Running tour · London

Crown, River, Money

11.4 mi from Russell Square to The Bloomsbury

Open in Stride Stories

The stories on this route

1. Russell Square and Bloomsbury

   There you go. Settle in, nice and easy. Head out of the square's southwest corner and down Montague Street.

2. The British Museum

   That long wall of pale stone on your right is the back of the British Museum.

3. Seven Dials

   Coming up is Seven Dials, where seven streets meet at a single column.

4. Covent Garden

   Head down toward the market. This is Covent Garden, and the name is a clue. It was once the convent garden, the walled vegetable plot of the monks of Westminster Abbey.

5. St Martin-in-the-Fields and Trafalgar Square

   That's St Martin-in-the-Fields, and the name tells you how rural this used to be: the fields between the City and Westminster. The church you see was built in the 1720s, and its design, a temple front with a steeple on top, was copied again and again across America.

6. Admiralty Arch and the Mall

   Head through the great stone arch at the southwest corner. That's Admiralty Arch, built in 1912 by King Edward the Seventh in memory of his mother, Queen Victoria.

7. Buckingham Palace

   And there it is. Buckingham Palace, with the golden Victoria Memorial in front of it.

8. Birdcage Walk and the fight for power

   This road is Birdcage Walk, named after the royal aviary kept along here from the reign of James the First, and expanded by Charles the Second.

9. Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament

   Here we are. Parliament Square, with the Palace of Westminster in front of you. Listen.

10. Westminster Abbey

    On your right now, with the two square towers, is Westminster Abbey, and this is where our two-cities story began.

11. Lambeth Bridge and the Gunpowder Plot

    This is Lambeth Bridge. It's painted red, and Westminster Bridge, downstream, is green. The colours match the leather benches inside Parliament: red for the House of Lords, which is at this end, and green for the House of Commons, at the far end.

12. St Thomas' and Wordsworth

    You're passing St Thomas' Hospital. In 1860, Florence Nightingale, fresh from the Crimean War, set up one of the world's first professional schools of nursing at St Thomas'. There's a museum to her in the grounds.

13. The London Eye and the South Bank

    Here's the London Eye, a hundred and thirty-five metres tall. It went up for the millennium in 2000, with permission to stay for just five years. It's still here, and it's become as much a symbol of London as Big Ben. It turns so slowly, about once every half hour, that it never stops.

14. Waterloo Bridge, the frost fairs and the Great Stink

    You're passing under Waterloo Bridge. The current one was built during the Second World War, and because so many men were away fighting, much of the work was done by women. Londoners sometimes call it the Ladies' Bridge.

15. Oxo Tower and Blackfriars

    Look up at the brick tower ahead. The windows spell out Oxo, on every side. The stock cube company owned this building in the 1920s and was refused permission for an illuminated advert. So they had the architect build the name into the windows, and technically it isn't an advert.

16. Tate Modern, the Millennium Bridge and Shakespeare's Globe

    First, the huge brick building with the single chimney. That's Tate Modern, which used to be Bankside Power Station. It was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, who also designed the red telephone box. Since 2000 it has been one of the most visited modern art galleries in the world.

17. The Clink, the Golden Hinde and Southwark Cathedral

    The path narrows here into Clink Street. For centuries this whole district belonged to the Bishops of Winchester, and the ruined wall with the round rose window is all that's left of their palace. The bishops ran this district and licensed its brothels, and the women who worked in them were known as Winchester geese.

18. London Bridge, the reason London exists

    You're about to pass under London Bridge. Everything we've seen today exists because of this spot.

19. Tower Bridge

    This is Tower Bridge. It's the bridge everybody pictures when they think of London Bridge, and it's younger than it looks. It opened in 1894. Underneath that Gothic stone is a steel frame. The stone was added to match the Tower of London next door.

20. The Tower of London

    At the end of the bridge, head left, with the walls of the Tower of London on your left.

21. The Monument and the Great Fire

    The tall column ahead is the Monument, and it marks the Great Fire of London.

22. Leadenhall, Lloyd's and the money

    Coming up on your right is Leadenhall Market, all painted iron and glass. The market building is Victorian, designed by the same architect who designed Tower Bridge, Horace Jones.

23. Bank

    This junction is Bank, the heart of the City's money.

24. Cheapside and Bow Bells

    Cheapside means market place, from the Old English ceapan, to buy. In the Middle Ages this was one of London's main produce markets, and the side streets tell you what was sold on each: Bread Street, Milk Street, Poultry and Honey Lane. The poet John Milton was born on Bread Street.

25. St Paul's Cathedral and the Old Bailey

    St Paul's Cathedral. There's been a church dedicated to St Paul on this hilltop since the year 604. The one before this, old St Paul's, burned in the Great Fire. Christopher Wren designed its replacement, and it took thirty-five years to build.

26. Smithfield

    You're heading into Smithfield, the old smooth field outside the City walls, and a field of blood.

27. Hatton Garden and heading home

    This street is Hatton Garden, London's jewellery quarter. It's named after Sir Christopher Hatton, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth the First. It's said he first caught her eye with his dancing. She made him Lord Chancellor, and leaned on the Bishop of Ely until he handed over part of his London palace garden.

28. Lamb's Conduit Street and the Foundling Hospital

    This is Lamb's Conduit Street, named after William Lamb, who paid to rebuild a public water conduit here in 1564. Today it's one of the nicest little shopping streets in London, with two old pubs, the Lamb and the Perseverance.

29. Queen Square and the finish

    Then comes Queen Square. Legend says that when King George the Third was being treated nearby for his mental illness, Queen Charlotte kept his favourite foods in the cellar of the pub on the corner, which is still called the Queen's Larder.

30. The finish: The Bloomsbury

    That's it. You've done it. You've run about ten miles and two thousand years. Roman bridge, Saxon market, a king's execution, a gunpowder plot, a burning Parliament, a burning city, a Blitz, a bus that jumped a bridge, and a gang of pensioners with a diamond drill.

Stories researched September 2026 · every fact checked against a source