St Bartholomew the Great and Smithfield

Take a look at that little black-and-white Tudor house perched on a stone arch. The arch was the doorway of the medieval church; the house was built on top in 1595. For centuries it lay hidden behind a brick front, and it only reappeared when a Zeppelin bomb damaged it during the First World War.

1Rahere's vision

Behind it stands St Bartholomew the Great, founded in 1123 by Rahere, a courtier of Henry I. According to the Book of the Foundation, written in the 12th century, Rahere fell ill with malaria on a pilgrimage to Rome and vowed to found a hospital if he recovered. Once he was well, St Bartholomew appeared to him in a dream and asked for a church at Smithfield. The hospital and the priory were born together, and both are still here. His tomb is inside the church, and some say his ghost walks it.

2The field of executions

Smithfield, the ‘smooth field’, was a livestock market and also a place of punishment. On 23 August 1305, William Wallace, hero of Scottish independence, was executed here. In 1381 Wat Tyler, leader of the Peasants' Revolt, died on this open ground, and in the 1550s dozens of Protestants were burned at the stake under Mary I.

The plaque to Wallace on the hospital wall is hardly ever without flowers.

3What to look for

• The Tudor house above the 13th-century arch.
• The William Wallace plaque on the hospital wall.
• Smithfield Market, the great Victorian building on the north side of the square.