The Heart of the City

Nitty gritty first, mood music second…  Iconic City buildings – the Gherkin, the Cheesegrater, Lloyds. London a world centre for business, finance, insurance, shipping – now, and across the centuries. Where to insure your voice, your hands, your next Space Mission. The secrets of the nation’s gold – and perhaps yours too? Churches where Londoners have worshipped for centuries. A1 walk. (Yes, we’ll explain what that means. Lots of takeaway nuggets on this walk, one of which is getting you au fait with City of London lingo.)

Meet your guide. Click here for Ann’s podcast. (Think of the walk as the Command Module; Ann’s podcast is the Lunar Module.)

Ok, mood music time: London. 2,000 years old. Higgledy-piggledy. History haunted. Secretive in the extreme. A labyrinth where the past lurks in the present. Aggressively modern when you look up. A tear in space-time when you peer round this corner or go down that alley. A city that preserves features – like so many geological strata – of its earlier selves. A city that’s not easy to figure out – you don’t reap London in one traverse. Why bother? you ask. Here’s why: 1) London’s of world-historical importance and 2) depths, intricacies and secrets are always interesting. Bottom line: this is a great walk. It’s the London labyrinth and London highlights and the shaping past. You’ll see both the hoary old City and today’s London. Best of all, you’ll see into them. N.B. the walk ends in Guildhall Yard, a very short walk from St. Paul’s Tube Stop.

LONDON WALKS PRACTICALS

The Heart of the City walk takes place every Saturday at 2 pm. The meeting point is just outside the exit of Tower Hill Tube (meet by the “Tower Hill Tram” coffee stall).

“WHAT WILL I SEE?” “WHAT WILL BE PARADED BEFORE US?”

Here’s a baker’s dozen, a sampling. Important thing to remember is it’s just a sneak peek. There’s lots more than this.

1. a dense network of small streets and alleys weaving between the main thoroughfares

2. Victorian palazzi, a streetscape “as peaceful as an Italian town at siesta time”

3. an unfurling panorama that demonstrates perfectly why, in the words of one historian of city planning, “the compactness of a 2000-year-old urban core is fortuitously well suited to the operation of a globalised financial service centre.”

4. one of the few City churches to survive the Great Fire

5. a hilltop in whose “stony soil lie some of the oldest bits of London”

6. the oldest arch in the City of London

7. the building that changed public perception of tall buildings in London

8. the first of the City’s railway termini (and its “air-rights” development)

9. London’s boldest piece of architectural art (properly integrated into the project rather than a pointless add-on)

10. “a welcome restatement of the City tradition of lanes and alleys

11. a cesspit “impregnated with putrid animal and excrementitious matter”

12. there’s seeing these buildings and “seeing” them. You “see” them when you understand the relationship they achieve with their neighbours. That’s another takeaway this walk serves up

13. this place: “even today one can sense the impact this structure must have had when new, towering over the mean timber houses of the city”

And that’s just for starters, a taster…

It’s the Sky Garden. Perfect “fit” with this walk. Après walk. Free to go up. But you have to book.

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE GUIDING

Don’t just take it from us. Take a deep draught of the reviews. The posters are just the tip of the iceberg. Rave review after rave review.

LONDON WALKS PRIVATE WALKS

If you can’t make one of the regularly scheduled, just-turn-up, The Heart of the City it can always be booked as a private tour. If you go private you can have the The Heart of the City walk – 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 Mary on 020 7624 3978 or email us at [email protected] 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.

GIVE THE GIFT OF LONDON WALKS

A private London Walk makes a fab gift – be it a birthday or anniversary or Christmas present or whatever. Merchandise schmerchandise (gift wrapped or not) – but giving someone an experience, now that’s special. Memories make us rich.

LONDON WALKS – STREETS AHEAD!

Don’t just take it from us.

OTHER TOURS YOU MAY LIKE

• Day trips from London
• Undiscovered London
• Ghost Walks
• Jack the Ripper walking tour