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A Walk on the Wild Side: the Renaissance Southbank

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Venue: External

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A walk through the wild side of Renaissance London - starting at Southwark Cathedral and ending at Shakespeare’s Globe. Meeting point: Southwark Cathedral, Main entrance outside the café


Join us on a walk through the wild side of Renaissance London. Starting at Southwark Cathedral and ending at the Globe, we will regale you with stories of pirates, seafarers, prostitutes, rogues, vagabonds, and beggars. We will explore the role of the Stew houses, playhouses, the prisons, the alehouses, and the church in the seedier side of the city. Being outside the jurisdiction of the City of London this area was the go-to-place for all that was shocking, scandalous, and downright criminal! Do you dare to join us? The walk begins at 5pm and lasts approx. 90 minutes.

Sue Wiseman teaches and researches on seventeenth century literature and culture at Birkbeck and directs the Leverhulme project ‘Written Worlds’.

Judith Hudson holds a PhD in English from the University of London. She has worked as a Lecturer in Medieval and Renaissance Literature and as an Associate Lecturer and Research Fellow at Birkbeck. She has interests in early modern law, crime, and women’s writing; her book ‘Crime and Consequence in Early Modern Literature and Law’ was published by Edinburgh University Press in 2021. Sue Jones was awarded a PhD in English and Humanities from Birkbeck, University of London in 2021. Her research looks at pirate lives in early modern English literature. She has taught at Birkbeck and at Plymouth University.

Eva Lauenstein was awarded her PhD in English and Humanities from the University of London in 2019. She worked as a Lecturer in Seventeenth Century Literature and subsequently Renaissance and Early Modern Literature at Birkbeck. Currently she is an Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck and Early Career Convenor at the London Renaissance Seminar. Samantha Smith holds a PhD in English from the University of London. She has taught at Birkbeck. She has particular interests in the Tower of London, prisoners, letters and the Earl of Essex. She is currently writing historical fiction based in the thirteenth century.  

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