Request a copy of our recent documentary based on the Jack the Ripper walk. £4.99 to registered walkers.

 

 

Hidden London Highlights

The Hidden London Tour is subject to variation and does not follow a set route on each occasion. The following locations represent highlights of most versions of the tour.

Exit St Paul’s underground.

St Paul’ Cathedral
Where Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana wed. Dedicated to the patron saint of the City of London, St. Paul’s is the masterpiece of architect  Sir Christopher Wren who is buried in the cathedral’s crypt which bears the words: “Reader, if you seek his memorial, look around you”. To the left of the Cathedral is:

Temple Bar
This gateway, designed by Christopher Wren in the early 1670s, was used to mark the western boundary  of the City of London. For over 200 years, London’s masses passed through this magnificent creation, until the increased traffic of the Victorian metropolis rendered it little more than a “… leaden headed old obstruction …” to quote Charles Dickens. In 1877 it was taken down and rebuilt in parkland 20 or so miles north of London. When Pater Noster square was redeveloped the bar was restored alongside St Paul’s. We venture off towards….

Fleet Street
Fleet street has traditionally been the home of printing and newspaper publishing ever since Wynkyn de Word set up his printing press in the churchyard in AD1500. Even though the newspaper industry is now scattered across London, St Bride’s still retains its role as the Cathedral of the Printed Word with many reminders to these links within the church.

St Bride’s Cathedral
St. Bride’s church has an extraordinary story to tell. Standing under the dome you are at the base of Wren’s tower and spire. The dome is a Wren trademark the steeple was Wren’s tallest. The crypt is a timecapsule in itself, revealing many of the previous seven churches dating back to the 5th century. There are also remains of a Roman pavement dating from the 2nd Century. It shows the development of the church from Saxon times until the late middle ages. There is too much history to even note in highlight form.

Central Criminal Courts
Courts better known as the Old Bailey occupying the site of the former Newgate Prison. From here we can reach the

Viaduct Tavern
London’s only remaining example of a late 19th century ‘gin palace’. It is an amazing piece of pub architecture evoking a real sense of time and place. At the intersection of Cock Lane is the;

Fat Boy
Erected by the City of London together with a plaque that reads: “This boy is in memory put up for the late fire of London occasioned by the sin of gluttony”. Popular myth has it that the Fire was God’s punishment for sinful over indulgent Londoners.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre
At the end of Giltspur Street, the parting point for the knights of the Crusades – the sepulcher was Christ’s – their spirtual destination. The building dates from 1740.

This leads us to the main gate and Giltspur street where stands the;
Museum of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital
This is the oldest hospital still on its original site and the museum displays a host of artifacts from its highly colourful history. It is said that Hogarth used hospital patients as subjects for his works – so accurate were they that doctors could diagnose their condition from the illustrations. Pass under the arch to:

Church of St. Bartholomew the Less. Located on this site since 1184 and the Henry VIII Gateway built by Stonemasons who constructed St Paul’s. Above is the only statue to the monarch to have survived and celebrating his gift of the hospital to the city of London having purged the country of monasteries.

Continuing to West Smithfield we encounter;
Cloth Fair and the site of the Bartholomew Fair street Carnival of 1123-1855. Here we find a selection of the few houses in London that survived the Great Fire. Find the William Wallace  memorial and hear the tale of his dreadful and barbarous end.

Our journey ends at the Church of St. Bartholomew the Great London’s oldest parish church and recognizable for appearances in Four Weddings and a Funeral, Robin Hood and Shakespeare in Love. Inside you will find the Tomb of Rahere who received instructions from God himself to build a church a hospital and a monastery within Smoothfield or Smithfield as it is know today.

Here in this extraordinary church that has a myriad of stories to tell in its own right, we end our journey through this quarter of Hidden London.

 

How to Book >
Duration: approximately 1 hour 45 minutes – 2 hours
Meeting Point: XXXX Underground

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