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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
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