Plagues, Pestilence and Pathology

Self-guided walk

Dissect London's medical history and explore streets once plagued by death and disease.  

Following London's struggle against illness and disease since medieval times, this trail takes you on a journey of improving public health and treatment of the sick. The walk starts along the western edge of the City of London, before travelling back down to the River Thames and across to the London Bridge quarter of Southwark.  Many stops can be turned into longer visits.

You’ll get to see where surgical instruments were made, locations of plague pits, where executions took place including that of ‘Braveheart’ the Scottish Warrior, as well as the original site of the Royal College of Physicians.  Hospitals needed to dissect bodies and you'll see where body snatchers removed the bodies from and hospitals such as St Bartholomew’s, London’s oldest medical foundation.