Introduction
The major significance of the City today is its role as a leading financial center of the world. Historically, this financial role of the City dates back to Tudor times. If you were to return to Tudor London during the sixteenth century, you would find a very different London than that of today. For one thing, the population was just beginning to burgeon. In 1500, there were about 75,000 Londoners; a century later the number grew to about 220,000; and within the next half century it swelled to about 450,000. London’s foreign population grew from five hundred registered aliens in 1437 to over five thousand by 1583. Much of this immigrant population increase was a result of the wars set off by the Protestant Reformation on the continent. Capitalizing (no pun intended) on this unrest, London was quickly becoming one of the major European cities of its day. New housing and services (primarily water) were needed to care for this rising population. The Walbrook (which you will visit in this walk) was covered over by that time, and the Fleet River (now Fleet Street) was greatly diminished as well. The water supply in London was grossly inadequate, and the Thames was so polluted that fresh water supplies were being sought to the north, outside the city. Henry VIII was the last monarch to live in Westminster Palace, and one of his reasons for leaving was the stench of the Thames. It was in this setting that Sir Thomas Gresham appeared on the scene. Gresham, who served as ambassador to Brussels under Queen Elizabeth I, was among the first citizens of the city to first comprehend and then exert control over the financial happenings of his time; he helped set England’s finances on a more progressive course. Taking advantage of the fiscal decline of Antwerp (caused by war with Spain), which had been previously the economic center of northern Europe, Gresham successfully shifted a good portion of the financial focus of northern Europe to London by creating a major stock exchange. Upset about having to work out loans on Lombard Street in the haphazard manner of the day, Gresham constructed a trading center, which soon became the Royal Exchange under the official patronage of Elizabeth I. He destroyed four streets and eighty houses in this area to build—at his own expense—the first Royal Exchange on the site where the present one still stands. Following Gresham’s lead, several other merchants banded together to form joint-stock companies. The first, the Muscovy Company, with links to Russia and later Persia, was formed in 1555, followed by the Turkey Company and the Levant Company (trading with the Middle East), the Guinea Company (trading with Africa), the Virginia Company (trading with the American colonies), and the Hudson Bay Company (trading with the fur industry of Canada). Clearly, a place of trade and exchange was needful. This segment of Elizabethan London became that place. Today, it continues to play an important role in world markets.
#1 Start: St. Paul's Tube Station
To begin, take the tube to St. Paul’s tube station on the Central Line.It is now time to go inside the original city of Londinium, the segment of London that today is referred to as “the City.” At another time, you ought to plan to visit St. Paul’s at your earliest convenience. I suggest that you attend a service here sometime, such as Evensong. The cathedral is, without question, one of the architectural highlights of London, and one of the City’s most historic sites. Don’t neglect going up into the Whispering Gallery—or even the Stone Gallery or Golden Gallery, if you are not bothered by heights—and down into the well lighted crypt, where the tombs of the Duke of Wellington and Lord Nelson are found. In addition, the crypt has tombs and plaques commemorating many of the great painters of London—poets in Westminster Abbey, painters in St. Paul’s. Persons as varied as Lawrence of Arabia and George Washington are also commemorated there. The crypt also contains a major bookshop and a place for refreshments.
#2 Cheapside
Come out of the tube station, find Cheapside to your right, and make your way eastward away from the cathedral along the road toward Walbrook.Note: It is easy to think of ordinal directions in the City. The Thames is to the south, and the Tower of London is to the east. The BYU Centre is a great distance to the west.Cheapside (from the Anglo-Saxon word ceap—meaning to barter) was a busy market during Saxon times. Incidentally, it is still a good street for shopping in London, but you won’t have time for that today. If you want to shop, save it for another day when you can do so casually and not be rushed. This area was also a favorite site for medieval jousting tournaments. As you enter Cheapside, I suggest you try to project yourself back into medieval times. Try to imagine it as a major artery into the City and as a market with various paths converging into it—their major products (such as Poultry) or functions (such as Gutter Street) are advertised by the name of the street.
#3 Wood Street to Milk Street to Bread Street
When you reach Wood Street on your left, you are on the south end of the old Roman fortress. On the last walk, you were at the north end. Looking up Wood Street, you should be able to see the beginning of Milk Street and Bread Street to the right.If you are interested in architecture, you may want to examine Wood Street more carefully. The church structure in the middle of the road and designed by Christopher Wren, (noted in the Londinium walk) is the tower of St. Alban’s Church (noted in the Londinium walk). This is a good opportunity to get close enough to examine one of Wren's towers closely. Also on this street are other interesting architectural builds; the designer of the Millennial Bridge and the Swiss Reinsurance Tower has a building at 100 Wood Street, and the designer of the Lloyd’s Building and the Millennial Dome has a high-rise office building at 88 Wood Street. We will visit their major London works later on this walk. In the meantime, all of these structures on Wood Street are worth a visit. At the intersection of Cheapside and Bread Street stood the famous Mermaid Tavern, frequented by such luminaries as Shakespeare, Donne, and Raleigh. John Milton was born in Bread Street, and Sir Thomas More was born in Milk Street.
#4 Continue Down Cheapside
Continuing down Cheapside, the church coming up to your right and across the street is one of the most famous in London, going back to Saxon times: St. Mary-le-Bow, the home of the famous Bow bells with its golden dragon on top. Cross the road at a convenient crosswalk and take a look around the church.St. Mary-le-Bow church is among Christopher Wren’s earliest and most impressive projects. It is one of the first of the fifty-one churches he designed after the Great Fire of 1666. Wren’s church was built on the ruins of a church already in existence at the time of William the Conqueror and noted for its arches (bows) of stone. Thanks to the arches, which can still be seen in the crypt; the church acquired the name le Bow. If you note the spire carefully, you will see that Wren also incorporated the use of arches into this, his first classical spire. The crypt in this church dates back to Norman times (about 1090), making it among the oldest ecclesiastical structures still surviving in London. According to tradition, anyone born within the sound of St. Mary-le-Bow’s bells legitimately qualifies as a Cockney—so named, according to one story, because they were thought to be as brazen as the rooster that formerly graced the tower of the medieval church. These were also the bells that supposedly called Dick Whittington back to become Lord Mayor of London (you should be familiar with his story by now; we mentioned him in connection with the Museum of London in the Londinium walk).Note the dragon on top of the weather vane. The dragon has been a symbol of the City coat-of-arms for centuries, and is associated with the cross of St. George (the badge of Londoners at least since the reign of Edward I). It also has an interesting historical association with the weather vane atop the Royal Exchange.During the medieval jousts held on Cheapside—try to imagine one in your mind while you are here—the Lord Mayor and the aldermen watched from a balcony on the tower. On the exterior of the west wall (the one closest to St. Paul’s) is a tablet commemorating Milton. You might want to drop in to meditate or rest for a moment in St. Mary-le-Bow. It is open Monday through Wednesday from 6:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., on Thursday from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and on Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. You can also get a bite to eat at the Cafe Below, in the basement of the church, if you are there during breakfast or lunchtime.Don’t miss the statue of Captain John Smith in the churchyard to your right—Disney’s Pocahontas would be pleased. John Smith, who later became Governor of Virginia, is here in part because he was a cordwainer by trade. This is the district where boot makers worked with Cordovan goat skin leather—hence cordwainer.Across the street from Bow Church was one of the old Roman baths—probably used by the soldiers. There will be much of Roman history for you to recreate in your mind during this walk.
#5 Cheapside to Poultry to Walbrook
Proceed along Cheapside until it turns into Poultry, another gourmet site. Watch for Iron Monger Lane on your left and Old Jewry, also on the left (Old Jewry is the second of the Jewish ghettos in the city. We visited Jewry Street in the Wall Walk.). Keep going until you reach Walbrook (merging from your right).As the term Walbrook suggests, this is where one of the old streams made its way down to the Thames. The stream, initially about fourteen feet across, became a ditch and then a sewer before being covered over about five hundred years ago. It marked the initial boundary between Ludgate Hill and Cornhill (two large gravel hills), and offerings found while excavating its bed suggest that it had religious significance for the Romans. If you look carefully, you can see how the ground on both sides still slopes ever so slightly into the street.
#6 Cheapside and Walbrook
At the intersection of Cheapside and Walbrook, you will come to the Mansion House, official residence of the Lord Mayor of the city, dating to Georgian times around 1753.The Mansion House is quite spectacular inside, but you have to apply for written permission far in advance. The waiting list is long, since it is one of the most popular tourist sites in London. One day during the year the doors of several prominent buildings are opened to the public. If you are here during that time, I suggest you make the Mansion House the first place you go. Even then, you will probably not be shown the prison facilities in the basement, deriving from the fact that the Mansion House is also one of two magistrates’ courts in the City. Beneath it are ten cells for males and one for females (called the Birdcage). Emmeline Pankhurst, the suffragette leader, once occupied that cell.
#7 St. Stephen Walbrook
Turn right and go a short distance along Walbrook until you come to St. Stephen Walbrook, the Lord Mayor’s parish church, designed by Christopher Wren. You might want to drop in for a quick look around.St. Stephen Walbrook was once home to one of the major historic paintings done by Benjamin West, an American painter from Philadelphia. The large altar piece was eventually removed and sold, but is currently receiving new life through conservation efforts (see Interesting Facts attached to this tour stop for more information on this touching rendition of St. Stephen's martyrdom). Note the dome, inside and out. It is thought to have served as an early model for the one in St. Paul’s. There is also a nice monumental circular altar inside, designed by Henry Moore, one of England’s most famous modern sculptors. The Samaritans, a group designed to befriend the suicidal and the depressed, began in St. Stephen in 1953.
#8 Queen Victoria Street and the temple of Mithras
At this point take another diversion. Shift for a moment back into a Roman mode. Come out of the church, cross Walbrook, and backtrack along the road in the direction from whence you came, keeping in mind that in Roman times you would be walking by the side of a stream. You will come to Queen Victoria Street on your left as you backtrack on Walbrook. Go along Queen Victoria Street for about 200 yards until you reach the remains of the temple of Mithras to your left, in front of Temple Court—just keep walking until you reach the sign pointing you to the temple. It is up on a little rise. Don’t anticipate a structure; it is only a floor plan, and it has been moved from its original location.The Mithras temple was associated with a Persian mystery religion popular among Roman soldiers; the religion was a rival for early Christianity in the Roman empire. Note that the temple is small but has three aisles, like an early Christian church. The ruins of the temple were found during recent excavations on the other side of the Walbrook and moved to this location. Temple relics can also be found in the Museum of London.While here, take time to look carefully at the modern architecture just across the street.
#9 The Royal Exchange
Backtrack on Queen Victoria Street until you come to the Mansion House again, on your right at the first major intersection; try to think again in terms of Tudor times as we enter the financial district. Standing at the intersection, with the Mansion House to your right, you can see the financial district directly in front of you.The dominant building—the one with the statue of the Duke of Wellington (the general who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo) in front of it—is the Royal Exchange. The building to the left of the Royal Exchange, with the large plain wall around it, is the Bank of England. The bank, established in 1694 to supply William III with funds to go to war against Louis XIV, has a prize-winning museum associated with it, and I would highly recommend you come back sometime to go through it. I would give it five stars out of a possible five. The first Royal Exchange was established in 1565; however, the building as it now exists dates back to 1844 and currently houses offices of the Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance Co. A new sovereign is traditionally announced in the City from the steps of this building. The group of statues in the tympanum (the triangular portion on the upper part of the front of the building) represent commerce, with the charter of the exchange, surrounded by the Lord Mayor, British merchants, and representatives of other nations. Ironically, the people who work there, like so many of us, often miss the import of the message on the building: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.”Note the weather vane atop the Royal Exchange. The 11 foot gold leaf grasshopper represents the family crest of Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of the Exchange. A fun legend ties the grasshopper to the dragon on the steeple of St. May-le-Bow's weather vane; google it when you have time. Until the late 20th century, the two weather vanes were the tallest structures in the city—the grasshopper at 188 feet, the dragon at 221 feet.On the back side of the exchange is a campanile (a tower-like structure we will visit later) with a statue of Sir Thomas Gresham on one face. It is topped by a gilded weather vane in the shape of a grasshopper, from the family crest of Sir Thomas. The building to which it is attached houses the London International Financial Futures Exchange. The London Stock Exchange is behind the bank.
#10 Royal Exchange to Cornhill Road
Walk through this area. Your ultimate destination at this point is Cornhill Road, which abuts the Royal Exchange on the right as you face the exchange. However, stop long enough to take a quick look down Lombard Street, with all of its wonderful little gilded signs hanging from the building fronts. To get there, cross King William Street toward the Bank tube station, and go to the point where Lombard Street intersects with Cornhill and King William.When the Jews were expelled from London, the Italians on Lombard Street became the source of loans in the city. The signs hanging from the buildings contain the respective coat-of-arms of the companies they represent.
#11 Cornhill Road to Threadneedle Street
After viewing Lombard Street, make your way to the statue of Wellington in front of the Royal Exchange—don’t neglect to use the crosswalks. Then angle to the right of the exchange and make your way down the left side of Cornhill Road, which is the side nearer the exchange. Find the little walkway that goes along the back of the exchange, connecting Cornhill Road to Threadneedle Street. There are several interesting things to observe on the walkway.On the near end of this passageway is one of those delightful little monuments put up by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association, this one in the form of a fountain. Near the halfway point of the walkway is a statue of an extremely important individual, Paul Julius Reuter (pronounced Roy-ter), the founder of Reuters, the world news organization. All of the world’s traders in securities, commodities, and currencies—as well as the newspaper industries, television, and governments—depend on Reuters for fast and accurate information about world happenings. The campanile topped by the Gresham grasshopper is seen best at Reuter’s statue by looking up toward the Royal Exchange. At the far end of this passageway is a statue of an American—George Peabody (pronounced Peb’-a-dee) from Massachusetts, who was honored repeatedly in the Victorian 1800s for his work with the London poor.Standing with the Peabody statue at your back, look across Threadneedle and up the street a little distance to your left. You will see the London Stock Exchange—Britain’s version of Wall Street. This building is twenty-six stories high. Its entrance is on the corner of Threadneedle and Old Broad. Affectionately, it is referred to locally as “the house.” This is where stocks and shares are purchased and sold in London. However, it currently has no balcony and no floor that can be visited like the Stock Market in New York. At the other end of Old Broad Street is Tower 42, which you saw in the London Wall Walk.Old Broad was the street on which Sir Thomas Gresham lived. When he died it became (by the terms in his will) the site of Gresham College, where free lectures were to be given by resident professors on the subjects of divinity, astronomy, music, geometry, law, medicine, and rhetoric—one topic for each day of the week. Eventually, this college evolved into the Royal Society, Britain’s premier scientific institution.
#12 Back to Cornhill Road
Backtrack through the passageway to Cornhill, and turn left. Cross to the other side of Cornhill at the first stop light.Cornhill, the highest point in London in its early days, is the site of the old Roman basilica. Shift time frames once more and imagine the Brits in togas moving through the streets.
#13 St. Michael Cornhill to St. Peter's-upon-Cornhill Church
Go along Cornhill until you reach the church of St. Michael Cornhill on your right. Go down the alley abutting St. Michael until you reach the site of the first coffeehouse in London. This is near what was the west end of the basilica. Return to Cornhill and look for some identifying mark on the buildings across the road, so that you can locate these buildings later from a vantage point a short distance farther down the road. Come back out of the alley and turn right onto Cornhill. Continue until you reach St. Peter's Ally. This leads to the church of St. Peter’s-upon-Cornhill.The history of St. Peter's-upon-Cornhill goes back to 1040, although its predecessor is alleged to have started in 179 A.D. It was rebuilt by Christopher Wren after the Great Fire and now contains an organ upon which Felix Mendelssohn practiced. There Dickens was pleased to see the graves were “conveniently and healthfully elevated above the living.” The distance of the courtyard at St. Peter’s marks the width of the basilica.
#14 Leadenhall Street to Whittington Avenue
Come back out and continue farther along Cornhill, which turns into Leadenhall Street, until you get to Whittington Avenue, again to your right, named for Richard Whittington, London’s most famous Lord Mayor. This road is near the location of the east end of the basilica. Turn around and look for the buildings I asked you to mark opposite St. Michael. They are near the west end. This gives you an idea of the length of the basilica. Now walk down Whittington and visit Leadenhall Market just briefly.This would be a good place to return to later. Leadenhall Market is appropriately built on the site of the ancient Roman marketplace, almost adjacent to the basilica. The original street plan of the market as it was laid out in 1663 still remains. I think you will find it a quaint and interesting little shopping area. It also appears to be a favorite eating place of many who work in this area. Take what time you need to give it a cursory examination, and then return to Leadenhall Street.
#15 Billiter Street
Upon leaving the market area by the same entrance, turn right and go along Leadenhall Street toward Billiter Street, which will be on your right.On the way to Billiter Street, take some time to look closely at two of London’s most famous buildings: the Lloyd’s Building on Leadenhall Street (to your right) and the Swiss Reinsurance Tower (a.k.a. The Great Gherkin) at #30 St. Mary Axe (to your left). Take a few minutes to examine the architecture of each (one can take a guided tour of the Lloyd’s building). Lloyd’s of London began as the center of ship-brokering and marine insurance in Europe and has since expanded to one of the largest insurance companies in the world. The building, completed in 1986 by Richard Rogers Partnership, was considered one of the most famous new buildings in London in its time and was designed by one of the architects who designed the famous Pompidou Centre in Paris. Unfortunately, his architectural firm later designed the ill-fated Millennial Dome.The Swiss Reinsurance Tower, affectionately called the “Great Gherkin,” is one of the most recent structures of London and, as you have seen, dominates the skyline from all sides with its forty-story frame. It, like the Lloyd’s Building, is used primarily as an office building. The building, designed by Foster and Partners, who also built London City Hall, the Millennium Bridge, and the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court at the British Museum, was completed in 2003.Overshadowed (literally) by all of this is St. Andrew Undershaft, across the street. Another famous church, St. Andrew Undershaft honors one of the early historians of London, John Stow, who wrote “something worth reading about” during the Tudor era. Inside the church is a half-length alabaster statue honoring Stow. Biannually, a new pen is placed in the hand of the statue by the Lord Mayor, honoring Stow’s work as a historian.
#16 Fenchurch Street to Mark Lane
Turn right at Billiter Street, go past Fenchurch Avenue and Fenchurch Street to Mark Lane. Continue along Mark Lane, to the little tower that comes up on your right.This little tower was constructed by the members of the Environmental Cleaner’s Hall and St. Olave’s parish (remember "St. Ghastly Grim" from the Londinium walk). It and the Tower of London are just “over the hill” to your left). Buried there are the remains from a crypt created in 1200 and moved later to this location. That marvelous building—a combination of Gothic, Romanesque, and modern architecture—looming to your right as you pass the little tower is Minster Court, the headquarters of the London Underwriting Centre. It was designed by the GMW Partnership and built in 1999. And you thought such buildings only existed in futuristic movies; actually it was used for the office building of Cruella De Vil [Glenn Close] in Walt Disney’s live-action movie 101 Dalmatians.
#17 Minster Court
Continue past the tower and turn right down the road to your right and then right again. This leads to the entrance of Minster Court.As you enter the building, you will see three horses—designed by Althea Wynne, and nicknamed Stirling, Dollar, and Yen—outside the glass front entrance. Go out past the horses, and walk across the street, Mincing Lane. After exiting, turn around and look back at the full glory of Minster Court—one of the most fascinating structures you will find in the City.
#18 Mincing Lane to Great Tower Street to Pudding Lane
After a good look, while facing the Minster, “mince” to your right along Mincing Lane until you come to Great Tower Street. Cross Great Tower Street, turn left, and go to Byward Street, marked by the pub named Hung, Drawn, and Quartered (the fate of criminals in London’s past). Turn to your immediate right at the pub onto Byward Street, keeping the dual carriageway to your left, and continue on the walk, which becomes Lower Thames Road. You are now only about a block or two west of Tower Hill. Continue on Lower Thames Road until you come to Pudding Lane.Pudding Lane is where the Great Fire of London is thought to have begun. Remember Pudding Lane for future references; it will come up again when we get to the Monument later in the walk.
#19 Pudding Lane to Lower Thames Road
Continue past Pudding Lane on the right until you come to the traffic lights that will help you cross Lower Thames Road. Here we will begin another little detour, and go down to the river. After crossing the dual carriageway to the church, move left on Lower Thames Road until you come to a sign announcing Thames Path road. Turn right and go down that alley. This will lead you to an excellent view of the Thames. If you do this right, you should see London Bridge Hospital directly across the Thames. One word of warning: Thames Path road is sometimes blocked. If so, there are two or three other paths leading down to the Thames; just choose another one. The bridge to your right is London Bridge; the one to your left is Tower Bridge. Make your way left along Dark Horse and Billingsgate. Walk to the end of this walkway.As you move along the walkway, note to your left the HSBC Holding Place building with the blue glass. Note especially how it has been attached to the building adjacent to it. When you get to the end of the walkway, the building to your left is the old Billingsgate Market, the central fish market in London from 1287 to 1982. The fish market was transferred in 1982 to the West Indian Dock on the Isle of Dogs in the Docklands. Billingsgate Market was to the fishing industry what Spitalfields Market was to the fruit and vegetable industry. The modern office complex that was built into the old building dates back to 1990. Note the dolphins that serve as weather vanes atop the building, seen best from the Thames side. Atop the front of the building is a statue of Britannia, best viewed from Lower Thames Road.
#20 Lower Thames Road
Make your way past the side of the market building back to Lower Thames Road. Turn left and go down that road until you come again to the church and the crosswalk where you began this detour.The church is St. Magnus the Martyr, where Miles Coverdale, author of the first complete English translation of the Bible, is buried.
#21 Fish Street Hill to The Monument
Turn right, cross the road, and go up Fish Street Hill—another name going back to medieval times—until you reach the Monument.Though London is full of monuments, when Londoners or tube maps refer to the Monument, this is the one they mean. Two hundred and two feet high, it remains the tallest isolated stone column in the world. It was constructed to commemorate the Great Fire. Stop at the Monument, and take time to read the plaques that recount this famous tragedy. When the Monument is open, for a price you can go up into it for an inspiring view of this part of London. If you have the time, go up and take a look around. It is surrounded by a guardrail, since it became a favorite spot for suicides when it was first built. As mentioned earlier, the Great Fire is reenacted in the Stuart segment of the Museum of London that we passed while on the Wall Walk. The height of the monument (202 feet) was determined by the fact that, if the whole thing were tipped on its side toward the Thames, the top would be at Pudding Lane, where the fire is thought to have begun. Christopher Wren, who designed the Monument, apparently also designed (but never built) one twice as high, with Charles II, the king at the time of the fire, atop it, and one four times as high to place a telescope on for the purpose of studying the stars. Recently, an underground chamber has been uncovered in the structure, revealing a laboratory, which could be used for scientific experiments of many kinds—including using the Monument as a gigantic telescope of sorts—illustrating that the Monument was designed to be pragmatic as well as commemorative. Wren was a professor of astronomy at age twenty-five, a mathematician, physicist, anatomist, and surveyor, besides being architect.
#22 The End: Return to the BYU Centre
From the Monument, cross Fish Street and go to King William Street. Turn right, and go to Monument tube station, where you can catch a Circle Line underground train back to the Bayswater or Notting Hill Gate.A few blocks farther west on Cannon Street is the Cannon Street Station, where the palace of the Roman governor was located. Across the street from Cannon Street Station is the London headquarters of the Bank of China. Enclosed within its wall is the London Stone, believed to be the central place from which all distances from London were measured by the Romans. If you have the energy, you might want to find your way there so that you can lay claim to having been at the “center” of Roman London. If so, catch a ride from the Cannon Street tube station on the Circle Line.
