No city can lay claim to a more dramatic history than London. Engulfed in calamities that seemed to mark its end - fire, plague, riot, civil war, mass bombing - from each crisis it has emerged stronger than ever. Its cultural life, and the long heritage that underpins it, has made London one of the most visited and best-loved places on Earth.

In this talk Jerry White encapsulates the extraordinary rise of this great city from a remote outpost of Rome's northern empire, through the roll-call of great Londoners over the centuries, the endurance of its people in the face of disaster and war, the dark side of crime and mayhem to its innovations in enterprise and pleasure.

Jerry White is Visiting Professor in London History at Birbeck, University of London. Previous publications include London in the Twentieth Century: A City and Its People, which won the Wolfson History Prize in 2001, and the bestselling London in the Nineteenth Century: A Human Awful Wonder of God.

This event was organised in partnership with Newham Bookshop.

Investigative Journalism has been labelled 'the highest form of journalism'. It is a genre of reporting which goes beyond the press releases, the spin and the public relations and has been at the forefront of social change with campaigns to free the innocent and uncover uncomfortable realities in our midst.

From W.T. Stead, who decided to go undercover to prove the existence of an underage sex industry in the 19th century capital, through the heyday of Granada TV's World in Action in the 1970s, until today's no-holds-barred online blogs, Eamonn O’Neill lifts the lid on centuries of investigative journalism.

Drawing on his two decades of experience in international reporting, Eamonn takes us on a tour into the shadows of his profession revealing the secrets of spies, murders, financial crime and the dark arts of journalism itself.

Eamonn O'Neill is an internationally award-winning journalist and Course Director of the University of Strathclyde's Masters Degree in Investigative Journalism.

London's Lea Valley is a small area with a big history. Stretching from Luton in the north to the River Thames in the south, it is widely considered to be the birthplace of Britain’s post-industrial revolution and has been renowned as a centre of innovation for more than two hundred years. In this talk Jim Lewis looks at the technological revolution in Lea Valley and discusses how these developments continue to affect the architecture and landscape of the region.

Dr Jim Lewis is a freelance writer, researcher and broadcaster for his specialist subject – London’s Lea Valley. Recent publications include a series of five individual books tracing the history of Lea Valley. Jim is currently a Consultant to Terry Farrell & Partners on the historical development of London’s Lea Valley and a Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) tutor teaching industrial history.

This debate was part of the Building East London series and curated collaboration with historian Dan Cruickshank. The series explored the architectural development of East London and was part of the East festival's programme looking at architecture.

East London has been a place of change for centuries but is current development going too far? This debate considers whether the recent focus on new building is benefiting the architecture and communities of East London. Is the ever-encroaching City threatening East London’s identity or is it bringing positive change and growth to an area in need? If development is necessary, can or should it exist in harmony with its surroundings – could historic buildings be saved from demolition and adapted for modern use or is it preferable to replace these with new architecture built for purpose?

This debate was part of the Building East London series and curated collaboration with historian Dan Cruickshank. The series explored the architectural development of East London and was part of the East festival's programme looking at architecture.

East London has been a place of change for centuries but is current development going too far? This debate considers whether the recent focus on new building is benefiting the architecture and communities of East London. Is the ever-encroaching City threatening East London’s identity or is it bringing positive change and growth to an area in need? If development is necessary, can or should it exist in harmony with its surroundings – could historic buildings be saved from demolition and adapted for modern use or is it preferable to replace these with new architecture built for purpose?

This debate was part of the Building East London series and curated collaboration with historian Dan Cruickshank. The series explored the architectural development of East London and was part of the East festival's programme looking at architecture.

Britons are increasingly aware of living in a society plagued by fear and unhappiness. Could our towns and cities be the cause? Anna Minton offers an in-depth and passionate exploration of the state of Britain today, revealing how private companies have taken control from local government and the electorate, creating spaces designed for profit and watched over by CCTV. Now, untested urban planning has transformed not only our cities, but the very nature of public space, of citizenship, and of trust.

Anna Minton is the recipient of five national journalism awards, and is the author of numerous reports for The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the think tank Demos. She is also a member of the writers' panel for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, and writes regularly for The Guardian and The New Statesman. Ground Control is her first book.

Michael Rosen is a writer, broadcaster and longtime Dalston resident and campaigner.

This event was organised in partnership with Newham Bookshop.

Conspirator is the compelling story of Lenin’s 17 year exile during which he and his political collaborators plotted a revolution that would change 20th century history. In this talk, Helen Rappaport discusses her recent book which tells the story of Lenin in the years leading up to the Russian Revolution. Constantly on the move around Europe, with conflicts both personal and political, Conspirator situates Lenin’s struggle for change in Russia within the context of the revolutionary movement in exile as a whole. Helen also considers the wider network of Russian revolutionaries both at home and abroad who supported Lenin and the risks they took in support of his vision.

Helen Rappaport is a historian with a specialism in the Victorians and revolutionary Russia. Her books include Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of Romanov and No Place for Ladies: The Untold Story of Women in the Crimean War.

Based on real events that occurred in and around the High Beach Asylum, Epping Forest in 1840, The Quickening Maze centres on the life of the great nature poet John Clare. Historically accurate, but creatively imagined, the closed world of High Beach and its various inmates - the doctor, his lonely daughter in love with Alfred Tennyson, the brutish staff and John Clare himself are brought vividly to life in this compelling tale. In this talk Adam Foulds discusses his Man Booker prize short-listed book, The Quickening Maze, and explores John Clare’s hope of home, redemption and escape.

In this talk Roger Luckhurst discusses how the Gothic genre in the 19th century moved steadily from the wild and exotic margins into the streets of the metropolis. Starting with Dickens, this new urban Gothic culminates with Stevenson's Mr Hyde in his Soho lair and Count Dracula in Piccadilly, at the very heart of the empire. The talk also considers the recent London Gothic revival, looking at work by Kim Newman, Christopher Fowler, Conrad Williams and Iain Sinclair.

Roger Luckhurst is Professor in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck. As well as writing books on subjects such as J. G. Ballard, telepathy, and science fiction, he has edited Late Victorian Gothic Tales and Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for Oxford World's Classics, and is currently researching late Victorian and Edwardian mummy curses in London.

From his earliest published stories to his last uncompleted novel, London is nearly always at the heart of Dickens's fiction. He needed the stimulus of walking the city's teeming streets ('that great magic lantern' he called them) to fire his imagination and to inspire him to create his unforgettable characters and invent his intricate plots. In this talk Professor Michael Slater, takes a fresh look at Dickens in London and London in Dickens.

Professor Michael Slater is a leading authority on Charles Dickens. He has studied and written about Dickens extensively, was previous editor of The Dickensian and former President of the International Dickens Fellowship. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College and is the author of a major new biography of Dickens recently published by Yale University Press.

Sarah Wise is an author and historian specialising in Victorian London.