London · self-guided walk

City Spine to the Tower

A 75-minute walk through the historic financial quarter from St Paul's to Tower Bridge, taking in Wren churches, the Bank junction, Leadenhall Market and the Norman fortress.

10 stops · 2.6 km · about 75 min

Distance is measured in straight lines between the stops, so the streets add a little. Time is our curators' estimate, stops included.

The stops

The short version of each stop. In aiGuide, open London, choose “City Spine to the Tower” and tap Begin walking tour; then lock your phone, and each story starts as you reach the stop.

1. 1St Paul's Cathedral

   English Baroque, 1675-1710

   

   You crane your neck at the second-largest church dome in the world. Christopher Wren spent 35 years rebuilding St Paul's after the Great Fire of 1666 swallowed its medieval predecessor. Climb 528 steps to the Golden Gallery for a panoramic City view, or test the Whispering Gallery's acoustics 30 metres up under the dome.

   • Designed by Sir Christopher Wren, built 1675-1710
   • Dome rises 111 metres; second-largest church dome worldwide

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2. 2St Mary-le-Bow

   Norman crypt and Wren rebuild, 1080 and 1671-1680

   

   You stand beneath the bells that, by tradition, define a true Cockney: born within earshot of Bow Bells. Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt St Mary-le-Bow in 1671-1680 after the Great Fire, crowning Cheapside with one of his finest steeples. The Norman crypt beneath, built around 1080 on Roman foundations, is the oldest ecclesiastical structure in London.

   • Norman crypt built around 1080 by Archbishop Lanfranc
   • Wren rebuilt church 1671-1680 after Great Fire

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3. 3Guildhall

   Medieval to Georgian, 1411-1788

   

   You enter the medieval beating heart of City government, where the Lord Mayor of London has been chosen since the 12th century. The vast Great Hall, begun in 1411, is the third-largest civic hall in England. Look up for the giants Gog and Magog, look down for the largest medieval crypt in London, and notice the strange Gothic-Indian facade Dance the Younger added in 1788.

   • Seat of City of London Corporation since around 1128
   • Great Hall begun 1411 by master mason John Croxton

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4. 4Bank of England

   Late Georgian to interwar, 1694-1939

   

   You walk along the blank, windowless curtain wall that Sir John Soane wrapped around Britain's central bank in the 1790s. Founded in 1694 to fund war against France, the Bank of England has set monetary policy here for over 330 years. Step inside the free museum on Bartholomew Lane to lift a real gold bar weighing 13 kilograms.

   • Founded by royal charter on 27 July 1694
   • Sir John Soane was architect-surveyor 1788 to 1833

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5. 5Royal Exchange

   Victorian (third building), 1842-1844

   

   You face the eight-columned portico where royal proclamations are still read aloud. Sir Thomas Gresham founded England's first commercial exchange here in 1565, modelling it on Antwerp's bourse. Fires destroyed it in 1666 and again in 1838; the building you see, by Sir William Tite, opened in 1844 and now houses luxury shops around a glass-roofed courtyard where merchants once shouted prices.

   • Founded 1565 by Sir Thomas Gresham, opened 1571
   • Destroyed in Great Fire 1666 and again 10 January 1838

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6. 6Leadenhall Market

   Victorian (current structure), 1881

   

   You step under wrought-iron arches painted maroon and cream into a cobbled arcade that has been a market since the 14th century. Beneath your feet lie the buried foundations of London's Roman basilica and forum, the largest north of the Alps. Sir Horace Jones designed the present cast-iron canopy in 1881; Harry Potter fans will recognise it as the entrance to Diagon Alley.

   • Site of Roman basilica, largest north of the Alps
   • Market documented here since 14th century

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7. 7Monument to the Great Fire of London

   Restoration, 1671-1677

   

   You stand at the foot of a 62-metre stone column whose height equals its distance from the bakery where the Great Fire of London began on 2 September 1666. Climb the 311 spiral steps inside and emerge under a gilded urn of flame onto a caged viewing platform high above Pudding Lane, the spark that burned down 13,200 houses in four days.

   • Built 1671-1677 by Wren and Robert Hooke
   • Stands 61.57 metres tall, equal to distance from Pudding Lane

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8. 8St Dunstan-in-the-East

   Medieval to Blitz, c.1100-1941

   

   You step off a City street into a hidden green ruin. Once a 12th-century parish church, St Dunstan-in-the-East lost its medieval body in the Great Fire, was patched up by Wren, then gutted by a German bomb in 1941. The City of London chose not to rebuild and opened the shell as a public garden in 1971, where climbing fig now winds through the empty Gothic windows.

   • Founded around 1100, dedicated to Archbishop Dunstan
   • Wren added Gothic steeple 1695-1701, his only such design

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9. 9Tower of London

   Norman to modern, 1066-present

   

   You stand before England's most formidable fortress, founded by William the Conqueror in 1066. Inside the White Tower's massive walls, kings imprisoned rivals, queens lost their heads on Tower Green, and the Crown Jewels still gleam under armed guard. Listen for the resident ravens, whose presence legend says preserves the kingdom itself.

   • Founded 1066 by William the Conqueror after Norman Conquest
   • White Tower completed circa 1100, gives complex its name

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10. 10Tower Bridge

    Victorian, 1886-1894

    

    You watch the Thames slide under the world's most photographed bridge. Two Cornish-granite towers in Gothic-revival dress hide hydraulic muscle: the roadway splits and rises in ninety seconds when a tall ship approaches. Opened by the Prince of Wales in 1894, it still lifts roughly 800 times a year, and you can walk the glass-floored high-level walkway 42 metres above the river.

    • Opened 30 June 1894 by the Prince of Wales
    • Designed by Sir Horace Jones and Sir John Wolfe Barry

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