This week, Camden guide Elena Paolini takes us on a journey through St Giles, one of London’s most fascinating—and often forgotten—neighbourhoods. From Dickensian alleys and hidden gardens to musical legends and colourful courtyards, there’s a story around every corner. Join Elena on her Secrets, Slums and Songs walk and discover a side of London you never knew existed. Book your spot and step into history, music, and mystery all at once.
SECRETS, SLUMS AND SONGS: DISCOVER ST GILES
Where exactly is St Giles? Many Londoners pause at the question. Tucked just behind the buzz of Tottenham Court Road and the bold, Lego-like shapes of Renzo Piano’s Central Saint Giles development lies one of London’s most fascinating and forgotten neighbourhoods.
Once home to a medieval leper hospital, thousands of plague victims and the infamous St Giles Rookery, this area was the stuff of Dickensian nightmares – quite literally. Charles Dickens set Oliver Twist and Sketches by Boz here, drawing inspiration from its overcrowded alleys and desperate characters.
At the Angel tavern, which used to be on the same spot as the current pub with the same name, condemned prisoners were granted their final drink – the infamous “St Giles Bowl” – before their grim procession to the gallows at Tyburn. They would have seen the very same Judgement Gate now standing to the side of the church, to warn them what would wait for them on the day of reckoning.
After 900 years, the parish church of St Giles-in-the-Fields is still a hub of charity and human connection, looking after the homeless community and offering sanctuary to the forgotten in society as it has done for centuries.
But if you wander a little further, you will discover the secluded Phoenix Garden. Created on a World War II bombsite and later a car park, it opened to the public in 1984. Once the site of homes and a local pub, the garden has thrived against the odds, lovingly maintained by volunteers despite ongoing waves of development. Today, it remains the last of the Covent Garden Community Gardens – a haven for wildlife, city dwellers, and curious wanderers alike.
Heading south towards Covent Garden, the stories only multiply. Seven Dials may be an Instagram hotspot now, but its clever layout – six radiating streets with a pub on every corner – was the brainchild of 17th-century wheeler-dealer Thomas Neale, who knew a trick or two about boosting rental income.
Slip down a nearby alley and you’ll find a plaque marking “The Kip,” a grim last-resort lodging house where the poorest slept leaning on a rope. And if you don’t believe me, there is a plaque to prove it.
Turn a corner and you will find yourself in the delightful Neal’s Yard – a vibrant, colourful courtyard that looks picture-perfect today, but was once a dark, rat-infested derelict warehouse space left abandoned after the Covent Garden fruit and veg market relocated West. In the 1970s, a visionary hippy named Nicholas Saunders saw its potential and opened a shop selling wholefoods – alongside proper cheese, coffee and natural remedies. This became the birthplace of Neal’s Yard remedies, Neal’s Yard Dairy and Monmouth Coffee Company, putting artisan produce on the map. And when Saunders moved on, none other than the Monty Python team moved in, making it their creative studio.
St Giles also has a rich musical legacy. Denmark Street, famously known as Britain’s Tin Pan Alley, was once the beating heart of the UK music industry. Its recording studios, music shops, and publishers helped launch the careers of icons like David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, and countless others. Even the Sex Pistols left their anarchic imprint – quite literally – with graffiti in their old rehearsal space now granted protected heritage status. But Denmark Street didn’t just give us rock and rebellion – it was also home to songwriting genius Lionel Bart, the man behind the hit musical Oliver!, who penned some of his most iconic songs here.
While the golden age of music publishing has faded, Denmark Street is now undergoing a bold transformation as part of the Outernet development – a futuristic entertainment and media hub aiming to preserve the street’s cultural spirit while embracing a new digital age.
From hidden history to high-rises, from plague pits to pop stars, St Giles is full of surprises.