City of London walk 2

AN INTRODUCTION TO CHEAPSIDE

Cheapside had been the City’s main shopping street since the 12th century. ‘Cheap’ comes from the old English word ‘chepe’, meaning to barter, or a market where goods could be bartered for. Indeed, the names of several of the streets that lead off Cheapside come from the goods that were once sold here – Poultry, Bread Street, Milk Street, Honey Lane, Wood Street, Goldsmith Street, etc.

Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, Cheapside was rebuilt, and the market traders were moved to more permanent premises. Further changes took place after World War II when bombing had destroyed over half of its buildings. Over the past few years, the street has once again become the City of London’s main shopping street.

Since medieval times, Cheapside has also been part of the main ceremonial route from the Tower of London to Westminster and it’s still used today for events such as Royal coronations, funerals, processions and the Lord Mayor’s Show. The latter was something that started in 1215 and still takes place on the second Saturday of November. The Lord Mayor travels with the procession, which terminates just outside the City at the Royal Courts of Justice, where having been blessed at St Paul’s Cathedral, he swears an oath of allegiance to the Crown.

Charles Dickens’ son wrote about Cheapside in his 1879 Dictionary of London: “Cheapside remains now what it was five centuries ago, the greatest thoroughfare in the City of London. Other localities have had their day, have risen, become fashionable and have sunk into obscurity and neglect, but Cheapside has maintained its place and may boast of being the busiest thoroughfare in the world, with the sole exception perhaps of London-bridge.”

STARTING THE WALK

Walk down Cheapside on the left-hand side; on the right you’ll see the huge One New Change shopping centre that opened in 2010. It’s the largest shopping centre in the City of London and includes interesting roof terraces which, besides having a restaurant and bar, both with outdoor seating, offers public areas with an unusual view of St Paul’s Cathedral.

On the left side of the road is Wood Street; notice the ‘Cards Galore’ shop on the corner. It occupies one of the last remaining old buildings in Cheapside and is also a rare example of the two-storey buildings that were given permission to be built following the Great Fire of London in 1666. Just a few yards up Wood Street, virtually next to the shop, you’ll see a tiny ‘garden’ that now occupies what was once the churchyard of ‘St Peter Cheap’. The church had been built in 1196 but destroyed in the Great Fire of London and never rebuilt. It was in this churchyard that in 1791, William Wordsworth once stood and listened to a bird singing in the tree (I doubt it’s the tree that’s still there today!) Here he wrote the poem entitled ‘The Reverie of Poor Susan’, telling the story of the memories awakened in a country girl in London on hearing a thrush sing in the early morning. The first verse is as follows, but I have put the whole of the poem in the appendix.

Continue down Bow Lane, turning left when you reach the junction with Watling Street – (look to the right when you get there as there’s a lovely view of St Paul’s). On the opposite corner of Watling Street and Bow Lane is a pub called Ye Olde Watling. It is said to have been built by Sir Christopher Wren, using planks of brine-pickled timber from dismantled ships, to provide accommodation for the workers rebuilding St Paul’s Cathedral following the Great Fire of London.

Back outside the church you pass a sculpture that was created in honour of the cordwainer. So what is a cordwainer? Well, the word is an anglicisation of the French word ‘cordonnier’, which means shoemaker. It was introduced to England after the Norman invasion in 1066. However, it didn’t apply to an ordinary shoemaker, but only to a highly skilled craftsman who would have used the finest goatskin leather from Cordoba in southern Spain to make the finest shoes. The cordwainers’ roots in the City go back to 1272, and then in 1439 they were issued their royal charter, which enabled them to control the entire shoe trade within the City of London.

And the difference between a cordwainer and a cobbler? The latter weren’t allowed to make new shoes – just repair them. And the Cordwainers are the only historic trade body to have a ward (a district) of the City of London named after them, which is where you are now.

Back to the walk. Cross over Queen Victoria Street and walk down the pedestrianised Bucklersbury, between the enormous Bloomberg building on the right and the totally different, tiny by comparison and lovely Victorian Number 1 Queen Victoria Street, which is the City of London Magistrates Court.

The Bloomberg building opened in 2017 and is the European headquarters of the giant American company of that name. It’s quite a staggering building, both in size (over 4,000 employees work here) and in its ‘sustainability’ – rainwater collected on the roof is used to flush the toilets for example. However, it was criticised for its ‘wasteful construction’. Apparently, 600 tons of Japanese bronze and 10,000 tons of Indian granite were used, all of which were obviously imported. And the interesting water feature in front of the building is meant to ‘evoke the Walbrook River’, which once flowed close by here.

From the top of Mansion House Place, we’re going to cross over Bank Junction, where eight streets meet – but before we do, I’ll just explain what the buildings are that you can see from here, in case you aren’t familiar with the area.

Straight across in front of you is the imposing Bank of England on Threadneedle Street. To the immediate right of it, between Threadneedle Street and Cornhill, is the unmissable frontage of the Royal Exchange, which we are going to visit next. Finally, the road branching off on your immediate right is Lombard Street. I’ll say more about what’s on the left side in a moment.

So, cross over Lombard Street and then Cornhill to the little plaza in front of the Royal Exchange. The statue in the middle of Cornhill is a memorial to James Henry Greathead, the civil engineer. He took Marc Brunel’s invention of the movable tunnelling shield, which he had used to build the first tunnel under the Thames and adapted it to build London’s underground network. And the plinth on which the statue stands cleverly disguises a ventilation shaft for the underground line beneath it.

Standing on the little triangular island front of the Royal Exchange, time for another brief orientation. If you look back across Bank Junction, you get a good view of the Mansion House. To the right of it is the modern pink and cream distinctively shaped Number One Poultry that we saw earlier. To the right of that, on the triangular corner between Poultry and Prince’s Street, is NatWest’s City of London office.

Finally, alongside on your right, is of course the imposing and rather forbidding Bank of England building.

The Bank of England was established in 1694 and is the second oldest bank in the world. It’s been on this same site since 1734, though much of the original building was demolished during renovation and extensions in the 1920s. Britain’s gold reserves – and those of thirty other countries – are stored in vaults deep underneath. There are said to be around 400,000 bars.

You can’t visit the Bank itself, but you can visit its small museum which situated in the adjacent Bartholomew Lane. Admission is free and it’s open Monday to Fridays.

I have put more information about the Bank of England in the appendix.

At the end of the road, turn to the right down Cornhill – and still on the water theme, notice the old pump with a sign on it dated 1755. On the other side there is more information explaining that a well was first dug here in 1282.

Turn to the right, then cross over Cornhill and walk down for just a few yards before turning left up Change Alley (it’s just to the right-hand side of the Pitcher and Piano pub, which was once the offices of the Scottish Widows Life Assurance).

This was once a very important part of the City, although it was badly damaged by bombs in the Second World War and so a lot of odd rebuilding has taken place since.

After just twenty yards along Change Alley we turn right at the little ‘cross lanes’ and follow the passage around to where it emerges into Lombard Street.

Opposite you, on the other side of Lombard Street, you’ll see a Sainsbury’s Local and a plaque on its wall explains that from 1691 until 1785 this was the site of Lloyd’s Coffee House.

Lloyd’s Coffee House was the forerunner of the world-famous Lloyd’s of London, an extremely important meeting place for merchants, ship owners as well as sailors. News and information about shipping would be exchanged here and deals struck. Edward Lloyd had a pulpit installed from which maritime auction prices would be announced, and he also began publishing a newspaper containing shipping news and information about shipping insurance. In 1774, merchants who had begun to specialise in insurance, moved to the Royal Exchange that we visited just now.

Turn left up Lombard Street and just a few yards along notice the iron sign hanging above you. In case you aren’t sure, it’s a grasshopper and was the emblem of Thomas Gresham, one of the City of London’s most illustrious citizens, a trusted confidant of Elizabeth I, several times Lord Mayor, successful businessman and generous benefactor. This was both his home and in 1563, became the site of his newly formed Martin’s Bank. It only closed when the bank was sold to Barclays in the 1960s.

Continue on for seventy-five yards or so then turn left into Birchin Lane.

Halfway along, where the sandwich shop protrudes into the lane, turn right into the very narrow Bengal Court (though before you do notice the sign on the wall that commemorates a Royal Naval officer who was killed here in 1944 whilst trying to prevent a robbery on a jewellery shop.)

When you reach the little modern square, turn immediately to the left, passing the George & Vulture Pub and then after a few yards you reach the ‘cross lanes’. (The famous Simpson’s Tavern is a few yards down the lane on your left.)

In front of you is the Grade II listed Jamaica Wine House, which opened in 1652. Although it’s been refurbished and – despite its name – it is now more of a pub than a wine bar. The interior has been well-preserved, with several small rooms and plenty of dark wood panelling. Worth a quick look inside if you have time.

The Jamaica Wine House was the first of the famous London coffee houses. The wall plaque says it was ‘at the sign of the Pasqual Rosée’s Head’. It was known locally as the Turk’s Head, probably because Pasqual Rosée, who had set it up, was helped in doing so by a gentleman who traded in Turkish goods and imported their coffee. In the 17th and 18th century, coffee houses were public social places where men would meet for conversation, learn the news of the day and carry out commercial dealings. The diarist Samuel Pepys was one of its early regular customers.

At the little ‘junction of the lanes’ turn right, passing along the front of the Jamaica Wine Bar and the St Michael’s churchyard next to it. Directly ahead are a pair of double wooden doors with a sign to their right that says, ‘No. 7 St Michael’s Alley’. If the doors are open, then walk inside – it’s the rear entrance to a remarkable Wetherspoon’s pub called The Crosse Keys.

Leave the pub by the way you went in and walk straight ahead of you.

Note though … If you didn’t go inside the pub, then simply turn to the right out of Corbett Court, and walk down St Peter’s Alley – but make sure you now have St Peter’s churchyard on your left.

Notice the raised graves in the churchyard; this was once the burial ground for the parishioners of St Peter’s Church and Charles Dickens refers to it in ‘Our Mutual Friend’, saying how the graves were “conveniently and healthily elevated above the living”. The church was said to have been founded by King Lucius in AD 179, destroyed in the Great Fire and then like so many others in the City, rebuilt by Wren. It’s now used as a study centre to train men and women for the ministry

And when you reach the bottom of St Peter’s Alley, notice on your left the shop called Ede & Ravenscroft, ‘robemakers and tailors’, who have been in business here since 1689.

You are now in Gracechurch Street – and directly opposite is the entrance into the delightful Leadenhall Market, where we head next. The market has been wonderfully preserved with the beautifully restored shop fronts and glass roofed rotunda and I find it fascinating. Whilst I have put some information here, I have written a little more for the appendix.

It’s bustling during weekday lunchtimes and in the early evenings when hundreds of office workers flock here for a bite to eat or an after-work drink. Particularly popular is the cheese shop and bar, whilst next door to it is Viandas – one of my personal favourites. They sell excellent Spanish hams and wines. Until recently a couple of doors down, was a pen shop, with fountain pens costing hundreds or even thousands of pounds, but sadly, and I suppose not surprisingly, it has recently closed. Opposite, there’s a shop selling fine wines, whilst on the corner is a ….err, a Pizza Express! But at least its shop front is in keeping with its historic surroundings.

When you reach the central rotunda, continue walking ahead, passing the Lamb Tavern (which was founded in 1780) on the left and on your right the Reiss fashion shop.

This takes you into Leadenhall Place.

Continue past the Lloyd’s Building and at the bottom, turn left into Lime Street. But as you do, look to the right and in the background, you can see the enormous 39-floor 600 feet high skyscraper that’s been nicknamed the ‘Walkie Talkie’. Looking at its shape, you can see why it got that name, though its official (and boring name) is 20 Leadenhall Street. And I’ll just mention here that on its roof is the Sky Garden – definitely worth a visit sometime – check their website for details of how and when you can visit.

Further down Lime Street, you can’t miss the new 28-storey office block Willis Building (named after its major tenant), which was designed by Sir Norman Foster. To the left is the front aspect of Lloyd’s – if you look down to the lower level, you’ll see the Lloyd’s gift shop – some nice items for sale but generally rather expensive.

The very new building on the right at the bottom of Lime Street is known as ‘The Scalpel’, though its official (and once again boring) name is 52 Lime Street. The reason for its unusual design was simply that the planners wanted to reduce its impact on the view of St Paul’s Cathedral from Fleet Street.

Leadenhall Street runs from left to right and just pause for a minute or two here to take it all in – so much development has happened over the past couple of years – and is still happening. It’s quite a breath-taking scene, to me more reminiscent of Manhattan than London.

If you look to the left, on the other side of Leadenhall Street, you can’t miss the dramatic looking skyscraper ‘on legs’ with an open plaza in front. Again, nobody seems to bother with its official name of the ‘Leadenhall Building’ or ‘122 Leadenhall Street’, as because of its shape it has been nicknamed ‘The Cheesegrater’. As with the Scalpel, the design of the building has been dictated by the need to preserve views of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Architecturally, I think it is quite interesting, with external escalators leading up to the reception level on the raised ground floor. In that respect it has some similarities with the Lloyd’s building opposite – i.e. ‘exposed’ service facilities and lifts. And talking of lifts, The Leadenhall Building is said to have the fastest lifts in Europe.

Directly in front of you is the large plaza of the older 23-storey and 380 feet high Commercial Union building (now called Aviva). It was built in 1969 and is about to be demolished to make way for the new 56-storey Number 1 Undercroft. The new building has already been given two nicknames; one being the Diamond and the other The Trellis (both on account of its unusual structural design).

Slightly to the right of it you can’t miss the unmistakable shape of the ‘Gherkin’, now one of the City’s most iconic buildings.

There’s a real contrast on the other side of the road as just to the right is the very much smaller and older – and now looking rather incongruous – Lloyds Bank. I wonder how much longer it will be before it is demolished and yet another skyscraper erected on the site.

Cross over Leadenhall Street and walk down St Mary Axe to the right of the Commercial Union building. A few yards down on the right is the old church of St Andrew Undershaft. Built in the 12th century, it’s one of the few churches in the City of London to have survived both the Great Fire and the Blitz. Sadly though, after all that, its beautiful 17th century stained glass windows were destroyed by IRA’s bombs in the 1990s – more of which later.

Next to it is Fitzwilliam House, which is built on the site of another church – the ancient Church of St Mary Axe, which gave its name to both the street and one of the City of London’s earliest medieval parishes. It was built around 1230 and demolished in 1561, after which the parish united with St Andrew Undershaft. (And Fitzwilliam? He was one of the City’s early mayors.)

And why the unusual names for both churches?

Firstly, St Mary Axe Church (its full name was the Church of ‘St Mary Axe, St Ursula and her 11,000 Virgins). According to the historian John Stow in his 1603 ‘Survey of London’, an axe was once hung over the east end of the church. A document dating back to the time of Henry VIII says it was a holy relic, more specifically, “An axe, one of the two that the eleven thousand Virgins were beheaded with”. This is a reference to the legend that Saint Ursula, returning to Britain from a pilgrimage to Rome, and accompanied by eleven thousand handmaidens, refused to marry the chief of a Hunnish nomadic tribe they met on the journey and was executed, along with all of her handmaidens.

And ‘St Andrew Undershaft’? A huge maypole used to be erected alongside the church each year and was said to have been taller than the church’s tower. Maypoles used to be called ‘shafts’, so the church was built ‘under the shaft’. However, in 1547, the maypole was so badly damaged by rioters who felt it was ‘pagan and heathen’ that it was subsequently broken up.

If you want to visit St Helen’s Church, then cross over and walk down the road opposite the Gherkin – it’s on the right of the ramp to the underground carpark. Its interior is different from that of most churches and worth looking in if you have time (and if it’s open – it often isn’t).

Continue on along St Mary Axe, and next to the Balls Brothers wine bar, at No. 38, are the offices of the Baltic Exchange who moved here after their building was demolished by the IRA bombing, when the Gherkin was built on the site it previously occupied.

The Baltic Exchange was established in 1774 by members of the maritime industry to provide market information and is today “the world’s only source of maritime market information for the trading and settlement of physical and derivative shipping’. It has six hundred members across the globe who encompass the majority of the world’s shipping. Members are also responsible for a large proportion of all ‘dry cargo and tanker fixtures’, as well as the sale and purchase of merchant vessels.

Almost opposite, turn left into the pedestrian alley that leads through the enormous new office building that stretches from here through to Bishopsgate, where we head next.

When you reach the central courtyard, where the passages split, take the one to the right, then turn left into Camomile Street.

The building opened in 2020 and was given the imaginative name of ‘100 Bishopsgate’. (I understand that it is the City of London planners who insist that these new skyscrapers are simply given the street number, rather than a more interesting name. It is almost 600 feet high with 40 storeys. Adjoining it is a smaller building that has an entrance in St Helen’s Place, and which we see shortly.

We are going to turn left down Bishopsgate, but before we do I’ll just mention the skyscraper office building on the opposite corner. Until recently it was known as the ‘Heron Tower’, though when it opened the City of London Corporation didn’t like the name and insisted it was changed to ‘110 Bishopsgate’. However, everyone continued to call it the Heron, and despite it recently being renamed ‘Salesforce Tower’ – after a huge American technology company that is now one of the major tenants – it is still widely known as the Heron. When it opened in 2011, it was the third tallest building in London, though it’s certainly not now.

Continue on down Bishopsgate for just a hundred yards or so until you come to a pair of splendid gates with columns either side. This leads into St Helen’s Place and although the sign says it’s a private road – hence the gates – it is open to the public. The road and the buildings on either side are owned by the Guild of Leathersellers, one of the city’s ancient Livery Companies which received its royal charter in 1444. The site covers some six acres of what must be some of the most valuable land in Britain. The considerable rental income goes towards the charitable work that the Guild still does to this day.

Towards the rear and on the left of St Helen’s Place is the entrance to the restaurants in the seven-storey extension of 110 Bishopsgate, which I mentioned previously.

From the garden, turn to the left down the steps, pass through the next gate and continue past the Ball’s Brothers wine bar – this brings you out into Old Broad Street, where there’s an old police box on the right.

Almost directly opposite on the other side of the road you will see an archway with the words ‘Austin Friars’ carved above it, where we walk next. Go through the arch, follow the lane around and, as the lane bends to the right, notice under the sign ‘No.4 Austin Friars’, a statue of a bearded monk holding a book that’s set into the wall. Opposite is the ‘tradesman’s entrance’ to the Drapers’ Hall, the front of which we see later in the walk.

Austin Friars takes its name from the Augustinian priory that once stood nearby. It was built in 1253 but attacked in the Peasants Revolt in 1381. I like the story that the so called ‘Prince of the Humanists’ Erasmus of Rotterdam, a Dutch priest, philosopher and theologian stayed in the priory in 1513, but refused to pay his bill, complaining about the quality of the wine he was offered!

At the end of Austin Friars is a Dutch Church that was built in 1550, completely destroyed by bombs in the Second World War and subsequently rebuilt. The main entrance is around to the right.

The Dutch Church was the first non-conformist church in England and it has been here since 1550. It’s the oldest Dutch-language Protestant church in the world and known in the Netherlands as the “mother church of all the Dutch reformed churches”. It offered services to Protestant refugees from the Low Countries (Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg) as well as to others coming from northern Europe. The original building was destroyed by bombs in the Second World War and the church you see today opened in 1954. Inside, you can’t fail to notice its simplicity – very different from a traditional Church of England or Catholic place of worship – though there is a splendid stained-glass window.

Opposite the front of the church at No.12, the red-brick building is the Furniture Makers’ Hall, one of the more recent guilds. Unlike many which go back to medieval times, this wasn’t established until 1952 and only received its royal charter in 2013.

The Furniture Makers’ Company was set up by the furnishing trade and aims to promote the industry, encouraging young people within it to undertake additional training and study for relevant qualifications. They also give ‘marks of distinction’ for the best in design and manufacturing each year, as well as providing financial and other assistance to people working within the furniture industry who fall on difficult times. It’s supported by all sections of the furniture industry – the major manufacturers, retailers, designers, craftsmen and students. I was surprised to discover it’s even actively supported by companies such IKEA, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer.

Next to the Furniture Makers’ Hall (to the right of it) turn left into Austin Friars Passage – this takes you into Great Winchester Street – and at the top, turn again into the busy street known as London Wall.