The Gentle Author of the popular blog Spitalfields Life has gained an extraordinary following in recent years, by writing hundreds of lively pen portraits of the infinite variety of people who live and work in the East End of London. As part of our Spitalfields Life Chit Chats, butchers, Joe Lawrence, Greg Lawrence and Peter Sargent present a livel…

The Gentle Author of the popular blog Spitalfields Life has gained an extraordinary following in recent years, by writing hundreds of lively pen portraits of the infinite variety of people who live and work in the East End of London. As part of our Spitalfields Life Chit Chats, fishmonger Charlie Caisey talks about his life as a fishmonger and Bill…

Rhyming slang can claim to be London's one truly home-grown language. It may have started around 1830 among the canal-digging navvies, the villains of St Giles or, as is most likely, the costermongers of the East End, spreading over time to Australia and the United States. But it remains the most quintessentially 'London' of all slang's vocabularie…

Following the publication of London: A Travel Guide Through Time, join historian and broadcaster Dr Matthew Green on an historical journey through 800 years of London's history, from the depths of the Middle Ages, through the time of Shakespeare, the Great Plague and Empire, to the pummelling of the city during the Blitz, and its resurrection in th…

Behind our democracy lurks a powerful but unaccountable network of people who wield massive power and reap huge profits in the process. In exposing this shadowy and complex system that dominates our lives, Owen Jones sets out on a journey into the heart of our Establishment, from the lobbies of Westminster to the newsrooms, boardrooms and trading r…

Highly acclaimed crime writer Ruth Rendell looks back over 50 years of Wexford. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute on Thursday 30 October 2014. If you enjoyed listening to this event do take a look at the other events we have coming up.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Lee Jackson explores the secret life of the Victorian metropolis, focusing in particular on the birth of public baths and the peculiar history of the public toilet. Recorded live on 16 October 2014Di Bishopsgate Institute

Tristram Hunt, author of The Frock-Coated Communist and leading UK politician presents a new approach to Britain's imperial past through ten cities that epitomised it. The final embers of the British Empire are dying, but its legacy remains in the lives and structures of the cities which it shaped. Here Tristram Hunt examines the stories and defini…

Rosamund Urwin of the Evening Standard chairs a discussion about the raunch culture and its impact on modern feminism. Can you still be a feminist if you bare your body for a living? Or has feminism come so far that women now hold the power?Rosamund is joined by Sarah Mathewson from feminist campaign group OBJECT, Barbara Haigh, a former Playboy Bu…

Thirty years ago, miners went on strike across Britain to resist the Tory government's plans for sweeping pit closures. The strike remains the longest mass industrial dispute in British history - a war between Margaret Thatcher and the labour movement, and the miners’ union she branded "the enemy within" in particular. The strike’s outcome signalle…

The most notorious novel of the ‘slum fiction’ genre, Morrison’s A Child of the Jago, caused outrage, with its nihilistic depiction of a population of criminals and social outcasts. Morrison claimed that it was an eyewitness account of the real Old Nichol district of Shoreditch. Two years after publication, the rows the book engendered were ongoing…

Born on Columbia Road, award-winning author Linda Wilkinson traces the history of the fragrant home of East London’s famous flower market. From the earliest times when the land was pastureland for cows whose milk supplied the City of London, through the influx of the Huguenot weavers and up to the present day, this talk is part historical and part …

Lesbian fashion. A misnomer? Surely, lesbians don't do fashion. But contrary to perception, clothing and style have been a crucial part of establishing an identity for women who love women. But if what we wear says who we are, can we be sure we're all talking in the same dialect or could we be misread? And is it possible to be outside the language …

A tale of cross-dressing, cross-examinations and a scandal that shocked and titillated Victorian England in equal measure. The alluring Miss Fanny Park and Miss Stella Boulton were no ordinary young women, they were young men who liked to dress as women. As their show trial unfolded, Fanny and Stella’s extraordinary lives as wives and daughters, ac…

To celebrate the publication of this final volume of his diaries, Tony Benn, in conversation with author, columnist and commentator Owen Jones, reflects on both the public and personal events of the last five years.Covering the fall of New Labour, tireless campaigning against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and passionate commitment to encouraging…

All boys together? Nudge nudge. The belief that all male institutions are breeding grounds for homosexuality, has been a constant one. But what does go on behind the doors of the executive boardroom or the communal changing room? Is homosexuality the elephant in the room? The serpent in the grass? Or is it all just homosexual wish fulfilment fantas…

We open the doors on that bastion of the British entertainment scene, the working men’s clubs. Hear about their development in the mid-19th century to their current period of decline. Why were they set up? What went on in them? And how did women come to find their own place in them? Drawing on personal accounts and experiences of those attending th…

The world has always seen protest and dissent but in these difficult and changing times, how can the voices that challenge authority really be heard? How can a message reach the widest number of people? Which forms of resistance have the greatest impact? How can support be generated and who is really listening? From protests, rallies and direct act…

By 1966, the Apartheid regime in South Africa had all but annihilated the African National Congress (ANC), imprisoning its leaders or driving them into exile. To help keep their message of struggle alive and maintain a strategy of resistance from within, young men and women in London smuggled ANC literature into South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s.…

Katherine Connelly examines Sylvia Pankhurst's life of activism from her teens as a member of the Independent Labour Party, to her time as a leading suffragette before the First World War, through to her socialist, anti-fascist and anti-imperialist campaigns in later years. She will also explore some of the contradictions in Pankhurst's career such…

In conversation with John Harris, Barry Miles explores London’s counterculture - the creative, avant garde, permissive, anarchic - that sprang up in the city in the decades following the Second World War.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Why is the Victoria Line so hot? Is it really possible to go all the way round the circle line? The London Underground is the oldest, most sprawling and arguably illogical metropolitan transport system in the world. Yet it is iconic, relied upon by over a billion passengers a year and loved and despised in equal measure by Londoners. Find out every…

Sex between men in public areas such as toilets and parks has been commonplace for at least a century, and continues today. Peter Kelley of LAGNA discusses this with writer and journalist Mark Simpson.Di Bishopsgate Institute

The first female prime minister who also won three consecutive elections. But Margaret Thatcher is arguably better known for the policies to which her name became attached and which significantly altered the social and economic face of Britain. Yet despite deeply divided opinion, has ‘Thatcherism’ actually been embraced and sustained by subsequent …

A speaker at the 1985 Conservative Party Conference was cheered when he said, “If you want a queer for your neighbour, vote Labour!” Today, many leading Conservatives support gay marriage. A watershed in the long struggle for civil rights for LGBT citizens was resistance to Clause 28, which prohibited local authorities from presenting ‘homosexualit…

Riots on the Streets:What can we Learn?Urban riots broke out across England in 2011, the worst since those of the 1980s. Then, as now, political authorities initially saw them as pure criminality. But is it coincidental that both eras are characterised by deepening inequality and economic crisis? What can the 1980s tell us about keeping the peace i…

Rewind 30 years to the 1980s. Hairstyles may best be forgotten but the pop music of the time had more to recommend it. Punk was fading into softer, more electronic genres as music technology evolved. The ‘New Romantics’ emerged as a dominant force in music championing fantasy and the imagination with bands such as Spandau Ballet and Culture Club en…

Best-selling philosopher Julian Baggini explains the stories behind philosophy. Bringing together and interlinking its different areas, he creates an accessible and fascinating taste of philosophy and all that matters in it. Taking you to the very heart of the subject, Julian shows how abstract ideas feed into the most existential questions of all.…

Should Britain retain a symbolic Head of State who, it is argued, is politically impartial and provides stability, a focus for national unity and a centrepiece for national celebrations? Or does the hereditary system need to be replaced by a democratically elected Head of State who others believe can also provide these services as well as being pub…

There was a time when the British public viewed their sovereigns from afar. The media is now filled with details of the Royal family’s private lives. Public demand, media profits and the need tokeep the monarchy in the public sphere have combined to bring the monarchy and royal family into close and constant focus. In this age of mass media and cel…

From its rise to prominence in the early 18th century through to its precarious global heights of today, David Kynaston gives a definitive history of the 'Square Mile', London's financial powerhouse.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Information Dissemination in a New Media Age Curated with Little Atoms as part of Whose Mind is it Anyway? at Bishopsgate Institute With rapidly developing new media and modes of mass communication, we continuously absorb information as well as giving information about ourselves. From political leaks to twitter, mobile location finders to credit ca…

The introduction of the National Curriculum in 1988 laid out clear directions for schools on how young people should be taught. However the teaching of the next generation remains as controversial as ever the curriculum is widely debated and the very purpose of education often questioned. If, as some have argued, the role of the curriculum is to en…

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: A City at Risk from the City with Nicholas Faith. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute on 19 July 2011.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: Nightmare City with Cathi Unsworth, China Mieville, Iain Sinclair and Andrew Whitehead. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute on 14 July 2011.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: The Gentrification of London with Professor Chris Hamnett, David Partridge, Tom Hunter, and Robert Elms. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute on 13 July 2011.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: Crime and the City with Sarah Wise, Paul Duncan, Andrew Lane, Valentine Cunningham and Andrew Whitehead. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute on 2 June 2011.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: 1911 - A Vision of England with David Annal. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute on 24 February 2011.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: The Thirties - An Intimate History with Juliet Gardiner. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute on 3 March 2011.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: The Census - Survey or Surveillance with Jil Matheson (Office for National Statistics), Phil Booth (NO2ID) and Tom Crook (Oxford Brookes University) as Chair. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute on 17 March 2011.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: Out of the Shadows - Forgotten London Writers with Iain Sinclair, Andrew Whitehead, Sarah Wise and Ken Worpole. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute on 21 October 2010.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: 'My Word is my Bond' - But can we really trust the City of London? with Philip Augar. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute on 12 October 2010.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: Barnardo's Philanthropy and Photography with Erica Davies. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute on 13 July 2010.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes with Jonathan Rose. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute on 1 July 2010.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: London Recorded by Camera - A Look Through Bishopsgate Library's Photographic Archive with Bishopsgate Institute's Library Manager, Stefan Dickers. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute on 6 July 2010.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: Dreamers of a New Day with Sheila Rowbotham. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute on 8 June 2010.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: London - The Story of a Great City with Jerry White. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute, 3 June 2010.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: Investigative Journalism with Eamonn O'Neill. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute, 16 March 2010.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: The Technological Revolution in London's Lea Valley with Jim Lewis. Recorded live at Bishopsgate Institute, 8 March 2010.Di Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast: Rebuild or Refurbish? This is part two of two podcasts covering the Rebuild or Refurbish? debate, which took place during the Building East London series curated in collaboration with Dan Cruikshank.The debate featured William Palin (Save Britain’s Heritage), Austin Williams (Future Cities), Paul Finch (CABE) and Gile…