Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
From here you can make your way to Wine Office Court and Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese,
a favourite haunt of his. It began life as houses, built just after the Great Fire, but the façade
onto the Court is eighteenth century. The interior is highly atmospheric, although the fit-
tings are mostly early to mid-nineteenth century, rather than dating from Johnson's day. It
certainly gives an excellent idea of what a tavern interior must have been like in Jane's
time.
The elaborate 'wedding cake' tiers of St Bride's spire seen from
Ludgate Circus.
Rejoin Fleet Street, which leads us downhill into the valley of the River Fleet at Ludgate
Circus. If you look up to the right as you descend you will see the Wren spire of St Bride's
Church. The legend is that it inspired Mr Rich, a Georgian pastry cook, to create the tiered
wedding cakes that are now traditional.
Pause when you reach Ludgate Circus, built in 1864-75 on the site of the Fleet Bridge.
To your left is Farringdon Street, formerly Fleet Market. The river was gradually covered
over to give space for stalls until, by 1829, it was reduced to the mere drain that still runs
down to the Thames beneath your feet.
The Pass-Room at the Bridewell in 1808. Single women with their ba-
bies are locked up for their 'loose behaviour'. At least they had their
own beds, even if the mattresses were simply a pile of straw.
To the right is New Bridge Street, constructed in 1764 over the lower part of the river,
which by then had become a foetid sewer. The new street provided access to the first Black-
friars Bridge, opened in 1769. It was replaced with the present bridge in 1869.
