London's Hidden History

Have you ever walked past a statue and thought - who's that? What about those monuments you hurry by everyday and never think of why someone took the time and trouble to erect them? And why are those old buildings, dwarfed by skyscrapers, still standing?

Well, hopefully this guide will help you discover and understand the hidden, forgotten, often unusual and sometimes shameful, history surrounding London's Docklands.

Seek out the burial place of England's greatest diarist - Samuel Pepys - in the City, and the birth of The Suffragettes in Bow. Journey past one of the few remaining parts of the original Roman London Wall on to the church where the Samaritans were founded and seek out the London Stone, without doubt the most forgotten relic of ancient London.

Visit the memorial to the poet Gerard Manly Hopkins in Stratford, and do not miss the outstanding Canaletto view of Greenwich, Sir Christopher Wren's favourite Thames view, at Island Gardens. And by the way, who was Samuel Gurney?

See the statues of Captain John Smith and George Peabody by Bank tube station. Clement Attlee in Poplar, William Gladstone in Bow, Robert Milligan at West India Quay and Richard Green at All Saints. How many of them have you heard of?

At times you may think that the commentary is a bit off beat but the aim is not to be irreverent but to reflect the humour East Enders had to possess to live through a Great Plague, a Great Fire, a Great Stink, the Blitz and a Great Smog!