Tucked into a narrow lane off Gracechurch Street, Leadenhall is a covered Victorian arcade of dark green cast iron, gold lettering, and cobbled floors — built in 1881 on the site of a Roman forum that lay 18 feet below the present street level. The roof, painted maroon and gold, gives the place the look of a Christmas card year-round.
In its days as a working market it sold meat, poultry, and game; today the stalls are mostly bars, pubs, and shops catering to the surrounding banks. It is busy from Tuesday to Friday lunchtime and after work, dead at the weekend. Harry Potter fans will recognise the alleyway leading out to Bull's Head Passage — used as the entrance to Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron in the first film.
The City of London is full of forgotten lanes around this point — Lime Street Passage, Whittington Avenue, the medieval St Andrew Undershaft church around the corner — all worth half an hour of wandering if you are in the area.