CITY STROLLS

Explore the capital on three city routes filled with history

WORDS CHRISTOPHER BEANLAND

This image: The Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner used to serve as an outer gate to Buckingham Palace

A Grand Tour

STEP INTO THE QUEEN’S BACKYARD TO ADMIRE BELGRAVIA’S GRAND ARCHITECTURE AND FANCY SHOPS

Clockwise, from above: Knightsbridge tube station sign; Peggy Porschen bakery; the National Audit Office; Buckingham Palace; Motcombs brasserie; Harrods department store B elgravia is an affluent district of Central London which enjoyed its time in the spotlight following the recent release of Julian Fellowes’ TV adaptation of his novel Belgravia. We begin this guided walk at Sloane Square tube station. Immediately next door is the Royal Court Theatre, which is noted for its much more highbrow and writer-led productions than many of the mainstream West End theatres.

Walk down Sedding Street to admire a second world-class venue. Cadogan Hall is set inside a former 1907 church and a renowned home for classical music – the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is the resident ensemble here. Head east for a coffee and cupcake at Peggy Porschen, the photogenic pink bakery and café where you can also sip Champagne with your muffin.

Head north to Chester Square, an elegant residential enclave with the 1840s St Michael’s Church at one end. Number 73 was the home of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for 22 years, until her death in 2013.

Continue to Eaton Square. Developed around six large gardens, the oblong square was laid out by the wealthy Grosvenor family when much of Belgravia was being built in the 1800s. The square was the both the fictional home of James Bond and the real home of two actors who played him, Roger Moore and Sean Connery.

Continuing northwest, Belgravia becomes a very international affair with the embassies of dozens of countries clustered around Belgrave Square Gardens in Regency stucco residences. Embassies for everywhere from Finland and Germany to Bahrain and Malaysia can be spotted by those with an eye for which flag is which.

On the opposite side of Grosvenor Place, a high wall topped with wire hides the expansive private gardens of the Queen at Buckingham Palace. From Hyde Park Corner you can enter Green Park or Hyde Park, two of London’s eight Royal Parks, while the Wellington Arch commemorates the Duke of Wellington and was built by Decimus Burton as an outer gate to the palace before it was relocated here in the 1880s. Stroll down Knightsbridge past five-star hotels The Lanesborough and The Berkeley and turn left to Motcomb Street. With its manicured trees, Victorian lampposts and red telephone box, this quaint pedestrianised street is picture-perfect London. The high-end boutiques and restaurants include Rococo chocolatiers and Motcombs brasserie. West of here, two more historic garden squares have lush gardens that are sadly only accessible to residents – but the celebrated greenery of Lowndes Square and Hans Place are worth peering into. Further west is perhaps the most famous department store in London, Harrods. Established here in 1849 by Charles Henry Harrod, the store has counted Oscar Wilde, Charlie Chaplin and many

A high wall topped with wire members of the Royal hides the expansive private gardens Family among its regular customers. The glamorous of the Queen Grade II-listed dining hall is especially impressive, as is its toy department. Travel northeast to the junction with Knightsbridge to admire the modern lines of One Hyde Park, a residential and apartment complex built in 2009 by Richard Rogers, the British architect famed for his work on the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Next door is the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, which first opened its doors in 1902 as the Hyde Park Hotel. The entrance is famously on Knightsbridge as the Queen won’t allow hotel advertising to appear facing a Royal Park – guests can request to use the so-called “royal entrance” on special occasions though. Opposite is Harvey Nichols, another department store which was founded in 1831 but opened in this purpose-built space in 1894. Browse high-end fashion or dine in the fifth-floor restaurant, before concluding your tour at Knightsbridge tube station, where you can catch a Piccadilly Line train.

A Legal March

EXPLORE LONDON’S POLITICAL AND LEGAL HISTORY IN TEMPLE AND LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS

This page, from top to bottom: The Old Bank of England Pub; Sir John Soane’s Museum; The Law Society Hall on Chancery Lane

CHRIS DORNEY/SPATULATAIL/SHUTTERSTOCK/BRIAN ANTHONY/CLIVE COLLIE/MAURITIUS IMAGES GMBH/ALAMY/DURSTON SAYLOR © PHOTOS: T emple sits at the heart of London’s legal district. Begin your walk at Temple underground station, a quaint 1870 stop on the District Line with preserved features, including original tiling. A statue of the famous Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel sits around the corner from the station entrance.

Victoria Embankment Gardens is a popular spot for solicitors to take their lunch on warm days, with views right across the River Thames. Next door is Middle Temple Gardens. Middle Temple is one of the four “Inns of Court” to which leading barristers belong. Its famous hall dates from the 1500s and includes timbers from the Golden Hind, Sir Francis Drake’s galleon with which he circumnavigated the globe in 1580.

Facing the gardens is Two Temple Place, formerly Astor House, the home and offices of the millionaire William Waldorf Astor, who moved here from New York. It’s a strange late Victorian stone interpretation of an Elizabethan mansion that today stages art exhibitions.

At the top of the street is St Clement Danes, one of a number of London churches by Sir Christopher Wren, whose masterwork is St Paul’s Cathedral, which you can spy rising above the skyline if you look east.

At 216 Strand, just on your right, you can find the oldest tea shop in London. Twining’s have been importing tea and selling it here to the good folk of the capital since 1706 and today you can buy a box, order a refreshing cup at the sampling bar or take a tea masterclass.

Cross the busy Strand thoroughfare and you’re greeted by The Royal Courts of Justice. This Neo-Gothic pile contains the High Court and Court of Appeal, two of the most important judiciary bodies in England and Wales. Its frontage is instantly familiar as many TV news broadcasts on great cases take place outside.

Next door is the Old Bank of England, a lavish satellite branch built in the 1880s in Italianate style, which today has been reinvented as a pub popular with legal workers.

North on Chancery Lane are more legal offices and The Law Society Hall, the headquarters of the industry body which has stood in Gothic grandeur since the 1830s. Northwest of here is Lincoln’s Inn, another of the four Inns of Court. Its varied buildings have parts dating back to the 16th century and are still used by lawyers today. In Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, the menacing Mr Tulkinghorn has his fictional offices there. The gardens in the Lincoln’s Inn Fields square are very popular when the sun comes out, offering plenty of picnicking possibilities. The green space was contained by railings in the mid-18th century after Sir Joseph Jekyll was run over by a horse – legend has it the “accident” occurred after he supported Parliament’s raising of the price of gin. Also on the square is Sir John Soane’s Museum. The striking Neoclassical frontage of the building was by the famous Regency architect himself and served as his home in the 1800s. The museum today The gardens in the Lincoln’s celebrates his work and is Inn Fields square offer plenty stuffed with all kinds of art and classical ephemera of picknicking possibilities collected on his travels. Just north of here is the sumptuous, five-star Rosewood Hotel. If you can’t afford the princely sum to stay here, it is still worth sampling an award-winning afternoon tea in the Mirror Room or enjoying a nightcap at Scarfes Bar. Running north to south, the mighty Kingsway is unlike most London streets – in fact it is one of London’s widest, more akin to a Haussmannian boulevard in Paris. This is because the street was laid out only in the early 20th century, usurping old rookeries, alleys and yards in this area of Holborn. The street was unique in having a tram tunnel running under it before London’s trams were phased out after the Second World War. You can peer into the tunnel’s entrance near to Holborn tube station and wonder what lurks below – it is, in fact, an entrance to the construction sites for London’s new Crossrail project, the Elizabeth Line, scheduled to open in 2022. For now, our tour ends inside the busy Holborn station, a stop on both the Central and Piccadilly Lines.

This page, clockwise from bottom right: Scarfes Bar; St Clement Danes church; a statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel; Twinings tea shop

A Highbrow Stroll

HEAD TO HAMPSTEAD AND THE HEATH FOR A LEAFY LITERARY JAUNT

Hampstead is hardly London at all; its acres of open space and historic architecture make you think you’ve landed in a provincial English spa town like Harrogate – and in fact Hampstead was itself once a small-scale spa resort.

But our tour begins at Hampstead underground station, which reminds you that we are very definitely in London, as you can get up here from Leicester Square in the very centre of the city in a quick 15 minutes on the Northern Line. Hampstead’s is a small, appealing tube station faced in fiery terracotta tiles and, because its entrance is located almost at the top of a hill, it’s also the deepest in the capital, with the platforms almost 200 feet below the surface, hence the need for lifts.

Head into the High Street, Hampstead’s main shopping thoroughfare, then into the centuries-old alleyway of Flask Walk. Spring water used to be bottled and sold in “flasks” here and The Flask public house has been redecorated in a modern style and is noted for its excellent Sunday roasts.

On the left you’ll see Burgh House, which dates from 1704. Its Queen Anne splendour has been home to such luminaries as author Rudyard Kipling’s daughter Elsie. Today it is preserved as Hampstead Museum – inside you can learn all about the history of this fascinating area.

Further up on Well Walk, The Wells Tavern and the charming old Chalybeate Well are yet more reminders of the watery past of this former spa. Number 40 (marked by an English Heritage blue plaque) was the home of celebrated Romantic artist John Constable. Although more famous for his serene paintings of the Suffolk and Essex lowlands, Constable spent several years in Hampstead prior to his death in 1837.

Five minutes west of here we find The Admiral’s House on Admiral’s Walk which was painted by Constable in his 1821 work The Grove, Hampstead. The house was owned by a ship’s captain who wanted the roofs to look like the decks of a ship. Nearby is the National Trust’s Fenton House, a handsome 1690s residence with an orchard that has been producing fruit for centuries.

Head north, passing Whitestone Pond, which was used for horses to drink from for hundreds of years. A little further still is the puzzling sight of Jack Straw’s Castle. Straw was a rebel who led the Peasants’ Revolt against Richard II in 1381, caused by a pandemic (the Black Death) and the economic and political uncertainty generated by it. Unsurprisingly historians have been keenly reading up about its events of late. Straw was said to have taken shelter on the site and a pub named for him has existed here for centuries; famous drinkers included Charles Dickens. Although the current building appears very old indeed, it only dates from 1964.

Suitably refreshed, it’s time for a longer walk north along Spaniard’s Road, with your first taste of Hampstead Heath on each side. This ancient heath sprawls across almost 800 acres and with its many ponds and viewpoints remains one of London’s most popular green spaces.

Head past the cute Toll Gate House where the road narrows considerably and where you once had to pay to drive through – the tollman was stationed here to collect drivers’ money. The Spaniard’s Inn, opposite, is a historic pub with a lovely, large beer garden out the back. Dating from the 1500s, this atmospheric pub has welcomed all comers over the years – including highway robber Dick Turpin. It is also mentioned in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

A little further northeast is Kenwood. Managed by English Heritage, this sumptuous stately home was built in the 1600s for the Earls of Mansfield. There are numerous paintings inside by the likes of JMW Turner and Rembrandt, and sculptures outside by 20th-century British talents Dame Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore.

Cross the Heath now in a southerly direction. Parliament Hill is at the summit of the Heath and from the viewpoint you can see glorious vistas of London spread out before you, spotting landmarks like Big Ben and St Paul’s.

From here a pathway leads down to a street also called Parliament Hill. The first house on the right, Number 77, was once home to George Orwell, firebrand writer. Head steeply downhill to Keats Grove is Keats House, the home of – you guessed it – Romantic poet John Keats. He wrote Ode to A Nightingale in the garden, and today it’s a museum to his life and works.

A minute north at 2 Willow Road is the house that the Hungarian architect Ernö Goldfinger built for himself in 1939. A modernist rarity round these parts, its aesthetic legendarily upset James Bond creator Ian Fleming, who chose the architect’s surname for a Bond villain. In a comedic twist, a copy of Fleming’s novel Goldfinger sits on the architect’s bookcase upstairs in the house.

Retrace your steps down South End Road to Hampstead Heath station, where this tour concludes.

TREASURE TRAILS GIVEAWAY

If you enjoy self-guided strolls, the Treasure Trails series (www.treasuretrails.co.uk) are ideal: 49 themed walks take you through London’s backstreets and hidden corners (plus there are many more trails nationwide). You crack clues along the way to solve a puzzle at the end of each trail, and they’re suitable for adults and children alike. We have 15 Treasure Trails to give away, worth £9.99 each. Go to www.britain-magazine.com/treasure to enter.

Clockwise, from top right: 2 Willow Road; Fenton House; The Spaniard's Inn; independent shops along Flask Walk; Kenwood House; Back Lane in Hampstead