A Riverside stroll with One Big difference…

For a full self-guided walk of the Fleet, click here to see my other blog post!

Looking for a low key London lark loaded with learning? (May have got a bit carried away with alliteration there). Well the Fantastical Fleet self guided walking tour could be your answer. It’s also totally free!

The tour is part of the Totally Thames Festival  which has lots of events and activities centred around the river; it’s history, significance and stories. Have a look at their website here to see if anything else tickles your cultural tastebuds: https://thamesfestivaltrust.org

First, a quick potted history of The Fleet.

The name Fleet comes from the Anglo Saxon word flēot meaning estuary or tidal inlet. The Anglo Saxon word hol for hollow and burna for brook in reference to the Fleet also gave us the name for the area of Holborn.

The Fleet has played an important part in the history of the city since the very beginning. It began life as a dock area and was an important tributary for trade and transportation of goods. It was considered the symbolic western boundary of the city for those crossing.

In the 18th century it became a slum area with the river increasingly used as a sewer. There were apparently instances of people falling in and suffocating, which sounds like a pretty unpleasant way to go! The last example of this was a barber in 1763 who fell in and froze to death upright in the mud. The city planners took action and by 1769 the river had been mostly bricked over. Out of sight and, sadly, largely out of mind.

The Tour

Curated by Rebecca Leach McDonald, the tour begins on ground where the river used to flow, outside Blackfriars station. The Fleet still meets the Thames somewhere underneath Blackfriars bridge. I’ll take you through some of the highlights of the tour for me. It took me an hour and a half so a fairly easy and leisurely walk.

An audio guide accompanies the walk which makes it a more ethereal and immersive experience with meditation, stories and myths. It is interesting either way but takes a bit longer with the audio guide.

Bridewell and St Bride’s Church

You first wind through the small maze-like streets of Bridewell, where a palace built for Henry VIII once stood on the banks of the Fleet. The tour suggests you stop in at St Bride’s Church- definitely do this if you have time. It has a museum on Fleet Street and the history of the Church in the crypt. Take a look at the wedding cake style steeple, considered one of Christopher Wren’s finest spires. Read more about what you can see at St Bride’s here.

Holborn Viaduct

The viaduct crosses over the Fleet Valley and was opened in 1869 by Queen Victoria on the same day she opened Blackfriars bridge (a very efficient lady). An impressive example of Victorian ornate decoration, it is adorned with dragons, bronze statues of women representing different areas of human endeavour- agriculture, science etc, and grand ‘lodges’ on the corners named after previous London mayors. From atop the viaduct look down Farringdon road where the river once ran and hollowed out a valley in the land.

Site of the old Fleet Prison

• 

• 

You are guided to the spot where the notorious Fleet prison once stood on an island in the middle of the river between 1197 and 1846. It is hard to imagine now as you stand at the busy intersection of Fleet Street and Farringdon Road but this same spot used to be a run down prison in a river. Prisons were a private enterprise in the 18th century with prisoners having to pay for rent/food. It was predominantly a debtors prison, meaning those unlucky enough to end up there then found it very difficult to leave with the added burden of paying rent. It also became a prime spot for secretive marriages due to a quirk of the law meaning that people could get married much more easily in the Fleet area. By 1740 half of London’s marriages were happening in this area.

St Paul’s Cathedral

You pass by the spot where, Ludgate, one of the original gates into the city, was located, then onto the majestic St Paul’s cathedral. Designed by Christopher Wren after the Great Fire in 1666, the current cathedral never disappoints. Wren laid both the foundation stone in 1675 and the final stone, 35 years later, in 1710. The cathedral stands on the site of what was once a Roman temple to Diana, the goddess of the moon and hunting. The tour invites you to look back towards the Fleet Valley and imagine the influence the moon once had on the tidal landscape that you would have faced you 300 years ago.

It also features on my Samuel Pepys walking tour of London which you can read here:

You finish the tour by meandering back down to the Thames via the sidestreets off Ludgate Hill. This area was once the land of the Blackfriars Abbey and a tangle of old pubs, an apothecaries hall and remnants of the abbey.

The tour can be found here: https://thamesfestivaltrust.org/whats-on/fantastical-fleet-1552/