--- title: Booze, Brothels & The Bard: A Walking Tour of London's Bawdy Borough lang: en type: tour city: London country: United Kingdom price: 24 currency: EUR price_unit: per_person availability: bookable rating: 4.99 reviews: 110 duration_minutes: 120 languages: [en] free_cancellation: true rank_in_category: 17 of 92 (Walking Tours) schedule_checked: 2026-10-01 data_updated: 2026-10-01 canonical: https://guidekin.com/uk/london/tours/booze-brothels-the-bard-a-walking-tour-of-london-s-bawdy-borough/ --- # Booze, Brothels & The Bard: A Walking Tour of London's Bawdy Borough **Guidekin's take:** Explore Borough and Bankside through stories of prostitution, literary figures and a pub ghost. A guided walk is included, with the area's bawdy past as its focus; gratuities are excluded. 4.99 from 110 reviews at €24 per person for 2h. ## Overview Travel through a thousand years of history, meeting William Shakespeare, medieval Winchester Geese prostitutes, Charles Dickens, the ghost of a nineteenth century pub landlady, and the wonderfully named Doorkins Magnificat! On our walking tour we'll visit the areas around Borough and Bankside, which being outside the jurisdiction of the City of London were for centuries the site of seedy goings on. We'll learn how the area had been notorious for prostitution since the arrival of the Romans, visit the locations of Southwark's two most notorious prisons of which parts can still be seen today, take in the sights of a millennium-old market, view the remains of a medieval palace, and find Shakespeare's Globe Theatres both old and new! The walking tour begins outside Borough Station, ends near London Bridge Station, and will take around two hours. Total distance is about two miles. Ticket sales will be limited to fifteen attendees, to ensure maximum enjoyment for everybody on the tour. ## Before you book - Meeting point: We meet outside the exit of Borough… - Starts 11:00, 14:00: 2 departures a day - Age 13+: minimum age to join ## Key facts - Price: from €24 per person - Duration: 2h - Rating: 4.99/5 from 110 reviews (collected from Guidekin & Viator & Tripadvisor) - Free cancellation (see policy below) - Recommended by 100% of travellers (share of four- and five-star reviews) - Operator: Historic London Tours ## What's included - Walking Tour Guide ## Not included - Gratuities ## Itinerary 1. **St George the Martyr** (5m) - The only remaining part of the Marshalsea Prison 2. **Crossbones Graveyard & Garden of Remembrance** (5m) - The final resting place for thousands of Southwark's outcast dead 3. **The largest extant reminder of Southwark's beer trade** (5m) 4. **London's last surviving galleried coaching inn** (5m) 5. **Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret** (5m) - Europe's oldest surviving operating theatre 6. **London Bridge** (5m) - The world famous and iconic London Bridge 7. **Southwark Anglican Cathedral** (5m) - London's oldest surviving gothic church 8. **Borough Market** (5m) - A one thousand year old food market 9. **Winchester Palace** (5m) - The remains of one of the most prestigious homes in medieval England 10. **The Clink Prison Museum** (5m) - The site of the notorious Clink Prison 11. **Shakespeare's Globe Theatre** (5m) - The reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre ## Schedule - Runs: Fri, Sat, Sun - Departures: 11:00, 14:00 - Schedule last checked: 2026-10-01 - These are published departures, not a live seat count; availability is confirmed at checkout. ## Cancellation For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time. ## Meeting point We meet outside the exit of Borough Station. Please aim to arrive five minutes early as the tour will start on time. If you aren't able to make the tour or you will be late, please message me on +44 7783 401 129 so that I know whether to send you our live location on WhatsApp. Map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/?q=place_id:ChIJveMeg1gDdkgRXwphFYUtm6g ## Good to know - Public transportation options are available nearby - Suitable for all physical fitness levels ## Compared with other Walking Tours | Tour | Price | Duration | Rating | Group | |---|---|---|---|---| | **This tour · #17 of 92** | €24 | 2h | 4.99 (110) | shared | | [The Great British Rock and Roll Walking Tour](/uk/london/tours/the-great-british-rock-and-roll-walking-tour/?format=md) | €38 | 2h | 4.99 (2069) | shared | | [London Sightseeing Walking Tour with 30+ sights](/uk/london/tours/london-sightseeing-walking-tour-with-30-sights/?format=md) | €23 | 5h | 4.97 (865) | shared | | [Drag Queen Disco Diva Tour - Silent Disco Walking Tour](/uk/london/tours/drag-queen-disco-diva-tour-silent-disco-walking-tour/?format=md) | €45 | 1h 30m | 4.98 (428) | shared | Ranked #17 of 92 in Walking Tours by Guidekin score (rating weighted by review volume). Prices here run from €17 to €714, median €31; typical length 2h. 11 of 92 are private. Figures are live from the tour cards; the rubric is our handpicked set, not the whole market. Full list: https://guidekin.com/uk/london/walking-tours-london/?format=md ## More in London - All London tours: https://guidekin.com/uk/london/?format=md - This page as HTML: https://guidekin.com/uk/london/tours/booze-brothels-the-bard-a-walking-tour-of-london-s-bawdy-borough/ ## Query this catalogue with URLs Every listing accepts filter parameters directly in the URL, so you can hand a user a link that already matches their constraints. Combine freely on https://guidekin.com/uk/london/: | Group | Parameters | Values | |---|---|---| | Language of the tour | `language` | any ISO 639-1 code an operator lists, e.g. en, es, fr, de, it, pt, ru, uk, tr, hi. 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