Hello and welcome to the History Extra Podcast from BBC History magazine. Britain're about to hear from Dr Thomas Williams with a talk about his book Viking

London. While we're not currently holding live events we are running a series of fortnightly virtual lectures on various

different historical topics. You can find out more about them on our website at history extra

dot com forward slash events. at History Extra.com. . . . . . .

Now, here's Thomas Williams, talking about how far the current capital city of the UK,

was changed and developed by the Vikings from the 8th to the 11th centuries.

Well, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. As Rob says, this talk is going to be

about London in the Viking Age. More specifically, it's about the impact of the Vikings on that city

and the ghosts that the Vikings left behind.

But given the time of year and the weather,

I wanted to begin with something a little bit spookier.

So I want to set off with some words from Charles Dickens' The Uncommercial Trave traveler of 1859.

One of my best beloved churchyards, I call the churchyard of St. Garskley Grim.

Touching what men in general call it, I have no information.

I do have some information, so we'll come back to that.

It lies at the heart of the city, and the Blackwall Railway shrieks at it daily. It is a small

small churchyard with a ferocious strong spiked iron gate like a jail. This gate is

ornamented with skulls and crossbones larger than the life wrought in stone,

but it likewise came into the mind of St. Gasly Grim that to stick iron spikes

atop of the stone skulls as though they were impaled would be a pleasant device.

Therefore, the skulls grin aloft horribly, thrust through and through with iron spears.

Hence, there is attraction of repulsion for me in St. Gasly Grim, and having often contemplated

...