Built by Trade, Guarded by Death: A Pool of London Walking Tour

For nearly 2000 years, the stretch of the Thames between London Bridge and Tower Bridge was Britain's busiest port. On this walking tour, you'll trace how the Pool of London built the City of London's fortunes. You'll also hear about the traitors, prisoners, and warships once moored along its banks. Warehouses that once stored spice and grain now hold restaurants and flats, but the riverbank still carries traces of the trade that built London.

The tour starts at the Southern Gatehouse, marked by a stone marker near London Bridge, where traitors' severed heads were once displayed on spikes as a warning. From there, you'll cross London Bridge and follow the north bank past Billingsgate Market, the historic fish market, and the Custom House, where Geoffrey Chaucer worked as customs controller in the 1370s. You'll continue on to Tower Bridge, passing Traitors' Gate at the Tower of London.

Crossing Tower Bridge, you'll learn how its towers still lift for tall ships that give 24 hours' notice. Descending into Shad Thames, a cobbled lane of former spice warehouses used as a film set for Oliver! and The Elephant Man, you'll pass Butlers Wharf and HMS Belfast, the WWII cruiser moored here since 1971. The tour ends back at the Southern Gatehouse, where the walk began.

On this 90-minute walking tour, you'll have a chance to:

• Learn about Doggett's Coat and Badge, the oldest annually contested sporting event in Britain, dating to 1715
• Discover the Navigators, a 60-foot ship-man sculpture at Hays Galleria marking London's old Larder wharf
• Hear about the deadly 1212 Great Fire of Southwark, which trapped and killed hundreds on London Bridge
• Spot a Thames sailing barge, often named Gladys, once used to haul sand, grain, and bricks
• Walk past Adelaide House, London's first steel-framed skyscraper, once topped with a rooftop putting green
• Notice the safety chains lining the riverbank, a centuries-old lifeline for anyone who falls into the tidal Thames

Lace up comfortable shoes and give yourself an hour and a half to follow the river where London's fortune, and infamy, began.