PART 1: Women power back in the days! The journey of Frances Taylor, which was indeed to provide a ‘shining light’ to the poor and vulnerable of London, began in October 1868. She provided physical and spiritual support to many poor by founding a Religious Congregation of Sisters, the Poor Servants of the Mother of God. With no solid income, relying on finance from her literary works, as an adept author, and editor of fiction, non-fiction and journalism, she initiated a social impact on the lives of the dwellers in the great slums of the Seven Dials and nearby St Giles Rookeries. Follow her journey in this guided walk.

Vivien Ellis is a singer, community choir leader, music researcher & trainer who uses the power of singing to connect, support wellbeing & feed imagination.

A conversation with Ifrah Ahmed, Somali youth worker, KCBNA about the walk of community painted silks made by local groups with arts organisation Kinetika.

A Bloomsbury Festival chat to Luke Olsen, Programme Director of MEng Engineering and Architectural Design at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL at the launch of Bloomsbury Festival 2023.

Bloomsbury Radio chat to producer, John Offord about his work at this year’s Bloomsbury Festival. 

Bloomsbury Radio chat to Soprano Charlotte Jane Kennedy and pianist Frasier Hickland who will perform a song recital based on the growth of the Earth between seasons at the Bloomsbury Festival. This programme will explore songs inspired by the elements of nature, as well as religion and mythology.

Bloomsbury Radio chat to an Award-winning poet and playwright Inua Ellams, born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother in what is now considered to be Boko Haram territory, left Nigeria for England in 1996 aged 12. Littered with poems, stories and anecdotes, Inua tells his ridiculous, fantastic, poignant immigrant-story of escaping fundamentalist Islam, finding friendship in Dublin, performing solo at the National Theatre, and drinking wine with the Queen of England, all the while without a country to belong to or a place to call home.

This performance is presented in association with the School of Advanced Study at the University of London, where Inua is a Practitioner in Residence, and Choose Love, an organisation that supports refugees and displaced people all over the world. Proceeds from this event will go towards Choose Love’s vital work supporting refugees, including those here in the UK.

Bloomsbury Radio chat to Dr Rebecca Gordon about two talks coming up at the Bloomsbury Festival - how healthy growth can be encouraged in specific populations and why education matters for growth. 

Bloomsbury Radio chat to Alec Forshaw about an upcoming talk he is giving on the growth of Bloomsbury. This richly illustrated talk will cover the development of Bloomsbury over the last 500 years, from when it was fields and market gardens supplying the City of London, to the present day. It will include the first developments in the 17th century by major landowners such as the Rugby, Harpur, Curzon and Southampton estates, the major growth in the 18th century, led by the Dukes of Bedford, the changing nature and status of the area in the 19th century with the departure of the gentry and the arrival of major institutions such as the British Museum, University of London and various hospitals, the upheavals of the 20th century, and the continued flourishing of Bloomsbury in the 21st century as one of London’s most important educational, medical and cultural quarters.

Bloomsbury Radio chat to Donald MacKenzie, the world renowned organist from the Odeon Leicester Square about ‘The Bloomsbury Beast’, the pipe organ of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, one of the most impressive and unique pipe organs in London.