in Focus – Cheapside

St. Paul's underground station, London (exit 2)

Guided by Simon W.

Streets Ahead! More trail blazing by the best urban walking tour guides on the planet. In Focus walks are an extremely detailed look – "what I love about London Walks is the degree of granularity you get" (as that American visitor memorably put it) – at the most famous streets and squares of London. And their tributaries. Today's In Focus walk explores Cheapside – the High Street of the City of London. The Cheapside In Focus walk has been created and is curated (guided) by actor and award-winning Blue Badge guide Simon W. 

Soupçon anyone? Cheapside's been the City of London's main shopping street for the past millennium. Takes its name from 'chepe,' a Saxon word for a market. It's alignment was dictated by a convenient bridging point across the River Walbrook. St. Mary-le-Bow stood here by 1091. (For the foundations of the famous tower of his St. Mary-le-Bow Wren used the Roman gravel roadway.) Quaint shopfronts from the 18th and 19th centuries can still be found – if you know where to look. There were the stocks. Fountains. Tournaments. Goldsmiths. (Shopping and sport and Goldsmiths – it sounds like the Mall of America and U.S. Bank Stadium. Plus change…) Finally, it has some of the best literary connections in London: More, Donne, Milton, Wordsworth, Dickens… well, you get the idea.