Confessions of a Map Nerd

I have a confession to make. A few months ago I bought a box of maps - 50 walking tours of London. I know. I'm such a nerd. With all the travel lately, I've discovered a strange obsession with maps. Today I followed one of them, a trail beginning at Tower Hill tube station and ending up near St Pauls.



The trail led to Leadenhall Market, a well-preserved market hall that has existed since Victorian times. It's gorgeous, all maroon, gold and dark green paint. The market was closed and nobody was around, just me and the dripping of the rain.



This is the ceiling in the middle of the market hall.

Halfway on the trail, you go through this skinny windy little maze of alleys and come across London's oldest coffee shop - 'The Jamaican Wine House' - which was established in 1652. I wanted to have a coffee but it was closed.

Then there was the Clock Museum - a funny little room filled with the most amazing, intricate gold watches and clocks. The place was eerily filled with the ticking of clocks and every couple of minutes a different one would chime. To get in I had to put my bag on a conveyor belt to be checked for guns, or whatever it is that the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers consider dangerous. I was the only one in the museum. As I left, the guard had fallen asleep on a sofa.


Angel, from a fountain at St Paul's Cathedral

The tour ended at St Paul's. There's this great French patisserie/boulangerie chain called Paul, which has a shop right near St Paul's. I sat in there with some Earl Grey tea, wondering whether the shop assistants really had French accents or whether they had been trained to speak with fake accents when they got the job.