Fire, Geese and Galleries: Liverpool Street to Borough Market

Served by the Central, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, the Elizabeth line, the Overground and mainline trains to East Anglia.

Leave by the Bishopsgate exit and head south down Bishopsgate, which follows the line of the Roman road out of Londinium towards the north. After about eight minutes, turn left into Leadenhall Street and right into the market's covered alleys, or carry on to Gracechurch Street and enter from the west.

Look up. The painted wrought iron and glass roof, with its dome over the central crossing, is the work of Sir Horace Jones, the City architect who also designed Smithfield, the old Billingsgate market and Tower Bridge. His market opened in December 1881.

There has been a market here since the 14th century, but the site is much older. Underneath the cobbles lie the remains of Roman Londinium's forum and basilica. The basilica was the town's chief civic building and the largest of its kind outside Italy. Jones's builders stumbled on parts of it when they dug the foundations.

Today it's mostly pubs, cafés and shops serving City workers, so it's quietest in the late morning. Take a slow lap, then leave by the Gracechurch Street entrance and turn left (south).

One for later: Bedales, where this walk ends, has a sister wine bar in a vault under these cobbles.

Walk down Gracechurch Street and keep going as it becomes Fish Street Hill. The fluted column on your left is the Monument to the Great Fire of London, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke and finished in 1677.

It is 202 feet tall, and it stands 202 feet from the spot on Pudding Lane where the fire started in the king's baker's shop on 2 September 1666. The gilded urn of flames on top stands for the fire itself.

If you want the view, climb the 311 steps of the winding stair to the platform near the top. Tickets are £7, and you'll get a certificate for your trouble. Otherwise, read the inscription on the base and carry on to the bottom of Fish Street Hill. This was the road onto the old London Bridge, which stood a little downstream of today's. Then climb the steps up onto the modern bridge.

Cross on the downstream (east) side for the best of the view: HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge ahead of you, the Tower of London on the left, and the Shard rising over Southwark on the right.

There has been a bridge at or near this spot since Roman times. For about 600 years the medieval bridge carried houses and shops, and traitors' heads were displayed on spikes over its southern gate. John Rennie's stone bridge replaced it in 1831. In 1968 the American entrepreneur Robert McCulloch bought Rennie's bridge and had it rebuilt in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The concrete crossing you're standing on was opened by the Queen in 1973.

At the far end, take the steps down to Borough High Street and keep south for a few minutes. The George is through an archway on the left.

Go through the arch off Borough High Street into the cobbled yard and you'll see what makes this pub special. It is London's only surviving galleried coaching inn, with open wooden balconies running along the upper floors. They once led to the bedrooms, which are now a dining room.

An inn on this site appears on records from the 16th century. Southwark burned in 1676, and the present building went up the following year. It once enclosed the yard on three sides, but in 1874 the railway pulled down two of the ranges for warehousing, so only the south side survives. The railway company later gave the building to the National Trust, which still owns it.

Shakespeare may well have drunk here, but the regular we can be sure of is Charles Dickens. He mentions The George in Little Dorrit, and the Middle Bar was once the coffee room he used. Take your pint into one of the low, panelled bars, or out into the yard if it's fine.

When you're done, turn left out of the arch, continue south on Borough High Street and turn right into Union Street, then left into Redcross Way.

You'll know it by the red iron gates, covered in ribbons, notes, flowers and other offerings.

This was an unconsecrated burial ground. Tradition holds that it began as a graveyard for the Winchester Geese, the women licensed by the Bishop of Winchester to work in the brothels of the Liberty of the Clink. They were denied a Christian burial. By the 18th century it had become a paupers' graveyard, and it closed in 1853, full. An estimated 15,000 people are buried here.

The site was neglected for years. In 1996 local writer John Constable and the Friends of Crossbones began a campaign to save it. With the Bankside Open Spaces Trust, they turned it into a garden of remembrance for London's "outcast dead". It has been open to the public since 2015, and a vigil has been held at the gates every month since 2004.

If the garden is open, step inside and sit for a few minutes. It's small, wild and very peaceful. If it's closed, you can see in through the gates. You're welcome to tie on a ribbon of your own.

Then walk back up Redcross Way, turn right onto Southwark Street and left into Borough Market.

Bedales has occupied a converted potato storehouse at the corner of Bedale Street since 2001, on the north-east edge of the market's Middle Market. It is a wine shop, wine bar and bistro all in one, and it turns up in Bridget Jones.

Ask for a table on the first-floor balcony. It's under cover and looks straight out over the market stalls, so you get the bustle without the crowds. Trains rumble over the viaduct alongside, which is all part of the atmosphere.

The food is small plates and charcuterie, much of it sourced from the market below. The wine list is long and comes with detailed notes, and the staff are happy to recommend a glass. Borough High Street and London Bridge station are just round the corner when you're ready to go home.