Samuel Pepys’ London: The Ultimate Self-guided Walking Tour

Most know of Samuel Pepys from his recording of the Great Fire of London in 1666 in his diary and famously burying his precious parmesan cheese in the garden to protect it from the flames.

He was however, so much more than that. As well as his diary being an invaluable source on the fire, it is one of the lynchpins of our understanding of life at a crucial time in London’s history (1660-1669). He comments on the Restoration (he actually travelled in the ship back to England with Charles II for his coronation), the Great Plague of 1665 and the Second Dutch war (1665-1667). He was also, over the course of his career, a top naval administrator, MP and President of the Royal Society.

As a person Samuel Pepys was intelligent, energetic and inquisitive but also could be brutal to his servants, quarrelsome with his wife and was an enthusiastic philanderer (very little detail is omitted in the diary).

With this self-guided walk of London you will walk in Samuel Pepys’ footsteps; where he lived, worked and how the cataclysmic events he was witnessing affected the city. A suggested route for the walk below but it is self-guided so feel free to do it however you wish!

Bridewell and St Bride’s Church

We start the walk in the area of Bridewell where Samuel Pepys was born on the 23rd February 1633. You can see a plaque in Salisbury Court on the spot where his house once stood.

Pepys was born into relatively humble beginnings as the son of John, a tailor, and Margaret, the sister of a Whitechapel butcher.

See below a map from 1658 before the Great fire- Salisbury Court and St Bride’s Church are circled in red.

Take yourself from here to the lovely St Bride’s church where he was baptised on 3rd March 1633. In 1664 Pepys also buried his brother here, but had to bribe the gravedigger to ‘jostle together’ the corpses (his words) to make room in the, very full, vaults. Although largely gutted in the Blitz and rebuilt, the current church was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1672. The medieval St Bride’s was destroyed in the Great Fire. It is a beautiful church and full of historical treasures. Click the photo below to read more.

Before heading off make sure you explore the alleyways around the Church- you’ll feel like you’ve stepped back in time.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

Head onto Fleet Street now to have a look at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.

This whole area you are walking through was decimated by the Great Fire- see below a map of the same area as above from after the fire. You can see on the left where the fire reached. It was stopped after 5 days due to the strong winds finally dropping and blowing up buildings in the path of the blaze to stop it from using them as fuel. It was Pepys himself who recommended this tactic to the King.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is one of the oldest pubs in the city and was one of the first pubs to be rebuilt after the fire in 1667. There is no evidence of Pepys having been here but there is a strong possibility having a strong link with the area. Previous patrons apparently include Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. See their Tripadvisor page here.

St Paul’s Cathedral

Turn around and walk back along Fleet Street to St Paul’s Cathedral. Look out for the plaque on the side of St Martin within Ludgate Church. It is on the site of the old Ludgate. This would have been one of the gates into the city that Samuel Pepys would have known well. You can see the wall and the gate on the maps above, it was pulled down in 1760.

The awe-inspiring St Paul’s Cathedral was of course designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren after the medieval cathedral burnt down in the Great Fire. It was the centrepiece of the rebuilding programme after 1666.

It was completed in 1710 so Samuel Pepys would have associated St Paul’s with both the medieval cathedral that was in its place before and following that, a construction site. He attended the St Paul’s School as a child from 1646-1650, which was on a site just north of the cathedral.

Take some time to walk around the cathedral and take in its beauty and majesty. If you wanted to go inside, you can read more about visiting here.

Have a look also at the ‘Panyer Boy’ relief on Panyer Alley. Its origins are a mystery but it dates from the end of the 17th century and is thought to be a pub sign or decorative marker of some kind.

Christchurch Greyfriars

Christchurch Greyfriars is another Wren church. Wren designed and built 51 churches in London in total after the fire. Christchurch Greyfriars was largely destroyed in the blitz and is now with a lovely peaceful garden space with the church tower and walls remaining.

You’ll see a sculpture by Andrew Brown as a memorial to the Christchurch hospital. This was set up near this site in 1552 by Edward VI to educate poor children. In 1673 a new branch was set up- the Royal Mathematical School, largely established for sailors to learn navigation. Samuel Pepys made a substantial financial and administrative contribution to its founding and was appointed a Governor of Christchurch Hospital in 1675.

The Monument and Pudding Lane

Take a walk now through the old heart of London. My route will take you down the narrow Bow Lane. I love this part of the city. You get a sense of the warren of courtyards and passageways that would have once been all over the city. You will pass by Ye Olde Watling pub which was built by Christopher Wren (he didn’t just do churches!) to house the workers constructing the cathedral.

If you fancy a little break at this point, you could take a short detour to pop to the Samuel Pepys pub down by the river- no historical connection but still a lovely spot for a drink.

The next stop is the Monument and Pudding Lane. Pudding Lane is famously where the Great Fire started in the bakery of Thomas Farrinor, the King’s baker just after midnight on Sunday 2nd September. The fire left just one fifth of the City standing and made hundreds of thousands homeless.

The Monument was constructed between 1671 and 1677- designed by Wren and Robert Hooke to commemorate the fire and rebuilding of London. If you lay the monument on its side towards Pudding Lane the urn of flames will land where the fire started.

Take some time to have a look at the inscriptions and friezes. You will see Charles II calmly directing the rebuilding of the city. Read more about climbing the monument for one of the best views in London here.

All Hallows By The Tower

All Hallows by the Tower is an ancient church, supposedly the oldest in the City of London. It was founded in 675AD and you can still see a Saxon arch in the church today. The church remarkably survived the Great Fire due to the efforts of Admiral William Penn, the father of the future founder of Pennsylvania. He sent his men from his nearby naval yard to blow up the buildings around the church to save it from the flames.

Samuel Pepys climbed the tower of All Hallows on the 4th day of the fire to watch the progress and survey the damage. He described the scene as “the saddest sight of desolation”. The wooden door into the tower is apparently sometimes called ‘Pepys’s door’. Read more about visiting the church here.

Seething Lane

Seething Lane is where Pepys lived from 1660 for 14 years whilst he was Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board. The Navy Office was constructed on Seething Lane in 1656. This was a high profile civilian position within the navy. Pepys was an excellent administrator and brought in reforms that would transform the British navy from a corrupt and inefficient service into a powerful force. He went on to be secretary to the Admiralty in 1673 and is often described as the ‘father of the modern navy’.

As well as a bust of Pepys, make sure you look down. You will find a series of plaques related to events in Pepys’ life including one of his parmesan cheese! The Navy Office survived the fire, however it burnt down in another fire just 7 years later.

St Olave’s Church Hart Street

Our final stop is Pepys’s local church whilst he lived on Seething Lane: St Olave’s Church Hart Street. Pepys described it as “our own church” and contributed to a new gallery in the church for the admiralty.

The churchyard is also significant to the Great plague of 1665 or the ‘Black death’. There are thought to be around 300 plague victims buried in the churchyard here. Entries in the church burial records denote plague victims with an ominous ‘P’ next to their names. Note the three foreboding skulls over the side entrance that led Charles Dickens to name the church ‘St Ghastly grim’.

Visiting the church in January of 1666 Pepys remarked: ‘‘It frighted me indeed to go through the church… To see so many graves lie so high upon the churchyard, where many people have been buried of the plague.’

Samuel Pepys’s wife Elisabeth died at the age of just 29 in 1669. They argued ferociously during their marriage but Samuel was devastated when she died. He had a memorial bust put up within view of his pew that you can still see inside today. Read more about visiting here.

Samuel Pepys died in 1703. He was living in Clapham by this point but was buried next to his wife in St Olave’s.

I can very much recommend reading Claire Tomalin’s fantastic biography, ‘Samuel Pepys: the Unequalled Self’. If you are on twitter, click here to see an account that posts his diary entries in real time.

I hope you enjoyed this self-guided walk! I would love to hear from you if you have been on the walk. Comment below, email or message me on social media.

More London hidden gems, walks and curiosities below!