The Walls of London walking tour - Saturday 11 May 2024 10am

Join Open City for a walking tour exploring how London’s ancient walls have shaped our city for centuries

This insightful walking tour along the route of the ruined London Wall — led by City of London guide Paul Lincoln — chronicles how the protective stone barrier, which was originally built by the Romans, has been adapted, demolished, covered up, revealed by the blitz, and even rediscovered by recent building works.

The impact of London’s wall on the historic City of London and the wider capital is immense and yet it is rarely celebrated, noticed or understood. The recent building of the London Wall Place office development by Make — featuring a series of new skywalks — has however shone a light on some new aspects of these ancient fortifications.

Participants will discover the extraordinary history of the wall, its constantly changing appearance, its impact on surrounding neighbourhoods, its relationship with nearby buildings old and new, and the role it played as a symbol of division in medieval society — deterring physical threats, but also separating members of society into ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders.’

London Wall has survived the plague, the Blitz and is likely to survive the social and economic upheavals brought by Covid-19. The tour will use the history, and surviving structure of London’s ancient wall, to open up discussions about how public spaces are used by local residents, visitors and workers and the ways in which the Square Mile responded to the impact of Covid-19. 

Key information

Tour start point: Meet the guide inside The City Wall at Vine Street, 12 Jewry Street London EC3N 2HT.

Walk starts at 10am (Café is open from 9am)

Walking tour duration: 2.5 hours approx

End: Ludgate Hill

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Paul Lincoln edits Landscape, the journal of the Landscape Institute. He is a member of the City of London Guide Lecturers' Association and lives on Golden Lane Estate where he coordinates the campaign: Imagine Golden Lane at Net Zero. He has an interest in the politics of the City of London as well as post-war architecture, landscape and urban design. Paul has an MA in Cities, Design and Regeneration and is a member of East London Printmakers. walkingcity.co.uk He has been guiding tours with Open City since 2016.