds misbehave. I was fortunate enough to meet with Jules in person, the first since lock-down, at one of my favorite places in London: Kenwood House Hampstead. You or someone you know will at some point in your life suffer from memory loss, and Jules’ approach to this may well be your life saver. This is Your London Legacy. “Telling our own story, our one autobiography is crucial to who we are.” 25:00 Jules has always been interested in medical science and grew up watching Grey’s Anatomy and E.R. along with other popular shows, and she was even told that she would ask for a second vaccine after getting her first shot because she was so interested in the process. This fascination led her to studying at Trinity College in Dublin for 6 years, where she went on to practice in Ireland and get her PHD before coming to London in 2009 as a neurologist. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder—I think personality traits are as well, and their consequences.” 35:00 Jules has firsthand experience in medical environments where diagnoses need to be made off of communication rather than MRI scans and modern medical equipment. Her pull to stories not only helped her disperse medical knowledge to these communities, but properly treat those in an area where the average life span was only 38 years. This focus on stories led her to writing her book and exploring who we are when we are not ourselves and the stories behind these scenarios. For instance, when we think back on our first kiss—whether it was good or bad—we reconstruct the memory both physically through proteins and psychologically through ideas. This layers on meaning overtime, much like pulling an old book from a library and adding pages to it—which of course means that our current memory differs from the original. In this way we constantly reshape ourselves and who we are, changing and evolving, a process most drastically altered by Neuro- degenerative and other psychological disorders. Through this lens Jules hopes to broaden the idea that we should judge and treat people based on them people and not their illness. It was a true treat to talk to Jules out in the real world after such an extensive period of lock-down, and I very much look forward to her next book: 'Diagnosis Cure' which explores the flaws in current medical and psychological diagnoses and how they are viewed and abused in the world. Links https://twitter.com/Jules_Montague (Twitter: @Jules_Motague) https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Found-Memory-Identity-Ourselves/dp/1473646944 (Lost and Found)

This week’s amazing guest is the inspirational Brenda Birungi, aka Lady Unchained. Lady Unchained is a Poet and founder of Unchained Poetry, a platform for artists with experience of the criminal justice system. In 2008, 20-year-old Brenda got into a fight in a club whilst trying to protect her sister from being attacked. Serving 11 months of her prison sentence—her life changed completely. Whilst her experience was shocking Brenda looks back on and forward to a bright future with a mission to prove there is life after prison. Through poetry she tells her own personal story and the story of those with similar lived experience, that as she says are often left untold due to shame, stigma, and negative labels. Lady Unchained has worked with several charities, hosted inspirational story telling nights, though poetry and music performed by artists who have experienced the justice system first-hand. She also co hosts for National Prison Radio’s show We are Straightline, a show about getting out and staying out of prison. Brenda’s life has been anything other than linear, but she is most definitely on the way up and making a positive impact. This is Your London Legacy. “A key is a symbol of freedom—so to give somebody a key, for me, only made me feel like they were mocking me.” 16:20 Brenda moved out at 17, a young age no doubt, with plenty to learn about herself and the world. She did have a dependable personality, as she was always being called upon to help people out with this that or the other, but this made it hard for her to reach out and ask for help herself. Perhaps this dovetailed one fateful night at a party, where her sister was attacked, and through her intervention—ended up taking a year-long probation that placed her in prison. “Everything in jail that you say, do—has an effect on when you get out. What privileges you have. Everything.” 51:10 Strangely enough, it was the poor treatment she received in jail that led her to start writing poetry. Writing notes and journaling about the different injustices she faced on a daily basis there—including not being accepted as “British”, which led to her hunger striking and eventually being transferred to another prison. But she studied English and got her A levels while in jail and continued to write upon her eventual release—a whole other adventure in itself where she had to rediscover who Brenda was through volunteering and art. Brenda came across National Prison Radio, and after her first performance on We Are Straightline, knew she had gone to jail for a reason and wanted to dedicate herself to “Lady Unchained” her moniker for her post jail self and the art she creates. While Covid in itself has brought about triggering memories just with the term “lockdown”—you can still come across her work online until venues reopen up. Brenda is a lovely soul and overly talented poet, and you’d be doing a disservice to yourself to not seek out her works and even TEDx talk online. Links Twitter: https://twitter.com/UnchainedP (@UnchainedP) https://www.unchainedpoetry.com/ (UnchainedPoetry.com) https://www.instagram.com/unchainedpoetry/ (Instagram) https://soundcloud.com/unchained-poetry (Soundcloud) https://www.ted.com/talks/lady_unchained_proving_there_is_life_after_prison_one_poem_at_a_time (TEDx Talk)

London cabbies are a wonderful, rich and varied bunch and Mark Monroe is no exception. Born in Plymouth Mark moved to London as a young man and studied Musical Theatre at the Arts Ed school in Chiswick, after which he was a jobbing theatre actor to the age of 33. Realising the instability of the acting world Mark took the ‘The Knowledge’ absorbing very facet of his new home London. Marks love of London extended beyond the standout historical icons such as Buckingham Palace and the London eye. It was the quirky, bizarre, and unusual that excites him. So much so that in May 2019, as complete novice in film making, presenting and social media, mark created Secret London, his very own You Tube Chanel where he shares a side of London, very view people are aware of, or indeed ever get to see. When social distancing is over, I’m going to ask Mark to take to me to some of the fabulous places he talks about, but for now, we can all enjoy his wonderful Secret London story from the comfort of our own homes, wherever in the world we may be. This is Your London Legacy. “I’m always asking people to tell me something about London that I don’t know.” 9:40 Mark’s first role came around 16 when he joined a youth theatre with a friend, essentially to try and meet girls. Well after singing he ended up landing the role of Tony in a Westside Story—and ended up playing Riff, leader of the Jets in the opposite gang. So it’s unsurprising that Mark went into theatre and the arts, and finished his A levels around 20 and scored a grant to come to London and study at drama school—the Arts School at Chiswick. 3 years later he came out the other side with a performance diploma. He went on the be in productions of Aladdin, Wind in the Willows, and Peter Pan. However, as many in the arts are to find out, especially in acting, work isn’t always steady and income can be hard to come by. “You’re then assigned your first appearance—there not called exams. There called ‘appearances’. How incredible is that? It makes you feel even more nervous.” 30:00 Mark decided to join the cabbie life and start down the, literally, long road toward passing “The Knowledge”. He studied part time while working, spending his weekends on a moped with maps in front of him as he memorized and took stock of street names and just as importantly—points of interest. 17,000 or so at that. And after passing his “appearances” and test where he was given a blank map of London and asked to put down street names, he finally got his badge—3 years down the line. “I want to share something a little bit more hidden—under the surface of London, and unique. And what that is what the channel is all about.” 40:00 Mark now runs a YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7W2nvuM1ObIBI5jW0TWYhw (Secret London). A channel borne out of his love for London’s points of interests and even his love for performance and expressing his personality. He started off with just a regular old iPhone, going around and showing some of London’s most hidden gems—one of which he shares with us, a place he calls a Secret Garden. But he learned the ins and outs of film making with minimal equipment, while on the go, and it’s allowed him to showcase the hidden and obscure corners of our wonderful city—which I wholeheartedly hope you delve deeper into and explore. Links https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7W2nvuM1ObIBI5jW0TWYhw (Secret London Youtube) https://www.instagram.com/secretlondonpics/ (Secret London Instagram)

Without doubt—one topic that I find more fascinating than virtually any other, is the field of neuroscience. And this week, I was excited to be joined by Kris De Meyer, Neuroscientist and Research Fellow at King’s College London. One of Kris’s interests lies in the area of belief. By that he means, how our brain decides that certain ideas are ‘true’ while rejecting others as 'false'. Kris also studies how entrenched belief systems invariably lead to polarisation in society, from such crucial topics and Climate Change and Brexit. Kris is also a documentary maker and co-produced with Sheila Marshall the film ‘Right Between Your Ears’ a study of Harold Camping and his followers whose interpretation of the Bible led them to the certainty the world would end on May 21 2011. I loved this conversation and think you will too. This is Your London Legacy “One of the things that interests me most is studying and looking at how people form beliefs and how we come to think our view of the world is the right view, and other people’s view is wrong.” 5:00 Kris came from an electrical engineering background initially, definitely not poking around in brains to start off. However, the brain is an electrical organ and the tools used to study the brain rely on clever physics and high-functioning electronics. Neuroscience takes engineers, psychologist, and biologists—and none of them fully understood each other when Kris started out. His studies coupled with seeing how people started sharing and arguing their opinions at the advent of the internet helped push him headlong into the neuroscience field. 11:20 On one hand, Kris is interested in the mechanisms people use to formulate and defend their beliefs, and his study and research helps him divorce himself from those issues. On the other hand, he is still human. He has opinions about climate change, society, Brexit (he is originally from Belgium) and so he has to wear two hats at once in his studies. “The only messages that go viral are the ones that fit with your group, the beliefs of your group—or the ones that outrage your group.” 12:30 Kris’s documentary started out in 2011 and is called “Right Between Your Ears” and follows a guy who head of a radio station that believed the world would end on a specific date: 21st of May 2011. Kris took this to be an interesting case study of a polarizing belief, with followers, that would have to face the consequences of being wrong and how the belief evolves. He learned through this that you could never find a killer argument to sway someone from one side to the other. In fact, in his own research, he finds that both sides of an argument or belief use the same language to describe the other side while making their argument and finding rational points of debate. His program The Justice Syndicate is set as a playable theatre that puts its “players” or audience into a jury role with a tablet and they have to vote and form opinions that highlight preconceptions, power, privilege, and how being a part of a group affects the whole experience. This was such a fascinating conversation, and one I help hope you identify what “pyramids” of belief and opinion you stand on, and where you stand upon them. I hope along with Kris that further study into our beliefs help us to come to find more common ground where we are able to have discussions about society and life at large to help foster a safe and prosperous life for all, regardless of some opinions and ideologies. You can find more of Kris’s work with this helpful intro of a TEDX talk he gave that is titled http://tedxlondon.com/attend/beyondborders2019/speakers/KrisDeMeyer (“How Not to Be Ignorant About the World”.) Links https://www.krisdemeyer.com/ (KrisDeMeyer.com) https://twitter.com/kris8dm (Twitter: @kris8dm)

I’ve never really thought of myself as a creative type. From my days studying law, to my career as an Insurance Loss Assessor with my head in policy wordings, the arc of my story has somehow seemed rather dry. That is of course until I discovered my love of podcasting whilst flat on my back in a hospital bed some three years ago. As it was in that London hospital bed where my first create seed was germinated. Today, some people tell me I’m a creative. That I’ve actually come up with an idea, something from nothing, and had the audacity to put it out there. As Brene Brown says, ''there’s a deep connection between finding meaning in one’s life and creativity.'' This week’s guest is a natural creative. Chrissy Levett, London Based Creative Director, who’s studied graphic design and communications at the Royal College of Art here in London. She’s won a number of industry awards for branding, is a TEDx speaker, newly published author believing creative thinking is vital for us to solve the world’s greatest challenges. Now Founder and CEO for Creative Conscience a global movement set up to encourage, reward, train and support creative thinkers, to use their talents for social and environmental impact. I love this conversation and being around creative people. It just makes me feel uplifted and inspired and wherever you are on your life journey, it’s never too late to start writing your creative story. This Your London Legacy. “All of us—every person on the planet is creative. I think if you’ve ever had an idea you’re creative. It’s just our education system isn’t set up to understand the value of creative thinking.” 06:00 Chrissy has seen first hand the failures of our education system in fostering creativity in the youth. A problem that has trickled into society itself, a society that isn’t working for most people. People are miserable, over prescribed, and forced to believe their value in society is only in the context of a system that doesn’t value or reward personal creativity and the happiness it can bring. The community it can bring. “Fear stops us from being great.” 25:40 Chrissy is the Founder and CEO of Creative Conscience which sets out to correct the failures of the education system and society and push creatives into action to, in some cases, quite literally save the planet. These projects range from societal while addressing topics such as bullying and teenage suicide—to Danish students making ice posters that melted around towns to highlight the lack of climate change debate amongst their politicians during an election cycle. Creative Conscience helps youth overcome the anxiety and fear that surrounds putting work out into the world, an issue any creative faces, even myself, even Chrissy. To put work out into the world makes you vulnerable, and it is something I feel everytime I sit down with a new guest. I’m thankful for the work Chrissy does in helping to push people to find their purpose and express it in caring communities that help build lifelong careers and happiness to change the world from the inside out. Links https://www.creative-conscience.org.uk/ (Creative-conscience.org.uk) https://twitter.com/ccchangemakers (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/ccchangemakers/ (Instagram) https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissy-levett-61307620/?originalSubdomain=uk (Chrissy Levett LinkedIn)

Abigail Barnes is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and speaker on personal productivity – a topic that is very close to my heart. She is also a qualified coach and creator of the renowned 888 Formula and Founder of Success by Design Training. A few years back Abigail had a life changing moment which she now uses as a wakeup call to inspire and motivate audiences, leaving them excited to take action. Since I first read Stephen Covey’s masterful Seven Habits of Highly Effective People many years ago, the genre of time management, self-improvement and productivity have always fascinated me. Now more than ever we must seek mastery over ourselves and how we spend our precious time. Listening and acting on the lessons in this episode will surely be time well spent. This is Your London Legacy. “So, I’m on this work business trip and 24 hours after I arrive—I find myself being woken up by a doctor in a hospital being told I’ve had a stroke.” 7:30 Abigail grew up aspiring to be a hard worker, living a good life of pounding the pavement early in the morning to run, going to work a nice job, and moving forward and up with accomplishments as she went. She had to re-evaluate her hardworking life though after experiencing a stroke in on a trip to the States, and managing the anxiety, stress, and her perception of how her co-workers would see her. She thought they would think she was faking it. But in time she came to realize that after such shocking wake up calls, all that matters is your health; and she has made her life’s work since then health and happiness oriented around a common theme—managing time. That finite and fleeting thing we all tread upon. “What happens to you happens for you. And that’s a real bitter pill for some people to swallow.” 40:00 Abigail’s 888 formula allows her to have conversations with people that take them up in a “possibility helicopter” and imagine a different life for themselves. This is especially pertinent during the current Corona virus epidemic where many people have been gifted an abundance of time, but might still say—oh, I don’t have enough time still to do what I want. Abigail aims to help find the drive people need to arrange their time, whether it seems abundant or not, and use it to do the things they need to do to get where they really want to be. Comfort is the “kiss of death” as Abigail puts it. Life is ever evolving and being able to outgrow your comfort zone to expand into new places is the only way to get to your imagined life, turning it from idea into reality. You can find her work at https://www.successbydesigntraining.com/ (SuccessbyDesignTraining.com) or reach out to her on https://www.linkedin.com/in/abigailrbarnes/?originalSubdomain=uk (LinkedIn). Or find her on social media https://twitter.com/abarnesauthor?lang=en (@abarnesauthor).

Pearly Queen Diane Gould follows in the rich tradition of Pearly royalty. Born in North London into a family of Costermongers (street market traders) her Father Alf Dole was grandson of the very first Pearly King of St Pancras, having put on his first suit as the Pearly Prince aged 7. As Diane says, The Costermongers worked hard and played hard, always ready for a sing song and knees up in the local battle cruiser (boozer). The Costermongers were a resilient bunch with a Stoic outlook on life. If you fall on hard times- well, you just pick yourself up and get on with it. And boy did they have hard times going back three and four generations, but they were often carefree happy times too. Playing out in the streets of London, spending long hot summers hopping down in Kent. Underpinning much of what the Pearlies have always been about is charity, and today Diane and her fellow Pearlies , share their rich history through education programmes, community projects, social engagement and of course fund raising for wonderful causes including the world renowned, Great Ormond Street Hospital and Rippledown Environmental Education Centre, giving kids from Inner London a rare chance to engage with the natural word. The tradition of Pearly Kings and Queens started in 19th Century Victorian London, and their reason d’etre of spreading good will and cockney spirit is as important today as ever. In this episode Pearly Queen Diane takes us back in time to recount some of the wonderful stories from her inspiring heritage. This Your London Legacy. Note! Regular listeners to the podcast will know that at the end of each interview we ask our guests to tell us one or two of their favourite places in London, that is personal to them and perhaps not everyone knows about. Well I’ve now compiled for you 60 of my guests favourite places in London and you can get this unique brochure 100% free. https://www.yourlondonlegacy.com (www.yourlondonlegacy.com) Alongside each guest recommendation is a brief quote explaining why they love the place, a lovely picture of the place, plus links to the venue and the podcast episode itself so you can check it out for yourself. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it for you. “You got to live and let live if you want to get by. It’s only a matter time if you live or if you die. What difference does it make if you’re rich or if you’re broke—in 100 years from now it’ll all be a joke.” 7:20 Diane gives us a rundown of the Costermongers in a tradition that runs back hundreds of years. In each of London’s 28 boroughs a Coster King and Coster Queen was decided to watch over the corresponding street market. They looked after the interests of the markets and interact with them, and the Coster Queens and Kings would talk and entertain and listen to keep them coming back to their market—and if one of the Coster traders went on hard times they would go to their Coster King or Queen for help—thus starting the tradition and heritage of charity among the Pearlies. So how did Pearlies come about? Diane’s Great Grandad—as legend has it—appeared in a top hat in dress suit completely covered in peals and wanted to go out and help the poor people at markets, as Costermongers weren’t exactly sharp dressed. The pearls are said to have been found in the Thames and her Great Grandad went about fashioning them to his suit. “We’re connected through story, aren’t we? We’re connected through story—in many ways. In story and song.” 18:10 The Pearly Prince of St Pancras is a book written by Diane’s father Alf Dole, who sadly passed before the collection of his stories was published—but I can tell you first hand that they are absolutely phenomenal, one of which features him at the ripe age of 7 in charge of getting all his siblings on a train. They are stories that expose depths of poverty and hilarity alike, like being wrapped in a rug and shoved into the overhead luggage rack on a train. Diane carries on the Pearly...

**************************************************************************************************************** March 2020 will for many be seen as watershed in their lives. There was before and there is after. Covid 19 raises many fascinating questions. Its has caused most of us to re evaluate our lives. Are we happy with the direction our life has been taken? Are we content in our job, our relationship, our values, the way we use or abuse our time, and of course if we are not happy what can we do about it. Back in June 2018 I met up with my old friend Michele Attias to chat about her book 'Look Inside...stop seeking, start living'. Never has this refrain been more relevant so here is the interview again in full. So many valuable takeaways here, its well worth a reprise. **************************************************************************************************************** I’ve known Michele Attias for several years now—she was born in Gibraltar, lived in Israel for a while, but eventually settled in London. She qualified as a therapist and clinical supervisor in mental health services with responsibility for some of the poorest and abused children in London. After undergoing significant changes in her own personal life, Michele reinvented herself and became a certified coach with a range of clients from lawyers, bankers, to entrepreneurs and business leaders. On top of being a mom of two, she also finds time for public speaking, writing articles for blogs, and most recently—publishing her first book, Look Inside: Stop Seeking Start Living. Michele and I share a passion for personal growth and lifelong learning, and in our conversation we discuss Michele’s transition from working in the city to coaching, as well as diving into her book to see what some of the key issues are that are holding us back today—and how we can overcome them. This is Your London Legacy. “I hated finance, I hated that whole sector—but I absolutely loved speaking to people.” 2:54 Michele started off in therapy around 15 years ago, wanting to get into personal development to escape the corporate banking world—a world she entered after moving to London and landed the work, in part, due to being able to speak three languages. However, it was here that people started coming to Michele with their problems while she was in the filing room. This filing room became renamed by the employees as “Michele’s Therapy Room”. But to step into becoming a psychotherapist was a whole different ball game. She found that she loved the academic aspect of it, learning different theories and practices to better help others. This also helped her personally overcome her feeling about being divorced, and as she attended personal development workshops she found herself helping others. “People go through life like that, but they end up in their forties or fifties—they wake up one morning and they think, well I have the house, the marriage, the kids, the job—but I’m not happy. I don’t have any meaning.” 38:38 Fear is always powered by thought. The thoughts don’t come out of a vacuum—they’re always powered from a conscious effort within. She talks to her clients about possibility, of who they would be if they didn’t invite their negative thoughts in. This goes to show that fear is so much worse than the reality often is, which helps cast it aside. Attaching to fearful thoughts will paralyze you—imagine if fear was a friend, an annoying neighbor you converse with. This takes some of the power away from those feelings. Now don’t get Michele wrong, of course you are going to be scared at times, doubt your career path, worry over major or not so major life decisions, but at the end of the day your thoughts control how you feel about all of those external things. “Sometimes we need to get over ourselves. Sometimes when the love we have for what we’re about to create is bigger than the fear we have of what will...

As many of us struggle on through the Covid 19 London lock down, it's a good time to pause, and reflect and truly see that good can come out of bad. I've chosen to re publish one of my earliest interviews with the inspiring and Jonny Benjamin. This is his very dramatic personal story from the depths of despair to being awarded MBE ( service for mental health). I hope you find this amazing yet true life story of 'The Stranger on The Bridge' a motivation that things will get better soon. Just keep believing. **************************************************************************************************************** On a bitter cold winter morning, you’re walking across Waterloo Bridge—on your way to work. As you reach the midway point over the grey, fast flowing Thames, something unusual catches your eye. You notice the figure of what appears to be a young man holding onto the railings…on the wrong side. Hundreds of busy commuters pretend not to see what’s right in front of their eyes. Some know what is going on, but don’t know what to do, or internally question whether to get involved or not. One man stops to see to see if he can help. This is the story of “Stranger on The Bridge”—of how two totally unconnected worlds collided and changed both forever. This is Your London Legacy. “Looking back it’s strange, I almost believed it was –it didn’t feel like me that was causing this disruption. It felt like it was this toy that was in control, but again I guess at that age I couldn’t articulate what was going on.” Jonny first went to a psychologist at the age of 5. While hard to express his emotions and reasoning at that age, he was acting out and being destructive. He was irritable, couldn’t sleep, and becoming violent. What he couldn’t express was that he was seeing things that weren’t there. This theme of shielding his family and friends from what was tormenting him ran through his early years all the way through uni. Jonny constant felt like something was off and bore into his studies as an escape—finding a particular interest in drama. 10:34 Things started to come to a head when Jonny was 17. He’d given into a delusion that he was in a “Truman Show” type situation where he was being watched all the time. Coincidences seemed preordained, planned, and he liked it—if he was being watched then it must mean that everyone liked him. But after a friend vocalized concern he went to see a doctor and was put on a waiting list for a specialist. After time though, Jonny gave up waiting and headed off to uni where he hoped his problems would solve themselves. 18:00 While his studies in drama continued to be a godsend and escape, outside of his studies his life was crumbling. It started with self-harm and abusing alcohol and getting into a minor car accident that threw him into a temporary psychosis. Jonny was scared, and to complicate things further he was beginning to struggle with his sexuality as well. He ended up going to group therapy and finally his secret was out, his family was clued into his mental struggles. Jonny felt like he’d betrayed them. “This might sound awful, but there was a kind of relief in making that decision—because I thought finally, there’s a way out.” 26:40 It is at this point that we arrive at the poem Jonny reads at the beginning of our interview. On a freezing cold day in January, he ran to the Waterloo bridge—as he’d planned the night before, deciding to end his life. He’d been in the hospital for a month where his family visited every day, and he felt like this was doing them a favor, taking the burden of himself off their shoulders. But it was on the bridge the stranger came. Calm, empathetic, and very, very human compared to the sterile clipboard environment of the hospital. This stranger was invested in Jonny when he didn’t have to be, and it ended up saving Jonny’s life. 37:52 Jonny’s recovery took years, taking a large chunk out of his...

Ruth Posner Is A Very Special Lady. Holocaust Survivor From Warsaw, Dancer, Actress, Choreographer, Author, Educator. Ruth Has Led An Inspiring & Often Tragic Yet Uplifting Life.