LOHO WALKS
Newington Green to Smithfield
Radical Trail
An idiosyncratic trail of visual and historical curiosities from Newington Green via the Angel, Clerkenwell and onto Smithfield, taking in radicals, rebels and assorted contrarians along the way. Featuring the radical centre of world Revolution of Newington Green; a dash of Dickensian scandal; Tudor intrigue at Canonbury Tower; bourgeois life in Canonbury Square; controversial modernist architecture, revolution and revolt in Smithfield.
Route Summary

Easy / 2 out of 10

3 miles / 4.8 kilometres

OS Urban Map Walk London

Dog Friendly

Terrain

How to get here

Facilities

Eat and drink

Print-friendly version

Easy walking – flat, paved streets.

Start at Newington Green – buses include 73,341,476,141 and 21.
The start is also five minutes from Canonbury Station (one stop from Highbury and Islington on the Victoria Line).
Finish at Smithfield – to return to Hackney/Islington, the 56 bus starts a few minutes away at bus stop SV, Montague St (down Little Britain, on the left of the square, and then left again by the Post Office).
Or St Pauls Underground (Central Line) – 5 minutes away – is down Little Britain and further ahead, along King Edward Street then left.

As any London walker knows, the steady closing down of public toilets across the capital renders any walk an exercise in careful planning and sometimes painful and fruitless excursions.
As is often the case we are reliant on visits as a paying customers to pubs or cafés.
LOOS ON THIS WALK:
This walk has, to the best of my knowledge, only three public toilets, none of them are particularly convenient.
- Chapel Market (a few hundred yards from the Angel station). It’s a few hundred yards along the market on the north side where there is a gap allowing pedestrian access to Sainsbury’s.
- Paternoster Square in front of Saint Pauls Cathedral (at the time of writing – April 2021 – currently closed).
- Blackfriars Station, about an eight minute cross-legged walk from Smithfield.

There are cafes and pubs all along the route.
Postman’s Park at the end of the walk is a nice spot for a picnic.

Revolutionary Newington Green
If you can tear your eyes away from Maggie Hambling’s controversial creation of Mary Wollstonecraft, turn towards the row of shops, past the café, on the western side of the Green, opposite the zebra crossing. Looking at the centre of the red brick terrace you’ll notice that the older middle portion differs from the rest. Built 1658 this is the oldest surviving brick terrace in London and originally would have stood in rural isolation, and in towny stylistic contrast to the surrounding fields and farms.
The Terrace was already 100 years old when number 54 had its most influential inhabitant, Dr Richard Price, whose networking among reformers cemented the village’s reputation as a centre for radical activism. Price can be credited with developing the Green’s association with a growing and historically influential ‘Awkward Squad’ of whom we shall hear more throughout the walk.
Now looking north: 50 years after the building of the Terrace the modest Unity Church was established and together with its preacher became a focus for opponents of political and religious tyranny. Drawing around them a tight group of dissenting radicals, Reverend Price and his wife Sarah provided a base for new, and dangerous, political thinking.
Among their early guests at 54 were some of those who would soon become the ‘Founding Fathers’ of the United States: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, John and Abigail Adams. As they dined and debated, they forged the foundational thinking behind both the American Declaration of Independence (1776) and later the American Constitution. If this building were in America it would have its own museum and celebratory theme park, whereas we give it a happy anonymity above a cheese shop and a cobblers.
The pulling power of the terrace remained strong throughout the French Revolution when Robert Priestley – Brummie, radical, scientist – was forced to flee his home after publicly declaring for the Revolutionaries. In what became known as the ‘Priestley Riots’ his opponents went on the rampage burning down houses, businesses and looting chapels – presumably because they didn’t approve of radical disorder. Priestley found sanctuary at number 56, handily next door-but-one to those troublemaking Prices.
Imagine that: discovering oxygen and then having a riot named after you.
Cool…
As the Green’s radical revolt against class and clerical tyranny grew, it wasn’t long before battle was opened up on another front, one which caught even some of the most vociferous revolutionaries off guard, especially the blokes: feminism…

Unity Church, Wollstonecraft & the 'Birthplace of Feminism'
In the centre of Newington Green you will find Maggie Hambling’s (in)famous Mary Wollstonecraft statue…
“The best way for a woman to acquire knowledge is from conversation with a father, or brother, or friend” wrote Anna Barbauld, aristocrat and writer.
It was against such mush that Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 to 1797) – writer, philosopher, educator and one of the founding feminists – lived her extraordinary life. It is in tribute to their famous congregant that the Unitarian church in Newington Green proudly declares itself to be – ‘the birthplace of feminism’.
Despite a dysfunctional upbringing under the tyranny of her violent and drunken father – or perhaps because of it – the self-propelling Mary formed strong attachments to both men and women in adult life, which raised eyebrows even further than they still do now.
Establishing a girls’ school in Newington Green (see the plaque on the school façade to your right) her determined views on women’s rights found a ready home among the local ‘difficult people’.
“Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.”
When in 1790 Edmund Burke denounced the French Revolution, Wollstonecraft responded, first with A Vindication Of The Rights Of Men, supporting the revolutionary overthrow of tyranny, and then later, A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman arguing for female equality.
Mary’s turbulent personal life has, for many years, overshadowed her political thinking, while the pathos of her death aged 38, days after giving birth to her second daughter Mary Shelley (later, the author of Frankenstein), has tended to eclipse her political activism.
Fortunately, Mary’s significance is now being recognised; part of the Wollstonecraft revival is captured in the statue by Maggie Hambling, unveiled in 2020 to what we can confidently say was a mixed reception.
Wollstonecraft’s reknown has definitely not suffered. The Unity Church Minister, Rev. Andy Pakula, atheist, impishly tweeted that, following the unveiling, Wikipedia page views for the name ‘Mary’ showed ‘Mary, Mother of Jesus’ numbered a distant second to ‘Mary Wollstonecraft’.

Other Tudor Associations & the China Inland Mission
Tudor footnotes
In 1523, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, lived in Brooke House a grand mansion on the north side of the Green. Percy made an illicit engagement to the young Anne Boleyn against both his father’s wishes and those of Cardinal Wolsey for whom he worked as a page. The young lovers were never married, and their final encounter cruelly unromantic. Percy, as a member of the jury at Anne’s later trial for adultery against Henry, helped to secure conviction, and thus her execution.
Just opposite on the south side (now a block of un-regal flats) Henry VIII used a mansion as a base for hunting the wild bulls, stags and boars which roamed the nearby forest.
Before you leave the Green note in the north-west corner to the right of the old Terrace:
China Inland Mission
In the north west corner of the Green the tall redbrick building – now flats – was once the HQ of the China Inland Mission, established. in 1865 by James Hudson Taylor, with a Christian mission to evangelise the whole of China. Scores of young missionaries were sent from here including, unusually for the time, the recruitment of single women. The recruits were encouraged to ‘go native’ by living among the locals, and adopting their lifestyle including wearing the ‘Qu’ – a waist long, braided pigtail. More cool…

Park Cottage, Northampton Park
Although relatively modest this corner cottage has been the keeper of one of the best kept secrets, and scandals, of the Victorian era.
In 1857 Dickens was a mega celebrity; his productions toured the country. In one such production in Doncaster, the 45-year-old Dickens spotted Nelly Ternan – Nelly was just 18. Dickens was smitten. Nelly, together with her mother Frances and her teenage sister Maria, were a minor theatrical trio living at Park Cottage.
As Dickens began paying regular visits to Nelly the relationship developed into a secret affair with the teenager becoming Dickens’ “magic circle of one”. However an accidental delivery to his long suffering wife of a gold bracelet with a note from Dickens intended for Nelly, precipitated divorce after 22 years of marriage.
For the best part of the next decade, desperate to avoid scandal yet equally avid to keep Nelly by his side, Dickens lead a double life: man of glowing hearth and home in public while in private maintaining a succession of what today’s newshounds might call ‘secret love nests’.
Living under false names the couple maintained their clandestine life until, while returning from a trip to France with Nelly and her mother, their train crashed at Staplehurst. Clambering from the wreckage Dickens was recognised; the rumours went ‘Victorian viral’. Dickens’ celebrity teetered on ruin.
Forced to respond, Dickens published a press statement vociferously denying everything. The rumour divided the public: his fans still attended his public readings, weeping and cheering along with his tales, but for others the scandal endured. His daughter Kate, herself only slightly older than Nelly, later described her mother’s humiliation while her father behaved “like a madman”.
Dickens, in part seeking to divert attention, launched a weekly magazine All Year the Year Round – perhaps a better title than the one he originally proposed: Household Harmony…
The rumours and gossip trailed Dickens, seemingly without lessening his reputation, celebrity or income until his death in 1870.
Nelly went on to remarry and have children of her own and is reputed by Dickens scholars to be the basis of any one of several characters, notably the idealised young girl Lucy Manette in a A Tale of Two Cities; others opt for the more complex Estella in Great Expectations.

The New River
Neither new nor a river’. By the early 1600s, the supply of safe, fresh water to the City was limited. In response The New River was a bid by the wealthy Sir Hugh Myddleton to divert fresh water from distant Hertfordshire via a chain of carefully laid pipes into the City via the Lea Valley.
After crossing Clissold Park the river ran along the green central strip of nearby Petherton Road to this, the relatively newly landscaped and reworked, route of New River Walk. A signboard at the southern end gives more info. Look out for the quirky landscaping mix of boulders of wild Westmoreland stone set amongst an almost permanently green and shady bower, including two Dawn Redwoods. Easily spotted, they’re the tall trees: reddish and wooden.
Footnote: King James I was so proud of the venture that he had rescued from financial ruin that he rode from his country home to see the ice on the New River. He promptly fell in head first. Visible only by his boots, he was rescued by a nobleman.
Half way down New River look out for…
40 Douglas Road designed by Future Systems and described admiringly in the Independent in 1994 as a ‘Space-age Greenhouse’. Those of you who are frequent diners at the Caprice and Ivy will have instantly recognised the designers’ distinctive styling in the restaurants’ champagne buckets.

Canonbury Priory Tower
For an historical feature which is more observed than visited this place deserves a little of our attention.
Built in the early 1500s, the oldest building in Islington, the Tower is all that remains of an extensive House erected for the Canons of St Bartholomew’s Priory – hence Canons’ Burgh now Canonbury. No doubt they would have appreciated the distant, airy relief from the meaty stench of Smithfield.
In the late 1530s, with the dissolution of the monasteries, the Priory was forcibly donated to the Crown and soon after became a handsome reward for the Dissolution’s chief strategist, Thomas Cromwell. However, within the year the political intrigue overtook even this master tactician: Cromwell, following the fate of those Priors who had resisted the King and Cromwell’s plans, was in turn executed.
A few years later the manor was granted to John Dudley, by the ‘boy King’ Edward VI. Dudley worked hard for the Crown proving a loyal and brutal enforcer. However, when King Edward died, aged just 15, Dudley made a daring move backing his own daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, against Mary Tudor as the next Queen. He succeeded. Queen Jane ascended to the throne. She was soon captured by Marys’ forces. Dudley and the 16-year-old Jane, ‘Queen for Nine Days’ were executed.
In the 1590s the Priory, now a house, seemed to cast off its ill-fated history, becoming the home of Sir John Spencer, Lord Mayor of London, giving rise to one of its best-known intrigues.
‘Rich’ Spencer’s daughter Elizabeth fell in love with William, Earl Compton, gambler and profligate spendthrift. William had previously borrowed from Spencer while also blowing his own inheritance. Spencer, unimpressed by the young buck, intervened in their romance locking Elizabeth in the Tower. However the spirited Elizabeth lowered herself out of the window on knotted sheets where that bad dude William, who had driven a cart across the fields of Islington, was waiting dressed as a baker; they eloped and were married.
Spencer disowned his daughter, but despite William’s reputation, the young Compton’s stock rose, becoming Lord Compton, courtier to Queen Elizabeth I. The story has it that a sympathetic Elizabeth persuaded Lord Spencer to act as a godfather to an unnamed ‘disowned child’ but at the christening, encountering his own daughter with William and their baby boy, Spencer relented, and the family were reconciled. A lovely ending…
Or not quite, yet.
On Lord Spencer’s death his vast fortune passed on to William and Elizabeth causing the unreformed gambler William to go on a magnificent, semi-deranged spending spree.
A contemporary wrote that he was, “ in great danger to loose his witts” spending “within lesses than eight weekes…£72,000, most in great horses, rich saddles and playe”.
In case you were wondering: £72k in today’s money would be just under £10 million!
Eight weeks…?
However, heroically overcoming his witless profligacy, Compton managed to retain a footing among the priveleged, later becoming the first Earl of Northampton; the family still own the Tower and local land. So, despite being quite clearly an idiot, we have to admit, the boy done well.
Northampton, Spencer, Compton… you might still spot these names around the area. Later illustrious tenants of the Tower included Sir Francis Bacon (1616), ‘father’ of the scientific method, and by contrast Rip Van Winkle’s creator, Washington Irving. Rip Van Winkle fell asleep for 20 years; his creator was not so blessed. While living in the Tower Irving found himself constantly “stunned with shouts and noises from the cricket ground” while also being harassed by his landlady who insisted on showing visitors into his room to watch him write. He locked himself in, only to hear the indomitable but perplexed landlady encouraging visitors to spy on him through the keyhole, describing him as the “author who was always in a tantrum when interrupted.”
Irvine left after a couple of days…
Over the last century the Tower has been variously a youth club, headquarters of the Francis Bacon Society, home of a local amateur theatre group and also the much misunderstood Flat Earth Society – currently enjoying a resurgence in membership following its endorsement by the US rapper Bobby Ray Simmons and other leading scientific authorities.
Sadly, the Tower is now largely empty and underused. There are no signs that the current Marquis of Northampton has any intentions to change this situation, though it is apparently still used as a centre for something called, ahem… ‘Masonic research’…

Aria Building
This corner plot, recently the wasteland remnants of a bombed-out end of terrace, is now home to upmarket design store, Aria. Completed in 2019 the building has proved controversial from the inception– perhaps deliberately given the architect Amin Taha’s other work which you will encounter later in the walk.
With the surviving other end of the Terrace as a template, Taha’s studio Groupwork used laser survey, archival photographs and digital mapping to create a virtual model which they then distorted and amended to create the current version- a ‘misremembered copy’ of the lost four-storey building. While most of the original details were kept, other aspects were changed or moved; even some of the concrete casting was kept imperfect.
The designers somewhat sniffily described the previous version as, “something even the original Victorian pattern-book builders would have regarded as a watered down and weak interpretation of a Palladian Palazzo…”
Like it? Suspend your critique; walk on to see the original end of the Terrace on which the Aria building was modelled and ‘misremembered’.
Compare and contrast…
You will encounter more of Amin Taha’s disruptive styling later in the walk.

Islington Screen on the Green & The Sex Pistols
No walk along Upper Street could ignore the Screen on The Green.
Opened in 1913 by enterprising Italian Pesaresi brothers as The Empress Picture Theatre (Later The Rex) showing animated films, now with its vivid neon sign, the Screen is a local cultural landmark.
On the 29 August 1976 the venue took its place in pop musical history when punk impresario Malcolm Maclaren organised the now infamous ‘Midnight Special’ gig: The Clash (in only their third ever gig) and the Buzzcocks supporting The Sex Pistols.
The following year, after the Pistols’ firing of Glen Matlock, The Screen became the venue of another punk first: the first performance by the band with Sid Vicious.
As they sung at the time, “God save the Queen, she ain’t no human beeeeeeeeeen’ ” …as political analysis goes, not quite up there with the thoughts of Paine and Wollstonecroft but belonging in that culturally disruptive tradition. Perhaps.
The venue, now part of the Everyman chain, looks set to continue post-Covid, unlike many film theatres.
Pondering this thought, across the road from the Screen on the north of Islington Green we can also gaze upon Waterstones, formerly Collins Music Hall (1863). This is one of former several music halls in Islington which have now been repurposed, as tastes and interests have done what they always do – moved on. A photograph of its early days advertises: ‘Dramatic Plays Twice Nightly – 6/3d’ where they offer an alluring show, breathily titled, ‘The Plaything of An Hour’.

The Angel, Islington
The topography at the junction of The Angel reminds us that we are on a rise looking down toward the old City with, in previous times, Islington as a rural village surrounded by fields and open countryside, Highgate village prominent to the north and, to the south and ahead, St John Street as a country lane.
In 1666 London inhabitants fleeing the Great Fire encamped on Highbury Fields, from which height they had a clear view of the inferno engulfing London, perhaps taking a moment to check their insurance cover.
From mediaeval times onwards, Islington became a wide patchwork of pastures and pens driving a boom in coaching inns to accommodate the drovers and merchants. The terracotta coloured Co-op Bank at the junction with Pentonville Road marks the site of the Angel Inn, known to have existed since the early 1500s. Originally the largest of several coaching inns on Upper Street, the Angel has had many incarnations, only surviving in its current form because of fierce local resistance to a 1970s’ demolition plan aiming to create a traffic enhancing, soul numbing, miserable replicant of Old Street roundabout.
Trivia fans note: which two Monopoly board squares are connected to this junction? Answers on a post card, please, to someone equally sad…
The location of both fields and freshwater in the local wells made the area from the village down to the ‘Smoothfield’ Market an ideal place for animal trading and slaughter, giving rise to local trades still reflected in place names and streets hereabouts: Leather Lane, Clerkenwell, Amwell and Goswell Road (God’s Well).
With valuable livestock flowing into Smithfield so the cash flowing outward made the merchants and their wealthy backers heading north, through the forests and open heaths around London, a tempting target for highway robbers – including the legendary Dick Turpin and his gang. Travellers that could afford them employed armed guards as escorts.

Thomas Paine & The Old Red Lion
[IMAGE: Sadler’s Wells and Old Red Lion painting by Hogarth]
The “Redde Lyon” as it was originally known in 1415 is one of the oldest pub sites in London and, like The Angel, was a popular drovers’ Inn.
Here we again encounter that irrepressible lifelong member of the Newington Green Awkward Squad:
“A few houses further on towards Islington stands a public house called the ‘Red Lion’. It is a small old brick house, having two or three tall trees in front. In this house was written that curious engine of political mischief ‘The Rights of Man’ by the notorious Thomas Paine’. (Reverend Nightingale 1815)
Thomas Paine: “A corset maker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination”
Born in the UK, Paine migrated to America in 1774 with the help of fellow Newington Green radical, Benjamin Franklin, arriving just in time to cause even more trouble in the American revolution where his best-selling political tract Common Sense had become essential rebel reading.
Paine’s writings drew the wrath of William Pitt the Younger and later a trial, in his absence, for seditious liable. Paine fled to France where, despite having no French, he immersed himself in revolutionary politics and, despite the obvious dangers, somehow managed to get elected to the turbulent French National convention. Like you do…
Here he quickly drew the attention of a fellow revolutionary leader, though one who was perhaps less to his taste – the tyrant Robespierre. Paine was promptly thrown in prison; luckily James Monroe, a future US president, intervened on his behalf to secure his return to America. One wonders if Monroe might have regretted his kindness when he discovered that Paine was intent on writing pamphlets advocating against Christianity, organised religion and inequality in property rights while proposing taxation of inherited land. Not surprisingly this did not make him popular in more conservative quarters, which in America, was everyone. His friends might have considered toning Tom down as reasonable cause for a group ‘intervention’.
However such friends were few and far between; Paine died in 1809, his funeral attended by just six people.
On a lighter, though still criminal note, by the middle of the 1800s the Red Lion pub had earned the nickname ‘The In and Out’, owing to having a front and rear entrance through which Hackney cab customers could dive to escape paying their fares.
The pub’s association with left leaning politics and intrigue continued through the early 20th Century when the upstairs rooms became a meeting place for communist splinter groups, of which there is usually no shortage. It is said that to keep up with the scheming Vladimir Lenin, who worked nearby, people would tip the Red Lion’s landlord to open the doors of the dumbwaiter to eavesdrop on the heated debates above.

Sadler's Wells Theatre
The origins of this theatre lie in a curious collision of local resources: abundant spring water and popular showmanship. After the discovery of a mineral spring in 1683 Richard Sadler, aiming to rival other fashionable spas, built a house for popular entertainment, both spectacular and bizarre, staging sea battles and “jugglers, tumblers, ropedancers…wrestlers, fighters, dancing dogs and even a singing duck.”
Later the young William Wordsworth described visiting “half-rural Sadler’s Wells ” where “amid the uproar of the rabblement…” he saw … “ Giants and dwarves , clowns, conjurors, posture makers and harlequins”.
One of these harlequins would’ve been the most famous in the world: Joseph Grimaldi. From child actor to national celebrity, Grimaldi was in such demand that at the height of his career he would perform several shows daily across London. It was observed that when his wife Mary and their unborn daughter died in childbirth in 1800 Grimaldi buried his grief in extra performances and could be seen running in full costume and make-up from Sadler’s Wells to Drury Lane – the tears of a clown indeed.
Perhaps he has had the last laugh in that Grimaldi is remembered in an annual service held at the Holy Trinity Church in Hackney, where hundreds of clowns attend dressed in full clown costume. In 2010 a coffin shaped memorial made of musical floor tiles was installed in a local Islington Park named after him. The tiles are tuned so that when danced upon they play one of Grimaldi’s favourite numbers.
Clearly Sadler’s Wells wasn’t always the high tone place it is now. As Dickens later noted, “The theatre was in the condition of being entirely delivered over to as ruffianly an audience as London could shake together…Fights took place anywhere, at every period of the performance.”

Spa Fields & Thomas Spence
[IMAGE: Spa Fields in the 1780s]
As the signboard indicates, once the sight of a gruesome boneyard, the spirit of rebellion and radicalism resurfaces here with arrival in the area of Thomas Spence. In the 1780s Spence had visited a cave home in the sea cliffs near Sunderland which had been literally detonated into defiant existence by a former miner, ‘Jack the Blaster’. The cave, part rent-free seaside home, part protest movement, was created by Jack after having been rendered homeless by land enclosures.
In honour of Jack’s spirit, Spence was inspired to write above the cave’s fireplace,
‘Ye landlords vile, whose man’s peace mar,
Come levy rents here if you can;
Your stewards and lawyers I defy,
And live with all the RIGHTS OF MAN.’
That last phrase was, as we have previously discovered, picked up by Paine and then Wollstonecroft, and now embedded in political history.
Serving time in prison for sedition, Spence became a focus for the Spenceans – supporters of his wildly radical ideas: universal basic income, women’s rights and the end of aristocracy and landlords
In 1816, with mass unemployment and widespread poverty, the Spenceans gathered on Spa Fields. The restless and increasingly angry crowd grew to 10,000. A militant faction rioted, breaking into a gun shop then heading for the Tower with the intent of overthrowing the government. The riot was quelled but became the first of a series of popular insurrections over the next three years culminating, and ending, in the Peterloo Massacre three years later.

Pocohontas & St James's Church, Clerkenwell
It was here that in 1632 Thomas Rolfe, son of Pocohontas, married Elizabeth Washington.
Pocohontas, a Native American was the daughter of Chief Powhatan of the Powhatan people of Virginia. Having been captured by the colonists and converted to Christianity, Pocohontas married John Rolfe, plantation owner. Despite, or perhaps because of, being presented as a ‘civilized savage’, she became a sought-after celebrity and a big hit at masqued balls.
Sadly she died after little more than a year in England, aged just 21, before she could return to her homeland, and was buried at Gravesend.
St James is also the site of the grave of Matthew King, young highway man, accomplice of Dick Turpin, who was buried here in 1737 after being ‘accidentally’ shot by the ruthless Turpin during a robbery.
I’d like to hear Mathew’s version…

15 Clerkenwell Close
A building that rewards study from distance as well as close up.
Amin Taha’s RIBA Award winning design, in which stone age sarsen blocks meet glazed modernity, is fortunate to be still standing. In September 2018 a bitter dispute about the façade led to two applications by Islington Council to have the building demolished. In fact there were two demolition orders, one being withdrawn only to be replaced. The Council wanted a brick facade; they ended up with chunky, raw quarried limestone dotted with fossils.
Taha’s practice succeeded in overturning the application amid claims that the Council had deliberately redacted important evidence. In a humiliating climb down the Council agreed to leave the design, as is, save for some minor changes – prune some trees, polish up some surfaces.
The various comments about the design as posted on architectural design website, Dezeen, in early 2021, can’t be faulted for ambiguity:
”…the ugliest building ever in all of London.”…
“…a beautiful addition to the fascinating architectural history of a fascinating city.”…
“I would have been quite happy to see it torn down… I flinch every time I have to walk past it.”
Groupwork’s current plan for adding to London’s ‘fascinating architectural history’ is a 30-storey stone skyscraper… Personally I can’t wait, even if only for the indignant shrieks of the offended.
Whatever views we might have of 15 Clerkenwell Close, Amin Taha is clearly a fan: he lives there.

Clerkenwell Priory, St John's Square and Gate
On leaving Jerusalem Passage and encountering the small, irregular ‘square’, and beyond it the medieval gate, the associations with the Holy Land become clearer. The modest red brick building on your left – a small museum worth a look if it’s open – commemorates the existence of the Clerkenwell Priory which from the late 1100s became a major base for the Crusades. From here Knights, drawn from all over Europe, gathered to have their journey blessed before passing through John’s Gate on their way to Jerusalem.
The historian Monk Mathew Paris witnessed such a departure in the 1230s:
‘They… set out from their house at Clerkenwell… in good order with about thirty shields uncovered, with spears raised, and…their banner, through the midst of the City, towards the bridge, that they might obtain the blessings of the spectators… And bowing their heads with their cowls lowered, commended themselves to the prayers of all.’
The only significant part of the massive Priory that remains now is St John’s Gate across the road, itself a largely Victorian recreation. However its location is accurate and, as its south entrance, manages to capture some of the Priory’s scale and significance.
St John’s Gate –after the original Gate was burned down by Wat Tyler in the Peasants Revolt of 1381, the rebuilt Gate went on to become the childhood home of William Hogarth and also a workshop for Samuel Johnson. In a curious commercial proposition, Hogarth’s father opened his coffeehouse here offering Latin instruction with the coffee.
Baffle a barista: next time in Costa, order your favourite brew in Latin.

Charterhouse Square
After the confident modernism of 15 Clerkenwell Close, take a few minutes to explore this Square noting the interestingly eclectic range of architectural eras which surround you.
On this site in 2014, workers from the Crossrail project found confirmatory evidence of the largest plague site in London. In terms of pandemic scaling it is sobering to note that the bubonic pandemic of mid 1300s killed around half the population of England.
Notwithstanding the site’s grim history, a Carthusian Monastery was built here in the late 1300s, later becoming home to Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk.
Howard, having already sadly lost three wives, set his sights on a fourth. His choice was nothing if not ambitious: Mary Queen of Scots, who was then embroiled in a deadly battle with her sister Queen Elizabeth I.
Elizabeth’s men uncovered Howard’s plot to murder the Queen and replace her with Mary. Howard was executed on Tower Hill in 1572; Mary, imprisoned for many years, was beheaded later.
Despite this early setback, the Norfolk lineage has subsequently done extremely well, owning prime land in much of central London and across the UK, making them one of the richest families in the UK. So, on balance, the Norfolks are quids in.
The Charterhouse still retains some of its original mediaeval buildings, though now only occasionally open to the public. It currently serves largely as an Almshouse for ‘military men, schoolmasters, clergy, artists, musicians, writers and businessmen’.
Might you be in with a chance?

Smithfield Market and Square
The origins of the market are well explained on the relevant signboard inside the great arch. By contrast Smithfield Square has a role in history which belies its current ill-considered appearance as an incoherent, stunningly misplaced car park.
Scene of mediaeval fairs, joustings and numerous executions, we can say that Smithfield is drenched with alliterative history: merry making, murder and martydom
From the Middle Ages onwards the world famous Bartholomew Fair was held here; two weeks of revels, drunkenness and an impressive range of entertainment – acrobats, musicians, freaks, wild beasts, puppets and prize fighters.
The Newgate Calendar, reviled the event as a “school of vice which has initiated more youth into the habits of villainy than Newgate itself.”
Following such one star reviews, the Fair was suppressed by the City in 1855.
As you cross the square, note the Tudor arch of St Bartholomew the Great Church (built 1123) over to your left. Benjamin Franklin, one of Rev Price’s illustrious dining guests, worked here as a typesetter.

A Tale of Two Rebels : William Wallace & Wat Tyler
For the final scenes in this trail we will take our time to focus on just two characters.
Take two rebels: William ‘Braveheart’ Wallace and Wat Tyler.
William Wallace’s fame as a Scottish leader is probably best known through Mel Gibson’s ‘imaginative’ portrayal in the 1995 film Brave Heart. Wallace’s real story is worth the telling.
By the late 1290s Edward I, conqueror of Wales, expeller of Jews, ‘Hammer of the Scots’ – “A man does good business, when he rids himself of a turd” – believed he had conquered his troublesome northern neighbours.
However, the ‘turd’ had other ideas.
In 1297 Wallace’s rebel Army defeated the numerically superior English troops at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. Wallace fought on, rallying more support, while evading capture for another eight years before finally being imprisoned and taken to London for trial.
To the charge of treason, he answered with impeccable nationalist logic:
“I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject.”
Mockingly garlanded with oak leaves as King of the Outlaws, he was hung drawn and quartered at Smithfield. However his modern symbolic significance to many independence-seeking Scots is growing as the flags and other memorabilia draped around the plaque reveal.
Wat Tyler
“When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the Gentleman?’”
John Ball’s famous lines are well known but the subsequent lines, part of his open air address to the rebellious Peasants gathered at Blackheath in 1381, went on to enthusiastically recommend,
“…first killing the great lords of the realm, then slaying the lawyers, justices and jurors, and finally rooting out everyone whom they knew to be harmful to the community in future”.
Wat Tyler and his followers liked what they heard. Following the Black Death and subsequent shortage of serf labour, the long suffering peasants, finding their lowly bargaining power much increased, demanded a revolutionary shift in economic influence.
In June 1381 Tyler and his rebels from Kent reached London Bridge. Burning and murdering as they progressed, they crossed the River and attacked the City, destroying all symbols of tyranny, including the Savoy Palace, the Temple Law Buildings and St John’s Gate. By the time they had attacked the City they had already murdered the Archbishop of Canterbury and the King’s Treasurer. The King, Richard II, went into hiding.
Tyler demanded a face-to-face meeting with the King who, surrounded by advisers, agreed. The delegations met the following hot June day here at Smithfield; each on horseback, with the King accompanied by William Walworth, Lord Mayor of London .
What happened next is unclear. Tyler allegedly demanded a flagon of water; taking the flagon, “he rinsed his mouth in a very rude and disgusting fashion before the King’s face“.
Swords and daggers drawn, Tyler and Walworth grappled with each other; Tyler received blows to the head and neck from Walworth and others. Now badly wounded, Tyler tried to rally his side only to fall from his horse; the peasants dragged him away to safety.
But Walworth wasn’t finished, hunting Tyler down, he hauled him back to Smithfield, decapitating the Peasants’ leader and displaying his head on London Bridge.
The leaderless rebels, promised no recriminations by the King, slowly dispersed.
However, Richard soon defiantly promised class war without end.
“Rustics you were and rustics you are still: you will remain in bondage not as before but incomparably harsher. For as long as we live, we will strive to suppress you, and your misery will be an example in the eyes of posterity.”
The subsequent executions of local leaders – including John Ball – crushed the revolt, placing Richard and his kind firmly in the ascendancy.
Not bad for a boy-King, 14 years old.
Footnote: Richard, believing he was raised closer to God than to mortals, demanded to be a called his ‘His Royal Highness’ – a handy label which has not outlived its usefulness.
In the National Gallery, look out for the Wilton Dyptych: the young King kneels among Saints before Mary and her angels – the latter all respectfully wearing the White Hart, the King’s personal emblem
But what goes around comes around: in 1400, outmanoeuvred and surrounded by intrigue, Richard was imprisoned by his enemies in Pontefract Castle, where he is believed to have starved to death.
Perhaps for the sake of this walk we should give the final word to that admirable, imperturbable contrarian who has followed us all the way from the Green to Smithfield: Tom Paine.
His thoughts are etched on the tiny bronze epitaph low down on the Smithfield Wall:
“If the Barons merited a monument at Runnymede, then Tyler merited one at Smithfield.”
Highlights
Revolutionary Newington Green
The start of the walk features London’s oldest surviving brick terrace, also home to a fascinating illuminati of political radicals and activists>>
Wollstonecraft & the 'Birthplace of Feminism'
Maggie Hambling’s (in)famous statue of Mary Wollstonecraft stands glistening in Newington Green, with the nearby Unitarian Church happy to declare itself ‘the birthplace of feminism’>>
From the Old...
The walk features a host of fascinating historical architecture, including Canonbury and Clerkenwell Priories, The Angel, Charterhouse Square and Smithfield. All with a story to tell…
... To the New
Ultra-modern additions sit cheek to jowl with the centuries old, such as the ‘love it or hate it’ award winning design of 15 Clerkenwell Close or the “space-age greenhouse” at 40 Douglas Road (above).
Sedition, Rebellion and avoiding your taxi fare
Follow in the footsteps of Lenin and the Founding Fathers of the USA, Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin, and find the way to escape your cab fare at the historic Old Red Lion>>
A Tale of Two Rebels
At Smithfield follow the story of two of the nation’s most notorious rebels – William Wallace and Wat Tyler>>
Begin Walk
“The beginning is always today.”
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
Start: Newington Green
Start your walk in the centre of Newington Green where you can consider, not only Maggie Hambling’s (in)famous statue of Mary Wollstonecraft, but how the buildings around the Green and the people within them have shaped revolutionary forces around the world.
1
From the Green, facing away from the Unity Church, head south along the right side of the Green, along Newington Green Road for about 600m where, as the road swings left, you briefly enter St Pauls Place to turn immediately right into Northampton Park.
As you do, notice the low grey building on your left: Park Cottage opposite. See link below for an account of the secret ‘Dickensian scandal’ originating here.
2
Walk ahead along Northampton Park to the end where a pedestrian crossing takes you directly opposite into The New River (if closed, take the pathway on the left).
As you reach the end of the first section of the New River loo for the Marquess Tavern on your left. Just before this, exit to see the futuristic 40 Douglas Road…
See link below for an account of the 400 year story of this lovely, half-hidden, green way and its ultra-modern addition.
3
Continue ahead to re-enter the New River continuation; before leaving, check out the river watchman’s hut and the information board.
4
Exit the New River and swing immediately right, and right again to turn into Alwyne Villas which rises gently upwards away from you. Keeping to the righthand side, just before the junction at its end, note the old, long garden wall – with a black gate – on your right. This marks the line of the border wall of the mediaeval Canonbury Priory.
5
Take the small turn in to the cul-de-sac of Canonbury Place where smart Georgian houses stand on the site of the Priory (look out for the map on the wall). You are standing in what would have been the courtyard and garden. Looking into the Garden, look out for the tree with low spreading boughs near the far wall. This is a Mulberry tree believed to have been planted by Francis Bacon in an attempt to encourage silk production in England. The only remaining remnant of the Priory, built in the early 1500’s, is the Tower.
See link below for an account of the Tower and related political/romantic shenanigans.
6
Exit the cul-de-sac, turn right, crossover at the zebra crossing to face the Tower to achieve a better view. The modern houses behind you stand on the site of what were the Priory’s fishponds.
7
Next, cross back over the crossing to turn right and head into Canonbury Square, keeping to the left-hand pavement and following the square around on its southern side.
Although once described in 1956 by the Evening Standard as, “London’s most beautiful square” the square has seen some surprising rises and falls in its fortunes not least of which was soon after its creation in 1805 when Canonbury Road was driven through the centre, bisecting the square. The square has been home to an interesting, imaginary cocktail party of guests: George Orwell, Barbara Castle, Evelyn Waugh, Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Lulu.
8
Pass on along the capacious paved Terrace through the square into Canonbury Lane and then to merge ontp Upper Street after a further 100m.
At the traffic lights – diagonally across is the famous Hope and Anchor pub which has, in its steamy basement, staged many of pop music’s great names (and understandably for a pub venue, quite a few rubbish ones). The greats include The Specials, Dire Straits, The Clash, U2, Madness and Joy Division (the latter charging a spirit-of-the-age entry fee of just 75p…)
Turn left, and staying on the left side of Upper Street to better view the upper facades of buildings on the right. Notice how the architecture above the shops opposite varies enormously in age and style, largely based around original buildings starting in the 1700s. Note how they become slightly grander as we move towards the City.
9
Continue on the left-hand side of the street for another short distance to notice the rusty red of a modernist recreation: the Aria Building.
See link below for an account of the controversial approach to rebuilding a lost end of terrace.
Gaze along the line of the terrace as you proceed south to compare this version to the original end of terrace, a short distance along, on which the new Aria Building was based.
10
Look out for the pink Oliver Bonas store on the right and cross over, and if you have the self control to avoid the temptation to window shop, notice instead No.3 Terret’s Place. Opposite the fire station on your left don’t miss this little alleyway, “a singular little old-fashioned house up a blind street” as Dickens described the house directly ahead, No. 3, in Martin Chuzzlewit. Dickens set this as the home of Tom Pinch, loyal and kind-hearted assistant to the grasping, ambitious Seth Pecksniff. The Terrace has been dated by the finding of halfpenny dated 1724 while the atmosphere is well captured, especially at night, by the street lamp and No. 3’s door and windows.
11
Take the next right into Almeida Street, passing the Almeida Theatre on the left, to enter through the driveway on left into the newly created ‘Islington Square’. It’s worth raising your gaze at this point to notice the conversion of the 1900’s former Post Office flagship sorting complex on your right, now smart apartment buildings (spare your brain the ‘bad trip’ of the purple building on your left) and also the curved modern structure, further along on the left, sitting atop the shell of the 1906 Post Office.
12
Pass through the narrow piazza, continuing straight on to Theberton Street where you turn left to re-join Upper Street. Cross over and continue on down towards the Green, passing the Screen on your right. At Islington Green, turn left across the ‘top’ (north) side of the Green viewing Waterstones, formerly Collins Music Hall.
See link below for an account of the Screen’s place in cultural history.
13
Passing Waterstones, take the pedestrian crossing across Essex Road, to turn right and pick up Camden Passage which begins ahead through a narrow gap over to your left. Pass the Camden Head pub to savour the chi-chi delights of the Passage; note the dens of vintage knick-knack and jewellery shops tucked away on your left at Pierrepont Row.
14
Continue on to emerge a few hundred metres later, with an old Victorian terrace on your left and a large brick building on your right, formerly a tram shed, now a shopping mall. Continue on again to pass the York Pub and shortly after the Angel tube station.
15
Continue on again to the busy junction which constitutes The Angel. Cross over to the right (west) side to the Coop Bank and then cross again to continue straight ahead, down St John’s Street. After a short distance note the Old Red Lion pub on your left.
See features link below for an account of the nefarious goings in this area and especially this famous pub.
16
Continue down St John’s Street to turn in 150m, the first right, into Chadwell Street. Pass through Chadwell Street, noting the curious architectural details of the funeral company on the left, into Myddleton Square (built 1720s onwards and named after Sir Hugh Myddleton of New River fame).
Turn left into the square passing down the eastern and then southern side to soon pick up Myddleton Passage on your left. Turn here and follow the Passage, shortly left again into a cul-de-sac ending in a narrow alley about 150m ahead on the right. Pass through the alley to emerge at the side of Sadler’s Wells Theatre.
See features link below for an account of the theatre’s dubious origins.
17
Turn right to emerge at the front of the theatre, cross the road, then turn right heading slightly downhill, along Roseberry Avenue. Note the impressive redbrick Art Deco building opposite: formerly The Metropolitan Water Board Laboratories.
This often overlooked curving, art deco wonder (built 1938), next to Sadler’s Wells, was until recently the home of the Metropolitan Water Board’s Labs. Now apartments, the building is on the site of the head of the New River, encountered earlier, where the water from nearly 40 miles away was pumped into the City.
18
Continue on past the small park on your left, immediately passing Roseberry Hall where you will turn left into Garnault Place – note the Art Nouveau Finsbury Town Hall over to your right.
19
Proceed down Garnault Place and, in about 80m as the road swings left, crossover to head into Rosamon Street towards Spa Fields directly ahead (see features link below).
Pass through centre of the park – noting the grisly sign boards as you go – to emerge onto Northampton Road ahead.
20
Continue straight along. In 100m note the large Victorian school, ahead and over to your left, once the site of Clerkenwell Prison. You might notice that from here on the walk takes on a slightly mediaeval feel as we follow the old street patterns.
21
Continue on into Clerkenwell Close which shimmies around to your right, for 150m before emerging at a T-junction where you turn left to pass around the front of St James’s Church. See features link below for colourful character associations here.
22
Turn to see, opposite the church, 15 Clerkenwell Close: all stone and glass – another controversial Amin Taha design. See features link below for the tale of conflict, criticism and enthusiasm that surrounds this project. Approach to find the tiny hidden garden tucked away down the left hand side.
23
Continue past the church to emerge into Clerkenwell Green – which is hardly green at all – though you’re now in what was a thriving mediaeval crafts area, notably watch and clockmaking and trades allied to Smithfield.
24
Turn diagonally left to head for the far corner of the square, where you enter Aylesbury Street, then in 50m pick up the very small Jerusalem Passage on your right. Emerge from the passage into the tiny historic space known as St John’s Square. Note the neat Georgian terrace of Zetters’ Town House behind, on your right, and the Museum of the Order of St John on your left. The Museum stands on the site of the mediaeval Clerkenwell Priory (dating from 1185). Crossover to pass through St John’s Gate.
See features link below for an account of the Priory and the Gate’s Crusader association.
25
Continue on down St John’s Lane until, just before it is about to join St John Street, you take the smaller Peter’s Lane – ahead and slightly right – to emerge on to Cowcross Street.
26
Turn left heading towards the junction with St John Street where you will be facing the arched central entrance to Smithfield Market. Before passing through the arch take a detour to your left, along Charterhouse Street for about 60m to take the smaller fork into Charterhouse Square. Take a few minutes to explore this Square noting the interestingly eclectic range of architectural eras which surround you.
See features link below for an account of the history and recent discoveries in the Square.
27
Retrace your steps to pass through the major arch of Smithfield meat market and catch the information boards at the end on the left side.
28
Emerging from Smithfield market you are facing Smithfield Square.
Head across to the clearly blitz-scarred wall of Bart’s Hospital on the far side to our final point: the Memorials to William Wallace and Wat Tyler. Head towards the centre of the wall and the blue and white Scottish flag-draped Wallace Memorial first. Wat Tyler is celebrated on your left.
See features link below for an account of the two rebels differing battles with English ruling powers.
29
So… from ‘The Village that Changed the World’ through the heart of historical Islington and on to the turbulent setting of ‘Smoothfield’, taking in controversial figures – and architecture – along the way, we come to the end of the walk.
For directions back or onwards see Transport Link at the top.
Or Postman’s Park a few minutes away is a nice picnic spot…
Browse more walks…
Lucky you. I’ve walked several thousand miles of footpaths and city streets to distil out a choice selection of rambles for everyone to enjoy. There is no way of knowing whether a walk is worth doing except by walking the route every step of the way; a lot of terrible walks, dull vistas, and frankly boring trudges have been endured and discarded. Lucky me, I love walking and being outside so it’s all been worth it. I hope you can find the time to explore a route or two.
"Everywhere is within walking distance if you create the time..."
No 1 : Princes Risborough to Wendover
ST MARYLEBONE I MODERATE I 6.8m/11km
Leaving habitation behind you, spend the day following one of Britain’s most ancient trackways dating back 5000 years, possibly much further...
No 2 : Hampton Court to Richmond
WATERLOO/VAUXHALL I EASY/MODERATE I 7.8m/12.5k
A favourite walk bookended by the imposing Hampton Court Palace and the bare remains of Richmond Palace, along the Thames path and through diverse parks and meadows...
No 3 : Three London Parks
REGENT'S PARK I EASY I 5.6m/9k
Easy walking, people-watching in the parks, and chi-chi 'villages' ending on the splendid views and rambling of Hampstead Heath...
No 4 : Newington Green to Smithfield
CANONBURY I EASY I 3m/4.8k
An idiosyncratic trail of visual and historical curiosities taking in radicals, rebels and assorted contrarians along the way...
No 5 : London Bridge to Greenwich
LONDON BRIDGE I EASY/MODERATE I 5.6m/9k
A real treat for the soul, spending an entire walk following the course of the River Thames from the heart of the old City...
No 6 : Eynsford to Otford
VICTORIA/CHARING CROSS/BLACKFRIARS
I EASY/MODERATE I 6.8m/11km
A perennial favourite to introduce self-identifying 'non-walkers'. Stunning views of the length of the Darenth Valley, an impressive Roman Villa, a 'castle', a 'palace' and three typically Kentish villages...
No 7 : Eynsford Circular via Shoreham
VICTORIA/CHARING CROSS/BLACKFRIARS
I MODERATE I 8.2 - 9.1m/13.3 - 14.8km
A longer cousin of Walk No. 6, this route follows the lovely Darenth Valley on its western slopes and returns along the valley bottom. A landscape of hills, open views and a riverine return with a choice of picnic, pub or vineyard for the lunch stop...
No 8 : Sole Street Circular
VICTORIA/ST PANCRAS INTERNATIONAL
I MODERATE I 8.8m/14.2km
Continuously undulating chalk hills and farmland welcome you with vineyards and gorgeous valley views, including a welcome and timely lunch stop at a splendid Kentish scene of a windmill and pub overlooking the local cricket pitch...
No 9 : Guildford St Martha's Church Circular
WATERLOO I MODERATE I 7.7m/12.4km
Along the meandering River Wey via an old watermill to an ascent along ancient pilgrim paths under open skies and woodland, tracking the North Downs Way and the Pilgrims' Way, including an aerobic climb to the perfectly located St Martha’s Chapel for a rest and lunch...

No 10 : Greenwich to London Bridge via Limehouse & Wapping
ISLAND GARDENS I EASY I 5.5m/8.8km
The sister walk to Route 5.
Follow the north bank’s Thames Path all the way from the Isle of Dogs to the City through a random procession of history and eccentricity…