Join your Programme Director Dr Thomas Smith for a guided walk through London’s history of epidemics and learn about the important contribution that environmental geography has played in shaping modern epidemiology.
The 90-minute walk will explore some of the hidden spaces of London close to the LSE campus and will touch on elements of the Geography and Environment curriculum.
To maintain safety under Covid-related conditions, please adhere to the following:
Whether taking the walk alone or in small groups, you must remain at a distance of 2m from others. If you are distanced at only 1m you must wear a mask.
Preparation Activity (not essential):
Watch this video of Dr Erica Pani, Dr Thomas Smith and Indy Bhullar (LSE Library) talking about the Booth poverty maps. What do you think the Charles Booth Map has got to do with the new mural on the side of the LSE’s St Clement’s Building?
Exhibit A: The Charles Booth Poverty Map
Exhibit B: Spectra, by Tod Hanson (2020)
Materials you will need for the walk:
Route Map
Stop 1: Somerset House
Task 1: what are the clues to Somerset House’s history?
Stop 2: Seven Dials
Exhibit A: Dickensian Seven Dials
Exhibit B: The Charles Booth Poverty Map
Exhibit C: Coronavirus and mapping social deprivation
Task 2: what remains to distinguish the poverty from wealthy in Booth’s map?
Stop 3: Florence Nightingale Statue
Exhibit D: Nightingale’s Data Visualisation
Stop 4 (final stop): Soho Broadwick Street
Exhibit E: John Snow’s Soho Epidemic Map
Exhibit F: Modern GIS and recreations of John Snow’s map
Task 3: What remains today from John Snow’s time?