Looking Forward

Cradle of English goes Virtual

Fleet Street is moving into the world of Virtual and Augmented Reality. It was part of the original vision that we should explore the world of “London Online”. But more than this: Covid has turned the world inside out, with calamitous implications for the global tourism industry. New ways must be found to encourage virtually what earlier was enjoyed “IRL” – In Real Life. And all of this has been happening while advances in Computer Generated Graphics, Virtual and Augmented Reality, and Artificial Intelligence are exploring new horizons not only through space, but through time.

Give a welcome to the Cradle of English immerzeo – an augmented reality rendering of a brief walk up a short alley off Fleet Street. With a combination of information points, graphic overlays and 3D visuals, we can visit some key moments from the past and get a sense of the history that lies beneath our feet. It might be the founding of the Royal Society at one end of Crane Court while Catholics were being hanged at the other, on a gallows that stood for over a century at the foot of Fetter Lane. It might be a history of retail banking, going back almost a thousand years.

There is no limit to the number of immersive journeys to be crafted out of the rich history of central London. Cradle of English will work with the dozens of leading companies, hundreds of legal firms, and many thousands of people working in the area – sharing an enthusiasm for Fleet Street’s legacy of energetic innovation.