Living on the Edge: Hidden Holborn and Little Italy

Some of the most interesting areas around the City of London are places lived in and worked in by people who were not based inside it but needed to be near it. A great example is the area just north of Holborn, on the north-western edge of the City.

A medieval bishop's palace (you can still go into the crypt, built in the 1270's): a Tudor-era pub down a narrow alley: multiple diamond dealers and the site of a famous heist by geriatric thieves (the "diamond wheezers"): London's first social housing project: a half-timbered Tudor hall which survived the Great Fire: we see all these on the walk.

We also focus on exploring "Little Italy": not much recognised now, in the 1800's a few streets here were teeming with Italian immigrants, both middle-class artisans making barometers and poorer people selling ice cream and playing barrel organs.