To Southwark, where, at the start of the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer met with
"Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye
Of sondry folk, by áventure y-falle
In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle..."

Our plan is to follow the road to Canterbury as far as we can in one day. #CTales

The pilgrims head to Canterbury “the hooly blisful martir for to seke, / That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.”

We won’t reach Canterbury, & we have not yet (thank goodness) been “seeke” - but we shall certainly pray to St Thomas along the way that all shall be well.

"Bifil that in that seson on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay
Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
To Caunterbury with ful devout corage.”

St George’s Church dates to at least the early 12th C, long before Edward III adopted him as a patron saint, making it the oldest church in London to be dedicated to him. Henry V stopped here on his way back from Agincourt. Little Dorrit slept in front of the vestry fireplace.

The definite sense we’re on the right track... #CTales

And so we hit the glamorous tarmac & concrete of the cheapest property on the Monopoly board... #CTales

Here, where a surgery still preserved a trace element of the drovers who used to drive their cattle up from Kent to London, there used to be a toll gate #CTales

"And forth we riden a litel moore than paas
Unto the Wateryng of Seint Thomas.”

Here, where the Neckinger flows under the Old Kent Road & today a Tesco stands, is where the pilgrims draw lots to decide the order they will tell their tales. #CTales

St Thomas a Watering marked the limit of the City of London’s authority. Another stopping point for Henry V coming back from Agincourt, it was also the first stopping point for pilgrims heading to Canterbury. Criminals were exhibited in gibbets by the side of the road.

The inspiration for the Nun’s Priest’s Tale? #CTalee

This is where the veray parfit gentil knight told his tale... #CTales

The former North Peckham Civic Centre, now the Everlasting Arms church, was completed in 1967, & features some splendid murals, illustrating the history of the Old Kent Road - & starting with Chaucer & the #CTales

Also featured: the return of Henry V from Agincourt & Charles II from exile (both were met by the Lord Mayor of London at the Thomas Beckett pub, Jack Cade’s rebellion & a pearly king & queen.

Oooooohhhh, & round the corner...

What used to be the Kentish Drovers & Halfway House dates from 1840 & features England’s longest pub sign: an illustration of the Old Kent Road in more bucolic days. #CTales

Good to see the Winners Temple again, which we last saw when following the line of the river #Peck. This was a major watering stage for cattle drovers coming up to London from Kent.

“Lo Depeford, and it is half-wey pryme.”
[ie 7.30 am] [[It’s actually 7.47 am]]

This is where - to quote Procul Harum - the Miller told his tale.

The last view the pilgrims would have had of London. Blackheath, where Wat Tyler & his men had gathered during the Peasants’ Revolt - mentioned in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale - stretches ahead. #CTales

“Lo Grenewych, ther many a shrewe is inne.”

(Greenwich is where Chaucer was probably living while writing the #CTales, so who knows what bust ups lay behind that little outburst?)

Here the Reeve told his tale... #CTales