A Road to Ruin Walk
A Guided Walk for History Lovers, London Enthusiasts, and the Alcohol-Curious
Step into the Road to Ruin, a captivating guided walk exploring the long and often chaotic relationship between Londoners and alcohol. Whether you’re fascinated by history, intrigued by the city’s past, or simply curious about the role of beer, gin, and taverns in shaping society, this tour offers a unique perspective on London life through the ages.
Starting in Clerkenwell, once a thriving hub of gin distilleries and breweries, we’ll journey through the streets of Islington and beyond, uncovering the drinking habits of different classes and how their choices reflected social standing, morality, and economic change. We’ll also explore how artists like William Hogarth used satire to expose the darker side of drinking culture, offering a window into the expectations and excesses of 18th-century London.
🔸 An alcohol-themed history walk—not a pub crawl
🔸 Uncover a fascinating and often-overlooked aspect of London’s past
🔸 Adults only—teetotallers are very welcome!
Join us and discover the city’s intoxicating history—no hangover required.
Book with confidence:
- Book online 24/7
- Secure Payments
- Immediate Booking Confirmation
Road to Ruin: Londoners and Their Alcohol Walk
From gin-soaked streets to historic alehouses, uncover the intoxicating past of London’s drinking culture.
Join us on a captivating journey through the backstreets of Islington and Clerkenwell, where Londoners have indulged in the pleasures (and perils) of alcohol for centuries. Led by an expert guide, this walk explores the city’s long-standing love affair with beer, gin, and public houses—some of which survive to this day.
Following the historic route of St John Street, a vital road linking Angel to the City of London, you’ll uncover how this once-rural area became a lively hub of breweries, gin distilleries, and taverns. Learn how different classes used these establishments, what really went on behind their doors, and how they became microcosms of English life.
With the help of William Hogarth’s famous prints, we’ll bring to life the chaotic world of Gin Lane and Beer Street, showing how drinking shaped London’s past—from moral panic and drunken debauchery to the rise of breweries and alehouses. You’ll also get to know Hogarth himself, his biting wit, his social conscience, and the hidden messages in his artwork.
What You’ll Discover
🍺 The untold tales of breweries and gin distilleries that once dominated the area.
🏛 Taverns as the heart of London life—why an old pub was nicknamed “The Old In and Out”, the purpose of a snob screen, and why one of London’s smallest pub left a big impression.
🎭 Theatrical drinking culture—the rise (and fall) of Georgian pleasure gardens and the tricks former country pubs used to lure Londoners out of the city and into their establishments.
🎨 The world of William Hogarth—see the places that inspired his satirical etchings and decode the less obvious meanings behind his works.
🍹 A city of brewers and distillers—visit the site of a former gin distillery, where workers toiled in “golden cages”, and hear how London’s breweries changed drinking habits forever.
🚶 A lively and engaging walk—plenty of stops to absorb the history (but no drinks en route… at least, not officially!).
We’ll finish near Farringdon, where you’ll leave with a deeper understanding of London’s drinking culture, its liquid history, and perhaps even a few recommendations for a well-earned pint.
Tour Details
🔸 Duration: 90 minutes
🔸 Starting Point: Angel Tube Station
🔸 Finishing Point: Farringdon
Perfect for history lovers, pub enthusiasts, and anyone with a thirst for London’s past.
Come walk the Road to Ruin—no hangover required!
A Road to Ruin Walk's Reviews
Suzie
Hazel, our fantastic guide, is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic in the way she presents the area. She always pays attention to detail, every corner has an unknown gem. Highly recommended, time really flies during the tour. We enjoyed having a chat with the guide after the tour.
Jill and Tom
This must be one of the best guided walks we have been on. We learned many things about Saddlers Wells that we would never have suspected – given its current elite highbrow status! Hazel was both informative and engagingly funny and we would certainly go on any other walk she guided, knowing how expert she is on her subject.
Suzie
It was very interesting to explore yet another aspect of this area so familiar to me from entirely different perspectives. Hazel, our guide, brought us all the way along the ‘Road to Ruin’, showing us the original coaching houses of Islington, including the famous Old Angel pub, after which the area is named. We also saw the birthplace of the great 18th Century political cartoonist William Hogarth, whose work Hazel used to illustrate life at the time, in particular how alcohol influenced Londoners. On the way, we saw a bewildering number of pubs (and, sadly, ex-pubs), including 2 which have been unfortunately renamed due to erroneous commercial demands and 1 named after a highly successful and charitable Tudor landlady. And I finally learned the origin of Sadlers Wells, as well as seeing a distillery, the Savings Bank used by Charles Dickens and an enormous brewery.
Qualified London Tour Guides
