Money, Blood & Fire
Walk through the Square Mile's 2,000-year history, threaded through the narrative of the Great Fire of 1666. Tower Bridge to St Paul's Cathedral — Roman soldiers, medieval executioners, a baker who burned down a city, and a genius who rebuilt it.
Start
Tower Bridge
End
St Paul's Cathedral
Tour Stops (8)
Tower Bridge
The most photographed bridge in London — and the most misunderstood. Those Gothic towers are Victorian fakery: underneath the stone cladding, this is a steel-framed machine powered by cutting-edge 1894 engineering.
Tower of London
Nine hundred and sixty years old and still the most intimidating building in the city. William the Conqueror built it to terrify the conquered English — and it has served as palace, prison, zoo, and execution ground ever since.
All Hallows by the Tower
The oldest church in the City of London, founded in 675 AD. Samuel Pepys watched the Great Fire from its tower. William Penn was baptised here. A father's sailors saved it from the flames.
Pudding Lane
The street where London burned. On September 2nd, 1666, a baker named Thomas Farriner failed to extinguish his oven. His maid refused to escape through the window. Four days later, 80% of the city was ash.
The Monument to the Great Fire
202 feet tall, standing exactly 202 feet from where the fire started. Designed by Wren and Hooke as both memorial and failed telescope — a scientific instrument disguised as a monument.
Leadenhall Market
A Victorian jewel box built on the site of Roman London's Forum. Seven hundred years of continuous trading, a Harry Potter filming location, and the remains of the largest Roman building in Britain beneath your feet.
Bank of England
The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street — founded in 1694 to fund a war against France, sitting on a vault containing 400,000 gold bars, and haunted by the ghost of a woman searching for her executed brother.
St Paul's Cathedral
Christopher Wren's masterpiece, risen from the ashes of the Great Fire. A triple-dome engineering miracle that survived the Blitz thanks to volunteer firefighters — and the resting place of the architect whose epitaph says simply: 'Look around you.'