Two thousand years of the Square Mile
From St Paul's Cathedral via the Guildhall, the Gherkin and Leadenhall Market to the Tower of London: Wren, Victorian ironwork and glass towers. A flat 5.3 km walk on City streets and alleys, quietest at weekends.
Route
St. Paul's Cathedral
Baroque cathedral with a soaring dome, crypt, and Stone Gallery, completed by Wren in seventeen eleven.
Postman's Park
A quiet City of London park sheltering fifty-four ceramic tiles honouring ordinary people who died saving others.
St Bartholomew the Great
Norman priory church founded in eleven twenty-three, where Benjamin Franklin once worked as a printer.
Guildhall
Medieval civic hall at the heart of the Square Mile, scene of Tudor trials and survivor of two great fires.
30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin)
Bullet-shaped glass tower born from a nineteen ninety-two IRA bomb site, iconic for its energy-saving spiral design.
Leadenhall Market
Victorian iron-and-glass market hall built over the ruins of London's Roman basilica and forum.
Sky Garden
Free three-floor garden atop the Walkie-Talkie tower with panoramic City views.
Monument to the Great Fire of London
Towering Doric column marking where the Great Fire of London began, with a golden urn and panoramic city views.
St Dunstan in the East Church Garden
Blitz-ruined medieval church transformed into a tranquil city garden, with Wren's Gothic steeple intact.
All Hallows by the Tower
Saxon-founded church from six seventy-five AD, where Pepys watched the Great Fire and William Penn was baptised.
Tower of London
Medieval fortress where queens were beheaded, princes vanished, and the Crown Jewels still gleam.