Eight Of London’s Most Historic Alleyways

As the great and eminently quotable Dr Samuel Johnson once said ‘Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts’. 

London has grown relatively organically over two millennia and lots of its little courtyards and alleyways have survived the trials and tribulations of time. They are often atmospheric spots, but also great places to delve into the city’s history. Here are eight of the best historic alleyways in London.

These all feature, by the way, in my new book London: The Hidden Corners for Curious Wanderers. It features 150 secret gardens, alleyways and pubs across the metropolis. You can buy a copy here.

1. St Michael’s Alley

As St Michael’s Alley is featured on the cover of my book, I thought this one would be a good one to start with. 

It can be found amongst the tangle of alleyways between Cornhill and Lombard Street in the City of London, the heart of the financial district. On the corner is St Michael’s Cornhill, a church rebuilt after the Great Fire of London by Sir Christopher Wren, but with origins going back to at least the 11th century. It’s old churchyard, now garden, makes for a peaceful spot to sit. 

Down St Michael’s Alley you will also find the Jamaica Winehouse. It is a decorative late-19th century pub, made, unusually for London, from a red sandstone. If you were to transport yourself back to 1652 however, you would be standing in front of London’s first coffeehouse. It was established by a man of Greek ethnicity called Pasquaa Rosee. He was the manservant of Daniel Edwards, a merchant in the Levant Company, trading out of Turkey and the Middle East. Coffeehouses became incredibly popular and by 1663 there were 83 coffeehouses in London.

Coffeehouses became crucial social hubs, where, powered on caffeine, patrons would socialise, exchange news and carry out business deals, amongst much else. The coffeehouse here later became known as the Jamaica Coffeehouse because of its association with traders in the West Indies; the sugar, slave and tobacco trades, meeting here to carry out business deals. 

2. Magpie Alley

Magpie Alley is a little alleyway just to the South of Fleet Street. As with all the best street names in London, it is named after a pub that was once nearby. 

Firstly, you will notice a series of decorative tiles from 2001 about the history of the printing industry. Follow it down and you will come across a fairly plain office block. Look down however into the basement level and you will see some intriguing ruins.

They are the remains of the Whitefriars monastery. They were based here from 1247-1538, when they were dissolved during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The White Friars were of the Carmelite monastic order and were known for the white mantels that they wore. These remnants were rediscovered in the late 19th century and are thought to have once been part of the 14th century cellar of the priory mansion. 

After Henry VIII dissolved the monastery, authority over the area became unclear and it became a ‘liberty’, outside the jurisdiction of the city. It was, until the late 17th century, a sanctuary for criminals and debtors, known as ‘Alsatia’, after Alsace the disputed region between France and Germany, known for lawlessness. 

3. Artillery Passage 

Artillery Passage is a wonderfully evocative, bustling alleyway in Spitalfields. Spitalfields takes its name from the Priory of St Mary Spital, dissolved in the 1530s. ‘Spital’ was a contraction of ‘hospital’, referring to the hospitality they showed the poor and needy. 

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the area became an artillery training ground for the Honourable Artillery Company. You can still see the ‘broad arrow’ symbol over the entrance to the building at the corner of Artillery Passage and Artillery Lane.

This is the symbol of the Board of Ordnance, in charge of forts, munitions, equipment and artillery. It was after the Honourable Artillery Company moved out of the area in the late 17th century, that most of the streets here were laid out. There are lots of other clues in the nearby street names, such as Gun Street and Fort Street. 

4. Goodwin’s Court

Goodwin’s Court is a beautiful alleyway hidden away in Covent Garden. Laid out in the 1690s, replacing an earlier street called Fisher’s Alley, today there is a row of incredibly well preserved, early 18th century terraced houses, with bowed glass windows and three original gas lamps. These would have once been a row of shops, the bowed windows to display their goods. 

Unsurprisingly it is popular with walking tours, particularly Harry Potter tours, looking to soak up some Diagon Alley vibes. 

5. Pelican Stairs

Wapping in East London was once a bustling hub of docks, an entrepôt for goods from all over the world. Off Wapping High Street today are still many little alleyways and passages leading down to the foreshore. 

One such passageway is Pelican Stairs, that runs down the side of the Prospect of Whitby pub.

The Prospect of Whitby claims to be the oldest riverside pub in London. It is thought to have its original 16th century flagstone floor, but the pub was largely rebuilt in the 19th century. It was originally called the Pelican, hence ‘Pelican Stairs’, but was also nicknamed the ‘Devil’s Tavern’, due to its reputation for smugglers and river pirates using it to keep an eye on the river. 

Head down Pelican Stairs to the foreshore today and you will find a replica noose.

This is a nod to ‘Execution Dock’, that was once located somewhere nearby. It is where pirates would be publicly hanged, their bodies then left on the foreshore in metal cages, ‘gibbets’, for three tides to wash over them. 

6. Bengal Court

Bengal Court is one of the narrowest alleyways in the City of London. Named after a 19th century tavern, it is home today to one corner of the George and Vulture pub/chophouse. There has been a drinking establishment recorded on the site since 1142 with the current building being largely 18th century. The name of the pub comes from the fact that after the Great Fire of London, part of the site was let out to a wine merchant who is said to have tied a live vulture outside to turn the heads of passers by. 

Right up at the top of the pub on George Yard you will see it says ‘Olde Pickwickian Hostelrie’, a nod to its links to Charles Dickens. It was a favourite of the writer and he mentions it many times in his first novel: The Pickwick Papers. Since 1950 therefore the George and Vulture has been the meeting spot of the Dickens’ descendants annual Christmas dinner meet up. 

7. Wine Office Court

Fleet Street is a fantastic spot for those that love to explore a good alleyway or courtyard. Wine Office Court is named after the fact that the Excise Office was once located here, that gave out licenses to sell wine. You will also find the entrance to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. Arguably London’s oldest pub, it dates back to 1667, just one year after the Great Fire of London. Many icons, particularly in the world of literature, are said to have made use of the pub’s services over the years including Dickens, Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, George Bernard Shaw and E M Forster. 

It is a true labyrinth of little cubby-holes, nooks and crannies as you descend down into the vaulted basement. Some even say that these vaults pre-date the pub, going back to the 13th century. Behind the bar on the first floor is a stuffed parrot. Polly was a foul-mouthed pet of the owners in the late 19th century until her death in 1926. She was so well known that her death made international newspaper headlines. 

8. Angel Place 

Down Angel Place, in Southwark, you will find the only surviving remnant of a notorious old debtor’s prison. On one side is an imposing brick wall, that once was the boundary wall for the Marshalsea Prison. The Marshalsea was based at another site nearby from 1373 until 1811. It operated until 1842 when it closed and a couple of decades later demolished. 

Conditions at debtors’ prisons were generally awful and in 1729 a report found that 300 inmates had died of starvation at the Marshalsea over a three month period. Inmates would have to pay for food and bedding, so would often get stuck in vicious cycles of debt. 

John Dickens, the father of Charles Dickens, was imprisoned here in 1824 for an unpaid debt to a baker. Charles had to leave school to earn money for the family and the impact on him was long-lasting and informed many of his later writings. 

Thank you so much for reading! As mentioned at the top, there are 150 historic alleyways, secret gardens and hidden pubs in my new book. It also beautifully illustrated with five self-guided walks to help you explore London. Find out more here.