Evening walk

The length of the walk is 2.5 km

  Farringdon Station  

This walk could be recommended for the evening. After sunset, this area is especially beautiful. But just in case, you should NOT read a history book about Clerkenwell's bloody past before the walk. :-)
Let's start at Farringdon tube station. Let's move Northwest along Turnmill Street. Why such a name? On the left side once flowed a river (River Fleet) with many watermills. Currently, the river runs deep in a tunnel under the railway. Soon we turn right and left again at the end of a small park. Soon we arrive in front of The Jerusalem Tavern. This tavern is so old that no one knows exactly when it was founded. A narrow passage goes from the left side under the arch, we head there. When you reach the crossroads, look to the right. There is something there that strongly resembles the old city gates of some medieval town. This is St John's Gate. But in fact this gate was never been a part of the city wall, the walls of ancient London were still in a completely different place. We now turn in the opposite direction and head towards Clerkenwell Road. We move along it in the west direction (to the left) and from the next street to the right until we reach a small square, which could perhaps be called a park. To the North is a two-story house with a triangular gable and a red front door. Believe it or not - this is a library of Marxist literature! Let's look a little to the right, there is the Crown Tavern. At first glance, just like a usual pub. But it would be worth stopping in for a moment. If you pass the counter on the left, you can go into the dark back room. There is a table attached to the wall on the right-hand side. It was at this table that Lenin and Stalin met in 1905 while sipping beer.

Further along the road are two more well-known eateries - The Slaughtered Lamb and The Sutton Arms. Unfortunately an eatery called Look Mum No Hands is a bit out of our way... Now Smithfield Market is in our way. It is a large (really large) covered market designed by Sir Horace Jones. The same man designed Leadenhall Market and Tower Bridge.

On the way back, we pass Cloth Fair street. There we can admire the church of St. Bartholomew The Great. But it is also worth looking at the house 41 Cloth Fair. This is the only house in the centre of London that survived from 1666 in a great fire. 1929 it was planned to be demolished, but luckily it survived. The house was in a very poor condition, but in 1995 it got new owners who properly restored the house. In 2000, this work received an award: the City Heritage Award. Many famous persons, such as Sir Winston Churchill and the Queen Mother, have left their autographs with a diamond pen on the tin-framed window panes of the house.

When we reach the end of our walk, Barbican tube station, look to the right before the ticket gates. There is a copper plaque on the wall commemorating this Underground station cat.