Best of Blackfriars Walk

Follow in the footsteps of literary greats such as Victorian author Charles Dickens, famous diarist Samuel Pepys and actor and playwright William Shakespeare.

Marvel at modern innovations, award-winning architecture and medieval priory remains. Stand on the site once belonging to Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. Learn about the lost palace once given to Katharine of Aragon as a wedding present by her new husband Henry VIII.

Walk where luxurious Roman villas and a temple to Mithras once stood. Learn how Victorian engineering connected Blackfriars to the continent and how their efforts are still of use today.

In the early part of the 13th century a group of black-robed friars attached to the Order of St Dominic settled in London. By 1276 they had become so prosperous they moved to the edge of the City of London, an area now known as Blackfriars. The thriving community built a church, cloisters and other priory buildings including their own quay.