Start location: The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly

Description:

Urban Geology is the geology of the built environment. This includes the building stones and other materials used in town and cities as well as the tantalising glimpses of the pre-urban landscape and underlying bedrock. Cities are shunned by many geologists and considered as somewhere to escape, and yet many geologists live and work in cities, whether in universities or in the stone, mineral and hydrocarbon extraction industries, and there is much to learn from building stones. Importantly they are an untapped and enormous resource for teaching at all levels. Take the time to stroll down the average shopping street or through the City of London on a sunny Sunday morning and one can find one’s self on a global tour of the Earth’s geology from Precambrian migmatites to Quaternary travertines, from the Jurassic seas of Dorset to the Permian of the Oslo Graben or the Bushveld Complex of South Africa.

This trip will begin with a visit to the Geological Society of London to view ‘the map that changed the world’, William Smith’s 1815 geological map of England, Wales and Scotland. Examination of the map will show that the outcropping geology of central London consists of sediments of Eocene and younger age. From here, a guided walking tour will visit several localities to observe a range of very different rocks that can be observed across the city.