This neighbourhood occupies a slice of the City of London surrounding the famous Monument to the great fire of London – with King William Street as its boundary to the west, Lower Thames Street to the south, Eastcheap to the north, and Idol Lane and St. Mary at Hill to the east. The area is dominated by office spaces, forming an integral part of London’s economy. The area is very pedestrian-friendly, given the small lanes and the channelling of most traffic to the wider thoroughfares around the neighbourhood. Despite the ancient street structure, the area consists only partially of Victorian houses, predominantly concentrated to the eastern portion of the area – whereas the majority of the area consists of post-war and post-modern office buildings.

Pudding Lane is famously the origin of the Great Fire of London, in a bakery owned by Thomas Farriner. The fire was caused by Farriner raking up coals in the bakehouse, before leaving them near to this oven to dry out, a common practice in those days. However in the early, dry hours of 2 September 1666, a spark ignited, rapidly sending flames across the entire city, destroying 13,200 houses, 400 streets, 89 churches and dozens of public buildings. In recent years, however, it has emerged that the Great Fire may have instead originated 60 feet away from Pudding Lane, somewhere along Monument Street instead. The site was left empty, as it was felt that it should not be built on.

Christopher Wren is often attributed to a lot of the reconstruction in the area, however, many of the City’s churches, including St. Mary-at-Hill, were supervised by Robert Hooke. A Renaissance Man born on the Isle of Wight, he was not only an architect, but a physicist, astronomer, and biologist. One of his most important publications was the Micrographia, documenting experiments he had made with his microscope – he coined the term ‘cell’, and amongst other things, correctly identified fossils to be remnants of once-living things.

The Monument to the Great Fire of London was designed by Sir Christopher Wren to commemorate the rebuilding of the City of London, following the Fire. Designing a Doric column in the antique tradition, 311 steps ascend to the viewing platform, topped by a drum and copper urn with flames emerging. The Monument is 61 metres high – the exact distance between it and the site where the fire originated.

Officially, more people have died from falling off the Monument than in the Great Fire of London – the official death toll for the Great Fire of London was a mere six verified deaths, whereas six people have committed suicide off the Monument, and a further two have accidentally fallen to their deaths.

As this neighbourhood is situated in the heart of London, there is very little green space and crowded streets surround the area. However, the neighbourhood itself is far more pleasant, with the Monument and the road leading towards it being very conducive to pedestrian traffic. Furthermore, there are more stores here which cater to the actual residents of the City (such as the Tesco Metro) as compared to other parts of the commercial district.

The Monument area is largely governed by the Eastcheap and Bank Conservation Area plans, which disallows excessive development. However, the modern office buildings here are constantly going through renovations or even complete redevelopments. The latest iteration of this is Peninsular House, which has just undergone minor refurbishments to bring it up to date to modern standards. Recent improvements have also been made to Bank and Monument Station including a new entrance on Cannon Street, and an expanded Northern Line platform with step free access via a new concourse. Above this new Cannon Street entrance will also sit a new office block. Taller than originally planned, planners recently gave permission for TFL to add an eighth floor to their plans, with work scheduled to start by the end of 2022.