Elephant & Castle Walking Tour - Saturday 29 March 2025 10.30am
Regular price £19.50Join Open City for a walking tour exploring the fascinating architectural history of Elephant and Castle
This fun and engaging walking tour — led by Elephant and Castle resident and Golden Key Academy graduate Joesph Granata — explores the past, present and future of this extraordinary central London hub which was once known as the ‘Piccadilly Circus of South London’ but has at times since been controversially used as a symbol of urban decay and failed planning.
This walking tour will explore how, despite Elephant and Castle’s central location and unparalleled cultural and architectural riches, the area became unfairly ignored and unloved in the late twentieth century. During this time, the area had a reputation for being an ugly, congested pocket of south London, built around not just one but two busy roundabouts and with a network of dank, pedestrian subways, at the heart of which lay a famously outdated, but nevertheless enigmatic, shopping centre.
This tour will show you that this district — known affectionately as the ‘Elephant’ — is in fact a fascinating, vibrant neighbourhood with a rich history and a promising future, boasting conservation areas, numerous listed buildings, pioneering post-war architecture and striking contemporary developments, all of which surround an ambitious large-scale regeneration scheme which aims to bring the Elephant and its revitalized circus back to town.
Highlights of the tour include Metro Central Heights, the office development designed by the internationally renowned architect Ernő Goldfinger and converted to residential use in 2002, Blackfriars Circus by Maccreanor Lavington which draw influence from historic warehouses of Southwark and Clerkenwell and a new 1-hectare community park designed by Gillespies at the heart of the visionary Elephant Park development.
Providing a fun way for enthusiastic urbanists to explore the city, this tour will explore the architecture and history of this rapidly changing south London area.
You can also pick up copies of our printed Pocket London guides to Elephant and Castle here.
Key information
Meet: St George's Circus, London SE1 (2nd stop on this tour is Blackfriars Circus (small public plaza) 142 Blackfriars Road)
End: Castle Square, 40 Elephant Rd SE17 1AY
Distance: 3.5km (2.2 miles)
Duration: 2.5 hrs approx
After studying architecture at the University of Manchester and working within the School of Continuity in Architecture Joseph Granata went on to train as an actor and has now finally found a way to combine his love of London and performing as a tour guide, sharing his admiration and zest for the city through engaging story-telling.
Granata is a graduate of the 2021 Golden Key Academy — a masterclass for urban and architectural tour guiding run by Open City. He joined the Open City tours team in November 2021.
Please select solidarity pricing if you feel you can help our charity to offer reduced concessionary tickets to others who require them.
We aim to be inclusive and accessible where possible, please contact Adrianna at tours@open-city.org.uk to discuss your accessibility needs, reduced ticket prices and if you require a free carer ticket.
Tickets are non-refundable and tours go ahead rain or shine.
* Please check for any planned transport engineering works, planned strike action or large scale events that may affect your journey before making your ticket purchase *
If you find you can no longer make the tour for any reason including Covid we are unable to transfer you to another date, but please feel free to pass your booked place onto a friend to go and enjoy the tour in your place.
In the event your tour date is cancelled you will be issued with a credit note (with no expiry date) that you can use to
- book onto a rescheduled date
- book onto any other tour from our programme
or you can request a refund.
All ticket purchases are in support of the work of our organisation including our pioneering education programmes. We really appreciate your support!
Get in touch with Adrianna at tours@open-city.org.uk with any queries.
