The Serpentine Bridge in Hyde Park London

HYDE PARK WALKING TOUR
LONDON

Combining the magic of history, travel and storytelling by allowing visitors to not just see the sites, but step inside their stories.

"Hugely evocative - you can imagine the crowds, displays, and excitement. Both fascinating and moving. Highly recommended!"

Elizabeth Norton, writer, broadcaster and royal historian

Testimonials

"A perfect afternoon stroll into another age, told with capriciousness and verve. Put on your top hats and bring your parasols, Victorian London is just a tap on your phone away!"

Inga Vesper, journalist

"The Great Exhibition walking tour must be the closest thing we have to time travel.”

Anonymous User

A Ticket to the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park London 1851

In 1840, at the age of 20, Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha married the 21-year-old Queen Victoria. Constrained by his role as consort and lack of responsibility, he turned to public causes such as the worldwide abolition of slavery, the welfare of the working classes, technological progress, and educational reform – particularly in the sciences.

As the President of the Society of Arts, Prince Albert became one of the main architects behind an idea to create a platform in which countries from around the world could display their achievements in modern technological process and design. He believed it was an opportunity to show Britain’s prowess across culture, science, and industry and cement their position as the greatest imperial power in the world.

He was met with almost constant criticism. Opponents of The Great Exhibition prophesized that “foreign rogues and revolutionists would overrun England, subvert the morals of the people, and destroy their faith.”
Instead, at the age of 31, Prince Albert had been instrumental in creating one of the most successful, memorable, and influential cultural events in Britain’s history. It opened on the 1st of May 1851, and over the course of the following six months was visited by over six million people (equivalent to a third of the British population at that date).

Visitors included the famous such as Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Michael Faraday Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, George Eliot, Alfred Tennyson, and William Makepeace Thackeray. Factory workers and agricultural laborers also poured into London from all over Britain – arriving on excursion trains and paying just a shilling (5p) to enter.

We invite you to step back in time and experience The Great Exhibition as one of those visitors…

HYDE PARK TOUR

The Great Exhibition an audiovisual walking tour of Hyde Park London written by Elizabeth Macneal and narrated by Tuppence Middleton

The years, decades, centuries have fallen away, and here you are on the 1st of May 1851. Tens of Thousands of people have descended upon London’s Hyde Park. At nine o’clock the turnstiles will open, and you will find yourself at the opening day of The Great Exhibition, a vast, temporary glass museum.

The Crystal Palace, as it has been nicknamed, was built to house more than a hundred thousand exhibits of culture and industry from around the globe. You will behold all of Great Britain’s achievements and that of the countries surrounding it – machines and presses, taxidermy and clothwork, ceramics and ironmongery.

It is the first World’s Fair - the project of Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert. His reputation rides on its success or failure. The Queen is alive with excitement and will, of course, be in attendance.

Step back in time to witness this dazzling spectacle that was to become a symbol of the Victorian era.