Knights, Crusaders, Templars & Freemasons

This themed tour takes us to places mostly entirely unvisited by tourists and gets us off the beaten track whilst also allowing to see some authentic London.    During its 2,000 year history London has been shaped by all manner of religious and military groups associated with the Holy Land and we will visit both some of the most famous and infamous. The first place we will visit is the old gatehouse of the Knights of St John and learn about their role in the Crusades and their long association with this part of London. Few people ever forget the sight of this great fortification in the narrow streets of East-London.

A short walk away takes us to Charterhouse, an island of antiquity that started off as a Priory, became a school and then a hospital still operating under its original mission of providing accommodation to those in need.  Charterhouse also sits next to one of the biggest known plague pits in London and we can see the remains of an unfortunate victim who was recently unearthed. At Smithfields we will see where peasants fought for our rights, where men were burnt to death for their beliefs and the actual spot where William Wallace of Braveheart fame met his terrible end.

All of this is in the shadow of what Londoners know as St. Barts and we will hear how one of the oldest hospitals in the western world came to be created by a Crusader after a close encounter with a Saint and explore some of the places that were built as a result. Next up we will visit the famous Temple Church, set in a beautiful and quiet courtyard just off Fleet Street and made famous by the DaVinci Code films with Tom Hanks.

Next we will walk through beautiful Middle Temple, often used for filming from everything from Charles Dickens to Downton Abbey and through Lincolns Inn Fields (the largest square in London) to finish at the Freemasons Hall, one of the grandest buildings of its era in the whole of London.  Here we will get to learn a little about this often little-known but historic group. Alternatively you can book by using the automated booking process with Viator below.