Chancery Lane underground station, London (exit 3)
Guided by Andrew
Please note
Booking is recommended. It guarantees you a place and it helps us keep the group sizes small. You still can just turn up and go – spur of the moment – but it’s better if you reserve your place. Select your date and time on the table below.
| Day | Walk Type | Start Time | End Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 May 2021 | Special | 2 pm | 4 pm | Summer | Reserve Online |
| 3 June 2021 | Special | 6 pm | 8 pm | Summer | Reserve Online |
Short read: Tracing the footsteps of C.J Sansom’s dogged, melancholy ‘hero’ Matthew Shardlake and his ‘side kick’ Barak through the streets of Tudor London from Staple Inn in Holborn to Bucklesbury.
Strike while the iron’s hot read: click here to guarantee your place (group size limited to 14)
Podcast listen: Shardlake’s London with a bonus – Andy got a bunch of his London Walkers to give their favourite London book recommendation.
Longer read: Fan of Tudor London? Look no further, ‘The sights, the voices, the very smell of this turbulent age’ are raised from the page and into the genuine article. We begin at Staples Inn, a beautifully restored Tudor façade a stone’s throw from Shardlake’s fictional home in Chancery Lane. We then visit his Chambers by way of medieval streets and alleyways so wonderfully and memorably evoked you can almost taste them – the “high square towers of the Great Gate” still stand and barristers still “stride purposefully about the precincts” of Lincolns Inn. The Rolls office where Shardlake meets Thomas Cromwell in Revelation. Barak’s home at the Old Barge in Bucklebury and Guy of Malton’s apothecary’s shop near Budge Row. The Shambles, Bladder Street, The Pope’s Head Tavern, Grey Friars, Old Medieval Guild Hall, the ‘Hole’ at Newgate Prison, Stationers Hall, Paternoster Row and St Paul’s – we re-discover those ‘lost’ streets like a Tudor Rebus cutting through ‘the religious and political chaos of the 1540s with sinister élan’. And finally, we end at THE end for Anne Askew, burnt alive in Smithfield by The Priory Church of St Bartholomew’s so vividly and horribly portrayed in Lamentation. Anyone for a stiff drink? Thought so. I have a recommendation Barak himself would enjoy.
In the Footsteps of `Matthew Shardlake takes place at 2 pm on Tuesday, November 17.
The meeting point is just outside exit 3 of Chancery Lane Tube.
“award-winning London Walks are unrivaled for quality and range” American in Britain Magazine
“the best London has to offer” Culture Trip
“by far the most impressive series of walks that I have ever encountered are those offered by London Walks” Travel and Enjoy
If you can’t make the regularly scheduled, just-turn-up, public In the Footsteps of Matthew Shardlake walk do think about booking one as a private tour. If you go private you can have In the Footsteps of Matthew Shardlake – or any other London Walk – on a day and at a time that suits your convenience. We’ll tailor it to your requirements. Ring Fiona or Noel or Mary on 020 7624 3978 or email us at privatewalks@walks.com and we’ll set it up and make it happen for you. A private London Walk – they’re good value for an individual or couple and sensational value for a group – makes an ideal group or educational or birthday party or office (team-building) or club outing.
A private London Walk makes a very special, thoughtful and unusual gift. Be it a birthday or anniversary or graduation or Christmas present or whatever. Merchandise schmerchandise (gift wrapped or not) – but giving someone an experience, now that’s special. Memories make us rich.
