Rating: 5
VERIFIED
Explore the macabre history of "Smooth Field" aka Smithfield on this special London Month of the Dead walking tour with historical guide PETE SMITH.
In medieval times Smithfield was used as a brutal public execution ground ‘Braveheart' William Wallace and Wat Tyler, leader of the Peasants’ Revolt, not to mention some 200 ‘heretics’ in the reign of Mary Tudor, met their grisly ends here as well as doubling up as a meat market, which has existed for a thousand years and still supplies the capital's restaurants and shops. The current market building was designed by Sir Horace Jones, the Victorian architect of Tower Bridge.
We will hear of revolution, subterranean secrets, stories of some of the capital’s finest pubs and of how Londoners once managed, quite legally, to sell their wives at Smithfield. Pete will also highlight the area’s links to bodysnatching, the case of one of London's most famous ghosts - and the history of Bartholomew Fair – the most debauched and drunken holiday in the calendar - which lasted for seven centuries before being killed off by the prurience of the Victorians.
Each ticket includes a 20% donation towards a host of restoration projects at Kensal Green Cemetery.
Pete Smith is a Devon-born academic who has
lived in London since the age of ten. Since retiring as Head of
English and Dean of Arts at Brunel University a job he describes as
very like managing the salad bar at Smithfield Meat Market, he has
reinvented himself as a City of London and City of Westminster
guide and freelance lecturer.
Ticket | Event time | Cost |
---|---|---|
Death and Debauchery
A Guided Tour of Smithfield |
11:00 - 12:30 | £12.00 |
Death and Debauchery - Afternoon ticket | 14:00 - 15:30 | £12.00 |
Address
Panyer Alley Exit from St. Paul's Underground Station, 30, Newgate Street, London, EC1M 8AD
Nearest Station
St. Pauls (Tube)
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