We start with a view of an infamously terrible Victorian factory, still here today though used as something very different nowadays thank goodness. And we see a statue erected nearby by the factory owners, which still retains a form of graffiti which tells you what Eastenders thought of it. We pass through some Suffragette history and then we’re at the house where Dr Barnardo was living when he realised something had to be done for boys in the area. We then walk past one of the finest examples of a Victorian workhouse in London, show you where another workhouse was just yards away, and we walk through a bit of leafy cemetery park whilst hearing how the poor tried to avoid having a pauper’s unmarked grave. We walk though another leafy area onto a canal towpath which takes us to the Ragged School Museum which was a Barnardo’s. And we soon walk past a plaque that tells us this was the spot where Barnardo set up his first school. We then see the remains of another workhouse in a street where a famous Hollywood director was brought up a hundred years ago. There’s lots of other interesting history in this area too, with grade listed houses and a famous old church. We finish by showing you where a famous Victorian doctor worked in a hospital for the poor, at the same time as Dr Barnardo, was setting up his first Home, a couple of streets away.

Start Bow Church DLR
Finish Limehouse DLR
Shorter Walk alternative: Start Bow Road underground station or Finish at Ragged School Museum