Wilderness Talks: Historic Smithfield

Diane Burstein is taking an illustrated look at historic Smithfield at the Wilderness Kitchen, inside the Hotel Indigo Clerkenwell, on Sunday 1 November. It's a one-hour talk running from 3:00pm to 4:00pm, and it's part of the Wilderness Talks series.

Burstein is a London Blue Badge guide, a historian and a local radio broadcaster, and she's built this one around Smithfield, an area she describes as packed with historic sites. The talk follows a route that starts at Charterhouse Square, with its 18th-century houses and an art deco gem that featured in the Poirot television series. From there it moves on to Smithfield Square and the Victorian Meat Market, the City's oldest church, London's oldest hospital on its original site, a former underground railway, execution sites and a statue of the city's most famous king, alongside buildings that pre-date the Great Fire of London. There's also the house of a poet, a watch house, a church with a sinister secret and the many tales surrounding the Old Bailey and the notorious Newgate Prison, which formerly stood on the courthouse site.

It's an illustrated journey, so you'll see the places as she talks through them. The venue is the Wilderness Kitchen at the Hotel Indigo Clerkenwell, 2 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1M 5PQ. Tickets are £11.55, and booking is required, either through the venue, by phone or by email. The talk runs from 3:00pm to 4:00pm on Sunday 1 November.