Before The National Gallery, a gigantic Georgian stable complex stood here, tending to the needs of over 200 royal horses and housing dozens of workers. The King’s Mews was at the heart of one of the biggest urban horse populations in the world and an equestrian craze that gripped an entire nation.

Elephants, big cats, monkeys and everything in between all packed into a first-floor petting zoo. What could go wrong? Lots, it turned out, but not before Exeter Change became one of Georgian London’s most famous attractions introducing thousands of people to exotic beasts from around the world for the very first time.

Two strips of land running either side of the Turnmill Brook between Farringdon and Clerkenwell provided an ideal spot to fatten pigs in the 18th century. Some considered them a filthy nuisance, others valuable recycling machines. This place takes us to the heart of that conflict. Wellies recommended.

The parish and burial grounds of St Giles, Cripplegate now the Barbican.