This post is part of my London Neighbourhood Guides series. Fancy visiting another area of London? Check out my other guides here, which all include information regarding the sites, history, charm, food and drinks of the area you’re curious about.
Clerkenwell and Bunhill occupy an interesting pocket of London where Islington begins to merge into the City. Historic buildings and residential streets sit alongside modern offices, university campuses, restaurants and some of London’s best-known pubs and bars.
Unlike somewhere like Hackney, which draws you in with its energy, Clerkenwell and Bunhill reveal themselves more gradually. You might arrive at a restaurant, a meeting or a lecture without expecting to explore much further, only to realise how much history and character are tucked into the surrounding streets.
The London Borough of Islington is made up of several smaller wards, each with its own identity. For this series, I’m using those boundaries as a practical way of dividing the borough into manageable, walkable areas.
In this guide, we’re exploring Clerkenwell and Bunhill, two neighbouring wards along the southern edge of Islington (highlights in light orange and light pink below). They flow naturally into one another, and you probably wouldn’t notice when you had crossed between them, but each offers a slightly different experience.
Clerkenwell feels more cohesive and immediately atmospheric, with its narrow streets, historic pubs, design showrooms and restaurant-filled pockets. Bunhill is a little harder to define, bringing together parts of Old Street, Finsbury and the City fringe that are often described under other neighbourhood names.
Together, they offer a fascinating walk through a part of London that many people pass through regularly without properly stopping to explore.
Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell is an area that feels deeply rooted in London’s past while also being firmly part of its present. Historically, it was associated with monasteries and religious institutions before becoming known for trades including printing, jewellery and watchmaking. Many of its former warehouses, workshops and industrial buildings have since been converted into offices, architectural practices, restaurants and design showrooms.
That design-led character is not necessarily obvious when you first arrive. The longer you walk around, however, the more you begin to notice it in the restored buildings, carefully considered interiors and concentration of creative businesses.
My partner, who works as a design and product engineer, has attended Clerkenwell Design Week several times over the years. It’s an event that brings the neighbourhood’s contemporary identity to life, filling its streets, courtyards and showrooms with installations and exhibitions. Even outside the festival, Clerkenwell feels like an area that has been thoughtfully adapted rather than completely reinvented. Its industrial history is still visible, but the buildings have found new purposes.
Clerkenwell also has a particular personal significance for me because it is where I studied for my law degree at City St George’s, University of London. I have many memories of walking along Goswell Road between classes, sometimes heading towards Exmouth Market and at other times continuing east towards Jimmy and the Bee. At the time, these streets were simply part of my everyday routine. It was only later that I began to appreciate how much history, architecture and character surrounded the places I passed so regularly.
That familiarity is partly why Clerkenwell can be difficult to define. It is a university area, a design district, a food destination and a working part of central London all at once. It does not announce itself as one distinct neighbourhood in the way that somewhere like Camden or Notting Hill might. Instead, it reveals itself through repeated visits and the routes you begin to form through it.
At the heart of the neighbourhood is Clerkenwell Green, a small but historically significant square long associated with political meetings, protest movements and radical thought. Despite its name, there is no longer anything particularly green about it. Instead, the square is surrounded by handsome historic buildings, with narrow streets leading away in different directions.
The Marx Memorial Library overlooks the Green, connecting the area to its history of socialism, trade unionism and radical politics. It is easy to walk past without going inside, but its presence adds another dimension to Clerkenwell’s identity.
Clerkenwell Green also appears in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. It is here that Oliver witnesses the Artful Dodger and Charley Bates pick a gentleman’s pocket, tying the square to London’s literary history as well as its political past.
Nearby, St John’s Gate is another of Clerkenwell’s most distinctive landmarks. Once an entrance to the medieval Priory of the Order of St John, it now forms part of the Museum of the Order of St John.
Exmouth Market and Clerkenwell’s Food and Pubs
A short walk north brings you to Exmouth Market, which introduces a completely different kind of energy. The pedestrianised street is lined with restaurants, cafés, pubs and independent shops, becoming especially lively around lunchtime and in the early evening. It’s the kind of place where you might arrive intending to grab something quickly and end up staying much longer than planned.
Exmouth Market was one of the places I regularly gravitated towards while studying nearby. It offered a welcome change of scenery from Goswell Road and the university buildings, whether I was stopping for lunch or simply wandering through between classes.
Clerkenwell also has an unusually strong collection of pubs, ranging from historic drinking establishments to smaller neighbourhood spots woven into the area’s everyday life. On Arlington Way, the Shakespeare’s Head sits close to the northern edge of the ward. Its location near Sadler’s Wells makes it a useful stop before or after a performance, while its traditional appearance fits naturally into the surrounding streets.
Further south, The Eagle on Farringdon Road is widely regarded as a key institution in the rise of the modern gastropub. It helped popularise the idea that a pub could serve ambitious, restaurant-quality food while retaining an informal and convivial atmosphere.
The Betsey Trotwood is another Clerkenwell favourite. Named after the character from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, it combines the feel of a traditional pub with live music, comedy and other events.
Nearby, The Holy Tavern feels almost hidden from the street. Tucked into a historic courtyard, it is exactly the kind of place that rewards wandering away from the main roads.
The White Bear and Ninth Ward add further variety to the area’s drinking scene. Together, these pubs reflect one of the things I like most about Clerkenwell: even as the neighbourhood has become increasingly associated with design and destination dining, many of its drinking spots retain a distinctly local and unpretentious character.
Sessions Arts Club is also somewhere I have been lucky enough to eat. We started with olives, a brown shrimp croquette and panisse with onions before trying the restaurant’s well-known eel, potato, crème fraîche and roe. Thin layers of potato and smoked eel are pressed together, fried until crisp and finished with crème fraîche, roe and fresh leaves. The result is rich and smoky yet surprisingly delicate, with the roe adding subtle bursts of acidity. For our main courses, we shared polenta with roasted wild mushrooms in a creamy peppercorn and herb sauce, alongside red mullet served with a thick, intensely flavoured crab sauce.
The restaurant itself is just as memorable as the food. Set inside the former Sessions House, the dining room has soaring ceilings, faded walls and an almost theatrical grandeur, while still managing to feel intimate. We finished with a bright clementine sorbet, followed by the richer coffee, Marsala and cream—a lovely end to a meal in one of Clerkenwell’s most beautiful spaces.
As you continue east, Clerkenwell gradually blends into Bunhill. The transition is not especially dramatic, and most people walking through the area would probably not realise they had crossed from one ward into another.
The streets become more varied, combining offices, housing estates, cafés, historic institutions and the western edge of the Old Street and Shoreditch food scenes. This is also where neighbourhood labels become increasingly blurred. Several businesses describe themselves as being in Shoreditch, Clerkenwell, or Old Street, even though, according to the ward boundaries, they technically fall within Bunhill.
Bunhill
Bunhill is not a name that many Londoners use in everyday conversation. Depending on the particular street, people are more likely to say they are in Old Street, Finsbury, Clerkenwell or the City fringe. Exploring it through its official boundary, however, brings together a surprisingly varied collection of places. Historic burial grounds, churches and garden squares sit alongside offices, residential estates, coffee roasteries, restaurants and cocktail bars. Some streets feel firmly connected to the City, while others lean more towards the creative energy associated with Old Street and Shoreditch.
One of the area’s prettiest corners is Charterhouse Square. Surrounded by historic buildings and centred around a leafy garden, it feels unexpectedly secluded despite being so close to Farringdon, Barbican and the City. Its location at the southern edge of Islington captures the way Bunhill gradually merges into the surrounding parts of central London.
Further north, St Luke’s Garden provides another welcome pocket of greenery among the area’s densely built streets. Nearby, LSO St Luke’s occupies the former Church of St Luke, an eighteenth-century building distinguished by its unusual obelisk-shaped spire. The restored church is now used by the London Symphony Orchestra as a performance, recording and education venue, combining Bunhill’s architectural history with its contemporary cultural life.
The ward takes its name from Bunhill Fields, a historic Nonconformist burial ground beside City Road. Among those buried or commemorated here are William Blake, Daniel Defoe and John Bunyan, giving the space an extraordinary connection to London’s literary and religious history.
It is not necessarily somewhere you would come to spend an entire afternoon, but it is worth stepping inside. The mature trees, enclosed paths and weathered monuments create a pocket of calm that contrasts sharply with the traffic, offices and modern buildings immediately outside.
Food and Drink in Bunhill
Bunhill has a surprisingly strong food and drink scene, although many of its venues are better known under the labels of Clerkenwell, Old Street or Shoreditch.
St. John is perhaps the most significant. Although it is commonly associated with Clerkenwell, it technically falls within Bunhill according to the ward boundary. Its stripped-back approach to British cooking has made it a London institution, while its simple dining room reflects the restaurant’s focus on ingredients rather than elaborate presentation.
For something completely different, Breddos brings tacos and Mexican-inspired food to the area, while Tayēr + Elementary represents its more experimental and design-conscious side. The cocktail bar feels especially suited to this part of London, where product design, architecture and hospitality frequently overlap.
The Sutton Arms and the Old Fountain provide more traditional pub experiences. The Old Fountain is particularly known for its beer selection, while The Sutton Arms offers a classic London pub atmosphere amid the surrounding offices and busy streets.
Ozone Coffee Roasters describes its Leonard Street location as Shoreditch, but according to the ward boundary, it technically sits within Bunhill. Its large, industrial-style space has made it a popular destination for coffee, brunch and informal meetings.
It is a good example of how little official boundaries influence the way people describe this corner of London. The neighbourhoods blend into one another, and businesses often identify with the better-known area nearby.
Final Thoughts
Clerkenwell and Bunhill are not defined by a single architectural style, community or atmosphere. Their appeal lies in the layers: medieval religious foundations, political radicalism, old trades, university life, converted industrial buildings, traditional pubs, restaurants and contemporary design.
For me, this is also a particularly nostalgic part of London. I first knew it through ordinary routines: attending lectures, walking along Goswell Road, stopping at Jimmy and the Bee or wandering towards Exmouth Market. Those everyday memories are now intertwined with the area’s history and character. Returning to explore it more deliberately has helped me see how much was hiding in plain sight.
Together, Clerkenwell and Bunhill offer a fascinating walk through a part of London that many people pass through regularly without ever properly stopping to understand.
Have you explored Clerkenwell or Bunhill? What is your favourite place in this corner of London?
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