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The church of St Magnus the Martyr (a Viking Jarl born c1075), is a bit of a surprise. It is located on a part of the Thames foreshore reclaimed by the Romans and for 700 years stood at the northern end of London Bridge - so everyone arriving or leaving that way would have passed by its door. It was one of the first casualties of the Great Fire of 1666, was rebuilt by Christopher Wren and suffered again during the Blitz of 1940. The interior is quite high church, almost Roman Catholic, and includes a life-size model of a Viking (intended to represent St Magnus). Among its fascinating treasures is its great clock, dating from 1700, a fascinating model of Old London Bridge and a section of Roman timber.

On the corner of Hart Street and Seething Lane, this is one of the smallest churches in the City of London and one of a handful to survive the Great Fire of 1666 - thanks in this case to the efforts of Sir William Penn (father of the founder of Pennsylvania). It was Samuel Pepys' favourite church - he lived and worked on Seething Lane and is buried, with his wife, under the nave. Some say St Olave's is built on or near the site of the legendary Battle of London Bridge in 1014, in which Olaf II of Norway fought alongside Ethelred the Unready against the Danes. Anyway, the church is dedicated to St Olaf, the patron saint of Norway. It was gutted by bombing during WW2 and restored in 1954. It has some lovely memorials and a fascinating medieval crypt chapel, with a well.

St Paul's church Knightsbridge is an elaborate Victorian church, the first in London to champion the ideals of the ‘Oxford Movement’ – the so-called ‘Tractarians’ who sought to restore a sense of Catholicism to the established Church of England. The building was consecrated in 1843, and its features include iron columns and balcony supports, a striking rood screen and reredos and an unusual series of tiled panels around the walls of the nave.

During WW2, the church was used by the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY). A memorial on the outside of the north wall commemorates 52 FANYs who died on active service in World War II, carrying out secret intelligence work for the Special Operations Executive in occupied countries as well as providing transport drivers for the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS).

The Tate Gallery was founded by industrialist Henry Tate and Tate Britain houses both permanent and temporary exhibitions of British art from 1500 to the present day.  The building has been extended at least seven times since opening in 1897 and the Tate brand has also expanded, with Tate Modern in London, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives now all part of the network.

This is the church of Inner and Middle Temple, two of England’s four ancient societies of lawyers, the Inns of Court. The Church was built by the Knights Templar, the order of crusading monks founded to protect pilgrims on their way to and from Jerusalem and is in two parts: the round and the chancel. The round church - famous for its effigies of knights - is one of very few in Britain (there are just 4 medieval round churches still in use in England) and was consecrated in 1185 by the patriarch of Jerusalem. It was designed to recall the holiest place in the Crusaders’ world: the circular Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The church - and indeed the whole Temple area - exudes history.

Pedestrian entrance off Fleet Street, opposite Chancery Lane.

Administered by Temple authorities.