Strange Doings in London – The Ballads and Songs of St Giles set out to explore 1,000 years of history in the central London areas of St Giles and Bloomsbury through ballads, songs, artworks and exhibitions, leaving a legacy in the community of new research, music and artwork reflecting the history of the area.

The project was inspired by a commissioned book published in 2024, ‘St Giles-in-the Fields: The History of a London Parish’ by historians Rebecca Preston and Andrew Saint, which follows the ‘dense and tangled history’ from the twelfth century to today.

Opening Concert – Sing Ballads of Bloomsbury
St Giles-in-the-Fields Church, October 2024

The 2024 Sing Ballads of Bloomsbury concert was a musical introduction to the history of St Giles-in-the-Fields, presented at Bloomsbury Festival 2024 with choirs from St Giles-in-the- Fields, the Dragon Cafe, singers Eleanor Cobb and Alex White and the Young Actors Theatre Islington.

Ballad Singing Showcase
Conway Hall, October 2025

Local choirs and singing groups came together to share an evening of ballad singing, showcasing the history of the streets of Bloomsbury and St Giles, and the global cultures of communities who live here now.

Photograph of Ballad Singing Showcase by Stuart Keegan.

Vivien Ellis and volunteers, working in partnership with Camden Guides, created two ballad walks. One featured the area of St Giles and Seven Dials and the other, linked with the archives in the Dickens Museum, started outside Charles Dickens old home in Doughty Street.

The festival invited artist Dryden Goodwin to produce a permanent display of the area’s history on the streets of St Giles, drawing inspiration from the ballads researched by Vivien Ellis and historic artworks relating to this period of history. Six character studies which are now permanently displayed on the lamp posts of St Giles High Street. Dryden Goodwin introduces Quicken (St Giles):

“Quicken (St Giles) emerged from a close engagement with the charged atmosphere of St Giles-in-the-Fields, a place layered with centuries of human drama, resistance, and survival. Compelled by the area’s turbulent history, marked by poverty, spectacle, and social upheaval, I sought to use drawing as a means to reanimate the presence of individuals from this notorious past. Realised as a series of etched metal plates installed on lamp posts among the contemporary throng, each begins with an interpretive drawing of a figure sourced from an 18th- or 19th-century print or drawing. I then continue to draw that person as I imagine them turning or lifting their head through stages of movement. In this act, I felt in communion not only with these individuals but also with the historic artists who once chronicled the life of the area.

Through the interplay of the etched plates with the films, which reveal the process of making the drawings and are accessible via QR code, I aim to create a kind of visual séance: a study in revival that invites passers-by to engage with these stirred lives. The installation, dispersed on both sides of the street, encourages public engagement and, I hope, moments of intimate contemplation. My collaboration with Vivien Ellis deeply enriched the process with sonic and emotional resonance. Her ballad research, historical insight, and the evocative singing voices in the recordings, including her own, intertwine with the drawings as we evolved the constellation of elements, offering further dimensions to the summoning of these individual lives and the atmosphere of their time, on the very streets they would have walked”.

See the artwork displayed in this exhibition in the project magazine (pages 35-47).

This public art project has been organised by the Bloomsbury Festival in collaboration with City Lit. Art students from across London created work in response to historic depictions of life in the area and their own experiences walking the streets of St Giles and Bloomsbury.

Image: A Rickshaw Race by Olivia Joplin

See the artwork displayed in this exhibition in the project magazine (pages 49-77).

The festival worked with artist Jane Palm-Gold to showcase her artwork relating to the area of St Giles where she lives and works. The exhibition was hosted at Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre.

Find out more about this exhibition in the project magazine (pages 78-79).

St Giles-in-the-Fields Church
Rebecca Preston and Andrew Saint
Vivien Ellis
Dryden Goodwin
Soph Wolfson

All participating singers, speakers, choirs, researchers, artists and volunteers

Bloomsbury Festival team
British Library
British Museum
Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre
Camden Libraries
Charles Dickens Museum
City Lit
Dragon Cafe Singers
Jeffrey Choy
KCBNA
The Bedford Estates
UCL
University of Cambridge Library – Rare Books