Oh, pleased to see you! Come in, come in! My name is Professor Horatio Pendulum. Keeper of the Timeaporium Clock Shop – repairer of ancient timepieces, collector of impossible objects… and, regrettably, the person responsible for what may soon become the greatest disaster in London history. There’s no easy way to put this. I may have accidentally caused a rift in space time!
You see, hidden beneath the Timeaporium, I’ve built a machine known as the Chronosphere – a magnificent invention designed to peer safely into history itself. But I overloaded it and it’s created some time fragments across London. History is leaking. Past and present are becoming tangled together like knotted clock springs. Objects, people and places from different centuries have scattered themselves across the city.
I need some help to restore everything to its rightful place in time. Can you help, and become a Time Hunter? Help locate the lost time fragments that have been thrown into famous landmarks, ancient ruins, forgotten corners and curious monuments.
All you need to do is follow the riddles found by the Chronosphere to track down the time fragments and put things right.
A Garden to the Guildhall is a free, self-guided Time Hunters walk that begins in the rose garden of Christchurch Greyfriars and wanders the City’s hidden gardens and churchyards — past a stretch of Roman wall, a park full of everyday heroes and a Shakespeare memorial — before finishing at the Guildhall, where London has been governed for 800 years. Nine stops, a fold-up treasure map, a pocketful of riddles and missions — and almost 2,000 years of history to hunt down along the way.
How the hunt works
Print the map. Each trail is a single sheet of A3 that folds down to pocket size — a fractured map of the City on one side, and an activity handbook on the other with a card for every stop.
Listen to the podcast. Every stop has a riddle, read aloud in the Time Hunters podcast, that points you to the next place on the trail.
Hunt down all 9 stops. There is no route drawn on the map — on purpose. The best ways through the City go down tiny alleys and courtyards, and we didn’t want to give them away. Follow the numbers and explore.
Solve the missions. Each stop sets a mission — a plaque to find, a carving to count, a detail to spot. Grown-ups get a printable answer key to check them.
The map is torn into coloured shards, one for each era: Roman, Medieval, Tudor, Georgian, Victorian and Modern. Cross from one colour to another and you’ve time-travelled.
The 9 stops on the Trail
From Christchurch Greyfriars to the Guildhall. Allow about 2–2½ hours with the podcast and the puzzles.
1. Christchurch Greyfriars
Newgate Street · Tudor era, 1485
A Wren church left roofless by the Blitz, now a rose garden beside old Christ’s Hospital.
Did you know? Christ’s Hospital, the ‘Bluecoat School’, still dresses its pupils in Tudor-blue coats.
Your mission: Find the bronze schoolchildren and the year the school was founded.
And for a Chrono bonus point, strike a pose like the children in the statue.
2. Sir Rowland Hill Statue
King Edward Street · Victorian era, 1837
The man who invented the Penny Post and the first stamp, so anyone could send a letter.
Did you know? Before his Penny Black, the person receiving a letter had to pay — and often refused it.
Your mission: Find Sir Rowland’s statue and note the year on it.
And for a Chrono bonus point, post a card home from a nearby postbox.
3. Postman’s Park
King Edward Street · Victorian era, 1837
A hidden park with a wall of tiles, each remembering someone who died to save another.
Did you know? It’s named for the postal workers next door who once ate their lunch here.
Your mission: At the memorial, find the dates for Sarah Smith and Leigh Pitt.
And for a Chrono bonus point, choose the plaque that moves you most and say why.
4. Goldsmiths’ Garden
Gresham Street · Georgian era, 1714
A sunken garden on the site of a church burned in the Great Fire and never rebuilt.
Did you know? The Goldsmiths still test the nation’s coins each year in the ancient Trial of the Pyx.
Your mission: Opposite, find the livery-hall marker on the wall and its year.
And for a Chrono bonus point, sketch the carved cat’s head nearby.
5. The Roman Wall
Noble Street · Roman era, AD 43
The ragged stone stumps of London’s Roman wall and fort, laid nearly 2,000 years ago.
Did you know? You can still trace the rounded south-west corner of the old Roman fort here.
Your mission: Find the information board at the south end. What year was the wall completed?
And for a Chrono bonus point, find two blue plaques for lost livery Halls nearby.
6. Cripplegate
Wood Street · Medieval era, 1066
One of the gates in London’s old wall — beggars once asked for alms beside it.
Did you know? A legend says lame beggars were cured here as a Saxon king’s body passed by in 1010.
Your mission: Find the plaque with the year Cripplegate was demolished.
And for a Chrono bonus point, trace the line of the old city wall north from here.
7. St Alphage & Salters’ Garden
London Wall · Modern era, 1986
A garden woven through medieval church ruins and a surviving stretch of the City wall.
Did you know? St Alphage recalls an archbishop killed by Viking raiders with ox bones in 1012.
Your mission: Find the statue of the Minotaur. What date does it show?
And for a Chrono bonus point, see if you can pose like the Minotaur.
8. St Mary Aldermanbury Garden
Love Lane · Tudor era, 1485
A garden where a church once stood — the church was shipped stone-by-stone to America.
Did you know? It honours Heminge and Condell, who printed Shakespeare’s plays as the First Folio.
Your mission: Find the Shakespeare memorial and the date beside the word ‘London’.
And for a Chrono bonus point, the First Folio saved 18 plays never printed before — name one.
9. Guildhall
Guildhall Yard · Medieval era, 1066
The City’s medieval town hall, where London has been governed for over 800 years.
Did you know? The giants Gog and Magog guard the great hall, which survived Fire and Blitz.
Your mission: Find the carved date George Dance built the Guildhall’s East Wing.
And for a Chrono bonus point, strike a pose like the statue of Dick Whittington.
Ready to start hunting?
Print your Handbook and Trail map, load up the podcast, and explore the City of London for yourself.
Grown-ups: download the printable answer key (PDF).
Time Hunters is created by Inspiring Audio with support from the Eastern City BID.
