Three kilometres of literary and legal London, barely five hundred years wide. St Paul's to the Temple covers one cathedral, one very old pub, and the quietest handful of courtyards in Zone 1.
Start on the north steps of St Paul's. The cathedral is best looked at before you look in — and to be honest, fifteen pounds and a queue isn't the best use of a Saturday morning when the outside is free.
Drop west into Paternoster Square briefly, then onto Fleet Street. Most of the newspapers have gone but the buildings haven't; the 1930s Daily Telegraph front, the Gothic Royal Courts of Justice, the 17th-century pubs tucked into alleys. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is the one worth diving into — down the narrow lane off Fleet Street, into the 1667 cellar bar, up to the bar for half a pint.
Then south off Fleet Street into the Temple — four interconnected courtyards housing the Inns of Court. Middle Temple Lane is the best of them. End at Fountain Court, Charles Lamb's "postage stamp of paradise", still there, still small, still green.
