Notorious London - a walk for adults only

Robbery, murder, prostitution, fraud, bankruptcy - it's all here in this walk. Once again we return to the Fleet River, all but invisible today but an erstwhile open sewer flowing through the most desperate neighbourhoods of London.

The walk starts at Blackfriars Underground (Circle & District and Overground zone 1) and ends at Farringdon (Metropolitan, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Overground zone 1). There is not much left to see of the places described, so you will have to use your imagination. Some aspects of the walk are lurid and unsavoury, so my advice is that the sound file should be heard by over 15's unless you have listened to the walk in advance. The walk is best enjoyed on a weekday, as it passes through part of the Inner Temple and the route chosen might not be open during the weekend.

We kick off with the unsolved mystery of Roberto Calvi who was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge, weighed down and with his pockets full of money. The route takes us through the site of the former Fleet Prison and the former Bridewell royal palace and prison where convicted prostitutes were publicly flogged to entertain the curious and encourage other offenders to cease and desist from their ways. Many of the prostitutes plied their trades in the prisons themselves, encouraged by the warders and governor who made a tidy sum out of the business.

Lawyers did their business in one of the inns of court (see my Legal London walk) and on this route they jostled and fought with the criminal fraternity in the Whitefriars/Alsatia area outside their gates. An early example of physicians curing themselves, or perhaps not.

We cross Holborn Viaduct and get a fine view over London towards the River Thames before descending into Shoe Lane, another notorious place where respectable people would not be seen dead, or if they were they might if you see what I mean. Here cutpurses would routinely relieve them of their money and maybe sell their cash back to them shortly afterwards. Here also was Mother Clap's Molly House, a male brothel.

Rest assured the locality is far more respectable nowadays, and the site of Farringdon - terminus of the world's first underground railway hoves into view up Greville St where the walk ends. Little more than a stroll really, and as I say it's not the most attractive part of London but stuffed full of history, much of it of the worst kind.