Explore the literary history of Southwark on a guided walk from The Spike at the southern end of London Bridge. Discover connections to Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Keats and local literary oddities like John Taylor, the Water Poet.

On this walk, starting from The Spike at the southern end of London Bridge, you will uncover stories of Chaucer’s pilgrims, Shakespeare and Marlowe at the Globe, Keats as a medical studen and Dickens’s experiences near the Marshalsea Prison.

The tour also celebrates Southwark’s more eccentric literary history, such as John Taylor, the Water Poet, who famously paddled forty miles down the Thames in a paper boat with two dried codfish as his only oars.

About Pete Smith

Pete Smith, Cambridge English graduate, former Head of Arts at a university and now a freelance writer, lecturer and London guide with his own company, London City Walks.