We tell the origin story of the ancient City of London, how it was set apart from Westminster, and why it came to be called the financial capital of the world and the envy of kings.
Telling the story the eyes of its legends and many peoples, we chart the city’s unique history and influence, through Celtic, Romans, Saxons, Vikings, and Normans. We conclude with how the mediaeval guild culture went on to challenge the might of Kings to the formation of Parliament and the Bank of England that set the groundwork for a new age.
Address:
2 London Wall Pl, Barbican, London EC2Y 5AU, UK
Link to map
We meet outside Barbie Green restaurant next to the Ruins.
City of London Historical Walking Tour: Layers of Power, Faith & Commerce
Journey through two millennia of history in the Square Mile, where Roman ruins whisper beneath skyscrapers and medieval guildhalls stand alongside temples of global finance. This curated route reveals how London’s ancient heart evolved from a fortified trading post to the world’s financial nucleus.
15 minutes
Begin amidst the ghostly arches of this 11th-century church, built into the Roman city wall. Gutted in the Blitz, its surviving tower now frames a sunken garden where medieval masons once mixed mortar. Touch the flint-and-rubble masonry – a tactile link to Norman London – and imagine processions passing through Cripplegate’s long-vanished tunnel (“cruplegate” in Saxon).
10 minutes
Trace your fingers along ragstone blocks laid by Roman soldiers c. AD 200. This 6m-high section near Barbican reveals horizontal tile bands – ancient “spirit levels” ensuring precise construction. Edward IV later added crenellated brickwork here during the Wars of the Roses, turning defensive engineering into political theater.
10 minutes
Enter London’s “church of the iron curtain” – a 1090 Norman foundation rebuilt after the Great Fire and the Blitz. Shakespeare’s nephew was baptized here; revolutionary Oliver Cromwell married here in 1620. Spot the bullet-pocked WW2 memorials, testaments to its survival as the Barbican’s spiritual anchor.
10 minutes
Descend into this sunken oasis where Salters’ Company members once brokered deals on white gold (salt). The 15th-century wall fragment displays Roman foundations topped with Tudor bricks. Modern steel walkways mirror medieval trading routes – a fitting metaphor for the City’s eternal reinvention.
10 minutes
Stop by the Worshipful Brewers’ Company (founded 1438) the Tudor ale-makers, . Though rebuilt post-Blitz, its cellars hold Elizabethan-era tokens – small beer tokens workers exchanged for daily rations in lieu of risky water.
10 minutes
Walk the phantom nave of a Wren church dismantled brick-by-brick in 1966 and rebuilt in Missouri as Churchill’s memorial. The box-hedge maze echoes medieval processional routes, while the Shakespeare actors’ monument honors play-saving publishers Condell and Heminges.
15 minutes
The building has been used as a town hall for several hundred years, and is still the ceremonial and administrative centre of the City of London.
5 minutes
Admire Wren’s “parish church of the Corporation”, rebuilt in 1677 with gold-leafed ceilings.
25 minutes
Descend to Londinium’s Roman amphitheater (discovered 1988), where 7,000 spectators once roared. Upstairs, Victorian paintings like John Singleton Copley’s Defeat of the Floating Batteries dramatize the City’s global reach.
5 minutes
Marvel at Wren’s “boardroom chapel”, its 1670s interior a symphony of walnut paneling and Grinling Gibbons carvings. Merchant donors’ crests in stained glass form a corporate pantheon – piety and profit entwined.
5 minutes
Beneath the Corinthian columns, imagine Tudor traders shouting deals in Thomas Gresham’s 1566 original.
5 minutes
The Lord Mayor’s 1740 palazzo hosts gold-laden banquets in the Egyptian Hall. Spot the lamppost dragon snuffer – ceremonial tool for extinguishing debtors’ candles when payments defaulted.
5 minutes
End at the “Old Lady’s” 1930s fortress, where gold vaults 15m below hold £200bn in bullion. The museum’s Roman coin hoards whisper of Londinium’s first bankers.
Your Gateway to Hidden Histories
This route distills 2,000 years of power, faith, and commerce. From salt merchants to algorithm traders, the City endlessly reinvents itself while guarding its ancient privileges.
English 
French