Pilgrimage in London – The first of many celebrations for Sir Francis Bacon in 2026
A pilgrimage to places connected with Sir Francis Bacon, Viscount St Alban.
A 2026 Bacon400 Celebration led by Peter Dawkins and Jonathan Tod.
Please come and join us for this special pilgrimage celebrating Sir Francis Bacon, Viscount St Alban. 2026 is the Quatercentenary of the death and burial of Francis Bacon, and this pilgrimage is the inner or more private beginning of the public celebrations which will unfold over the course of the year.
The 2026 Bacon400 London pilgrimage will start at St Martin-in-the-Fields, where Francis Bacon was baptised on 25 January 1561, then proceed to the site of York House, Bacon’s London home when growing up and then later when he was Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor.
After this we will walk to the site of Essex House, where the Shakespeare Circle used to meet. Essex House (previously Leicester House) was built on the site of the Outer Temple of the Knights Templar.
Following this, we will walk through to Middle Temple Fountain Court, on the south side of which is Middle Temple Hall, where the Shakespeare play, Twelfth Night, was enacted.
We will then proceed to the Inner Temple, where we will visit Temple Church, the round church of the Knights Templar.
After this, we will have a celebratory lunch in the Luncheon Room of the Inner Temple, which has been reserved for our private use.
After lunch we will walk to the site of Temple Bar, marked by the Temple Bar Memorial, and then proceed eastwards along Fleet Street, crossing the River Fleet, and ascending Ludgate Hill to St Paul’s Cathedral and the relocated Temple Bar Archway designed by Sir Christopher Wren.
The Inner Temple Inn of Court twins Gray’s Inn of Court, where Francis Bacon had his lawyer’s chambers and of which he was Treasurer for many years. Twinship is the key to everything, and we aim to celebrate twinship!
Another example of twinship is that of government and people, wherein their friendship and judiciously balanced interdependence is crucial to democracy.
Temple Bar, as originally positioned, is where the Liberty of Westminster meets the Liberty of the City of London. Temple Bar is thus symbolic of the democratic judicial balance between the government and the people, which underlies our constitutional democracy.
Yet another twinship is that of the two eminent personages called St Alban – the 3rd/4th century Romano-British St Alban and the 16th/17th century English Viscount St Alban.
This pilgrimage is designed to inaugurate a St Alban II pilgrimage route, which will twin the St Alban I pilgrimage route.
The St Alban I pilgrimage route starts in London and ends at St Alban’s Cathedral, which marks the burial place of the Romano-British St Alban and contains the saint’s shrine.
The St Alban II pilgrimage route will also start in London (this pilgrimage marks the first steps on the route) and will end at St Michael’s Church, St Albans, where Viscount St Alban’s body was buried in the chancel vault, with an enigmatic sculpted memorial monument placed in the chancel above.
There will be a pre-pilgrimage talk on Zoom by Peter Dawkins at 5pm (GMT) on Sunday 18 January. This will be private, for those who participate in this pilgrimage.
For further information and booking, please contact the Organiser (FBRT).