Free walking tours in London

1. Morning

   From Nelson to the royal balcony: picture-postcard London

   Essentials · 2.6 km · 2 h

   1. Trafalgar SquareLondon's great square celebrates a naval battle fought off Cádiz and the admiral who died winning it.
   2. Horse Guards and the Banqueting HouseMotionless horsemen on one side of the street and, on the other, the window Charles I stepped through to the scaffold.
   3. Big Ben and the Palace of WestminsterA fire in 1834 gave London its most famous skyline, and the bell everyone calls Big Ben cracked within months.
   4. Westminster AbbeyEnglish monarchs have been crowned here since 1066, and above its door stands an archbishop from El Salvador.
   5. St James's ParkLondon's oldest royal park has had pelicans since 1664 and, from its bridge, the loveliest view of the palace.
   6. Buckingham PalaceA duke's house turned into the world's most famous palace, with a balcony that has seen more than a century of history.

2. Afternoon

   From Londinium to Wren's dome: two thousand years in the City

   History · 2.7 km · 2 h

   1. The Roman wall at Tower HillThe stones that enclosed Londinium still stand beside the Tube station, guarded by a bronze emperor.
   2. The Tower of LondonThe fortress William the Conqueror built to keep an eye on Londoners has been a palace, a prison, an arsenal and a mint.
   3. The Monument to the Great FireA 61-metre column whose height matches the distance to the bakery where the fire of 1666 began.
   4. The Royal Exchange and BankLondon's first exchange was born at this junction, named by a queen and is still crowned by a golden grasshopper.
   5. Guildhall and the Roman amphitheatreThe City has been governed from here for six centuries, right above the arena where Romans watched gladiators fight.
   6. St Paul's CathedralChristopher Wren's masterpiece: the dome that rose from the ashes of 1666 and survived the bombs of 1940.

3. Early evening

   Ghosts, hangmen and a demon barber

   Mysteries & legends · 2.9 km · 2 h

   1. London StoneA block of limestone behind glass in an office front, on which London's fortunes depend, according to a fake prophecy.
   2. St Sepulchre and the Newgate bellOpposite the old Newgate Prison, this church keeps the handbell that announced their last night to the condemned.
   3. The Golden Boy of Pye Corner and Cock LaneA plump golden boy marks where the Great Fire stopped, on the corner of the street of the 18th century's most famous ghost.
   4. St Bartholomew the Great and SmithfieldA vision in Rome, London's oldest church still in use and the open ground where William Wallace was executed.
   5. St Dunstan-in-the-West and Sweeney ToddTwo giants striking the hours, a statue of Elizabeth I said to be made in her lifetime and fiction's most fearsome barber.
   6. Temple ChurchThe round church of the Knights Templar, with stone knights lying on the floor and a secret invented by a novel.

Where to eat. Try Fish and chips at The Rock & Sole Plaice.