Clerkenwell

Regent Square Gardens

High Holborn · 0.6 miles

A public garden set within the historic Regent Square provides a green focal point in the St Pancras area of north-central London. The square lies close to High Holborn, Kings Cross and Bloomsbury and has been part of the London Borough of Camden since the mid-1960s. The garden was laid out around a large central lawn in the Harrison Estate and first occupied in 1829, echoing the garden-square pattern typical of Bloomsbury’s better-known developments. The southern side of the square retains its original early-nineteenth-century façades, which are collectively protected as a Grade II-listed group, and a traditional red telephone box situated within the gardens also carries a listed status. The site once accommodated two churches – the National Scotch Church, built between 1824 and 1827 and later an English Presbyterian congregation, and St Peter’s Church of the Church of England. Both structures were destroyed by wartime bombing and removed after the Second World War, leaving the surrounding architecture and the garden as the principal features. The park is managed by the London Borough of Camden and remains freely accessible to the public. Entry is from the surrounding streets, with the nearest reference point being High Holborn. No admission fee is required, and the space is open for typical park activities such as walking, casual recreation and appreciation of the listed surroundings.

Lincoln's Inn

Gray's Inn · 0.6 miles

A Portland stone monument set within the historic precincts of Lincoln’s Inn commemorates members of the Inn of Court who lost their lives while on active service in the First World War. Erected in 1921, the structure was designated a Grade II listed building in 1999. The ensemble measures roughly 46 feet (14 m) in length and rests on a three-step stone base; a central pylon is flanked by a curved screen that incorporates seating, terminating in piers at each end. Latin inscriptions on the screen and monument read “HOSPITIUM SOC I S / SANGUINEM PRO PATRIA LARGITIS / FILIIS PARENTES”, while the end piers bear the Roman-numeral dates 1914 and 1919 in the apostrophus form. Brass plaques on the interior faces of the piers list 35 names of the fallen, and a bronze plaque on the pylon records a further 66 names in two columns. A later addition includes a bronze plaque naming 29 individuals from the Second World War, among them Prince George, Duke of Kent. The memorial forms part of a wider network of remembrance within Lincoln’s Inn, which also contains a commemorative table, a book of remembrance, a chapel plaque, and a memorial to the 1915 Zeppelin air raid. The site lies in close proximity to Gray’s Inn, as indicated by OpenStreetMap, and can be viewed at street level within the inn’s public areas. Admission is unrestricted, and no specific visitor facilities are recorded.

The Original Cell

Bank · 0.6 miles

The library is first fire-proof building in the country. As a result, the cell doors weigh half a ton each and are cast iron in order to attempt any outbreak of fire. Cell was used to store documents and other archives.

Dr. Johnsons House

Bank · 0.6 miles

Dr Johnson's House is a writer's house museum in London in the former home of the 18th-century English writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson. The house is a Grade I listed building.

Royal Courts of Justice

St Clement Danes · 0.6 miles

The Royal Courts of Justice, commonly called the Law Courts, is a court building in Westminster which houses the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The High Court also sits on circuit and in other major cities. Designed by George Edmund Street, who died before it was completed, it is a large grey stone edifice in the Victorian Gothic Revival style built in the 1870s and opened by Queen Victoria in 1882. It is one of the largest courts in Europe. It is a Grade I listed building.

Cartwright Gardens

High Holborn · 0.6 miles

A crescent-shaped green space set within Bloomsbury offers a quiet alternative to the surrounding streets, with the nearest main thoroughfare being High Holborn. Managed by the London Borough of Camden, the park is open to the public and is bounded by iron railings that enclose mature plane trees, grassed areas and a network of circular walks. A bronze statue by George Clarke, dating from 1831, stands on a granite plinth that records the reform work of John Cartwright, after whom the gardens were renamed in 1908. Unusually for a central London garden, several tennis courts are available for residents of the surrounding buildings and hotels. The surrounding crescent was originally laid out between 1809 and 1811 as Burton Crescent, part of the Skinners’ Company Estate designed by James Burton. Early occupants included a number of prominent 19th-century figures such as social reformer Edwin Chadwick, postal reformer Rowland Hill and writer Sydney Smith. The east side of the gardens was largely demolished in the early 20th century; an Art Deco block, Canterbury Hall, was erected in the 1930s and later incorporated into University of London inter-collegiate halls, including Commonwealth Hall in the 1950s and Hughes Parry Hall in 1969. Those structures gave way to the Garden Halls built between 2014 and 2016, although the tower block of Hughes Parry Hall remains. Several of the Georgian houses, numbered 27-43 and 46-63, retain Grade II listed status, preserving the architectural character of the original development.