Discover Official Walks & Talks

Stories of Fleet Street Guided Walk: Wednesdays

Printing, pubs and Pepys

Called the Street of Shame, there’s more to this road between the City of London and the City of Westminster than its newspaper heritage. Follow the trail left by monks and monarchs, press barons and literary giants along the highway and down its twisting alleyways.

On this literary walk you'll:

  • Walk along narrow lanes south of St Paul’s Cathedral, learn about the important Blackfriars’ Monastery and come across a 17th century livery hall
  • Hear stories about Bridewell Palace and Hospital and the infamous Fleet Prison
  • See a plaque to the renowned writer Edgar Wallace
  • Admire the spire of St Bride’s Church, the inspiration for wedding cakes
  • Learn about the dominance of the newspaper barons and compare the architecture of the impressive Daily Express and Daily Telegraph buildings
  • Meet Samuel Pepys, whose famous diary has left us with a unique insight into 17th century life, and Samuel Johnson - and his cat Hodge!
  • Discover another hidden place of worship, the Whitefriars Priory
  • Find out all about the infamous Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

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

BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE

Photos: courtesy of Niki Gorick 

 

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