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City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com
Hidden London & The Regents Canal
This day with a walking tour in Smithfield and a cruise
on the Regents Canal through Regents Park and London
Zoo has been a favourite for nearly 25 years. If you
haven’t done this day with your group (or you have but
not for twenty years!) it’s a really good choice for 2013.
With a bit on foot, a bit on the coach and a relaxing
cruise at four miles an hour from Camden Lock to Little
Venice the tour provides plenty of variety and interest.
In line with our policy of never underestimating your
minds or overestimating your legs the walk is gentle
enough to make this day suitable for most people but if
you have got particularly elderly folk in your group or a
preponderance of sticks you can always ask for the walk
to be tailored for you - we can seamlessly lop off a bit
of the walk making it shorter for your group.
The day begins with time to buy coffee at the Museum
of London which sits on London Wall which, as the
name implies, follows the line of the old Roman city
walls. The walk is going to take us just outside the old
city gates to the smooth field where for centuries
Londoners practised their archery, played football (big
in mediaeval London would you believe), held a
raucous fair on the eve of St Bartholomew, staged grisly
public executions and built both a hospital and a meat
market - to this day if you see a man in a bloody white
coat you don’t know if he’s a butcher or a doctor!
The first part of the walk passes through the site of an
old city gate next to a church dedicated to St Botolph
who was the patron saint of travellers before he lost
his crown to St Christopher. In the mediaeval city,
if you left the safety of the city walls, you were
taking your life into your own hands so you’d stop
and offer a prayer to Botolph. The old churchyard
faces what was once the main GPO for the city -
at lunchtime it was knee-to-knee postmen on the
benches here. We’re here to see the memorial
plaques to acts of heroic self-sacrifice erected
by the Victorian artist George Frederick Watts
telling of tragic brave acts and reminding us of
dangers we no longer face today - bolting horses,
scaldings from steam engines and in the days
before school swimming lessons, lots of drownings.