All the national newspapers were edited and printed in the vicinity. The most illustrious relic of the days that ended in acrimony, Wapping and Canary Wharf is the old Daily Telegraph building at Peterborough Court, designed by Elcock and Sutcliffe. Tourists trudging from a coach into Dr Johnson's favourite local might persuade you to steer well clear, but in fact this impeccably traditional English hostelry provides decent beer and excellent food.As with most of the half-dozen pubs along the street, it closes early each evening. The character of Fleet Street changes dramatically as the sun goes down; humanity vanishes. Yet for most of the 20th century it was the one street in the capital, and the country, that was guaranteed to be lively around the clock.

Mary Queen of Scots stands daintily above Val Ceno's pasta bar, while on the south side the journalist and parliamentarian, T P O'Connor, is commended alongside the Halifax: "His pen could lay bare the bones of a book or the soul of a statesman in a few vivid lines."A lantern swinging above the entrance to one of the many courts that creep away from the street announces Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. The eastern end of Fleet Street provides a much better perspective, with St Paul's Cathedral rising above the crowd of modern office blocks.The characters get interesting east of here. The best agglomeration is at St Dunstan's-in-the-West, which narrowly survived the Great Fire of London. Outside, Elizabeth I stands aloof in a niche, while three flamboyant characters in stone cloaks stand frozen in the porch.

But the interior is the real draw, an airy octagon that includes an overpowering Romanian Orthodox altar.So far, most doors are firmly closed to Street outsiders. But at the foot of Chancery Lane, a huddle of half-timbered galleried houses is open for visitors. At no 17, the Street's one genuine tourist attraction is Prince Henry's Room. Complete with fine 17th-century ceiling and oak panelling - and an exhibition about the life of Samuel Pepys, one of the Street's most celebrated residents - it is one of the most exquisite chambers in London.Though its narrow profile shadows the line of an ancient Roman road that skirted the north bank of the Thames, Fleet Street does not easily reveal views of the river; try the prospect at the top of Bouverie Street, where the Oxo Tower on the South Bank is clearly visible. At weekends the pavements are as blank as fresh newsprint, but many notable characters are celebrated in stone.

No 194 has two identities: latterly, Fuller's Ale and Pie House, but the stout neo-classical building is more notable as the Old Bank of England.The street owes its name to the River Fleet, which flowed from Hampstead to reach the Thames at Blackfriars, a line now followed by Farringdon Street. If the traffic seems intense, bear in mind that the first stretch - as far as Fetter Lane - is part of the A4, the highway from London to the West.Most of the residents have vacated Fleet Street. It is the first of a whole wad of fine banks, and its singular speciality is a collection of rifles in a glass case alongside some sublime marble pillars. Close by, a glimpse into Middle Temple Lane reveals a vision of film-set London, all cobbles and galleries and (thanks to the lawyers) extravagant apparel.Meanwhile, Prince Albert gazes from his side of the plinth at 194; the numbers run sequentially down the south face to Ludgate Circus, then back along the north side. Queen Victoria is scowling at 1 Fleet Street, where Child's Bank issued the first banknotes in London in 1729. Queen Victoria, opens the proceedings, gazing sternly out from a monument in the middle of the road.