By day, Fleet Street is a busy road of lawyers, office workers and buses. Come in the early evening, though, and you’ll find narrow alleys, Wren churches and old taverns that tell the story of 500 years of printers, journalists and barristers, and their thirst.
From river to printing press
The street takes its name from the River Fleet, which still flows underground into the Thames. It was known as Fleet Street by the early 1300s. Around 1500, Wynkyn de Worde, an apprentice of William Caxton, set up a printing shop near Shoe Lane, and Fleet Street’s long relationship with print began.
In March 1702 the Daily Courant, the first daily newspaper, was published here. Over the next two and a half centuries, “Fleet Street” became shorthand for the whole British press.
The newspapers leave
In 1986 Rupert Murdoch moved The Times and The Sun to Wapping, and other publishers soon followed. Reuters, the last major news organisation, left in 2005, and the last two journalists, from the Sunday Post, left in 2016.
The lawyers stay
Fleet Street sits between the City and Westminster, next to the Inns of Court and the Royal Courts of Justice. The lawyers never left, and neither did their favourite bars. Wine bars like El Vino, once the journalists’ haunt, are now full of barristers and solicitors after court.
What to look out for on an evening stroll
- St Bride’s Church: Christopher Wren’s church, known as the journalists’ church.
- Temple Bar memorial: the dragon marks the boundary of the City of London. The original gateway was removed in 1878; the memorial dates from 1880.
- Dr Johnson’s House: tucked away in Gough Square, where Samuel Johnson lived from 1748 to 1759 and compiled his famous dictionary.
- Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese: the tavern down Wine Office Court, rebuilt in 1667 and loved by Dickens. (More in our guide to the City of London’s most historic pubs.)
- The alleys: Wine Office Court, Hen and Chicken Court and the passages into the Temple are where the area’s character really shows.
Why Fleet Street is perfect for a wine evening
Centuries of merchants, printers and lawyers have left this corner of London full of cellars, vaults and old drinking rooms, and it’s a short walk to the river, St Paul’s and the West End. That’s why our wine tour meets here. For a deeper dive into the history of drinking wine in the area, read our guide to London’s oldest wine bars.
Explore Fleet Street with a glass in hand
Our Secret Wine Bars of London tour meets on Fleet Street (EC4Y 8AU) at 6 PM. Over about three hours we take in skyline views over St Paul’s, cheese where Churchill and Kipling drank, a tasting in a former Victorian water tunnel and sommelier-picked flights in a townhouse wine bar. Small groups of up to six, 18+.
Fancy an evening of ink, history and wine? Book the Secret Wine Bars of London tour.
