Get off the tourist track and discover London's medieval past, a village green, and a hidden Norman abbey.
London hides its medieval past rather well. But take a walking tour from Farringdon tube station and you can step back through the centuries – and see a part of London most tourists never get to know.
An English Village Green Absorbed into London
Your first stop is Clerkenwell Green and you’ll find a quintessential English village green – though unfortunately the grass disappeared long ago. There’s fine architecture including an imposing courthouse and church, and craft shops and galleries reflecting the old artisan traditions of this area.
Go along Clerkenwell Road and you’ll see on the right St John’s Gate, Clerkenwell. This was the south entrance to the Priory of the Knights of St John, belonging to the Hospitallers – a medieval order of knights on crusade. The priory disappeared in the Reformation, but the gate is still here, and the Order of St John still operates first aid and ambulance services in the UK.
Make your way back along Clerkenwell Road to Britton Street, where you’ll find the atmospheric Jerusalem Tavern – named after the order of St John of Jerusalem. This pub dates from 1720 but the name is considerably older. The pub is the London outlet for St Peter’s Brewery, which produces several interesting beers including a grapefruit wheat beer and old London-style porter. (Note that the pub is only open on weekdays.)
At the corner of the street is a house designed for Janet Street-Porter by architect Piers Gough. After years of seediness, this has become a trendy area.
Smithfield Market - Meat and Executions
Carry on south towards the great meat market of Smithfield. This has been a livestock market for centuries – it was also a place of execution, particularly for heretics who were burned here. The fine late Victorian buildings still house a meat market – though unless you get here before seven o’clock in the morning, you’ll miss it. And go soon, because the buildings are under threat from redevelopment.
It’s just a few more steps to St Bartholomew’s hospital, the oldest hospital in England, founded in 1123 by Rahere. The classical main square houses a museum of medicine, and Hogarth painted fine pictures on the staircase (you’ve already seen where he lived, in the rooms above St John’s Gate). There’s also a plaque to Scottish patriot Sir William Wallace, who was executed near this spot.
The gateway across the road, with a half timber house above the gate, is in fact all that’s left of the west end of the priory church of St Bartholomew the Great. The nave was pulled down at the Reformation – with the exception of the gate – but the crossing and choir survive intact. It’s a fine Norman church, one of very few medieval churches in London. Inside, you can see the tomb of Rahere, as well as an oriel window from which the prior could look down into the choir. (The church isn't open on Mondays.)
Along the side of the church runs Cloth Fair, a pretty, leafy street where poet Sir John Betjeman lived for a while. Take Hayne Street to the left and you’ll find yourself in Charterhouse Square, a charming black-railinged, cobbled square. On the other side is the Charterhouse, originally a Carthusian monastery. Under Queen Elizabeth I, it was bought by Sir Thomas Sutton to provide a school and almshouses. Though the school later moved to Surrey, the almshouses still offer accommodation to a number of elderly gentlemen, some of whom offer guided tours of the Tudor buildings.
A Traditional Pub Opens for Breakfast
You’ve now covered a good deal of ground, so it’s time for a rest. Take the little alley just off the square to the left, and you’ll find the Fox and Anchor – a beautiful and well restored late Victorian pub. Like much of this area, it’s trendier than it used to be, but still opens early in the morning for the meat market workers.
