ONE of the City of London's most famous thoroughfares returns to its historic roots for a day, back to the days of Dick Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor. The Cheapside Festival is being staged along the street between Bank and St Paul s Cathedral on Saturday, July 19

ONE of the City of London's most famous thoroughfares returns to its historic roots for a day, back to the days of Dick Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor.

The Cheapside Festival is being staged along the street between Bank and St Paul's Cathedral on Saturday, July 19.

Cheapside goes back to being 'London's first high street' as part of the City Corporation's cultural programme of rich heritage of festivals, pageantry and processions.

They have plans for Cheapside hosting more public events and artists' projects by the time the 2012 Olympics are staged five miles to the East at Stratford in East London.

Saturday's big bash is the start of a process to attract more people back into the Square Mile for shopping all week, not just for work Monday-to-Friday.

The name 'Cheapside' derives from the Old English word 'cheap', meaning market... and that's just what the City Fathers arte hoping with Saturday's festival, when it is transformed into a contemporary version of the original medieval market that made it a famous 14th century thoroughfare in Dick Whittington's time.