BLOOD, FIRE AND PESTILENCE - A Guided Tour of Tower Hill

London prides itself on its history and no area hosts more of
that than the grisly environs of the Tower of London, the fortress
founded by William the Conqueror soon after his invasion of England
to overawe the brutal and recalcitrant locals.

Pete Smith’s walk will take us from the crypt of All Hallows by
the Tower, via the dreadful execution site on Tower Hill, to the
overcrowded graveyard of the church Dickens called ”Saint Ghastly
Grim”, before heading east to take in a vast plague pit and a Jack
the Ripper killing ground. Looping back to the area where Samuel
Pepys witnessed both the start and the finish of the Great Fire of
London, its route follows a trail of war, murder, terrorism,
pestilence, persecution and retribution, from IRA bombings and
Hitler’s firestorm to a monument to killer mice. It ends opposite
the aptly named “Hung, Drawn & Quartered” pub by which time you may
be in need of a restorative pint of London Pride.

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.