historicity

In this bonus episode of EMPIRE LINES, brought to you with historicity Tokyo, Japan House London curator Hiro Sugiyama, and contemporary artists Tsuzuki Mayumi and Suga Mica, ride the great waves of Japanese graphic design, commercial illustration, and counterculture, from the 1980s to now. Heta-uma - meaning bad but good - was an accidental art movement. A kind of ‘anti-illustration’, heta-uma ro...

In this bonus “walk,” we’re putting Tokyo in its maritime context. From an automated, elevated train, we see how the city has expanded into the bay, providing space for business and attractions; a new home for the fish market; but also for recreation and everyday life.  We start at Shimbashi Station, where the first rails were laid in Japan, which is now the starting point for the “black-head...

In this walk, we’re exploring how Tokyo has allowed authorities, developers, and people around the world to reimagine what a city might be, in the last fifty years. In this episode, we see how Roppongi’s military past has more or less vanished, replaced first by nightclubs, more recently by luxury towers and integrated developments.  We start on the southeast corner of Roppongi Hills, make ou...

In this walk, we’re exploring how Tokyo has allowed authorities, developers, and people around the world to reimagine what a city might be, in the last fifty years. In this episode, we discover how Shibuya has provided space for Tokyo’s various tribes to live out their dreams, around stations, shrines, and parks.  We start at the main entrance to the 100-year-old Meiji Shrine. Next door is Yo...

In this walk, we’re exploring how Tokyo has allowed authorities, developers, and people around the world to reimagine what a city might be, in the last fifty years. In this episode, we discover how Shinjuku has distilled the swirling currents of postwar political economy from transport and towers to nightlife and riots. We start at the entrance to Shinjuku Gyōen, a rural estate converted into a na...

In this walk, we’re exploring the flatlands northeast of the Palace, where much of the real work of the city has always been done. In this episode, we see how working-class Tokyo has been destroyed, time and time again, but also how it’s bounced back, thanks in part to its temples, which have long allowed for both prayer and play. We start at Ekōin, built in the 17th century to commemorate the 100...

In this walk, we’re exploring the flatlands northeast of the Palace, where much of the real work of the city has always been done. In this episode, we discover how the past lives on in the present, with the old gods still palpable, even when they’re no longer in residence, having been displaced by newer forms of faith. We start on Hijiribashi, Saint’s Bridge, high over a canal carved through a mou...

In this walk, we’re exploring the flatlands northeast of the Palace, where much of the real work of the city has always been done. In this episode, we span the gamut, from banking citadels and corporate towers to popular culture and fertility deities. We start at Nihonbashi, “Japan’s bridge,” originally the heart of downtown and of Tokyo’s canal network. The notice boards and the fish market have...

In this walk, we explore how the circuits of power and money in Tokyo flow around the Imperial Palace. In this episode, we witness the transformative power of corporate capital in Marunouchi, one of its strongholds, and the consumption to which it gives rise, in Ginza. We start in Hibiya Park, originally a district of lordly mansions, turned into a military parade field; then intended to anchor an...

In this walk, we explore how the circuits of power and money in Tokyo flow around the imperial palace. In this episode, we visit the politicians in Nagata-chō and the bureaucrats in Kasumigaseki, together with one of their playgrounds. We start on one of the old bridges, which used to lead from the old castle across a reservoir and into a valley, but which now connects a high-end neighbourhood of...

In this walk, we explore the circuits of power and money flowing around the Imperial Palace. In this episode, we see the transformation of an early modern castle into the centre of the modern nation-state. We start in the vast plaza in front of the Imperial Palace, before heading down the street to the Great Gate, which takes us into the East Gardens. Passing through what’s left of the castle’s de...

In the last episode of this walk, we explore how the rich have spent their money and tried to maintain their status in Mayfair and Marylebone.   We start just off Piccadilly, in the courtyard of the Royal Academy, and end at Speaker’s Corner, in the northeast corner of Hyde Park. Mayfair and Marylebone were both a bit late to the aristocratic, capitalist ball, starting up half a century or so...

In this episode, we see how some parts of the West End (like Soho) came down in the world, while others (like St James’s) stayed up.  We start outside the new, shiny Tottenham Court Road Station and end up just off St James’s Street, where an older world still holds sway. To get there, we’ll have to cross the barrier that is Regent Street, put in place in the early 19th century, to enforce a...

In this episode, we explore the basic economics of the West End, seeing how a single estate was built up through speculative development. We walk from St Martin-in-the-Fields to Bedford Square, almost all of it, at one time, part of the Bedford Estate. Before the aristocrats came to town, we’d have been in the countryside, much of it owned by Westminster Abbey. But, in the mid-16th century, the Ea...

In this episode, we trace how people have been able to find a home in the East End, finding some space for faith and family, however small. We start in front of Christ Church Spitalfields and end in Hoxton Square. Already in the early 18th century, the establishment was worried that immigrants were believing the wrong thing. By the late 19th, Protestant chapels and terraced houses were being turne...

In this episode, we catch a glimpse of how London’s economy relied on labour from around the world – and how the East End’s workers were subject to the markets of the City. We start in front of Whitechapel Station and end up in Spital Square. Throughout, we see a contrast between the skyscraping wealth of the City and the lower-slung buildings of the East End. We also discover the way the latter h...

In this episode, we see how the river defined the city – and how the riverside has been transformed, first by trade, then by finance. We’re walking east from Tower Hill into Wapping, ending up next to St George’s Town Hall. The marshes and the mudflats next to the river were already filling up four hundred years ago. Two hundred years later, there was money to be made by building docks, forcing th...

In this walk, we explore how the cities of London and Westminster birthed the first global city. In this episode, how Westminster grew from a monastery to the centre of a post-imperial state.  We wind our way through Westminster, starting in Victoria Embankment Gardens, by the river, and ending up in Parliament Square. We learn how a small monastery became the kernel of a royal court, which e...

In this walk, we explore how the cities of London and Westminster birthed the first global city. In this episode, how the space between the two filled up, with lawyers, journalists, and more. We walk from the City of London to the edge of Westminster, starting at St Paul’s Cathedral, and ending at Somerset House. We explore how wealth and power created a magnet for other communities, industries, p...

In this walk, we explore how the cities of London and Westminster birthed the first global city. In this episode, how the square mile grew to control the world’s trade and finance. We wind our way through the City of London, starting at the Monument to the Great Fire of London and ending at St Paul’s Cathedral. From 1500 or so, English merchants, cut off from Europe, were scrambling to exploit the...

historicity  is a new series of audio walking tours, which explores how cities got to be the way they are – starting with London. WRITER AND PRESENTER: Angus Lockyer PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic Follow historicity on Instagram:  instagram.com/WALKHISTORICITY Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.