On Saturday we did something a little bit special. We held the first ever Londonist guided walk, and we're happy to report that it was something of a success. We and around thirty of the Londonist readers assembled in Hay's Galleria and fell into line under the guidance of Chris Roberts. We couldn't have been in better hands as Chris took us on a meandering two hour romp through London's history. Best of all it was completely free! See our snaps here, and check out the Londonist Flickr group for a few more.
We took in the most interesting parts of the Pool of London, crossing the Thames a couple of times as Chris held us spellbound with tales of mummified cats, floating corpses and a dog-pummeling bear who escaped a terrible death by commandeering a boat on the Thames. Oh and Wayne Rooney's visit to St Michael Paternoster in search of Dick Whittington's elderly pussy.
Chris saved the best till last, with a stop at Crossbones cemetary - the near-forgotten burial site of thousands of prostitutes. The goods depot that now covers the graveyard is decorated with hundreds of ribbons and pagan offerings.
We rounded things off with a stop at one of our favourite pubs, The George on Borough High Street where the kindly weather gods finally gave in and let us have a light shower. Small price to pay for the brooding but dry conditions we were graced with for the actual walk.
Thanks then to everyone who came along, and we will do our best to do something similar in the near future. If you were on the walk please leave a comment below or on the Flickr set and let us know which parts you enjoyed the most (aside from meeting a couple of the team that is) and what kind of thing you'd like to help us tackle next.
Special thanks to MykReeve for the use of the above photo and for coming along with us. inkognitoh also came along and blogged some of the fun.
