WCIT MONITOR Issue 66 Dec 2015 | Page 8

MONITOR FELLOWSHIP WCIT City Walks Bunhill Fields, Shoreditch, Hoxton & Vauxhall O n the 20th May WCIT members and guests met Diane Burstein at City Road, London for the next in the series of WCIT City Walks. Diane guided us through the cemetery, which had been firstly used for victims of the Great Plague in 1665 and then for nonconformists, who were not allowed to be buried in the City. These included John Bunyan, William Blake and Daniel De-Foe. There was a tomb to a lady, Mrs Page, who had been ‘tapd 66 times in 67 months’ to remove 240 gallons of water, without complaint! As an extra feature and courtesy of Michael Grant, we were allowed into the Honourable Artillery Company’s Armoury, with Abi trying on the armour and holding a pike! We visited John Wesley’s house and the Methodist Chapel (but didn’t see his grave on the same site) before proceeding through Shoreditch to Hoxton Market, where we saw the Shoreditch Electrical Company’s building from 1896: it burned waste to create electricity, but is now the National Centre for Circus Arts. We passed several other interesting buildings, including what was a Library built by the great philanthropist, Passmore Edwards, on our way to Hoxton Square where we had a delicious meal in Bill’s - in the home of the doctor after whom Parkinson’s Disease is named. Following this Summer walk the latest in the series of walks took place on the 9th September in Vauxhall, London. Diane was as usual interesting and informative and showed us the area in detail. Among the highlights were the Oval Cricket Ground, where cricket began (although the museum is at Lord’s); Bonnington Square, where a bombed site had been turned into a beautiful wild garden by the residents; Vauxhall Park, with its lavender