in Focus – Cheapside

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

Guided by Simon W.

Adult: £20 · Students & Seniors: £15 · Children: £5

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.