DEATH BY CHOCOLATE: A Valentine’s Tour of Georgian London’s Decadent Chocolate Houses with Dr. Matthew Green Friday 14th February 2025 Tour commences at 7 pm Join Dr Matthew Green for an immersive whirlwind tour of sexually-charged hotbeds of decadence, depravity and despair that Georgian Londoners came to know, love and fear as chocolate houses in the gorgeous garden squares and secret cobbled courts and alleys of celestial Mayfair and St James’s. The tour includes free servings of mind-blowing luxury Baroque hot chocolate brewed to an authentic 18th-century recipe. Witness how a thick, luxuriant, exotically spiced glop called chocolate conquered Baroque Europe and corrupted the most fashionable quarter of London, spawning hotbeds of decadence, depravity and despair that Londoners came to call chocolate houses. Featuring the story of the the chief Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés, the man who pulverised the Aztec Empire and brought chocolate (and rubber balls) to Europe. Hear his stories of how he found money growing on trees in the form of cacao pods, which the savages liked to brew up with chilli and vanilla and mix with the blood of sacrificial slaves. And chocaholic Cosimo de’ Medici of Tuscany, Baroque Europe’s most gluttonous tyrant and taste his extravagant Jasmine hot chocolate, the drink that bankrupted Florence. Marvel at the contrast with the weak and watery powdered hot chocolate that most of us suffer today. Visit the lively, decadent chocolate houses the Cocoa Tree and Ozinda’s, whirlpools of Jacobite sedition and immerse yourself in the lost world of White’s Chocolate House, “the most fashionable hell in London” where dukes and highwaymen met to place some of the most absurd and ruinous bets in the history of the world. Saunter past luxury shops, mighty townhouses and royal palaces of St James’s where chocolate houses sprouted and flourished in London’s most exclusive quarter, once home to dukes, earls, prime ministers and royal concubines Moll Davies and Nell Gwynn. With vivid anecdotes, evocative scene-setting, and startling historical revelations — not to mention the best chocolate mousse in London — this is a self-indulgent treat that will open your eyes to one of the most colourful yet overlooked chapters in London’s history. This Valentine’s tour includes: – Intriguing performances, transportive violin music, and a cornucopia of historical anecdotes from London historian Dr Green. – Free servings of mind-blowing luxury Baroque hot chocolate. Tickets £35. Please click here to buy.