Take a tour around the pyramid for the London dead. Designed by failed architect Thomas Willson, the Sepulchre – though ultimately never built – would have been as tall as the Shard, with space for five million coffins.

At the height of the Great Plague of London, great bonfires of rare herbs burn across the deserted city. Join Samuel Peyps in the midst of this hellish vision – a last-ditch attempt to stop the spread of disease.

Take your final trip on the London Necropolis Railway, which transported coffins and mourners from the city to Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey. Make sure to get a first-class ticket so that your body doesn't mix with those of a lower sort.

Just outside Broadgate Circle, five gigantic sheets of rusting steel have been haphazardly propped up against one other. This is Fulcrum, a sculpture by Richard Serra. Discover one of the boldest, and most controversial, artists of the twentieth century.

Rimbaud and Verlaine, two of the most influential poets in French literature, had a sadistic and dysfunctional relationship – drinking, smoking opium, staying up for days at a time, and writing some of their greatest works. [CW: domestic violence; child abuse; suicide threat; drug abuse]

On June 18th 1982, Roberto Calvi – financial advisor to the Pope – was found hanging from scaffolding underneath Blackfriars Bridge. The murder remains unsolved, and to delve into why is to dive into the confusing and corrupt world of the Vatican, the Freemasons, South American dictatorships and the Mafia. [CW: murder; suicide]

Walk back in time with prehistoric monsters, and discover how these Victorian sculptures were designed – a history which includes a cruel professional rivalry and a decadent dinner in a dinosaur's stomach. [CW: suicide]

A showpiece council estate of the London County Council opened in 1960, famous its 18-storey point blocks and a Henry Moore sculpture.

A Westminster City Council housing estate of the 1950s; winner of a Civic Trust Award in 2000 as the outstanding building scheme of the previous forty years.

An unusual, Modernist-style, council estate built by the London County Council in the late 1920s and owing a little to the grand municipal blocks being built by Red Vienna in the same era.