Long-time London resident and avid museum and theatre-goer. I started this blog in 2014, and got serious about it in 2020 when I realised how much I missed arts and culture during lockdowns. I go to a lot more events than anyone would think is sensible, and love sharing my thoughts in the forms of reviews, the occasional thought piece, and travel recommendations when I leave my London HQ.
An interesting walk full of new historic facts and sights. All contained within an easy walking distance of St Paul’s Cathedral!
We have another new guidebook to inspire us on today’s journey: Secret London by Andrew Duncan. There are only a handful of walks in here, but it’s a great resource for sparking new ideas in the most seasoned Londoner.
Still Uncovering London’s Secrets
This is what I love about London. I’ve lived here for over a decade. During all that time, I have loved history and have sought out new corners of the city. I mean sure, I’ve ramped it up in recent months, but it’s not a new thing for me. And yet I can still go out on a walk and discover buildings, facts and stories that I had no idea existed. I find it really inspiring, and for me this is the joy of living somewhere with such a long history. I wouldn’t trade it in for anything.
Today’s walk takes us around a handful of streets in London, to the West of St Paul’s (whose precincts we recently saw in detail here). It’s not a themed walk like our ones around the Roman walls or the sights of the Great Fire, it is just a collection of interesting, ‘off the beaten track’ sights. We are following another new guidebook as inspiration – Secret London by Andrew Duncan.
It’s a 2010 book so a few things have changed, but it’s a great blend of walking tours and behind-the-scenes looks at places that are off limits even today. I discovered a few new things that I must have walked right past dozens of times, so it gets the Salterton Arts Review seal of approval. And this despite the fact that I dropped my phone near the end of this walk and smashed the screen to pieces… Don’t worry though, I did this around the spot where the walk picks up some sights we have seen before, so I will guide you to the right post when the time comes.
Secret London – Setting Out From St Paul’s
We start our walk at St Paul’s but do not linger here. Instead we make our way down the street of St Martin’s le-Grand. An interesting thing about England is we don’t realise/remember how influenced our country is by Norman French. Especially when it comes to place names. Although the great church of St Martin’s has been gone for a long time, its name lives on in this street.
Halfway down St Martin’s Le Grand is Nomura House, formerly the General Post Office. This sleek (and for once green) postbox commemorates 500 years since the first Master of the Posts was knighted by Henry VIII. The building hasn’t contained the General Post Office since 1984.
Postman’s Park is a great secret spot just a stone’s throw from St Paul’s. The ‘Postman’ obviously comes from it being right outside the former General Post Office. But what Postman’s Park is famous for is this memorial. It is the brainchild of Victorian artist G. F. Watts. Inspired by the story of Alice Ayres (see image above), he founded this memorial to people who gave their lives to save others. His wife continued to add plaques after he died, but the idea fizzled out a bit so it remains frozen in time. That is apart from the one contemporary addition, a plaque for Leigh Pitt who died in 2007 saving a child from drowning. I love the Arts & Crafts feel of the tiles and font. The little wooden sculpture is a memorial to Watts himself.
Secret London – Churches, Cutlers and Clergy
Here is Christ Church Greyfriars. Not exactly a secret spot since it’s on a busy corner right by St Paul’s, but a nice green spot in the city nonetheless. We last saw it on this walk around the Roman city walls. Something I hadn’t quite appreciated before is that the tower is inhabited, apparently a private home. What a wonderful but odd place to live!
Across the road and around the corner from Christ Church Greyfriars is Cutlers’ Hall. This is one of London’s many livery halls, but not one I had spotted before. Cutlers are of course people who make cutlery. Their charter dates back to 1416; the Company built a new hall and commissioned Benjamin Creswick to make this lovely frieze in 1887. Creswick was an apprentice knife-grinder before becoming a sculptor, so knew the subject well.
We are now at Warwick Square, home to the Earls of Warwick from the 15th Century. Sadly we couldn’t pass through Warwick Passage, which goes under the Central Criminal Courts and out onto Old Bailey. So now let’s backtrack a bit instead and see what other sights we can find.
We are now a bit off piste as we couldn’t go the way the book suggested, but how’s this for a great (and slightly mysterious) building? I found it hard to research this online, but it seems this is Amen Court, which was built to house the clergy for nearby St Paul’s (we have looped back around to the cathedral environs). I would love to get into that central courtyard, it looks very inviting!
Yet another livery hall! This is Stationers’ Hall, not looking its best at the moment as it gets a spruce up.
And lastly before we get back on track, how about these street names? I mentioned this on our walk around St Paul’s by night; there are some great street names in the area, echoes of religious processions over hundreds of years.
Secret London – The Old Bailey to Smithfield Market
Ok, now our walk is back on track! The Central Criminal Courts go by the name ‘the Old Bailey‘; I didn’t know this before, but bailey refers to the fortified city wall, ie. the Roman wall which passed by here. This version dates to 1907 – it stands on the site of previous courthouses and also Newgate Prison, which was demolished in 1902.
This is the Merrill Lynch building, formerly part of the Post Office complex. Beneath this building is a section of Roman wall and medieval bastion that I didn’t know about. When it’s not Covid times, you can make arrangements to see these ruins in the building’s basement.
The church of St Sepulchre on the left. We have seen the drinking fountain on the right on this previous walk around the Roman walls; what I didn’t know at the time is that this was the very first by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association. It may explain why it is well-preserved with even the cups intact.
Around the back of St Sepulchre is another sight which is currently off limits. Our guidebook tells us to pop our heads in to see a repurposed parish hall. Maybe another time.
On our way down to the Holborn Viaduct are several buildings of interest. In particular, Smithfield Market is intriguing despite all the scaffolding. Smithfield remains the largest wholesale meat market in the UK.
Secret London – Ely Place to Hatton Garden
Now this is a proper secret London sight – a private road belonging to the Crown! That is the reason for the guardhouse and fences. Ely Place was long the London home of the Bishops of Ely, in Cambridgeshire. This part of London was thus technically a Cambridgeshire enclave for a long time. The estate was sold to the Crown in 1772, and these handsome townhouses build at the same time.
By far the oldest part of Ely Place is St Etheldreda’s church. It was once attached to the episcopal palace but is much older – today its crypt chapel is the oldest centre for Catholic worship in London. There is a convent next door.
Ye Olde Mitre is a pub which has stood just off Ely Place since 1546. As you can see, you need to go down an almost hidden alley to reach it from either direction, a very good quality in a pub. Inside is the stump of a cherry tree which Elizabeth I is said to have danced around. There really are some strange sights in London pubs.
Hatton Garden commemorates Sir Christopher Hatton, Elizabeth I’s dance partner around the cherry tree. He really coveted the garden belonging to the bishops of Ely, so Elizabeth basically bullied them into selling it to him. These days it is synonymous with London’s diamond trade; more specifically with the 2015 burglary carried out by a group of aged thieves.
Secret London – Holborn to Fetter Lane
A block or so up Holborn from Holborn Circus is the Prudential Building. It is not exactly secret, so is a detour from our walk, but I have fond memories of working here for a while so wanted to share it with you. The Prudential Building (AKA Holborn Bars) was built between 1876 and 1901 for the Prudential Assurance Society. It just goes to show how much money there is in insurance. Prudential still occupy a small part of it, as do English Heritage and other organisations.
This is sadly another sight which is off limits due to lockdown. Normally we would be able to head down this passage to Barnard’s Inn, to see an 18th Century house and 15th Century hall. Formerly associated with the legal profession (an Inns of Court sort of thing), Barnard’s Inn is now home to Gresham College, who have put on free public lectures for more than 400 years. Originally the idea was to bring Renaissance learning to the illiterate masses; the College maintains professorships in astronomy, divinity, geometry, law, physic, rhetoric, music and the more modern commerce. You can see pictures here from someone who was luckier than I was in visiting the site when it was open.
We resume our walk here on Fetter Lane, where we would normally have emerged from Barnard’s Inn. ‘Fetter’ comes from ‘fewter’, or beggar; this was once a gathering point for beggars and idlers as well as the site of numerous executions.
Secret London – Talking Statues and Hidden Historic Treasures
John Wilkes was an MP and Lord Mayor in the 18th Century. He supported the rights of voters and also the American rebels during the American War of Independence. This was obviously pretty unpopular, so the authorities first attempted (successfully) to muzzle his satirical newspaper; and then attempted (unsuccessfully) to muzzle him by removing him as an MP. This was the first time I have tried out one of these talking statues and I highly recommend them. They are a few years old now, but the technology still works well. This one, written and recorded by Jeremy Paxman, is very witty and really brings Wilkes to life. The directions to the website are above if you want to check them out.
By following the signs from Pemberton Row, we reach the secluded site of Dr. Johnson’s House. Dr. Johnson is Samuel Johnson, who wrote a dictionary of the English language in the 18th Century among other literary endeavours. The oft-quoted phrase “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life” really speak to me given all the lockdown exploring I have been doing. I haven’t been to this museum, but have it on my list for when things reopen.
And now we have the second of two talking statues on this walk. This one is very irreverent – a statue of Samuel Johnson’s cat Hodge. An early biography of Johnson immortalised Hodge, and he has become a very famous literary cat, also appearing in a work by Samuel Beckett, for example.
Secret London – Almost Back To St Paul’s, Then Off To The Phone Shop…
We are now in the environs of Fleet Street, one time home of London’s newspapers. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is another great historic pub and London oddity. It has been around for about 500 years: time to gather plenty of stories, especially as it may have been a brothel at one time.
This is most definitely a secret London sight – in more than a decade living here I never knew it existed! This is the back of 65 Fleet Street, the offices of Freshfields (a legal firm). As you can see, the steps leading down to basement level reveal a preserved building. But what is it? Well, it is a medieval crypt. It is the only surviving building from the medieval Whitefriars monastery; it survived because it continued to be useful as a coal cellar. These days is it preserved in situ for posterity.
Round another few courtyards and up some stairs is this memorial to Robert Waithman, an advocate of parliamentary reform. Plenty of radicals on our walk today!
And very close by is St Bride Foundation, which I was lucky enough to explore during the summer as part of Open House. St Bride Foundation is a charitable institution which has done a lot to support local residents over the years. It is strongly connected to the printing trade and has great archives, talks and courses. And it also has a theatre downstairs in a former swimming pool!
Almost there! A glimpse of St Paul’s as we head up towards the area of the former Blackfriars monastery. That is where I dropped my phone and smashed it, putting an end to any photography and exploration for the day… The sacrifices I make for this blog… Luckily, though, there is some overlap between the sights we would have seen and those on this walk along the Thames, so I will point you to that instead if you want to learn more about the medieval friars. My phone wasn’t out of action for too long, so you won’t have long to wait for the next installment of the Salterton Arts Review either!
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