This walk is best done on a Wednesday or Thursday when the wonderful Ragged Museum is open. It’s an old Dr Barnardo’s Ragged School which has been converted in to a museum. A museum volunteer will be on hand to give a short talk before leaving you to stroll around the place, which is full of interesting artifacts, photographs and information. But before getting there you see where Dr Barnardo was living when he first started his orphan work. And you see two workhouses, one of which is still in use as a hospital and library. You also see a surprisingly beautiful Georgian square and an historic old Jewish cemetery. There’s a nice stroll along a canal and you see great photographs from the period too. You can be left in the museum or if you wish the walk can finish at Limehouse DLR or Stepney Green tube station, and en-route you see more things of interest such as almshouses, old tenements.

If your walk is not on a Wednesday or Thursday, you can keep the walk as it is, seeing the Ragged School from the outside, or there’s an option to have a longer walk by starting at Bow Church DLR to see fascinating Gandhi, Bryant & May match factory and Sylvia Pankhurst history.

Start Bow Road tube station or Bow Church DLR station
Finish Ragged Museum or Limehouse DLR station or Stepney Green tube station