City of London

Visit Lloyd's, Bank of England, Stock Exchange, The Guildhall, Mansion House, Royal Exchange, and Custom House, as well as other features such as the site of Dick Whittington's house, the Great Fire Monument, the Tower of London, Bow Bells, Leadenhall Market, the redeveloped site of old Billingsgate Market, taking in many City churches, livery halls and unsurprisingly for us! several traditional City pubs and eating houses.

If you like what we are doing please follow one or more of the links.

THE CITY

The eastern side of the City is the oldest part and also the financial centre of London .
This walk takes in many of the city's narrow lanes and alleyways, I have tried to cover all the main buildings including Lloyd's, Bank of England, Stock Exchange, The Guildhall, Mansion House, Royal Exchange, and Custom House, as well as other features such as the site of Dick Whittington's house, the Great Fire Monument, the Tower of London, Bow Bells, Leadenhall Market, the redeveloped site of old Billingsgate Market, taking in many City churches, livery halls and unsurprisingly for us! several traditional City pubs and eating houses.

Start and finish:

Tower Hill Station (District and Circle Underground). and DLR Tower Gateway Station
Fenchurch Street Railway Station is also nearby.

Length: 21/2 miles (4 kilometres).

Time: approx 3 hours



Leave Tower Hill Station by the 'Fenchurch Street' exit and walk round the top of Trinity Square between, on the left, Trinity Square Gardens, where prisoners from the Tower of London were executed, usually by decapitation, and on the right, Trinity House, headquarters of the 16th-century Trinity House Corporation, which is responsible for the lighthouses on the coasts of England and Wales.

Beyond Trinity House turn right into Savage Gardens , left into Pepys Street and then right into Seething Lane . In the 17th century Samuel Pepys lived and worked in the Navy Office here, and worshipped regularly in St Olave's Church during the period covered by his diary. He was also buried in the church 1703. St Olave's is in the City's Tower Ward

The City is divided into 26 wards, each of which elects a number of common councillors and an alderman who together form the City Corporation, presided over by the Lord Mayor.

Lloyd's

At the end of Seething Lane turn left and then right into New London Street . Go up the steps, walk across the forecourt of Fenchurch Street Station (on the left you can see the remains of All Hallows Staining) and then go across Fenchurch Street into Billiter Street to the left. Then the first turning on the left and into Fenchurch Avenue . Ahead is the new modern shiny headquarters of Lloyd's, the world-famous insurance market started in Edward Lloyd's coffee house in Tower Street in the 1680s.

Now left and then right by Lloyd's into Leadenhall Market, established here in the 1300s and rebuilt in 1881, a real treat with the décor and old fashioned shops. Turn left at the centre crossroads and take the second turning on the right into Bull's Head Passage by Kent's the fruiterers and then cross Gracechurch Street and go into Bell inn Yard ahead on the left.Bell Inn was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.

Now right into St Michael's Alley at the end of the yard and go into the former churchyard of St Michael Cornhill with Sir Christopher Wren's church on the far side. Left turn here and go to the first crossroads in this area of narrow passages. On the right is the Jamaica Wine House built on the site of London 's first coffee house, the Sign of the Pasqua Rosee's Head, opened in 1652. In the 1670s it became the Jamaica Coffee House, an unofficial post office for letters to the West Indies and a meeting place for trading merchants and sea captains trading in the west Indies. To the left, the George and Vulture, a traditional City pub and chop house, it has been feeding bankers, brokers, merchants and clerks for over 300 years.

Walk on past the jewellery shop into Castle Court . Turn right into Ball Court look for the sign pointing to Simpson's Tavern (opened 1757). Now we are in Cornhill, turn left and cross the road at the traffic lights. Left again and then right into an open space by the Royal Exchange Buildings. The Royal Exchange on the left was founded in 1570 by Sir Thomas Gresham as a meeting place for merchants. This is the third building on the site and was last used for its original purpose in just before world war two.

At the end of Royal Exchange Buildings is a statue of George Peabody, the American-born founder of the 19th-century Peabody housing trust. Peabody Buildings are still a common sight in London , and the City recognising his work on behalf of the poor and making him a freeman of the city. When you are at the statue, you can see on the right the former Stock Exchange, now made redundant by the introduction of electronic trading, also the International Financial Centre – 600 feet (183 metres) high.

Turn left now and cross Threadneedle Street into Bartholomew Lane . Now look left to the front of the 18th-century Mansion House, the official residence of the City's Lord Mayor during his (or her) one-year term of office, usually the the first weekend is the lord mayors show, a parade of all the city’s institutions and charities . On the left now is the rear of the Bank of England, its 18th-century walls with out windows for extra security. Familiarly known as the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street and founded in 1694 to raise money for war, the bank now issues banknotes, stores the national gold reserves and supervises financial activities in the City.

At the end of Bartholomew Lane , turn left into Lothbury and then right into Tokenhouse Yard. In the 1600s tokens were minted and issued here whenever coin of the realm was in short supply. Most of the buildings at the end of the yard are occupied by Cazenove's, the most fashionable of the old stock-broking firms in the City and one of the few to remain independent following deregulation of the City's financial markets in 1987.

Go straight through the passage under Cazenove's and turn left into Telegraph Street. Cross Moorgate a busy road that lead’s north towards one of the old City gates - into Great Bell Alley. Then cross Coleman Street into Mason's Avenue. The Old Dr Butler 's Head here was one of several pubs founded around 1616 to sell a successful brand of medicinal ale concocted by Dr William Butler, the king's physician. Dr Butler's speciality was shock treatment, the story goes he once cured a patient by having him thrown out of a window into the Thames !

Mason's Avenue leads to Basinghall Street. Turn left here and then first right into Guildhall Buildings, passing on the left the Mayor's and City of London Court (the Lord Mayor is also the City's chief magistrate) into Guildhall Yard, where the City Corporation did its work. On the right-hand side is the 15th-century Guildhall, repaired and rebuilt after the Great Fire and the Blitz, then the new Guildhall Art Gallery, which houses remains of London's 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatre. Opposite is St Lawrence Jewry Church, so named because in medieval times it stood in the Jewish quarter of the City. It is the official church of the Corporation of London.

Turn left by the church and cross Gresham Street into King Street. Turn right into Cheapside and then left into Bow Lane by Wren's St Mary-le-Bow Church. Traditionally, anyone born within the sound of Bow Bells was said to be a true Cockney, or pure Londoner. That was in the days when the City was heavily populated and the background sound of the city much less, so there are few “real cockneys”. Today only a few thousand actually live around here almost all the workers simply commute in to work.

Keep on along Bow Lane. And on the right in Groveland Court is Williamson's Tavern, started in 1739 by Robert Williamson in what had previously been the Lord Mayor's house. The gates at the end were presented to the then Lord Mayor by William III and Queen Mary after a visit to the City. Go across Watling Street , the Roman road which goes from Dover, Kent to Shropshire on the Welsh border. Wren is said to have built what is now Ye Olde Watling pub and to have worked here while St Paul 's Cathedral (look for it on the right) was being built. Walk past St Aldermary Church and cross Queen Victoria Street into Garlick Hill by Mansion House Station, where the road drops steeply down towards the river. Garlic was once sold in this district; more recently it was the centre of the fur and skin trade. Take the first turning on the left into Great St Thomas Apostle Street; at the end you pass the site of St Thomas the Apostle church and a few remaining merchants' houses. Cross Queen Street, into Cloak Lane. The view to the right is of Southwark Bridge and the Financial Times building on the south side of the Thames.

Now the first turning on the right down College Hill. Here on the left lived Richard “Dick” Whittington, the most famous of all London 's citizens. The youngest son of a Gloucestershire landowner, Whittington made his fortune dealing in textiles and was Lord Mayor four times between 1397 and 1419. Although married, he died childless and so left most of his enormous wealth to various charities. His generosity made him a popular hero, and he is still celebrated in children's stories and Christmas pantomimes.

The church at the bottom of College Hill is of St Michael Paternoster Royal Whittington was buried in its pre-Great Fire site in 1423. Turn left along winding College Street past the livery hall of the Innholders' Company. Then turn left again into Dowgate Hill past three more livery halls: first, the Dyers' Company; second, the Skinners' Company (a fine Georgian stuccoed building of 1778 - the actual hall is in a courtyard to the rear); and third, the Tallow Chandlers' Company (only the gate is visible - again the hall is in a rear courtyard). The oldest City livery companies, are the descendants of the trade guilds that controlled much of the business life in the medieval City. Today they are mainly charitable and social bodies. All livery men are freemen and all vote in the Lord Mayor's election.

At the top of the hill turn right past Cannon Street Station and then right again into Bush Lane . Then take the first turning on the left into Gophir Lane and turn left again into cobbled Suffolk Lane . Follow this round to the right and turn right into Laurence Pountney Hill. On the right now are two merchants' houses, built in 1703 and the finest houses of their date in the City. In the little square turn left along the sunken path between the two churchyard gardens. Here stood Laurence Pountney Church and Corpus Christi College , both destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. They were founded by Sir John de Pulteney, a Drapers' Company man and Lord Mayor His house, which was later inhabited by the Black Prince, eldest son of Edward III, stood on the site of the two merchants' houses.

Continue straight across Laurence Pountney Lane and pass through a smal car park to Martin Lane. On the left corner is the Olde Wine Shade started just before the Great Fire and one of only a couple of City tavern’s to have survived the destruction. Right here and then immediately left into Arthur Street. Then cross King William Street (subway to left) to the Monument, built by Wren in 1677 as the City's memorial to the Great Fire of1666. The panorama from the top is well worth the climb up the spiral staircase inside, do read the inscription on the side, much amended by politics….. its height is exactly the distance from it’s base to the staring place of the fire.

Go past the Monument along Monument Street and take the first turning on the left into Pudding Lane. The Great Fire started here during the night of 2 September 1666 in the ovens of the king's baker. Take the first turning on the right into St George's Lane and go straight across Botolph Lane and through Botolph Alley to St Mary-at-Hill Church in Lovat Lane. This church was gutted in 1986 by a fire, an especially sad occurrence because it was the only Wren City church to have retained its original interior more or less as Wren designed it. Go through the passage to the right of the church to St Mary-at-Hill the Waterman’s Hall is down the hill and the church entrance is through a doorway up the hill to the left, a visit here is a really great addition to the walk,

Watermans Hall
The present hall dates back to 1780 and remains the only original Georgian Hall in the City of London . It was designed by William Blackburn and is an example of eighteenth century domestic architecture.
It was extended in 1983 to include a bigger dining and meeting facility, A major feature is a display of some of the company's historic uniforms and silver.
The Company of Watermen and Lightermen was established by Act of Parliament in 1555 to control the workmen on the Thames responsible for the movement of goods and passengers. Indeed it remains the only ancient City Guild to be formed and controlled by Parliament.

Today it still licences the Watermen and Lightermen working on the River Thames, the former being concerned with passenger transport and the latter with the carriage of goods.

The young Freemen of the Company are eligible to participate in the Doggett's Coat and Badge Race, which has been held annually since 1715.

This gruelling boat race is held each July and goes along the river from London Bridge to Chelsea. The winner has the honour of wearing the scarlet coat, breeches and silver arm badge that are based on the original costume of an eighteenth century waterman.

If you are luck to visit you will be told of the history, customs and practice’s by working watermen mostly Duckett’s coat and badge men, dressed in their red coats, breeches and wearing their massive silver arm decorations won in the Ducketts coat and badge race who love their trade and calling,

Now turn right and left into cobbled St Dunstan's Lane, cobbles were still much used in the fifties and just as I remember them as a small child underfoot, painful! With the exception of its tower, now used as the chapel, Wren's church of St Dunstan-in-the-East at the end of the lane was also partly destroyed during the Second World War. It now has been converted into a public garden.

Turn right here and cross over the main road ( Lower Thames Street ) to the Custom House, where customs duties on all goods imported into London have been collected since the 1200s. To the right is the former Billingsgate Market, which was used from the early Middle Ages until the market moved to a new docklands site in 1982. Turn left along Lower Thames Street and walk straight on when the road bends left up the hill. On the right is Sugar Quay; where the sugar firm of Tate and Lyle has its offices, the factories were in the Isle of Dogs (see the wapping walk). Turn right on to the quayside to see the 1,200 foot- (366 metre-) long river frontage of the Custom House. Then turn left along the quayside walk. You come out of the Walk by Tower Pier and the entrance to the 900-year-old Tower of London built just outside the City boundary by William the Conqueror. Go through the gates by the ticketing complex along the moat-side walk. Turn left into the subway under the road and the steps to Tower Hill Station, where the walk ends, wapping walk and Southwark walk starts and ends here


Once over the bridge, you can continue along Tower Bridge Approach into the City,
now you can join our Wapping walk or see the Tower.

Remember this free site is sponsored by RITE.NET
If you like what we are doing please follow one or more of the links