The London Ambler

The London Ambler Architectural walking tours bringing to life the many episodes, sagas and adventures of built and un I hope to join another walk soon.’ – Caro Stanleyl, London

Weaving unexpected and alternative routes through the city and tackling big architectural stories in an authoritative, yet accessible way, the London Ambler brings to life the many episodes, sagas and adventures of built and unbuilt London. With all walks devised and led by Mike Althorpe, an architectural historian, researcher and urban explorer with a passion for the greatest city on earth, The L

ondon Ambler is about mixing it up and exploring architecture with fresh eyes, new perspectives and sound footwear! FOLLOW ME

To find out about walks happening in 2016 check out the links below, follow me online or talk to me direct via email – all tours are repeated at regular intervals and available for private or group booking. Twitter
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Email [email protected]

TESTIMONIALS

‘The Marylebone and Mayfair walk was thoroughly captivating. Having lived and worked in the area for many years, I was interested to see if Mike could offer any new insights – and boy, did he! His expertise ranges across history, architecture, culture and social history, and his easy way with storytelling makes him an entertaining walking companion.’ – Katie Puckrik, London

‘I learnt a lot and saw many places I’ve never seen before, which is all I ask of a London walk.

16/06/2026

LATER THIS MONTH!… Saturday 27 June, 10.30am - 12.30pm.

ALONG THE NORTH SHORE - a walking tour exploring the architecture of London’s middle city between Charing Cross and Fleet Street!

👉 Tickets available now via link in bio! 👈

12/06/2026

LATER THIS MONTH!….Saturday 20 June, 10.30am - 12.30pm.

‘RAILWAY LANDS’ - a walking tour exploring architecture and reinvention through Kings Cross St Pancras!

BOOK NOW via link in bio - a few tickets still available!

Chemical ClassicThe Portland stone Neoclassical massiveness of Thames House on Millbank. Created 1929–30 and designed by...
11/06/2026

Chemical Classic

The Portland stone Neoclassical massiveness of Thames House on Millbank. Created 1929–30 and designed by architect Frank Baines it opened as the largest office block in Europe and was conceived in grand manner in tandem with Imperial Chemical House, a sibling block just to its north built at the same time.

Together the two create a hefty and serious urban set piece that uses Lambeth Bridge - then newly rebuilt - as its axis, setting up a triumphal gateway (of sorts) to Victoria behind that - in architectural terms - falls away almost instantly.

Writing in ‘Interwar’ (2024) historian Gavin Stamp described the enormous steel framed structures as ‘an awful warning’ due to their overbearing scale and weak articulation. Thankfully though, there is some relief in the form of a triumphal archway - sadly partly infilled in 1990 - that breaks the unrelentless riverside elevation with fantastic modern sculptures by Charles Jagger depicting St George and Britannia and Father Thames(?) at the keystone.

The building’s first anchor tenants were the Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) - a major industrial conglomerate that created everything from explosives to household paints and pharmaceuticals - and later the Department of Energy. Since 1994 it has been the HQ of the Security Service (MI5), who first had a brief stint here between 1934-39.

Oculus PrimeThe fantastic circular concrete openings of the piazza landscape at the heart of the Golden Square Estate at...
10/06/2026

Oculus Prime

The fantastic circular concrete openings of the piazza landscape at the heart of the Golden Square Estate at the edge of The City of London.

Created 1952-62 by architects Chamberlin Powell and Bon, the modernist estate project was launched early in the postwar years and the competition for its design attracted many young and ambitious architects with radical ideas for London’s urban future.

Formerly commercial warehousing, the bombed out 4.7 acre site was acquired by the City from old Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury specifically for working class housing and its 559 studio, flat and maisonette homes are organised in blocks on an orthogonal plan with a shifting sequence of amenity rich raised and sunken landscapes between.

The six geometrically aligned circular forms at the heart of the estate provide sculptural articulation to a large public square and - perhaps more practically - serve as skylights to the neighbourhood’s own underground car park, a facility that - like other on the estate including nearby tennis courts and swimming pool - utilises the site’s ready-excavated below street level spaces, formerly Victorian basements.

Musical TributeThe half timbered Royal College of Organists in South Kensington. Part of the extraordinary suite of lear...
09/06/2026

Musical Tribute

The half timbered Royal College of Organists in South Kensington. Part of the extraordinary suite of learned museums and institutions known as Albertopolis - made possible by the profits of the Great Exhibition of 1851 - this diminutive fantasy structure was created 1875-76.

Designed by Henry Cole (junior), it is in the style of a 17th century Venetian palazzo and is covered in elaborate and highly decorative sculptural ‘Sgraffito’ panels. Italian for ‘scratch’ the process involves scratching or carving through an outer layer of plaster to reveal a contrasting colour beneath.

Throughout the mid 19th century, numerous artists, architects and social reformers rallied around Henry Cole senior and Prince Albert to conceive South Kensington as a hub for a new Victorian Renaissance. Consequently many buildings - the organists included - were conceived in this image and as the opportunity for architects and artists to collaborate and for new production and artistic processes to be showcased.

05/06/2026

LATER THIS MONTH!….Saturday 20 June, 10.30am - 12.30pm…

‘RAILWAY LANDS’ - a walking tour exploring architecture and transformation through Kings Cross St Pancras!

👉BOOK NOW via link in bio!👈

Slung TechThink of new bridges across the Thames and people are bound to land on the Millennium Bridge (still after 25 y...
04/06/2026

Slung Tech

Think of new bridges across the Thames and people are bound to land on the Millennium Bridge (still after 25 years) but the true heroes of London’s critical cross-river pedestrian infrastructure are the Hungerford Footbridges, aka the Golden Jubilee Bridges (later names no one really ever uses).

Slung out from the heavyweight railway bridge created in 1863, the two were opened in 2002 and designed by architects Liftshutz Davidson Sandilands and consist of a series of dramatically projecting pylons who’s jaunty lightweight forms reference both, the Southank’s postwar architectural landscape - notably the Skylon and Done of discovery - but also the original bridge of 1845 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Suspended from the pylons the two walkways - upstream and downstream - ‘act as a foil’ to the Victorian structure to which they are anchored and provide some of the most outstanding views over the river anywhere in London and are today used by millions of commuters and tourists each year moving on foot between Waterloo and the West End.

But perhaps the best measure of just how great they are and how effectively they work as part of the city’s urban landscape is that most people don’t notice them and for all their incredible hard work they are largely uncelebrated.

Here’s to unsung urban heroes and a dozen more jaunty Hungerfords! 💪🌉

Das Englischer Garten HofQuestion: What happens when you take the Garden City cottages of Letchworth and mix them with t...
03/06/2026

Das Englischer Garten Hof

Question: What happens when you take the Garden City cottages of Letchworth and mix them with the urban blocks of Red Vienna (Rot Wien)?

Answer: The Ossulston Estate in Somers Town.

Created by the London County County (LCC) Architects dept under George Topham Forrest between 1927-31, this extraordinary 8 acre Grade II listed council estate is a fusion of English ideas and European scale and modernism and for that reason is sometimes referred to as an ‘English Karl Marx Hof’ (Historic England).

Covered in all over rendered rough cast and with sculpted modern openings and facings , the project represented a daring departure for the LCC who elsewhere in the city stuck to its brown brick faced Neo Georgian dwelling blocks.

Here, 514 deck access dwellings are organised around interlinked open and closed courtyards and originally included a range of amenities including Salvation Army room, maternity and welfare centre, shops, barrow sheds, estate offices, cottage-style pub and workshops. Homes included electric cooking, lighting, central hot water system and ventilated rooms for drying clothes provided for each block during wet weather.

In past 18 months, the Garden City allusions have been amplified by Camden Council with newly planted green landscapes at the previously tarmacked/asphalted courtyards and look wunderbar! 💚

02/06/2026

NEW BOOK ALERT!!!

Thrilled to be able to share news that the fully updated second edition of ‘SOCIAL HOUSING - DEFINITIONS AND DESIGN EXEMPLARS’ that I have co-authored and spent the past 18 months developing is OUT NOW!!!!

Published by the book features 25 projects by 28 studios from 7 European countries and a range of expert contributors and commentators!

Big thank you to everyone who contributed, offered ideas and submitted projects and Paul Karakusevic and Abigail Batchelor at for their collaboration, patience and enthusiasm and for its BEAUTIFUL design! ❤️💪📖👈☀️

Available now via and at all good bookshops!…to find out more head to and look out for events this autumn! 💪

Weaving Stories.The sharp geometries of One Pancras Square. Completed in 2014 and designed by David Chipperfield Archite...
01/06/2026

Weaving Stories.

The sharp geometries of One Pancras Square. Completed in 2014 and designed by David Chipperfield Architects, the office block is part of the creative tech’ super hub of Kings Cross and is defined by clean and simple rectilinear concrete floorplates and 396 dark cast iron columns.

Inspired by the strict gridded logic of early industrial architecture such as warehouses and factories, the building also seeks to establish deeper ties to architecture’s origin story and each of the columns features a distinctive woven texture - a reference (according to the architects) to German architect and theorist Gottfried Semper’s treatise on the role of weaving in the evolution of building.

In his 1851 book ‘The Four Elements of Architecture’ Semper insisted that threading, twisting and knotting of linear fibres were among the most ancient of human arts, from which all else was derived, including both textiles and building. ‘The beginning of building’, he declared, ‘coincides with the beginning of textiles’ and the most fundamental element of both, he thought, was the knot.

👉Discover more on the spectacular transformation of Kings Cross and old and new architecture with ‘Railway Lands’ a walking tour on Saturday 20 June. Follow the links in the bio to book!👈

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