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Dark Side of the City Guided Walk: Fridays

Crime and punishment

Are you ready to learn about London’s grim and gruesome past? Then join us on a tour that tells the tale of crime and punishment, executions and excess. 

Our tour starts south of the sedate St Paul’s Cathedral but did you know its churchyard was once a place for book burning, fiery sermons and hanging, drawing and quartering? On your walk, which takes about 1hr, 45 minutes, you’ll learn about:

  • Paul’s Churchyard, the medieval equivalent of Twitter
  • Paternoster Square and Temple Bar, where people were pilloried
  • The City of London Police: did you know they’re Olympic champions?!
  • Postman’s Park: a place for heroic self-sacrifice and many a sad tale
  • Greyfriars Church: a ruinous church, haunted by a wicked queen
  • Old Bailey: the former Newgate Gaol and a place for public executions - and a daring escapee
  • Smithfield: where martyrs were executed, by burning at the stake - even boiled alive - watched over, it is said, by a sadistic queen
  • Bartholomew Fair: a raucous festival the Victorians finally banned
  • Charterhouse: a peaceful part of London but where death lies underneath.

Please note: children must be accompanied by an adult at all times.

BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE

Photos: courtesy of Niki Gorick

Download a copy of our guided walks leaflet here

We offer daily, weekly and monthly walks around the City of London 

Our daily walks run from the City Information Centre, just south of St Paul's. You need to book via Eventbrite to secure you place. Note: the cut-off time for booking our daily walks is 21:00hrs the night before. If we don't have any bookings then the walk will not take place 

Our weekly walks have individual booking pages and earlier cut off times, please see the individual listing.  

New: guided tour of the 'Old Bailey' on Saturdays, starting in May

New: limited edition walk on Wednesday evenings, for May only: the real story of Dick Whittington 

Some of our walks offer concession rates: valid for over 65s and students. 

All Eventbrite bookings have a booking fee.

Private tours

If you'd like to organise your own walk, lecture or a virtual tour, then please use our Find a Guide section. If you're a member of an Arts Society or a U3A or other group we'd love to take you on a tour of the City. And if you're a company based in the City who'd like to organise a social event for your work colleagues, why not book walk with us? 

If you've been on a walk recently we'd love to hear from you. Why not leave a review on our TripAdvisor page?

Note: We try to make our walks as inclusive and accessible as possible

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