A day spent discovering Clerkenwell

We have spent several lovely Sundays strolling around the general area of Clerkenwell/Smithfield, just south of Angel and about a 30 minute walk west of where we live in Hoxton. There are some great eating places in the area and on one stroll we found out about a couple of walking tours operating in the area. The walks and museum we went on/to seem largely undiscovered so I thought I might put together a little itinerary in the hope of encouraging others to explore the area.

My recommended Sunday in Clerkenwell

Start with a quick brunch. My suggestion would be The Modern Pantry which opens at 10am on a Sunday. Get there at opening time and you should be able to get a table fairly easily, although if you go after 11am you should book. We enjoyed a brunch of porridge with cream and muscovado sugar, and soft boiled eggs with Vegemite soldiers. The neighbouring table ate divine looking blueberry pancakes and later confirmed they were delicious. The coffee is roasted by Caravan, which is my second brunch recommendation.

Caravan is on Exmouth Market and I love their "crumpets with too much butter" and avocado on sourdough with chilli flakes. It's hard to get a table at Caravan most of the time, but if you're there on the dot of 10am you'll be ok. Second choice for a quick brunch on Exmouth Market is Gail's Artisan Bakery, which, if you can avoid the children and their prams, is rather lovely and we've had good granola, English muffins, and pancakes with baked pears (to name a few dishes) there.

There's no time for a leisurely brunch spent reading the papers as you'll need to be at Barbican tube station by 11am to meet your lovely tour guide from the Clerkenwell and Islington Guides Association. Barbican station is a quick 10 minute walk from the Modern Pantry and about 18 minutes from Exmouth Market (Caravan opens at 10am on a Sunday whereas Gail's Artisan Bakery opens at 8am, so you may want to go to Gail's if you're trying to make the 11am walk). If you've only got time for a coffee, perhaps duck into Look Mum No Hands for a cup of Square Mile coffee.

Our guide for the walk was Peter and for £6 each he guided 11 of us through the Smithfield area on the Murders, Monastries and Martyrs tour. The tour was very well run and moved at a suitable pace. Peter was extremely knowledgeable and entertaining.

The Clerkenwell and Islington Guides Association also run a walk called Radicals, Religion and Rivers through Clerkenwell (2pm on Saturdays and 11am Wednesdays from Farringdon Station) and The Angel's Delights (from Angel Station at 2pm on Sundays).

We'll definitely be going on more walks in the area and sending our visitors from Australia along. (By the way, there's also a tour of Smithfield meat market run by the City of London at 7am on the third Thursday of each month. We went last week and it was excellent. The tour costs £8 and you need to book. It's really fascinating and you can grab a coffee at Dose Espresso afterwards)

The Clerkenwell walk finished on Ely Road, which is so close to Bea's of Bloomsbury (below - 15 minute walk) it would be rude not to drop by - we had cake and meringues (they offer an excellent high tea for a measly £12 which {in the interests of research you understand} we've tried too).

The walk finished at 12.45pm so if you missed the brunch option perhaps head to The Modern Pantry, The Zetter or Exmouth Market (I recommend Caravan, Gail's Artisan Bakery and Moro, but Morito and Medcalf also look great) for lunch - you'd want to have booked for lunch where you can. You're also near St John Bar and Restaurant Smithfield here which may be a good lunch option, but when we walked past a couple celebrating their wedding anniversary were just leaving and told us they had been disappointed in the roast pork main course (I'd wait and go to St John Bread and Wine at Spitalfields instead).

From Bea's of Bloomsbury we headed up Gray's Inn Road to the London Canal Museum on New Wharf Road. As we live on Regent's Canal and love spending time walking along it, the museum was of particular interest to us, but now that we've visited I think it would appeal to anyone. The museum is in an old ice house which used to store ice brought along the canal from Norway and then distributed in huge blocks all over London, before the days of refrigeration. There's an even a small exhibit on the creation and sale of ice cream in London. We downloaded the podcast to our iphones from the website before we visited and this provided excellent commentary as we walked around the museum.

From here we strolled along the canal home, feeling full of local knowledge and food. A really great day that both locals and visitors would be crazy not to enjoy!

P.S. do check out readers' comments for some more eating/drinking suggestions in the area.