This book is the second of a series documenting a thousand years of selected London streets and their respective histories. Some of the streets have their roots and foundations in places of worship, locations for trading or because of their geographical location or particular topography. With St Paul's at its western end and St Mary-le-Bow as its centrepiece, Cheapside goes back further than a thousand years, all the way to the Romans and beyond. Its colourful history includes kings, queens, poets, playwrights, murderers, criminals, broadcasters, inventors, politicians, pioneers, philanthropists, religious fanatics, revolutionaries, diarists and architects who all played their part in making Cheapside what Charles Dickens Jnr called the greatest thoroughfare in the City of London.

With London's streets harbouring a multitude of long lost stories ripe for the recounting, Mike Read's A Thousand Years of a London Street series is one with endless potential. The only question that remains is which street will pique the interest of this broadcaster turned historical supersleuth next?