Beneath the streets of the City of London lies a darker history, where plague, punishment and premature death shaped the lives of generations. Join us for a walk through the capital’s oldest streets as we uncover the places where criminals met their end, epidemics swept through crowded parishes, surgeons learned their grisly trade and the dead refused to rest quietly.
Beginning in the shadow of Newgate Prison and ending beneath the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, this fascinating tour explores London’s macabre past through the sites where history unfolded. Along the way you’ll discover the horrors of public execution at Newgate and Smithfield, the world of the resurrection men and the Barber-Surgeons, the devastation of the Great Plague and the Bills of Mortality, moving memorials to lives lost too soon, the final resting place of Isabella, the “She-Wolf of France”, and the tragic tale of how a visit to London may have brought tuberculosis back to the Brontë family.
Tour Highlights
* Newgate Prison and the spectacle of public execution
* Smithfield and the burning of the Protestant martyrs
* The Golden Boy of Pye Corner and the resurrection men
* The Barber-Surgeons’ Garden and the history of anatomy
* Cloth Fair, plague pits and the Bills of Mortality
* The Watts Memorial and London’s forgotten epitaphs
* Greyfriars and the tomb of Isabella of France
* The Brontë sisters, tuberculosis and literary tragedy
Tickets £15 including a 20% donation to Tower Hamlets Cemetery.
Sally
Blomfield
Sally Blomfield is a qualified Green Badge City of London Tour
Guide and former Chartered Town Planner with nearly four decades of
experience shaping and understanding the historic built
environment. Drawing on a lifelong passion for London’s people and
places, she brings the city’s hidden history vividly to life
through engaging walks that reveal the stories behind its streets,
buildings and forgotten corners.
| Ticket | Event time | Cost |
|---|---|---|
|
The Anatomy of Death morning ticket
A Tour of Executions, Epidemics and Epitaphs |
11:00 - 12:30 | £16.50 |
|
The Anatomy of Death afternoon ticket
A Tour of Executions, Epidemics and Epitaphs |
14:00 - 15:30 | £16.50 |
Address
Caffe Nero, Outside St Paul's Underground Station, 30 Newgate Street, Paternoster Square, London, EC4M 8AD
Nearest Station
St. Pauls (Tube)
1. The ticket holder voluntarily assumes all risks and danger incidental to the event for which the ticket is issued, whether occurring prior, during or after the event. The ticket holder voluntarily agrees that the management, venue, event participants, DesignMyNight WFL Media Ltd and all of their respective agents, officers, directors, owners and employers are expressly released by the ticket holder from any claims arising from such causes.
2. Tickets are issued subject to the rules and regulations of the venue.
3. Please check your tickets, as mistakes cannot always be rectified.
4. Occasionally, events are cancelled or postponed by the promoter, team, performer or venue for a variety of reasons. If the event is cancelled, please contact us for information on receiving a refund from the responsible party. If the event was moved or rescheduled, the venue or promoter may set refund limitations. It is your responsibility to ascertain the date and time of any rearranged event.
5. The venue reserves the right to refuse admission and may on occasion have to conduct security searches to ensure the safety of the patrons.
6. Every effort to admit latecomers will be made at a suitable break in the event, but admission cannot always be guaranteed.
7. We regret that tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded after purchase.
8. Tickets are sold subject to the venue or promoter's right to alter or vary the programme due to events or circumstances beyond its control without being obliged to refund monies or exchange tickets.
9. If this ticket is re-sold or transferred for profit or commercial gain by anyone other than the promoter, venue management, DesignMyNight or one of their authorised sub-agents, it will become voidable and the holder may be
refused entry to or ejected from the venue.
10. The venue may operate a No Smoking Policy.
11. The promoter, venue management and DesignMyNight accept no responsibility for any personal property.
12. The event listed on the purchased ticket is strictly for ticket holders who are over 18 years of age. Identification may be required.