Excavations beneath the Royal Opera House have revealed stunning evidence of early London, both the homes and workshops of the inhabitants and also the defensive ditches that may have been built to protect against Viking attacks before the area was abandoned.

St Paul’s was the heart of early London. It was the burial place of King Ethelred (‘the ill-advised’) and also of unfortunate Archbishop Ælfheah whose body was stolen from its tomb by King Cnut The graveyard was once home to the London runestone, a rare monument to a member of London’s Viking elite.

Although it was Edward the Confessor who is most associated with Westminster abbey, the first king of England to be buried there was Harold I ‘Harefoot’, the son of King Cnut. He didn’t rest there for long…

Discover the fields and glasshouses of the Walker farm at Ham in Richmond, a farm which exported its quality flower bulbs to Holland in the 1890s…