BOOK REVIEW-Walking Pepys London by Jacky Colliss Harvey

Written during the Covid lockdown, when many of us living in Central London gained a new appreciation for walking in the car-free streets and of the cityscape around us, discovering or rediscovering hidden gems on our doorsteps, Jacky Colliss Harvey’s book offers five walks around “Pepys London”.

As she explains at the outset, this involves quite a lot of imagination - since the City has changed considerably since the seventeenth century. Although there are buildings still standing that Pepys would recognise - Westminster Hall, St Margaret’s Westminster, Staples Inn and the timber framed building at the entrance to the Temple (which in Pepys time was a pub). While most of the inns and coffee houses he frequented - and all of his own homes - have long gone, some sites remain in similar uses, trading under different names (today’s Hung Drawn and Quartered opposite All Hallows By The Tower stands on the site of one of Pepys favourite taverns - The Dolphin). We are pointed towards Goodwins Court, Bull Inn Court and Crown Passage to get a flavour of London as Pepys would have known it.

The author weaves walks around Pepys life and work and his leisure pursuits, creating a sort of “Strava” map (one of those apps that records your running, walking or cycling routes) of his life. Pepys walked, she states, two and a half miles every day across London from Whitehall to his home in Seething Lane - although I think he frequently makes reference to using a river taxi in the diary?

If you have lived or worked in central London, this book is an easy armchair read and even the most streetwise will learn new facts (the sale of piccadils - a sort of large collar - gave Piccadilly its name, who knew?!) Those less familiar with the Big Smoke may find it harder to follow the text without doing the walks themselves. The first four are designed to take half a day each and the final “New Years Day” walk a whole day. A QR code provides access to online maps.

Much of the book comprises descriptions of points of interest in the City which are entertaining but only seem tangentially connected to Pepys himself. For Jacky Colliss Harvey the two are inseparable - “who can think of the history of London and not think of Samuel Pepys?” - she concludes.

Throughout, Pepys is very much presented as an “Everyman” character and generally one with only positive attributes. Walk Three: ‘A Njght out with Mr Pepys’ begins by stating that our idea of a good time would be the same as Sam’s. Given our knowledge of certain aspects of what he enjoyed I am not sure I would share that sentiment entirely.

Likewise when it comes to references to “our own church”, some of these might benefit from a bit of contextualisation. St Olave Hart Street is described favourably as a “building that seems too small for its historical purpose” (p108) and elsewhere as a “church…full of memorials to honest strivers. It seems eminently suitable that Pepys should rest here” (p67). Pepys himself records various incentives - both physical and sexual - that were offered to him by others in return for preferment in some way. Was this part of honest, run-of-the-mill graft at the time? It is hard to say. If we are truly walking in Pepys footsteps perhaps we need to step into the shadows now and then though to see?

I was particularly interested in the connections hinted at between Pepys and Olaf - both of great significance to us here. The opening chapter explains how Pepys lived in a time of executions more bloody than those in Game of Thrones (perhaps, we might add, ‘or Vikings’). Commenting on how London Bridge was then the sole river crossing, Jacky Colliss Harvey notes how Aethelred and Olaf knew that whoever controlled the bridge controlled the City, connecting both sides as if the two halves of a human brain.

Despite my - perhaps too picky - desire for more nuance in places I very much enjoyed reading this book, which was a bit like an armchair Covid-walk; remembering old haunts and discovering hidden gems. What could have been a rather tedious itinerary is presented in an engaging and enlightening way. Putting the life of Samuel Pepys into perambulatory form encourages us to think about what a map of the walk of our lives might look like - and to consider in whose footsteps we are following?

It is a great privilege to have been appointed as Rector of St Olave Hart Street; what Pepys described as “our own church” and where Samuel and Elizabeth Pepys are buried. Do come and visit and explore the long history of this fascinating church and attend our services and events throughout the year.