The brilliant morning sunshine was calling me out to the London fringe. This urge is best answered with a return to the London Loop. I started my circuit of London’s 150-mile orbital walking trail in January 2018 when feeling just such a push, with no intention of walking the whole thing. Hence I started with Section 17 from Enfield to Cockfosters, walking in the opposite direction to the TFL maps. And I’ve been chipping away at it ever since. My last foray onto the London Loop had been a year ago more or less, I obviously didn’t want my quest to end, but 2025 seemed like the right year to finally close the Loop.
Section 1 must be the most dramatic section of the London Loop. From the roadside of the A2, to the River Cray, the Crayford Creek Road industrial zone. The Dartford Creek in the sunset was stunning, QEII bridge arching away into the distance. The wind turbines, the reflective water, the flood barrier, then the path beside Erith marshes in the dusk. A large boat chugged along the Thames. As I entered Erith town centre in the dark I was starting to feel like a new person even though nothing had actually changed. That is the power of the London Loop.
The iconic Red Lion Leytonstone has re-opened under the ownership of Urban Pubs & Bars with an impressive refurbishment. Purchased from Antic in September 2024, who had recovered the Red Lion from its time as a South African themed pub called Zulus (I avoided the place during this period), Urban have added the Red Lion to their portfolio of 52 London pubs which also includes the recently acquired George & Dragon Wanstead.
There’s been an inn called the Red Lion, or Red Lyon, on the site since the 1670s. The image above shows the pub in the early 19th Century. The current building dates from 1870.
To be honest, I was a touch concerned about what Urban would do to my beloved Red Lion based on a brief visit to the George & Dragon at Wanstead (I really need to go back for a proper look). But all my fears were assuaged, and the reported £1 million refurb is absolutely spot on. They’ve retained what made the main section of the pub work well but improved the seating, particularly around the perimeter of the room. There are ample screens showing live sport. The bar looks really impressive.
But the highlight has to be what they’ve done with the garden and the old ‘stables’ bar, which is truly impressive. Gone is the old dirt floor with scattered picnic tables, replaced by heated booths, a covered area, and screens. The back room ‘stable’ is a comfortable bar with screens for live sport. It was also great to see the staff so happy in the new place.
I’ve yet to see the new ballroom upstairs, host to many legendary gigs in the 60s and 70s, but I’m told it matches the standard of the other areas of the pub. We had a roast at the weekend which was decent, although I wouldn’t say was an improvement on the old Antic Red Lion and the roast at the Leytonstone Tavern is better (I recently had an incredible roast at The Queens, Crouch End for around the same price so that’s become the comparison).
After all this praise I have one small gripe. There’s a distinct lack of cask ale. So far there’s only been one cask ale on tap on my recent visits and that has run out on one occasion and on Saturday there was no cask at all. Keg beers (IPAs, lagers etc) come in at over £7+ a pint which is a bit steep for Leytonstone I feel, £5.50 a pint for cask is acceptable. But it’s following a local trend where some of the businesses are charging central London prices (local coffee shops are often more expensive than similar central London establishments). We don’t want to see the diverse range of locals that use the Red Lion priced out of this brilliant boozer.
I sit at a table at the very back of my local Spoons. I have my notebook, the latest copy of London Archaeologist and Virginia Woolf’sA Room of One’s Own. I check the football results on my phone and scroll the Apple News feed. I actually feel a bit rough and have spent the day in bed but I often use the pub as therapy – both physical and psychological. I’m trying not to get annoyed by the couple at the next table playing clips of awful Euro techno on their phones but shoot them a few glares. They stop for all of five minutes before carrying on. This is a lesson in acceptance. I try to place their language but fail which often means it’s either Portuguese or Hungarian. Then I embrace the cacophony that had broken out around me, a phone call through the speaker, someone’s playing games, a fella is spinning yarns stood over a table, music through phone speaker. I can’t even see what I’m typing anymore on the blogging app. I haven’t even listened back to the recording but it’s of the here and now.
This is a throwback to the early days of this blog when I would post photos from a booth from the Spoons on Farringdon Road 2004-05 excited by the possibilities that this new medium offered.
Starting in Old Broad Street we go looking for the Dutch Church in Austin Friars where Vincent Van Gogh Worshipped. We then go along Throgmorton Street and admire the exterior of Drapers’ Hall and Throgmorton Avenue. We emerge behind the Bank of England and get drawn into Tokenhouse Yard, Telegraph Street, Whalebone Yard and King’s Arms Yard. Then we go inside the magnificent St. Margaret Lothbury with its fascinating relics from other City of London Churches and its association with five City Livery Companies.
A walk through the City of London visiting some of the city’s most historic churches. Including All Hallow on the Wall, St Botolph Aldgate, St Katherine Cree, All Hallows Staining, St Olave’s Hart Street, and All Hallows by the Tower. We explore the rich history and beguiling architecture of these sacred spaces. Along the way, we’ll learn some of the fascinating stories behind these churches and discover hidden gems. Continuing the series of walking tours around the churches and ancient historic sites of the City of London we start at Bishopsgate outside Liverpool Street Station. Our route takes to All Hallows on London Wall and then we walk down Houndsditch which was once a deep ditch outside the Roman Wall. This leads us to St Botolph Aldgate where the City meets the East End. From here we walk along Aldgate High Street to Leadenhall Street and the church of St Katherine Cree with its stone Tudor tower. Crossing to Mark Lane we visit the tower of All Hallows Staining and then on to St Olave Hart street where I was fortunate to catch the end of the Sunday service. The final church on our walking tour is All Hallows by the Tower with its magnificent crypt containing a section of Roman tesserae and Anglo-Saxon stone work from a previous church on the site beside the Tower of London.
A London walk through some of the most historic locations in the City of London
We’re back to unpick more of the City of London’s stories and discover some of its treasures. This classic London history walk includes some of the City’s most important locations as well as its centres of power. We start by going in search of a plaque marking the site of Shakespeare’s lodgings in London and this leads us to the site of St Mary Aldermanbury and the garden that marks the location of this church that was destroyed in the blitz. We next visit St Alban, Wood Street, the lonely tower all that remains of the Wren Church built after the great fire on a site that has had a church since at least the 10th Century. We cross London Wall, visit the location of St Olaf Silver Street, the Roman Wall in Noble Street, and the site of St Mary Staining. Our walking tour then takes us to the magnificent Guildhall, home of the Corporation of London, and ‘an enduring symbol of London’s past and present’. In the basement of the Guildhall Gallery I visit the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre that once occupied the site and was said to have a capacity of 6000. Moving on to Lothbury we visit the Bank of England, the first privately owned Central Bank and also the Royal Exchange and the Mansion House all situated around Bank Tube Station.
Our walking tour starts at St Andrew Holborn before we follow Shoe Lane to Farringdon Road and Ludgate Hill where we visit St Martin Ludgate. Our next church is St Andrew by-the-Wardrobe. Crossing Queen Victoria Street we find St Benet Church. Our walk ends with what I believe to be one of the most special places in the City of London – St Swithun’s Church Garden which contains the Catrin Glyndwr memorial.
Filmed March 2022
Part of my ongoing series of walks around the Churches of the City of London
