Walk - Love in Hyde Park - A Soldier’s Girl in Knightsbridge Barracks

You'll see the ceremonial gate in Hyde Park where the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment leave for Changing the Guard ceremonies. And you'll see them from the back, where in the 18th and 19th centuries a world of street life and cheap pleasures were on offer to poorly-paid young guardsmen. Newly-arriving richer residents were appalled by such disorderly sights as lodginghouses and noisy music halls with stars like Champagne Charlie on display.

Ruth Chapman was one of many young women smitten by the All-Powerful Red Coat, but the challenge of having a relationship with a Guard was daunting even if marriage was allowed.

Rotten Row was long the scene of high-society socialising, and you'll hear about Skittles, the brilliant horsewoman who was courtesan to the rich and famous. The Duke of Wellington was client to demi-rep Harriette Wilson in these streets, and you'll find out about a woman he tried to evict from her hut near the Serpentine when the Great Exhibition of 1851 was afoot. Horses of all kinds and the men who bred and groomed them are ever-present on this walk. This is a workers' Knightsbridge unlike the one you know.

L aura Agustin is an historian, author and qualified guide interested to bring out the lives of unnamed Londoners, the 'ordinary folks', highlighting issues of gender, sex and class.

is Laura's longtime blog, now dedicated to historical walks that highlight issues of Gender, Sex and Class.

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Host or Publisher Laura Agustín, Footprints of London