City Surrounds, Walk London, London Walks, Original London Walks

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City Surrounds

Hoxton – The coolest neighbourhood of the 1990s is still growing, changing and trying to hang on to its hips status.

Tube: Old Street

From exit no. 2 walk down noisy Old Street and turn left into Rufus Street and Hoxton Square. Hoxton was the epicentre of the explosion in the British art scene in the mid 1990s when cheap rents brought in many artists. Bar owners weren’t far behind. The White Cube Gallery is consistently cutting edge; Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin have both shown their works here. Yelo serves unpretentious and authentic Thai food. The cocktails at Traffic are excellent, as are the DJs. Return to Old Street, passing the ultra-hip 333 Club and the town hall. Turn left onto Kingsland Road; a few hundred yards up on the right, and seemingly utterly out of place, is the Geffrye Museum, a picture-postcard series of 18^th century almshouses that chart the history here, and the walled herb gardens are worth exploring. After your visit retrace your steps to Old Street and turn left down Rivington Place and right on to Rivington Street. At the always popular Bricklayers Arms, turn left on Charlotte Road to reach Cantaloupe, a good pre-club drinks venue. Extend your night at Great Eastern Dining Rooms, a very cool bar/restaurant with superb Asian finger food or turn right onto Great Eastern Street to return to Old Street and Old Street tube station.

Old Street to Liverpool Street – This walk veers off the beaten track into one of London’s most mysterious cemeteries and through one of is finest squares.

Tube: Old Street

From exit no. 4 walk down City Road. About 100 yards down on the left is the Wesley Chapel and Museum. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, began his movement here in 1738. The castle façade across the road to the right belongs to the Honourable Artillery Corps, which practices its ceremonial military displays in the field beyond. Next to the façade is Bunhill Fields; writers Daniel Defoe and William Blake are buried here. Cross through the cemetery, then turn left past the Artillery Arms and onto Bunhill Row.

Behind the terrace of houses on the left there was once a road called Artillery Walk, where in 1663 John Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Sadly, the house and road are now long gone. Near the bottom, turn left into Chiswell Street and right onto Finsbury Pavement. Cross the busy road and turn left onto Finsbury Circus. Once part of a16th century park, the delightful gardens and bowling green are overlooked by the Pavilion Restaurant. The square miraculously survived the devastating air raids of 1940 (many buildings in this neighbourhood were constructed on bomb sites). Leave the square, turning right onto Blomfield Street and then left past the red telephone boxes onto New Broad Street. Cross over Broad Street into Bishopsgate Church Yard. The small church hall of St. Botolph’s shares the yard with a solitary tennis court.

Turn left at the end of Bishops Gate Church Yard and left again onto Liverpool Street. Follow the signs for the Liverpool Street tube; the station has been restored to its Victorian splendour and cleverly integrated into the modern concourse.

Spitalfields – With fruit vendors, markets and searingly good curry houses, London’s East End has more to offer than just Jack the Ripper.

Tube: Liverpool Street

Take the west exit from the Liverpool Street station and walk up to Bishopsgate to Spital Square. A right on Spital Square leads to Folgate Street. At number 18 is a house done up by American anglophile Dennis Serves, so as to look, sound and smell as it would have centuries ago; call ahead to book a tour. Turn right on to Commercial Street, past Spitalfields, a market since 1638 that is raucous on weekends. The Ten Bells is a comfortable boozer where prostitutes Annie Chapman and Mary Kelly drank on the nights they each became victims of Jack the Ripper in 1888. A quick left on Wilkes and a right on Princelet Street leads to Brick Lane, home of Huguenot, Jewish and Bangladeshi communities over the centuries.

Turn left. Beigel Bake provides the city’s best bagels 24 hours a day. Eating a curry is a must; although it is best to see which competing curry house owner can lure you in, City Spice is a safe bet. Follow Brick Lane up to Bethnal Greet Road; turn around and walk back down until it turns onto Osborn Street. Then turn left onto Whitechapel High Street, which leads to the excellent modern art of the Whitechapel Gallery.

Turn right into Gunthorpe Street which houses The White Hart pub. A left on Wentworth passed several wholesale textile shops and a right leads to Middlesex Street, known as Petticoat Lane Market to locals. On weekends it surges with live. Follow the road to return to Bishopsgate and Liverpool Street station.