Clerkenwell Walk: Radicals, Religion & Rivers

Clerkenwell in London has some fascinating history and this walking tour from the Clerkenwell and Islington Guides Association covers religious foundations, an infamous prison, and an ancient site which gave the area its name.

The tour starts from Farringdon tube station and you get an introduction to the area and how it looked in the past. London street names are often from literal historical circumstances so I don't know why I had never thought that Cowcross Street might have been the place where cows crossed.

Guides are able to tailor the tour to suit the group so let them know what you're interested in and they can help.

The tour includes a British celebrity's former and current houses as they are of architectural significance, but the best parts are those 'wow factors' that I wasn't expecting such as a Priory from the 1500s that Shakespeare would have visited when it was a coffee shop.

St. John's Priory
St. John's Gate was the south entrance of St. John's Priory and was built in 1504. In the early 1700s, William Hogarth's father ran a coffee shop there that was where the Master of the Revels was based. This was the person who approved all theater productions so we can be sure Shakespeare would have visited regularly.

Clerkenwell Green
I learned about the two large religious foundations that were once in Clerkenwell and how Clerkenwell Green was a boundary between the two. This quiet area, sadly with no green anymore, does have the courthouse that would have sentenced many for deportation to Australia. A river used to run along the back of the building and after sentencing, convicts would have got in a boat wearing prisoner clothes with P.O.M. on the back. This gives us the explanation for Australians calling English people Poms and it stands for Prisoner of Millbank.

At 37 Clerkenwell Green, Lenin worked on a revolutionary paper and is known to have had lunch at the Crown Tavern, which is also still here. No. 37 is now the Marx Memorial Library and you can visit most afternoons. I was advised you do need to pay to see Lenin's desk but the library is free to visit.

This unassuming area was also the setting for a famous scene in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist where the Artful Dodger tries to teach Oliver to pickpocket from Mr Brownlow but Oliver ends up getting caught. This walking tour takes you down the streets he would have ran down before capture.

Just when you think you've seen all the sights on the tour the Guide produces a key and you get to see the Clerk's Well - the well the area is named after. It's over 1,000 years old and was only rediscovered in the 1920s. And the only way you can see is it with a registered Guide on one of these tours which makes this walk even more special.

Pros
• Lots of history to discover
• Don't need to book
• Find St John's Priory Gate from 1500s
• Clerk's Well can only be seen with a Guide

Cons
• No 'major' London landmarks
• Not a well known area of London

Conclusion
A really interesting tour of an area many people will never see. It's actually really central, and the Guides know their stuff. Well recommended.

Clerkenwell and Islington Guides Association offer regular weekly walking tours, suitable for visitors and residents.

There is no need to book in advance; just turn up and look for the Guide wearing the official badge.

There is a charge; accompanied children under 12 are free.

Walks take place all year round (except Christmas Day), regardless of the weather.

Walks last 1.5-2 hours.

Official Website: www.ciga.org.uk.

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