Hidden London & The Regents Canal; Monday 9th June. Our Guide will meet your coach on Newgate Street at 10.30am for morning coffee in Paternoster Square – a cup of tea or coffee is included. We are in the precincts of the Cathedral and Paternoster Square and the surrounding street names remind us of the processions of the mediaeval clergy. In this bright and modern square we see Christopher Wren’s Temple Bar Gate that once marked entry into the Square Mile. Across the road we discover Christ Church Greyfriars where four Queens were buried. The friary church was destroyed in the Great Fire and today, set in an attractive little garden, we see the ruins of the Wren church that replaced it and, which itself was destroyed during the Blitz. Before the Great Fire there were over 100 churches in the Square Mile and just across the road we discover another garden that unites the rest of the old Greyfriars churchyard with that of another lost church plus one still standing to form one of the largest open spaces in the City. Known as Postman’s Park it is home to the very touching Art Nouveau ceramic plaques of the Watts Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice – ordinary people who died while saving the lives of others and who might otherwise be forgotten. It was here that the flames of the Great Fire died to embers leaving traces of the old City at the historic Smithfield which had long been London’s meat market as well as a place of execution. We visit London’s oldest Parish church, approached from beneath a Tudor gatehouse and alongside some mediaeval cloth merchants houses. The austere Norman beauty of St. Bartholomew the Great has provided the backdrop for the filming of Roger Moore’s Ivanhoe back in the 1950s to Four Weddings and a Funeral and Shakespeare in Love more recently. Your tour guide will pick out some wonderful features – this is a very memorable visit.
For lunch we stay in Smithfield for a choice of pubs and cafes.
Our relaxing narrow boat cruise is on London’s hidden waterway – the Regents Canal. We begin the 50-minute journey from Little Venice, a delightful pool surrounded by opulent Regency houses and end at the flagged and cobbled courtyard of Camden Lock. Elegant town houses line the first stretch and soon we are gliding through the green splendour of Regents Park, past the terraces of London Zoo. Our Guide will explain points of interest along the way as you sit back to enjoy life at four miles an hour.
The day finishes at Camden Lock where options include a lovely Wetherspoons for refreshments before heading home at 4.45pm. Price £60.00 per person coach will depart Stevenage at 08.30
Hidden London & The Regents Canal; Monday 9th June (Sold out)
Day Trips