Shakespeare – everystreetinlondon

Day 58 – Southwark Cathedral – Borough Market – Guy’s Hospital

Back after an extended hiatus with a fairly brief excursion just south of the Thames but as you can see from the title there’s quite a bit packed into this short space. Inevitably that includes more Shakespeare and Dickens but we’ve also got Geoffrey Chaucer, Francis Drake and John Keats in the mix along with a (literally) cracking legend.

Starting point for today is on Bankside, just to the east of Southwark Bridge and we kick things off by heading eastward along Clink Street towards the Clink Prison Museum. This area was once the site of Winchester Palace, built in 1144 for Henry of Blois, brother to King Stephen, which contained within its grounds two prisons; one for men and one for women. The name ‘Clink’ which eventually became a synonym for houses of incarceration in general seems to have been attributed to the prison here in the 14th century. One suggested derivation is the of the sound of a blacksmith’s hammer closing the irons around the wrists or ankles of the prisoners. Alternatively it could come from the Flemish word ‘klink’ meaning ‘latch’ (on a jail door for instance). The Clink suffered several attempts to destroy it during medieval times, principally during the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 and Jack Cade’s rebellion of 1450, both of which resulted in its rebuilding. The latter rebuilding survived until 1780, when Lord George Gordon, dissatisfied with the favours granted upon Catholics during the ‘Papists Act’ assembled The Protestant Association and broke into The Clink, releasing all of the prisoners before burning it to the ground. Today, all that remains of Bankside’s once most notorious prison is the stonework of Winchester Palace that has been preserved within The Clink Prison Museum.

At the end of Clink Street we take a right into Stoney Street and then a left down Winchester Walk which leads into Cathedral Street at the western end of Southwark Cathedral. It is believed that there was a community of nuns living on the site of the cathedral as far back as the 7th century and by the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 this had developed into a some form of church. In 1106 the church was ‘re-founded’ by two Norman knights as a priory, whose members lived according to the rule of St Augustine of Hippo. The church was dedicated to St Mary and later known as St Mary Overie (‘over the river’). Perhaps the most famous resident of the priory was the court poet John Gower who lived there at the start of the 15th century and was a friend of Chaucer whose Canterbury Tales begin in Southwark (more of that later). When Henry VIII dissolved the Monasteries in 1539 the church became his property, and he promptly rented it back to the congregation. It was re-named St Saviour’s, though the old name remained in popular usage for many years. Shakespeare was a resident of the parish of St Saviour’s and his brother Edmund who also lived in the parish died in 1607 at the age of 27. A payment of 20 shillings was paid for his burial (possibly by William) at St Saviour’s “with a forenoone knell of the great bell”. His ledger stone is situated in the Cathedral Choir. In 1611 during the reign of James I a group of merchants from the congregation, known as ‘the Bargainers’, bought the church from the king for £800. Having gone through as series of repairs and alterations in the 17th and 18th centuries and a major restoration in the 1820’s St Saviour’s Church became Southwark Cathedral in 1905. The diocese which it serves stretches from Kingston-upon-Thames in the west to Thamesmead in the east and Gatwick Airport in the south. It has a population of two-and-a-half million people, served by over 300 parishes.

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On leaving the Cathedral we continue north on Cathedral Street through Winchester Square and past Pickfords Lane down to the river and the replica of Sir Francis Drake’s “Golden Hinde“. The original was the vessel on which Drake and his crew circumnavigated the globe during 1577-1580 (though it was called “The Pelican” at time of departure). A fleet of five ships in all sailed south to the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa before crossing the Atlantic to Brazil then traversing the straits of Magellan to reach the Pacific. By then the other ships had been either lost or returned to England the way they came leaving the Golden Hinde to complete the round trip alone via the East Indies and the Cape of Good Hope. In the 17th century, the original Golden Hinde which had been kept at the Deptford dockyard rotted and was broken up. 400 years later naval architect Loring Christian Norgaard was commissioned by The Golden Hinde Limited of San Francisco, a company formed by two other Americans, Albert Elledge and Art Baum, to design a replica. All components were handcrafted using traditional techniques and materials from the 22 cannons to the furniture and the hinde figurehead and in 1973, the new The Golden Hinde was launched. After crossing both the Atlantic and the Pacific in the 1970’s the ship completed a “second circumnavigation” in the 1980’s (this time with the aid of the Panama Canal) before being retired here to St Mary Overie Dock in 1996 to operate as a museum.

Beside the ship, and I have to confess to never having properly noticed this despite passing this way umpteen times, is a plaque commemorating the Legend of Mary Overie (her that Southwark Cathedral was once named after if you were paying attention earlier). It’s a cracking story so I make no apologies for copying it out (almost) in full here.

“Legend suggests that before the construction of London Bridge in the tenth century a ferry existed here. Ferrying passengers across the River Thames was a lucrative trade. John Overs who, with his watermen and apprentices, kept the “traverse ferrie over the Thames”, made such a good living that he was able to acquire a considerable estate on the south bank of the river. John Overs, a notorious miser, devised a plan to save money. He would feign death believing that his family and servants would fast out of respect and thereby save a day’s provisions. However, when he carried out the plan, the servants were so overjoyed at his death that they began to feast and make merry. In a rage the old man leapt out of bed to the horror of his servants, one of whom picked up a broken oar and “thinking to kill the Devil at the first blow, actually struck out his brains”. The ferryman’s distressed daughter Mary sent for her lover, who in haste to claim the inheritance fell from his horse and broke his neck. Mary was so overcome by these misfortunes that she devoted her inheritance to founding a convent into which she retreated.” (see above).

After that diversion we retrace our steps to the Cathedral and skirt round the north side via Montague Close before ascending the steps up to where London Bridge meets the west side of Borough High Street and from here we head south down to Borough Market. Borough Market is reputed to have existed in one form or another for around 1,000 years since, roughly, 1014 the date used as the basis for the Market’s millennium celebration. This was a prime location for a market at the time due to its position at the southern end of London Bridge—for centuries, the only route across the river into the capital. The market incurred the wrath of the authorities across the river by undercutting the City of London’s own traders such that in the 1270s the City forbade its citizens to go to Southwark to buy “corn, cattle, or other merchandise there”. As a consequence, over the course of the following three hundred years, the market fell increasingly under the aegis of the City thanks to a series of royal charters, culminating in 1550 with Edward VI selling Southwark to the City for around £1,000. As London grew in size and stature, the bedlam on Borough High Street began to arouse significant opposition within the corridors of power and in 1754 a bill went before parliament declaring that as “the market obstructs much trade and commerce”, it would have to cease trading by 25th March 1756. Residents of Southwark then began petitioning to be allowed to start a new market, independent of the City and a second act was passed through parliament declaring that the parishioners of St Saviour’s could acquire land away from the main road and set up a market of their own, and that this market would “be and remain an estate for the use and benefit of the said parish for ever”. The market expanded rapidly in the 19th century becoming a major hub of the wholesale fruit and vegetable trade. The present buildings were designed in 1851, with additions in the 1860s and an entrance designed in the Art Deco style added on Southwark Street in 1932.

By the latter date it is estimated that 1,750,000 bushels of fruit and vegetables were sold here from 188 pitching stands let to 81 different wholesale companies, with a further 203 stands in the uncovered periphery manned by farmers from the Home Counties. Borough Market’s days as a vital wholesale hub were ended in part by the construction of New Covent Garden market in Vauxhall in the 1970s, but mainly by the relentless growth of the supermarkets which, by killing off independent greengrocers, destroyed the ecosystem in which fruit and vegetable wholesaling had thrived. The market’s renaissance into its present incarnation was inspired by the boom in artisan foods which kicked off in the 1990’s. A regular specialist retail market started on a monthly basis at the end of the decade, swiftly becoming a weekly occurrence and then the six days a week operation that exists today. In the process BM has reinvented itself as possibly the most well-known food market in the country and a tourist hotspot. We traverse the market by way of Bedale Street and Rochester Walk before returning to Borough High Street via some more of Stoney Street.

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Historically the east side of Borough High Street has been associated with coaching inns, many of which dated back to the medieval period. There were once 23 in total with their own courtyards surrounded by multi-tiered galleries. Many of the yards still remain and retain the names of the inns to which they gave access. However of these only Kings Head Yard and George Inn Yard are still home to eponymous hostelries. The George Inn in its current form dates back to 1676 when it was rebuilt following a fire that destroyed the 1542 original. It is the last surviving galleried coaching inn in London. Naturally enough it claims both Shakespeare and Dickens as former regulars though since it gets a reference in Little Dorrit the latter at least should be conceded with good grace.

Both White Hart Yard and Talbot Yard are now pub-free. The latter however was once the site of the Tabard Inn from whence (as we learned earlier) Chaucer’s pilgrims set off on their way to Canterbury in April 1386.

Bifel that in that season on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay
Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,

The Tabard was also burnt down in the 1676 fire and it too was rebuilt, though renamed the Talbot, hence the name of the yard. The Talbot, like most of the other coaching inns, failed to outlive the coming of the railways and was demolished in 1873. The plaque below was unveiled by Monty Python’s Terry Jones in 2003.

Opposite Talbot Yard is the St Saviours Southwark War Memorial with its bronze sculpture designed by Philip Lindsay Clark who won the Distinguished Service Order in WW1.

Next we take a brief excursion away from Borough High Street to the east looping round Newcomen Street, Tennis Street and Mermaid Court. On our return we find ourselves opposite Maya House which since 2007 has been embellished by Ofra Zimbalista’s climbing Blue Men.

Continuing south on the east side we arrive at Angel Place another of London’s misnomered alleyways. You wouldn’t get many angels down here unless they were caught very very short. It is however the site of the old Marshalsea Prison (as we alluded to in the post before last) where Dickens’ father was incarcerated and which features heavily in Little Dorrit. Part of the old prison wall is still standing on one side of the alleyway and there is somewhat low-key memorial in the form of illustrated pages from the novel.

Across from Borough tube station, on the corner of the High Street and Great Dover Street stands the church of St George the Martyr. This is believed to be the third church on this site and was built in a Classical style to the designs of John Price between 1734 and 1736. Several of the major City Livery Companies and the Bridge House Estates gave their support to the project and their arms decorate the nave ceiling and some of the stained glass windows. The rather blingy ceiling painting of gilded cherubs breaking through a clouded sky accompanied by texts on a ribbon was created by Basil Champneys (1842 – 1935) in 1897. Champneys was principally an architect and designed a number of college buildings in Oxford and Cambridge.

On the north side of the church Tabard Street cuts through from the High Street into Long Lane which we follow east as far as Crosby Row. Here we head back north to reach Guy’s Hospital, the third and final member of the triumvirate of major central London hospitals following St Barts’ and St Thomas’ (though it should be noted that Guy’s and St Thomas’ are twinned as a single NHS Trust). The hospital dates from 1721, when it was founded by philanthropist Thomas Guy (1644 – 1724), who had made a fortune from the South Sea Bubble and as a publisher of unlicensed Bibles. It was originally established as a hospital to treat “incurables” discharged from St Thomas’ Hospital and the first hospital building was situated just to the south of St Thomas Street. This was soon complemented, in 1738, by the construction of a courtyard known as the General Court with an east wing. In 1780 a west wing comprising the chapel, the Matron’s House and the Surgeon’s House was added on the other side of the courtyard. The site was then extended to the south in 1850, the new buildings being named after one of the governors, William Hunt, who had made a bequest of £180,000 twenty years earlier. All of these buildings now form part of the Guy’s Campus of Kings College London which also incorporates a further group of buildings erected yet further south in the early part of the 20th century. These include Henriette Raphael House opened in 1902 – the first purpose built nurses’ home in London; the Hodgkin Building, named after Thomas Hodgkin, the demonstrator of morbid anatomy and best known for the first account of Hodgkin’s disease and Shepherd’s House, completed in 1921. Guy’s Campus sits to the west of the Great Maze Pond, which is the street that cuts through the extended hospital site. All medical services are now provided in the new buildings on the east side which were mostly constructed in 1974, including the 34 storey Guy’s Tower and 29 storey Guy’s House. The former, now dwarfed by the Shard, was for a brief time the tallest building in London and for a much longer time the tallest hospital building in the world.

We follow Great Maze Pond past the modern hospital buildings down to Collingwood Street where we turn left and then left again into the heart of Guy’s Campus. Having completed a circuit of the main campus we cross over Collingwood Street and go through the colonnade that runs between the two courtyards of 1850. In the eastern courtyard is a round-hooded Portland stone alcove which was originally part of, and is one of the surviving fragments of, the old London Bridge that was demolished in 1831. It now houses a statue of John Keats who studied at Guy’s Hospital from 1815 to 1816 to become an apothecary. (And whom some waggish student has inducted into the festive spirit). In the western courtyard is a statue of William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, another major benefactor of Guy’s Hospital. Continuing north we arrive in the General Court with the brass statue of Thomas Guy by Peter Scheemakers standing in the centre upon a pedestal with bas-reliefs of “Christ Healing the Sick” and the “Good Samaritan”.

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We exit the hospital grounds onto St Thomas Street and complete today’s journey by heading west back towards London Bridge. On the way there is just time to pause for a look at (but not inside) the Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret which is housed in the attic of the early eighteenth-century church of the old St Thomas’ Hospital. The original timber framed Herb Garret was once used to dry and store herbs for patients’ medicines and in 1822 an operating theatre was included. Predating anaesthetics and antiseptics, it is the oldest surviving surgical theatre in Europe. So perhaps worth a visit another time.

Day 57 – Bankside – Southwark Bridge – Trinity Church Square

This is a bit of a meandering one, starting out on Bankside then crossing the river twice before heading down through Borough to Trinity Square and hallway back again. On the way we’ll cross paths with Shakespeare, Dickens, Alfred the Great and Catherine of Aragon.

So we begin where we left off last time, at Tate Modern, exiting from the Blavatnik Building onto Sumner Street. Then we cut down Canvey Street as far as Zoar Street turning east for a short while before nipping between the buildings up onto Southwark Street.

On Southwark Street we turn east and when we get to the next left, the by-now familiar Great Guildford Street head back towards the river. Crossing over Sumner Street we reach the western end of the long and winding Park Street. Before we get to Emmerson Street which return us to another section of Sumner Street there’s a nice new demolition site to stop and admire.

Sumner Street takes us up onto Southwark Bridge Road where we turn northward briefly before taking some steps which deposit us back on Park Street on the doorstep of the Rose Playhouse. The Rose became the fifth purpose-built theatre in London when it was created in 1587 pre-dating the Globe (of which more later) on Bankside by 14 years. It represented something of a cultural step-up for an area known for its brothels, gaming dens and bear-baiting pits. The Rose’s repertoire included Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Jew of Malta and Tamburlaine the Great, Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy and Shakespeare’s Henry VI part I and Titus Andronicus. Its star faded fairly swiftly in the shadow of the success of the Globe however and by the very early years of the 17th century it had fallen out of use. Its archaeological remains were discovered in 1989 during excavations for the re-development of an office block. The Rose Theatre Trust was formed in response to fears that the new building proposed for the site would bring about the destruction of the remains. A campaign to ‘Save The Rose’ was launched with enthusiastic support from the public, scholars and actors, including the dying Lord Olivier who gave his last public speech in May 1989 on behalf of The Rose. The Trust managed to secure government funds to delay construction and to bring about a re-design of the proposed new building so that only a small amount of the fabric of The Rose was lost, and a permanent enclosure of this fragile site was created. If you want to check it out public viewings take place most Saturdays.

From Park Street we duck in and out of Rose Alley and Bear Gardens before New Globe Walk takes us up to Bankside and, naturally enough, the new Globe Theatre. The new incarnation of the Globe is located several hundred metres away from where the original was sited so we’ll deal with the latter in a while. The project to rebuild Shakespeare’s Globe was the brainchild of the American actor, director and producer Sam Wanamaker. Twenty one years after his first visit to London, in 1949, he founded what was to become the Shakespeare Globe Trust, dedicated to the reconstruction of the theatre and the creation of an education centre and permanent exhibition. After another 23 years spent tirelessly fundraising and planning the reconstruction with the Trust’s architect Theo Crosby, Sam Wanamaker died in 1993. He lived long enough to see the site secured and a few timber bays of the theatre in place. It was another three and a half years before the theatre was completed. Other than concessions to comply with modern day fire regulations such as additional exits, illuminated signage, fire retardant materials and some modern backstage machinery, the Globe is as accurate a reconstruction of the 1599 Globe as was possible with the available evidence.

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Sandwiched in between the Globe and Tate Modern is a row of 18th century houses the most striking of which is the three-storey cream coloured building bearing the name Cardinal’s Wharf. Its façade also bears a ceramic plaque engraved with the words Here lived Sir Christopher Wren during the building of St Paul’s Cathedral. Here also, in 1502, Catherine Infanta of Castile and Aragon, afterwards first queen of Henry VIII, took shelter on her first landing in London. Sadly, both of these claims were debunked in a 2006 book by writer and historian Gillian Tindall. Since the house was built in 1710, the year St Paul’s was completed, Wren couldn’t have lived here during its construction. He did however live in a house nearby so it’s probable the plaque was rescued from that property at the time of its demolition and cheekily redisplayed. As for Catherine of Aragon, that’s dismissed as pure fantasy. The adjacent redbrick house is known as the Provost’s Lodging, a name adopted when it was acquired by Southwark Cathedral from Bankside Power Station in 1957. In 2011, following the death of the then Dean of Southwark (the title of provost was done away with in 2000) the property was put on the market for £6m. Which is a lot of money to spend if you’re going to have tens of thousands of people traipsing past each day within spitting distance of your front door.

And so it’s time to head briefly back across the river and tick off a couple more bridges. First up, of course, is the ill-fated (in terms of its name) Millennium Bridge, built to link St Paul’s Cathedral with the new Tate Modern as part of the Millennium celebrations. Unfortunately, as I’m sure we all recall, when it opened in June 2000 it only stayed accessible for two days before being closed for two years to allow for modifications to rectify the swaying motion (or resonant structural response) that led to the nickname “Wobbly Bridge”. The design of the bridge, which was subject to a competition, was a collaboration between Arup Group, Foster and Partners and Sir Anthony Caro. Due to height restrictions, and to improve the view, the suspension design had the supporting cables below the deck level, giving a very shallow profile. The eight suspension cables are tensioned to pull with a force of 2,000 tons against the piers set into each bank—enough to support a working load of 5,000 people on the bridge at one time. Though not enough to save it from the Death Eaters in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

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Once across the bridge we turn east along the Thames Path though not for very long as you soon have to divert away from the river up Broken Wharf and along High Timber Street (calling in on the dead end Stew Lane if you wish) before rejoining via Queenhithe. Beside and below the street of the same name is the only surviving inlet along the City waterfront which was once a thriving Saxon and Medieval Dock. The harbour is reputed to have been established in AD 899 shortly after King Alfred the Great had turfed the Vikings out of London. Originally named ‘Ethelred’s Hythe’ it became known as ‘Queenhithe’ when Queen Matilda, wife of Henry I, was granted the dues from the dock in the early 12th century (a right inherited by successive English queens). In the 15th century the dock’s fortunes waned as larger vessels struggled to navigate past London Bridge and opted to unload further east at Billingsgate. The dock did however remain in service up to Victorian times and remnants of that period of usage are still visible at low tide.

From Queenhithe it’s just a hop and a skip to Southwark Bridge. Before we get up onto the bridge itself though we can pop through the northside underpass, known as Fruiterers’ Passage after the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers whose warehouses once stood nearby. The passage is tiled on both sides incorporating scanned historic images of the bridge and its immediate surroundings.

The bridge itself, something of a Cinderella as far as central London crossings of the Thames are concerned, dates from 1921 in its current form. The bridge was designed and engineered by Ernest George and Basil Mott respectively, the latter also partly responsible for the Mersey Tunnel. And there’s not really much else to say about it to be honest.

At the southern end of the bridge sits the current HQ of the Financial Times. I say current because at the time of writing the FT’s owners Nikkei (who acquired from Pearson in 2015) have just announced plans to sell the building ahead of a move back to the FT’s previous offices at Bracken House near St Paul’s in 2019. One Southwark Bridge has been the FT’s home since 1989.

We drop down from the bridge onto Bankside and head east as far as the Anchor pub. The pub started life as the ‘brewery tap room’ for the Anchor Brewery which was established in 1616 on land adjacent to the original Globe Theatre and by the early nineteenth century was the largest brewery in the world. After being destroyed in the Great Fire the pub was rebuilt in 1676 and largely reconstructed again in the 19th century. The brewery was taken on by the newly founded Barclay Perkins & Co. in 1781 and Barclays survived as an independent brand (including their famous Russian Imperial Stout) up until 1955 and a merger with Courage. Brewing continued on the site under Courage but last orders were called in the early 1970’s and the buildings were demolished in 1981.

Beyond the pub we turn away from the river up Bank End which soon forms a junction with two more parts of Park Street. We take the section heading back west which runs through where the Anchor Brewery stood (a plaque on the south side commemorates this) and arrive at the site of the original Globe Theatre just to the east of the Southwark Bridge Road flyover and less than a hundred metres from the Rose Theatre. The precise location of the Tudor Globe was only determined in 1989 when part of the foundations were discovered beneath the car park of Anchor Terrace a building of 1834 which originally housed senior employees of the brewery. As this is itself a listed building further excavations have not been possible. The Elizabethan Globe Theatre was built in 1599 on land leased by Richard Burbage and his brother Cuthbert along with Shakespeare and four other members of the Chamberlain’s Men company. It was partially constructed re-using timbers from “The Theatre” in Shoreditch; London’s first theatre which had been built in 1576 by the Burbage brothers’ father, James. As noted above, the theatre was enormously successful in its early years but in 1613, during a performance of Henry VIII, wadding from a stage cannon ignited the thatched roof and the theatre burned to the ground. It was hastily rebuilt, with a tiled roof, and continued as a playhouse until 1642 when the Cromwell’s Puritan administration forced its closure. It was demolished to make way for tenements two years later.

Doubling back along Park Street we turn south next down Porter Street then work our way though Gatehouse Square, Perkins Square and Maiden Lane back to the final, most easterly stretch of Park Street. From here we link back to Southwark Street via Redcross Way where the façade of the old W.H. Willcox & Co. engineering company building still clings on. Lord knows where you have to go these days to get your crank-pin lubricators.

We turn west for a bit along Southwark Street then fork right down Thrale Street, named after Henry Thrale the eighteenth century politician who was a friend of Samuel Johnson and who inherited the Anchor Brewery from his father (it then being sold to Messrs Barclay and Perkins upon his death). His wife, Hester, bore him 12 children and outlived him by forty years. Hester Thrale was a formidable woman; in addition to her procreational achievements she was a noted diarist, author and patron of the arts. She also rescued her husband from probable bankruptcy by raising the money to clear his debts of £130,000 that resulted from a failed scheme to brew beer without malt or hops.

At the end of Thrale Street we turn left onto Southwark Bridge Road then right onto Southwark Street again. This takes us past the Menier Chocolate Factory building built by the French company, Chocolat Menier, in the 1870s. Menier eventually became part of the Rowntree Macintosh group which was in turn swallowed up by Nestle. Confectionery production had ceased here by the 1980s and the building was derelict until it was resurrected as an arts and theatre space in 2004. The Menier Chocolate Factory theatre has an impressive list of productions under its belt, including some particularly lauded musical revivals such as A Little Night Music and La Cage Aux Folles which both transferred to Broadway in 2010.

Beyond the Chocolate Factory we turn south down Omeara Street where we find the dramatically-named Roman Catholic Church of the Most Precious Blood. The Parish was founded in 1891 and the church was designed by Frederick Arthur Walters who was also the architect for Buckfast Abbey.

At the end of Omeara Street we cross over Union Street and continue south on Ayres Street. The street used to be known as White Cross Street but was renamed in 1936 by the then Labour-led LCC in honour of Alice Ayres, a nursemaid who attained a form of secular canonisation in the Victorian era after she died rescuing the three young children in her care (the daughters of her elder sister, Mary Ann) from a house fire. Such was the public interest in the story that Alice’s funeral was attended by 10,000 mourners and a memorial fund set up raised £100 for the erection of a granite obelisk monument above her grave in Isleworth cemetery.

On the corner of Ayres Street and Clennam Street stands the Lord Clyde pub, one of the all-too-few remaining classic style Trumans Beer alehouses. Named after Field Marshal Sir Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde, GCB, KSI, who commanded the Highland Brigade in the Crimean War and led the troops who quelled the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the pub has remained unchanged since it was built in 1913 and has been run by the same family, the Fitzpatricks, for over 60 years.

We turn left onto Marshalsea Road then almost immediately left down Quilp Street (the other section of which we visited last time). Off of Quilp Street is Dorrit Street which is basically a twenty-yard cul-de-sac and therefore crying out to be prefaced by the word Little; so one can only assume it was left off out of embarrassed deference towards Dickens’ titular heroine. Quilp Street disgorges into Redcross Way which we hop over into Disney Street then dog-leg round Disney Place back onto Marshalsea Road. Cross over into Sanctuary Street which we follow south as far as Lant Street where we turn left down onto Borough High Street. Continue south down to Trinity Street where we turn east past Trio Place then head south along Swan Street to Harper Road. Turning left onto Harper Road and then left again down Brockham Street brings us into Trinity Church Square, comprised of immaculately maintained Georgian terrace houses such as are the go-to residences for characters of any social station in London-set Hollywood films.

The eponymous church in the middle of the square was built in 1824 and designed by architect Francis Bedford. In 1968 it was declared redundant and in the 1970s was converted into an orchestral rehearsal studio for the London Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras and named after the conductor, Sir Henry Wood. On the north side of the church there is a statue reputed to be of King Alfred the Great. It’s suggested that it could be one of eight medieval statues from the north end towers of Westminster Hall (c. late 14th century) or, alternatively, one of a pair representing Alfred and Edward, the Black Prince, made for the garden of Carlton House in the 18th century.

Having completed a circuit of the square we return up Brockham Street to Harper Road then take the next left into Dickens Square before cutting through Dickens Fields to Falmouth Road. We take Falmouth Road down to Great Dover Street (A2) and turn right briefly for a contractual look at Sturgeon Street before heading back west along Trinity Street. A diversion round Merrick Square gives us a chance to admire some more of those Georgian terraces.

On the corner with Globe Street the bloke in the picture below taps me for £2 (to buy food for the dog) after spotting my remembrance poppy by claiming to have spent 6 years in the RAF before being discharged with a fractured skull that still troubles him. He then went on to bemoan the fact that “everyone else round here is foreign and doesn’t speak English”. Unfortunately I’d already parted with the cash by then.

So we cut down Globe Street into Cole Street which runs down to Swan Street where we take a right back to Great Dover Street. From here we head down to the four-way junction by Borough Tube Station and take Borough High Street southward for about a hundred metres before turning left into Little Dorrit Court. A little bit more respectful to the fictional Amy and she has a playground named after her too.

Little Dorrit Court returns us to Redcross Way across the street from Redcross Garden which along with the six cottages which flank it in one side was created by the social reformer, Octavia Hill (who we covered in detail in the last post).

We follow Redcross Way back to the corner with Union Street and the last port of call for today which is the Crossbones Graveyard a disused post-medieval burial ground in which up to 15,000 people are believed to have been buried. Cross Bones is thought to have been established originally as an unconsecrated graveyard for prostitutes, or “single women”, who were known locally as “Winchester Geese” because they were licensed by the Bishop of Winchester to work within the Liberty of the Clink which lay outside the legal scope of the City of London. It was closed in 1853. Today the iron gates surrounding the graveyard are festooned with ribbons, feathers, beads and other tokens commemorating the “Outcast Dead” buried here. In 2007, Transport for London, which now owns the site, gave playwright John Constable access inside the gates, where he and other volunteers have created a wild garden. An informal group known as the Friends of Cross Bones is working to ensure that a planned redevelopment of the site preserves the garden as a more permanent place of reflection and remembrance.

Day 37 – Fleet Street – Middle Temple – Inner Temple

Another compact itinerary today; starting out at St Clement Danes Church on the Strand, dropping down to visit Two Temple Place and then meandering through the labyrinth of courts and squares that comprise the two Inns of Court, Middle Temple and Inner Temple.

St Clement Danes Church sits on its on island in the middle of the eastern end of the Strand just across from the Royal Courts of Justice. Approaching from the rear end we first make the reacquaintance of Dr Samuel Johnson (see last post) and then moving round to the front entrance find statues to two of Britain’s wartime RAF leaders, Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris (1892 – 1984) and Sir Hugh Dowding (1882 – 1970) along with a memorial to Prime Minister W.E Gladstone (1809 – 1898) erected in 1905.

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The church traces its origins back to the 9th century when Danish settlers (converted to Christianity) took over an Anglo-Saxon church dedicated to St Clement which then became known as St Clement-of-the-Danes. It was first rebuilt in the time of William the Conqueror, again in the 14th century and then after the Great Fire by Sir Christopher Wren (the fire didn’t reach this far but the church was in such poor condition that it was decided to knock it down anyway). The new church was completed in 1681 but the steeple, designed by James Gibbs, was only added in 1719. It had to be reconstructed again after WW2 when German bombs spared only the steeple and part of the walls. That work was instigated in 1956 by the RAF and two years later St Clement Danes was reconsecrated as its official church.

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We head south from the church down Arundel Street (for a second time) and at the bottom cross over into the Temple (and final) section of Victoria Embankment Gardens. Here stands a statue to John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873) the great philosopher and liberal thinker. Mill was one of the foremost proponents of utilitarianism (along with Jeremy Bentham) – simplistically “the greatest good of the greatest number”. He was also the first member of Parliament to advocate women’s suffrage.

The other eminent Liberal commemorated in the gardens is William Edward Forster (1818 – 1886). He was the guiding force behind the Elementary Education Act of 1870 which established for the first time a framework for primary education of all children from the age of 5 through to 12.

Exit the garden into Temple Place opposite Globe House, the HQ of British American Tobacco (BAT), owners of the Dunhill and Lucky Strike cigarette brands (inter alia). BAT had turnover of around £14bn in 2016 and is the sixth largest company by capitalisation in the FTSE 100 (yes there’s still plenty of money to be made out of fags people).

A few steps further along and we arrive at Two Temple Place. This was built, entirely of Portland stone, between 1892 and 1895 for William Waldorf Astor, the man behind the Waldorf hotels and one of the richest people in the world at the time (as mentioned a couple of posts back). Incredibly, this faux Elizabethan/neo-Gothic creation of architect John Loughborough Pearson with its opulent interior, was originally primarily intended to serve as Astor’s estate office – though he did eventually use it as his London residence. The man responsible for the interior decoration, after the French Renaissance style, was John Dibblee Crace, who also decorated Cliveden for Astor.

The building is now looked after by registered charity, the Bulldog Trust and, in addition to its use as a venue for corporate and private entertaining, hosts regular high-profile exhibitions. The latest of these, Sussex Modernism: Retreat and Rebellion runs to 23 April 2017 and well worth a visit.

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The main staircase is embellished with seven mahogany carvings by Thomas Nicholls representing characters from The Three Musketeers and Nicholls continues the literary theme with a frieze around the first floor gallery depicting 82 of Shakespeare’s dramatis personae and another in the main hall incorporating characters from Rip Van Winkle, The Scarlet Letter and The Last of the Mohicans. The entrance door to the Great Hall is made of mahogany, has a beautifully carved head and nine decorative panels in silver gilt by Sir George James Frampton which portray the nine heroines of the Arthurian Legend according to the version by Thomas Malory. Guinevere is depicted in the central panel.

After leaving Two Temple Place head round the back of the building and up Milford Lane before swinging right into Little Essex Street and then turning south again down Essex Street. This is the western edge of Middle Temple, the third of the three Inns of Court established in the 14th century we have visited (Gray’s Inn and Lincoln’s Inn being the first two). The Inn’s name derives from the Knights Templar who were granted this site in the latter part of the 12th century. After the fall of the Crusading Orders’ strongholds in the Holy Land in 1291 the Knights Templar retreated to Cyprus and their fortunes continued to wane thereafter. The lands south of Fleet Street then passed for a time to the Order of the Hospitallers (aka The Order of St John) whom we have encountered previously. Come the Reformation the land was seized by the Crown and divided between the newly formed Inns of Middle Temple and Inner Temple.

Down the steps back into Temple Place and then along the Embankment, skirting Middle Temple Gardens, before entering into the heart of the Inn via Middle Temple Lane.

Middle Temple Hall is probably the finest example of an Elizabethan Hall in London. It is 101 feet long and 41 feet wide, and spanned by a magnificent double hammer-beam roof. Begun in 1562 when Edmund Plowden, the famous law reporter, was Treasurer of the Inn, it has remained little altered up to the present day. The High Table, believed to be a gift from Elizabeth I., is 29 feet long and made from a single oak tree which was floated down the Thames from Windsor Forest. The first recorded performance of Twelfth Night took place in the Hall on 2nd February 1602 and you won’t be surprised to learn that it’s in constant demand as a film location – everything from Bridget Jones II to Shakespeare in Love. If you’re not short of a bob or two you can also hold your wedding reception here.

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Wend our way through Fountain Court then south past the various Chambers before emerging back onto Essex Street and heading back up to the Strand. On the way we pass the Edgar Wallace pub which in its original guise of the Essex Head, dating back to 1777, was another of Samuel Johnson’s haunts. It was renamed in 1975 in honour of the centenary of the eponymous crime-writer’s birth. Wallace was also a prolific screenwriter, principally for RKO. He penned the first draft of the script for King Kong but never got to see his efforts on the screen; dying of a combination of diabetes and double pneumonia a year before the film (based on a reworked script) was released.

Just around the corner where the Strand morphs into Fleet Street is another historic pub, the George. Originally founded as a Coffee House in 1723 the George became a public house early in the 19th century. One regular visitor back then, along with the ubiquitous Dr Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith and Horace Walpole, was the con-man Henry Perfect who had a propensity for impersonating vicars. The building was reconstructed in the late Victorian era (that exterior is only mock-Tudor). Reputedly there is a carving depicting a naked man chasing pigs somewhere on or inside the pub but this eluded me.

Turn right almost immediately down Devereux Court which is where the Instituto Cervantes, the Spanish cultural centre, is tucked away.

Wend our way back through the heart of Middle Temple then escape back up to Fleet Street through an archway and up a set of steps which lead to the building known as Outer Temple. This was erected as an office building in Victorian times and although it is thought there may have been an Inn of Chancery called Outer Temple prior to the 16th century it had nothing to do with this location, so the name was purely taking advantage of the proximity to the Temple Inns. The building is now used as a branch of Lloyds Bank, almost certainly the most extravagantly decorated one in the country. I definitely doubt you’ll come across ATM’s with more luxuriant surroundings than the two in the entrance here.

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A short way further east on Fleet Street is the Temple Bar memorial. The memorial marks the spot where Wren’s Temple Bar (more on that to come in a later post) used to stand, as the ceremonial entrance to the City of London from Westminster . The bronze free-standing statues of Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales, facing the road on each side, are by Sir Joseph Boehm. They are celebrated here because in 1872 they were the last royals to pass through the old gate, in order to attend a thanksgiving service at St Paul’s Cathedral for the Prince’s recovery from typhoid. The rampant “griffin” (as it is traditionally known) crowning the Temple Bar Memorial is really a dragon, the symbol of the City of London.

On the south side of Fleet Street adjacent to the memorial is a plaque commemorating the site of the Devil Tavern which was demolished in 1787. This was renowned as the home of the Apollo Club, a literary dining society founded by the Elizabethan playwright Ben Johnson . Members of the club are said to have included Shakespeare, Swift, Pope and (yet again) Dr Johnson (no relation) – he did get about.

Head south towards the river down Middle Temple Lane once more and after a circuit of Essex Court on the west side switch to the east side and Pump Court which takes us in to Inner Temple territory. Inner Temple suffered the ravages of the Great Fire far worse than Middle Temple and many of the few original buildings that survived were lost to subsequent fires and 20th century war damage. Consequently, the Hall, Treasury Office, Benchers’ Rooms and Library were all reconstructed after World War II.

After a tour of Hare Court, Elm Court and Crown Office Court we arrive at the Temple Church itself. The church, founded by the Knights Templar as already noted, is in two parts: the Round and the Chancel. The Round Church was consecrated in 1185 by the patriarch of Jerusalem. It was designed to recall the holiest place in the Crusaders’ world: the circular Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Chancel dates from the 1230’s. The Temple served as the London headquarters of King John and it was here in January 1215 that the barons confronted him for the first time with the demand that he subject himself to the rule of a charter, which ultimately lead to the signing of the Magna Carta later that same year. Although the church survived the Great Fire unscathed it was refurbished by Sir Christopher Wren shortly thereafter. A couple of centuries later the Victorians carried out work to try and restore the church to its original appearance but most of that was destroyed in the Blitz. Post-war restoration wasn’t completed until the second half of the 1950’s. By a stroke of good fortune the architects, Walter and Emil Godfrey, were able to use the reredos designed by Wren for his 17th-century restoration. Removed in 1841, it had spent over a century in the Bowes Museum, County Durham.

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Return to Fleet Street via Inner Temple Lane then head east as far as Old Mitre Court which takes us back into the heart of the Inner Temple and segues into King’s Bench Walk, named after the King’s Bench Office which was based there until the 19th century. This row which contains the Inner Temple’s best preserved chambers buildings, which date from the 17th century.

And that’s where we end things for today before shuffling back to Fleet Street for a couple of glasses of the old fermented grape juice in El Vino’s.

Day 28 – Where Shoreditch meets the City

This walk took place on 22 June, the day before London pegged its colours to the masts of tolerance and enlightenment and practically the whole of the rest of England laughed in the face of this exhortation on the Great Eastern Road.

Which is where we begin this time; heading north west initially then veering due north up Curtain Road before covering the area west of there as far as City Road and south as far as Worship Road which is pretty much the northern boundary of the City now.

First though there’s a brief detour back on to Old Street to take a look at two Grade II listed buildings on opposite sides of the road. On the north side is the former Old Street Magistrates Court and Police Station, constructed in the Edwardian baroque style in 1906 to the design of architect John Dixon Butler. This has recently been converted into a 5-star 128-room hotel (opening just last month in May 2016 in fact). In somewhat dubious taste perhaps, five of the old 5ft by 15ft cells where East End felons including the Kray twins were banged up have been incorporated into the hotel bar as VIP booths which can be hired out for the night. The bar will also serve cocktails with a range of crime-oriented names including “slammer”, “clink” and “nick”.

Facing the hotel is Shoreditch Town Hall which was designed by Caesar Augustus Long opened in 1866 as the Vestry Hall for Shoreditch. Throughout the building the motto ‘More Light, More Power’ can be seen beneath the crest of Shoreditch. This motto, together with the statue of Progress on the front of the tower, commemorates the reputation that the Vestry, (later the Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch), had as a progressive local government, particularly in its provision of electric power to the borough. Shoreditch Town Hall ceased to be a centre of municipal administration in 1965, when the boroughs of Shoreditch and Stoke Newington merged with Hackney to form the larger London Borough of Hackney. For the next four years the Assembly Hall became one of the East End’s premier boxing venues until in 1969 when, after a hard-hitting fight against Joe Bugner, the tragic death of Trinidadian boxer Ulric Regis led to a ban on boxing throughout Hackney. After this the building’s future became increasingly uncertain as neglect and disrepair set in. In the early 1990’s there was colourful interlude in the shape of the Whirl-Y-Gig weekly trance nights before in 1997 a trust was formed with a mission to regenerate the building. This eventually led to a reopening in 2004, following major restoration work, as an independent arts and events venue.

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So next we track back west along Old Street and turn down Charlotte Road. Then it’s right into Rivington Street which leads out onto Great Eastern Street again where we turn left as far as Garden Walk. Head up here back to Rivington Street then complete the southern stretch of Charlotte Road. Crossing over Great Eastern Street we go west on Leonard Street where Joy Division meet Marvel’s Avengers – a near unbeatable combination in my book.

On the corner with Ravey Street (well-named for this part of town) is the Grade-II listed Griffin pub which dates from c.1889. Before its closure for refurbishment in 2014 it was described by Time Out as a “typical old blokes’ boozer”. What odds it will still warrant that description once it re-opens.

At the top of Ravey Street squeeze past some more new development to get to Willow Street then west to Paul Street and up to the apex of Old and Great Eastern Streets where stands this pink and grey polished granite monument which was originally a drinking fountain installed nearby by the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1880. When it was moved a short distance in 2002 as part of street improvements the fountain aspect seems to have been discarded.

Behind this to the north east is this giant geisha mural by artists Core246 & Kaes on the wall of Red Gallery.

So we retrace our steps down Paul Street, look in briefly on Blackall Street and then return along Leonard Street stopping off at Westland Antiques which occupies the former Church of St Michael and All Angels. This Victorian Gothic revival church was built in 1865 and designed by James Brooks (1825 – 1901) who was the architect of many East End churches of this era. Westland, who took over the site in 1977, specialise in salvaged Antique Chimneypieces and Fireplaces . But their collection extends far beyond that as you can see in the pictures below. If you find yourself in the area its more than worth looking in.

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So after a circuit of Mark Square which lies behind the church we turn south down another section of Ravey Street into Luke Street then north east on Phipp Street and east on Gatesborough Street to reach the lower stretch of Curtain Road. From here we weave back and forth along Luke Street and Christina Street passing the splendidly-named but hugely disappointing Motley Avenue.

When we return to Curtain Road we find ourselves opposite one of the most decrepit (though presumably still financially viable) NCP Car Parks in the land.

Given everything else that’s going on in the area I can’t help but feel its days are numbered (though I also feel a tinge of regret about that – for the Star Wars mural alone it deserves a shot at survival for a few years yet). Anyway, continuing down Curtain Road we arrive at the site of the absolutely massive new residential, leisure and retail development known as the Stage. In 2011 the remains of Shakespeare’s Curtain Theatre were discovered 3 metres below the surface of the development. The intention now is to incorporate these remains into the development as a tourist attraction with a purpose-built visitor’s centre and sunken amphitheatre.

As you can see below, the Curtain Theatre was built in 1577 as London’s second playhouse, just a year after the first, simply known as The Theatre and only a few hundred yards away (and covered in a previous post). The Curtain’s heyday was really only the three years from 1597-1599 when it became the premier venue of Shakespeare’s company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, during the time it took for the Theatre to relocate to the South Bank and become the Globe. In this time though it did see the openings of both Romeo and Juliet and Henry V.

Hewett Street which was the actual address of the Curtain still survives as does the Horse and Groom pub (more like barely clinging on in truth) but Hearn Street to the south and Plough Yard to the east have both been wiped out by the redevelopment (though they still show up on Google maps).

That partially completely development you can see in the background above is Principal Place which some marketing genius has branded as the Unsquare Mile. It’s also subtitled (with rather more legitimacy) as the place where the City meets Shoreditch. (For the purposes of entitling this post you will note that I’ve switched that around).

In the background above is the well-known music venue, the Queen of Hoxton (teetering on the right side of the line for now). Moving on; at the eastern end of Worship Street we meet the junction of Shoreditch High Street and the wonderfully-named Norton Folgate (more of that another time).

Turning away from the City dragon we go up the A10 and revisit Great Eastern Street this time turning west down Holywell Lane. On the other side of Curtain Road this turns into Scrutton Street and where that forks into Holywell Row we have today’s pub of the day, the Old King’s Head – half of Estrella and a bacon, chicken and avocado sandwich for £5.95.

Holywell Row merges into Clifton Street which takes us back to Worship Street. After a brief stint westward we turn north again on Paul Street then east for the remainder of Scrutton Street and then left up New North Place. Emerging back on Luke Street we resume west into Clere Street (which was formerly Paradise Street – and you can see why they changed the name).

We then find ourselves on Tabernacle Street and veering northward takes us right back up to the Old Street/Great Eastern Street nexus. After turning briefly west on Old Street we take a left down Singer Street and then a right into Cowper Street which is home to one of my favourite music venues, XOYO, though this puts on far more club nights than gigs these days.

Across the road is the Central Foundation Boys’ School established in the 1860’s by the Reverend William Rogers to provide affordable secondary education (£4 a year) for the sons of skilled workers and tradesmen. It was originally called the Middle Class School (back when becoming Middle Class was still an aspiration).

We’re now at the Old Street roundabout and from here we head a short way south before turning east down Leonard Street. At the junction with Tabernacle Street we resume southward as far as Epworth Street which crosses over to Paul Street and then switch back via Bonhill Street. The final yards of Tabernacle Street run down to Worship Street almost at the apex with City Road and turning back up the latter represents the final stage of today’s journey. The western side of this stretch of City Road is dominated by the home of the Honourable Artillery Company. The HAC is the oldest regiment in the British Army and the second most senior unit of the Territorial Army. It traditionally traces its origins to 1537, when Henry VIII granted a charter to the ‘Fraternity or Guild of Artillery of Longbows, Crossbows and Handguns’ which was also to be a perpetual fraternity of St George. The building you can see below, which fronts onto City Road is the Finsbury Barracks designed by the architect Joseph Jennings and completed in 1857. Behind this is the gargantuan Armoury House, most of which dates back to 1735, and in front of that the extensive Artillery Garden (and sports grounds).

A little way further up, on the other side of the road, is our final stop of the day, Wesley’s Chapel. John Wesley (1703 – 1791), the founder of the Methodist branch of Protestantism, built the chapel in 1778 to be his London base. Its designer was George Dance the Younger, surveyor to the City of London. Although it has undergone some alteration the Grade I -listed chapel is still one of the finest extant examples of Georgian architecture. Margaret Thatcher was married here in 1951 and the communion rail was presented by her as a gift. To the right of the chapel is the house in which John Wesley lived for the last eleven years of his life. Wesley’s tomb is in the garden at the rear of the chapel alongside the graves of six of his preachers, and those of his sister Martha Hall and his doctor and biographer, Dr John Whitehead. The statue of Wesley which stands at the entrance to the courtyard bears the inscription “the world is my parish”. The ground floor of the chapel houses the Museum of Methodism which is well presented but, if I’m being honest, not exactly a riveting experience. It may be sacrilegious to say so but perhaps the best reason to visit the chapel is to take a look at the toilets; specifically the gents which are the only surviving original Victorian conveniences in London. These were installed at the end of the nineteenth century with cisterns by the one and only Thomas Crapper (1836 – 1910) who provided the colloquial name for the W.C even if he didn’t invent it as such.

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Day 25 -Shoreditch High Street – Arnold Circus

More than a touch of serendipity about this excursion as a couple of days after the last walk, on Bank Holiday Monday to be precise, I went along to the Secret 7″ sale at Sonos Studios in Shoreditch and therefore found myself only a couple of hundred yards away from the previous finishing point. Before we get into that though here’s another of the periodic updates on overall progress so far.

Back to today’s trip which takes in the western side of the area wedged between Columbia Road and Bethnal Green Road and the streets enclosed within the quadrilateral of Old Street, Shoreditch High Street, Curtain Street and Great Eastern Street.

First up, from Bethnal Green Road we head north up Club Row which is where the Sonos Studios live. Secret 7″ has been running for a few years now but this is the first time at this location. Principle is similar to the RCA’s Secret Postcard fundraiser but this involves record covers designed for one of seven specially chosen tracks and is in aid of Amnesty International. You can get the full lowdown here. Didn’t get there until an hour after the start by which time I would say around 65% of the covers had already been snapped up. Happy enough though with my two acquisitions, which you can see in the selection below. Actual singles were the offerings by The Jam and Tame Impala.

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Having bagged my two 45’s continue north up Club Row to Arnold Circus, of which more later. Circle anti-clockwise and exit along Pallissy Street. This leads into Swanfield Street where at no.74 stands an isolated remnant of the past in the last remaining weaver’s house in the area (the East End being a hub of the weaving industry in the 18th and early 19th centuries). These days it’s a foam shop.

At top of Swanfield Street turn right along Virginia Road which emerges onto Columbia Road and then almost immediately double-back down Gascoigne Place. Going westward Virginia Road forks off into Austin Street and at the junction of Boundary Street, which rejoins the two, there is, seemingly, another member of the Dead Pubs’ Society. Some commentators have suggested that the Conqueror is named after William I of that soubriquet but judging from the sign I would be more inclined towards Oliver Cromwell.

Continuing along Austin Street brings us out onto the bottom end of Hackney Road again and a left turn takes us round the corner to the entrance to St Leonards Church. This will of course be familiar to all fans of one of the best sitcoms of recent years, Rev (starring Tom Hollander and Olivia Colman). St Leonard is the patron saint of prisoners and the mentally ill and there is evidence of a church on this site since Anglo-Saxon times though that was demolished by the Normans who built their own replacement. It was the Norman church which became known as the actors’ church. Many of the Elizabethan theatrical fraternity are buried in the remains under the current crypt. This includes three Burbages, James who built the first English theatre (again more of that later), his son Cuthbert who built the Globe theatre and his other son Richard who was the first to play Macbeth, Hamlet, Richard 3^rd, Othello and especially Romeo. These associations are commemorated in a stone memorial on a wall inside the present-day church which dates from around 1740. The splendid organ was built by Richard Bridge in 1756 and is one of the few surviving examples of a tracker organ without pedals.

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The somewhat macabre monument in white marble with two grinning skeletons tearing into the “tree of life” is in memoriam of one Elizabeth Benson, died 1710, and is the work of Wren’s favourite sculptor, Francis Bird. The final part of the Latin inscription roughly translates as “hale and hearty and regardless of old age she accidentally tripped and fell, alas, at the age of 90 ; and the stem of life was not gently withdrawn but torn asunder.”

There is a very timely exhibition on inside the church at the moment which runs until June 2016. Entitled Development Hell this shines a light on the on-going planning battles concerning a number of areas adjacent to the City of London and Boris Johnson’s role in greenlighting a number of controversial schemes.

Across the road on Shoreditch High Street are a number of fine Victorian buildings including Wells & Company Commercial Ironworks built in 1877 but only retaining its industrial function until 1895.

Back on the east side adjacent to the church (at no 118 and 1/2) is the Clerk’s House. This dates from 1735 and so is a couple of years older than the church itself. Current occupancy is by a fashion boutique.

On the corner with Calvert Avenue you’ll find Syd’s Coffee Stall. Named after its first proprietor, Sydney Edward Tothill, who set up the business just after the First World War financed with his invalidity pension. The stall’s not open today as it’s a Bank Holiday but this is more than compensated by the resplendent blossom on the tree behind.

Calvert Avenue links back with Virginia Road and then Hocker Street returns us to Arnold Circus with its bandstand and gardens which sits as the hub in the wheel of the Boundary Estate. Cited as the world’s oldest social housing project, Boundary Estate was developed between 1890 and 1900 on the site of the Old Nichol Rookery slum. The redbrick tenements are all now Grade II listed and although around of the 500-odd flats are now in private hands the rest are still under the control of Tower Hamlets council. The separate tenement buildings are all named after towns or villages on the River Thames such as Sunbury, Chertsey & Hurley.

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Leave the circus this time via the 4 o’clock spoke which is Rochelle Street and then head south back toward the Bethnal Green Road down Montclair Street. This bit of Shoreditch is the home of (mostly) officially sanctioned graffiti art and, regardless of whether or not you consider these to be sanitised hipster versions of the original ‘street’ art form, they undoubtedly make for an arresting sight.

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So the above examples can all be found on the route back up to Arnold Circus that takes in Turville Street, Redchurch Street, Whitby Street, Chance Street and Camlet Street. This route also includes another turn down Club Row where we pass this singular three-dimensional piece by the artist, Cityzen Kane, which takes inspiration from African art and the late eighties rave scene.

Finishing off this section to the east of Shoreditch High Street we visit Navarre Street, Ligonier Street, Old Nichol Street, another stretch of Boundary Street, Redchurch Street again and finally Ebor Street. And here’s another selection of graffiti art encountered along the way – taking us from Marvel’s Avengers to Winston Churchill via the Cycle of Futility.

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Back on Shoreditch High Street we cross over by the old garage which is now home to a pop-up food festival (says it all really) and head south to the junction with Great Eastern Street.

Right on that junction (and purportedly still open for business appearances to the contrary) is Chariots Roman Spa – self proclaimed as England’s biggest at best men’s health spa. Which makes you hope that you never find yourself in the worst.

The graffiti is a little bit more anarchic in the enclave between Curtain Road and Shoreditch High Street which is crossed initially by Fairchild Street and Holywell Lane. The latter is also home to music venue, Village Underground, which sits beneath the railway arches. Have only been here once and wouldn’t rate it as one of my favourite concert venues mainly because the auditorium is far too narrow.

Next up is King John Court which adjoins with New Inn Yard at its north end. This is reliably believed to be the site of the first permanent theatre built in England (as mentioned earlier) courtesy of James Burbage. Known simply as The Theatre it opened in 1576. Some of Shakespeare’s early works were performed here as well as plays by Marlowe and Thomas Kyd. From 1594 it was home to the famous players known as the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (after their patron Henry Carey who fulfilled that office at the time). However the theatre only lasted for four further years until after a series of disputes between the Burbages, Shakespeare and the Lord Chamberlain’s Men the former had the playhouse taken down and rebuilt as the first Globe Theatre across the river. All of this is, I think it is fair to say, commemorated in a somewhat low-key style.

Northward on New Inn Street takes us past the back entrance to the old Curtain Road primary school.

Then it’s on to Bateman’s Row where there is a sign of encouragement (but not perhaps genuine insight).

South on Anning Street then back up along Shoreditch High Street past French Place to get to Rivington Street, which is the final call for today. This is the location for a couple of Shoreditch institutions; after-hours club Cargo and the Rivington Place Gallery. The former no longer at the cutting edge of club culture by all accounts. The latter we shall return to on another visit.

And once again that’s all folks !

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