Walking the City of London Churches ep.3 – Fleet Street 

The incredible stories of Fleet Street

Fleet Street walking tour – one of the most famous streets in London. This continues the series on the Churches of the City of London.

Our walk starts in Clement’s Lane passing through the grounds of the London School of Economics and behind the Royal Courts of Justice. We then visit St Clement Danes Church and look for the medieval holy well. After looking at the statue of Samuel Johnson we go to Temple Bar the ancient western gate of the City of London. From here we visit St Dunstan-in-the-West with its statues of Gog and Magog and recount of the story of Brutus of Troy, Albina founding Britain and Corineus defeating the giant Gogmagog in Battle leading to Brutus becoming the first king of Britain and founding London. We also talk about the 14th Century statues of King Lud and his sons in the porch of the church. We continue along Fleet Street and go into Inner Temple and visit Temple Church, Middle Temple Hall and Fountain Court before going along Whitefriars Street to St Bride’s Church with its fantastic spire designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Our walk ends by looking for the site of Bridewell Palace first built by Henry III.

Filmed December 2021

London Christmas Lights Walk

You can’t have it all your own way. Wednesday evening I joined the end of a very long queue outside St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield that stretched all the way down Cloth Fair, hoping to see the Dickens Christmas Carol performance. A nice lady told us that around 150 people were queuing for just two seats and it might be best to give up rather than wait in the rain.
However, on Sunday I did a fantastic walk with my sister exploring the Central London Christmas lights. We started at the Tudor Middle Temple Hall with its wonderful display of Christmas trees outside the 16th century hall, which I think is the most Christmassy place in the whole of London. And there wasn’t a soul around. We strolled past Temple Church with its solitary tree then moved on to Somerset House Ice Rink with the whole scene looking quite majestic and vaguely 19th Century Imperial. We stood on the piazza at Aldwych and admired the lights of the Strand, before heading up to the beautiful chaos of Covent Garden where street performers terrified children beneath enormous decorative bells. Seven Dials was a suspended flying carpet of illuminations.

London Christmas Lights at Middle Temple Hall
London Christmas Lights at Seven Dials in Covent Garden

Henry Pordes bookshop in Charing Cross Road won the award for charm over bombast. Leicester Square was surprising beguiling, Regent Street St James’s had a subtle enchantment. We marvelled at the incredible display at Fortnum and Mason on Piccadilly and were intoxicated by the gated glimpse of Burlington Arcade and Piccadilly Arcade. The final leg of our Christmas Lights tour took us along Old Bond Street where Cartier wowed the crowds, New Bond Street with Dior. We had to take a rest in the Masons Arms where a couple of pints reset our concept of reality. Finally we did the classics – Regent Street, and ending appropriately on Oxford Street.