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. Roman soldiers are marching through the City, and there’s a smell of burning bread in the air.
I need some help to restore everything to their rightful place in time.
Can you help and become Time Hunters? And 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 some riddles found by the Chronosphere to find the time fragments and put things right.
For almost 2,000 years, people have arrived in the City of London looking for safety, work and a fresh start. Roman settlers, Saxon knights, Dutch and French families fleeing persecution, and the Kindertransport children who stepped onto the platforms at Liverpool Street just before the Second World War.
The Circular Trail is a free, self-guided Time Hunters walk that follows their footsteps from Liverpool Street Station to Hope Square.
Nine stops, a fold-up map that cracks across six different centuries, and a set of riddles and missions to solve as you go.
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, Great Fire, Georgian, Victorian and Modern. Cross from one colour to another and you’ve time-travelled.
The 9 stops…
From Liverpool Street to Hope Square.
Allow about 2–2½ hours with the podcast and the puzzles.
1. Für das Kind — Displaced
Liverpool Street Station concourse · Modern era, 1986
Two bronze children wait with their luggage — the Kindertransport, who arrived on these platforms.
Did you know? The sculptor, Frank Meisler, was a Kindertransport child himself — he arrived right here.
Your mission: Note the years in which 10,000 children escaped to Britain.
2. The Cnihtengild Knight
Devonshire Square · Medieval era, 1066
A bronze knight for the Cnihtengild — thirteen Saxon knights who guarded London a thousand years ago.
Did you know? ‘Cniht’ was the Saxon word for a young servant — it slowly grew into our word ‘knight’.
Your mission: Find the plaque showing the year of King Edgar’s death.
For a Chrono bonus point, count how many blue glass discs are in the horse’s coat. But be careful not to double count any!
3. St Helen’s Bishopsgate
Great St Helen’s · Medieval era, 1066
Shakespeare worshipped here — a rare medieval church that survived the Great Fire and the Blitz.
Did you know? Once a nuns’ convent, it held two churches side by side: one for nuns, one for the town.
Your mission: Find the angel’s face above the door. Note the year.
There’s a Chrono bonus point if you make a sketch of the gargoyle up high above the doorway.
4. The Leathersellers
St Helen’s Place · Georgian era, 1714
A hidden gated street. The Leathersellers have traded and inspected leather here for 600 years.
Did you know? The Leathersellers took over St Helen’s old convent buildings — and never left.
Your mission: In the archway, find the parish boundary marker. What date?
5. The Dutch Church
Austin Friars · Tudor era, 1485
Founded in 1550 for families from the Netherlands — the oldest Dutch-language church in the world.
Did you know? Its rarest old books were carried to safety one day before a 1940 bomb struck.
Your mission: Opposite the church: what year did the RNLI move out?
6. Drapers’ Hall
Throgmorton Avenue · Tudor era, 1485
A palace hidden in the City. Once the house of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s minister.
Did you know? Cromwell grew his garden by rolling a neighbour’s whole house aside — with no warning!
Your mission: Find the plaque. What year did Cromwell plot against Anne Boleyn?
There’s a Chrono bonus point for each of the different materials that you can find – something stone, metal, glass, wood and cloth
7. All Hallows-on-the-Wall
83 London Wall · Roman era, AD 43
A church built on top of the Roman city wall. Hermits once lived in cells inside it.
Did you know? Its architect, George Dance, was just 24 — this was the very first building he made.
Your mission: Find the boundary marker on a wall near the church. Note the year.
8. St Botolph’s Churchyard
& the Victorian Turkish Bath · Victorian era, 1837
A leafy churchyard over an old burial ground — and beside it, the dome of a Victorian Turkish bath.
Did you know? St Botolph is the saint of travellers; people once prayed here before a journey.
Your mission: Find the stone cross for the Great War. What date was it raised?
And for a Chronos Bonus, find the stone children, copy their poses and take a picture next to them.
And also make a sketch of the Victorian bath house.
9. Kindertransport
Hope Square · Modern era, 1986
For the 10,000 children brought to safety before the war, each with a suitcase and a numbered label.
Did you know? Nicholas Winton saved 669 of these children, then kept it secret for almost 50 years.
Your mission: Every child carries a numbered tag. Find them all and add them up.
Ready to start hunting?
Print your Handbook and Trail map, download the podcast, and explore the City of London for yourself.
Time Hunters is created by Inspiring Audio with support from the Eastern City BID.
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