Six of London’s Lesser-Known Historical Sites

London is, and always will be, a richly rewarding city to explore for those who have even a faint interest in history. The UK capital has an architectural heritage surpassing almost anywhere else one could think of.

However, it’s also precisely because of this depth and breadth of heritage that on your next visit to London, you shouldn’t be looking solely towards the more obvious touristic sights such as the Houses of Parliament or Tower of London.

Here are just six ‘hidden gems’ among London’s heritage sites that help to demonstrate the point.

The first red telephone box

There are few sights more synonymous with historical London than the traditional red telephone box, and did you know that the first one in the entire world – as well as its wooden prototype – survives in the capital today?

Indeed, the prototype – which remains where it has stood since 1924, outside the Royal Academy at Burlington House, Piccadilly – was even upgraded to Grade II* listed status last year.

Lombard Street with its hanging signs

Booking a room at a City of London hotel like Dorsett Hotel, City may not seem like the most obvious choice if you wish to immerse yourself in some history on your break in the capital – after all, isn’t this part of London very much about the ‘here and now’?

Actually, you’d be surprised by how much visible heritage from centuries past survives in the City. Lombard Street, for example, is noted for its associations with the City of London’s merchant, banking and insurance industries going as far back as the medieval era. Indeed, as Matthew Green has explained for The Guardian, you only need to walk down this street and look up to see all manner of fascinating old-style shop signs on wrought-iron brackets.

Highgate Cemetery

This north London burial ground may be best-known as the final resting place of the famous philosopher and political economist Karl Marx.

However, there’s no shortage of other prominent and celebrated people buried here, ranging from author Douglas Adams and poet Christina Rossetti to impresario Malcolm McLaren and pop artist Patrick Caulfield.

Execution Dock

London’s history definitely isn’t entirely glamorous – in fact, large parts of it have been outright gruesome. A great case in point is Execution Dock, a place in the River Thames near the shoreline at Wapping.

The “dock” in question was a scaffold for hanging, and for more than four centuries, it was where pirates, smugglers and mutineers met their maker after being handed death sentences by Admiralty courts. Today, the exact location of the original gallows is unknown, although – as the MyLondon site explains – a replica can still be seen outside the Prospect of Whitby pub.

Cockpit Steps

While we’re on the subject of the macabre, were you also aware of just how popular cockfighting once was in London?

In fact, the small passageway of Cockpit Steps – leading between Birdcage Walk and Old Queen Street – apparently represents the last remaining part of the 18th-century Royal Cockpit, where the upper classes used to watch and wager on cockfights.

This easy-to-miss gem is straightforward enough to find just around the corner from Parliament. But of course, the cockpit itself is long gone, having apparently been taken down in the early 19th century.

London’s smallest police station (sort of)

This might be one of the better-known of London’s lesser-known historical sites, not least because of the ongoing debate in certain corners of the Internet as to whether it can even be described as a ‘police station’, let alone London’s smallest.

You’ll find the small round cubicle in question in the south-east corner of Trafalgar Square, the long-told story being that it was essentially an observation box enabling police to keep an eye on political protests in the square.

It’s no longer used by the police but does apparently now serve as a broom cupboard for Westminster Council cleaners.

There you go – just six locations that show London definitely has historical treasures stretching well beyond the obvious. Why not keep an eye out for a few of them – and others not on this list – when you’re next in the British capital?

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