Open House Festival

Empire City walking tour

walk/tour

Sir Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke, 1677

Old Billingsgate Walk, EC3R 6DX

Want to understand the British Empire? Start with a walk around the City of London. We meet by the River Thames and will follow the money and the architecture to uncover where it all began. This is where the companies that started the empire were based, with banking and insurance giants that still exist today. There aren’t any plaques to guide the way, but the Square Mile tells its own story.

Getting there

Tube

Monument, Tower Hill

Train

Fenchurch Street, London Bridge

Bus

388

Additional travel info

Meeting point: On the River Thames at Old Billingsgate Walk, EC3R 6DX, in front of Old Billingsgate market.

Access

Facilities

Accessibility notes

Tour ends: Lloyds of London, 1 Lime St, London EC3M 7HA

What you can expect

The route is likely to be busy as we make our way through the City with office workers and commuters. Traffic and dual-carriageways

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Activities

Sat 13 Sep

Walking tour

10:30–12:00

Empire City guided tour

How to book

Please create a free visitor account to book your festival tickets.

Mon 15 Sep

Walking tour

10:30–12:00

Empire City guided tour

How to book

Please create a free visitor account to book your festival tickets.

About

Let’s walk and talk

LONDON is one of the most popular cities on the planet yet in the UK, it’s a national hobby to dislike it. Many who live outside it wouldn’t drive 50 miles to see it. They say “you can keep London”. They say it’s full of pollution, politics and expensive pints. To the office worker there’s another story: London means a long commute, crowded trains and the 9-to-5. The greatest virtue to them is that they can get in and out quickly. Even to Londoners, the city is a mystery. It comes with a history which many don’t like - but others don’t know. How is it that so little is known about a city so big?

London is lost and needs to be rediscovered. London started as a Roman city, becoming a royal city, a cathedral city, a capital city and more recently an Olympic city. But it’s also an empire city and that history is hiding in plain sight.

About your guide

IN THE UK, we’re not great at talking about the British Empire. When Natalie started this project, she was surprised to find there wasn’t already a walking tour that addressed it. As you step into the City of London, there’s no museum or gallery to tell the story, yet its legacy is all around. Natalie created this tour to make that hidden history visible, connecting the dots between the streets, buildings, and institutions that shaped the Empire that still influence the world today.

Golden Key Academy

THIS tour is led by a graduate of Open City’s Golden Key Academy - an eight-month course designed to train insightful and engaging guides who bring London’s rich stories to life.

Online presence

chalkmarks.co.uk/europe/uk/england/london/how-i-got-to-the-heart-of-the-british-empire-my-steps-on-becoming-a-london-tour-guide

Nearby

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