THE WEDNESDAY EXPLORER DAY - Away We Go! |
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THE WEDNESDAY MORNING LONDON WALKS |
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THE WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON LONDON WALKS |
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THE WEDNESDAY EVENING LONDON WALKS |
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THE COTSWOLDS & OXFORD EXPLORER DAY  9.30 am on Wednesdays*
from Paddington  Railway Station
"There's no other place like it in the world,
it is a despair to see such a place and ever to leave it."
If you're thinking about going on this one you're on the edge of perfection. Don't turn your back on it. On the Cotswolds. On chuckling streams, stone bridges, and thatched cottages; on ancient churches and manor houses; on old mills and millponds; on vast panoramas, rolling hills, and deep green valleys; on villages out of a storybook. On Oxford. On "towery city and branchy between towers; cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmed, lark-charmed, rook-racked, river-rounded". On dreaming spires. Ah, Oxford. Our setting: its mediaeval colleges and walls; its bridges, libraries and gardens; its cloisters and quads, its towers and dreaming spires, gnawed by time and echoing with centuries of youthful exuberance. Our themes: town and gown; the life and times of generations of dons and undergraduates; kings and punting and Alice in Wonderland; scholars, wits and celebrated eccentrics; poets and Inspector Morse, Brideshead Revisited and Shadowlands and, yes, American Presidents who didn't inhale. And if you'd like to read a really detailed report - one that's image-accompanied! - click here.
The Cotswolds & Oxford Explorer Day takes place every* Wednesday at 9.30 am.
 Except October 29th and November 5th
To go on the Cotswolds & Oxford Explorer Day meet Richard -
he of the bright red cap! -
at 9.30 am by the main ticket office - it's right by Platform 1 -
of Paddington Railway Station.
 Guided by Richard
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THE LONDON WALK - Westminster & the West End10.30 am on Wednesdays
from Westminster Tube exit 4
Whoa! Here it is. The all-in-one London Walk. It's The Grand Tour. London's Yellow Brick Road. So hey ho off we go - off to see all the classic sights in Westminster and the West End. Tick 'em off: Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the Changing of the Guard, our loveliest Royal Park, 500-year-old St. James's Palace, clubland, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Admiralty Arch...they're all here: all the London pearls. And here's the clincher: Helena and Tom have strung them together with quaint little back streets and alleys that give you the real essence of London!
The London Walk - Westminster & the West End
takes place every Wednesday at 10.30 am
and every Sunday at 10.45 am.
Meet Tom or Helena just outside exit 4 of Westminster Tube.
Westminster Tube is on
the Circle, District & Jubilee Lines.
Guided by Tom or Helena
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THE TOWER OF LONDON "the most important mediaeval fortress in Europe"10.45 am on Wednesdays
from Tower HillTube
In the beginning William - the bastard - created the Tower. And, yes, the biblical echo is deliberate. That's how important the Tower is. Crown jewels, battlements, Traitor's Gate, the executioner's block, armour, centuries-old ceremonies, the stage on which so much of our history climaxed: the question isn't whether you'll go to the Tower - the question is whether you'll go First Class. And let's tell it like it is. First Class isn't tacky and touristy. It isn't wandering aimlessly. What it is is seeing the Tower with a great guide. Because that thrilling, chilling past is still there - sighs run in blood down Tower walls - but you have to know where to look. And how to look. Go First Class - go in there with a world class guide* (and these two are) and you'll come out exclaiming, "that's the best £5 upgrade on the planet!" Guided by Tom or Brian. A £5 upgrade because we get a discount on the admission price - so that's effectively all you'll be paying for the walk itself. And we get VIP admission - no standing in a long queue. Go Economy Class you pay more, you get less and you could queue for half an hour or more. Some Economy.
The Tower of London walk takes place
every Wednesday at 10.45 am.
Meet Brian or Tom just outside the exit
of Tower HillTube
Tower HillTube is on
the Circle & District Lines
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SHAKESPEARE'S & DICKENS' LONDON - The Old City11 am on Wednesdays
from St. Paul'sTube exit 2
London was to Shakespeare and Dickens what Paris was to Balzac. It held them in its thrall, was both their canvas and their inspiration, their workshop and their raw material. They in turn made it their own, imaginatively colonising it. And, like "special correspondents for posterity", bequeathed it to us. Today, despite the ravages of time, riot, bombing, and especially fire, traces of their London - shipwrecks from the past - still abound in the City. Everything from superb half-timbered Elizabethan dwellings to the magnificent early 16th-century gatehouse where Shakespeare went with his plays to the offices of the Elizabethan Master of the Revels. And from London's grandest Tudor manor house to crooked little alleys which fed the fires of Dickens's "hallucinating genius".
Shakespeare's and Dickens' London - The Old City
takes place every Wednesday at 11 am
and every Sunday at 2 pm.
Meet David or Andy or Corinna just outside St. Paul'sTube exit 2.
St. Paul'sTube is on
the Central Line
N.B., This walk does not duplicate Monday's and Saturday's "Shakespeare's London" walk.
Guided by Andy or Corinna (on Wednesdays)
Guided by David (on Sundays)
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LEGAL & ILLEGAL LONDON - The Inns of Court11 am on Wednesdays*
from HolbornTube
The Inns of Court - habitat of the wigged and gowned English barrister - could pass for a collection of Oxford and Cambridge colleges right in the heart of London. They are a warren of cloisters, courtyards, and passageways set amongst some of the best gardens in London. So: ancient rites and customs, high drama, colourful characters, and matters of life and death amid delightful surroundings. It's a rich confection, making this the prettiest and most historical of our central London walks.
LEGAL & ILLEGAL LONDON - The Inns of Court walk takes place
every Wednesday at 11 am,
every Friday at 2 pm,
and every Monday at 2 pm.
N.B. this walk will not take place on Wednesday, December 26th.
Meet Shaughan or Molly or Angela or Gillian
just outside the exit of HolbornTube.
HolbornTube is on
theCentral & Piccadilly Lines
Guided on Wednesdays by Molly
Guided on Fridays by Gillian or Angela
Guided on Mondays by Shaughan
Middle Temple Hall by Gaslight, December 2004
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"I summon up remembrance of things past..."
William Shakespeare
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11 am on Wednesdays
from Warwick AvenueTube
If you fancy something completely different, this is the walk for you. Little Venice is the prettiest and most romantic spot in town. A unique combination of white stucco, greenery, and water, it boasts the finest early Victorian domestic architecture in London; a Who's Who of famous residents (Robert Browning, Edward Fox, Joan Collins, Annie Lennox, and Sigmund Freud to name but a few); and a jewel of a "village" street. And that's not to mention its canals. One of them - Regent's Canal - is known as the "loveliest inland waterway in England". Part of the walk is along the canal towpath - which to this day is studded with fragments of evidence that bring the Age of Canals to life. And afterwards you can have tea - or a bite to eat - at a stylish canal-side cafe. And why not lend an ear?  Which is by way of saying, here's a bit of audio from this walk. It's Shaughan in all his full-throated - let alone multi-charactered - glory!
The Little Venice Walk takes place
every Wednesday at 11 am,
every Saturday at 2 pm,
and every Sunday at 2 pm.
Meet Peter or Richard III just outside the exit
of Warwick AvenueTube.
Warwick AvenueTube is on
theBakerloo Line
Guided on Wednesdays by Peter or Richard III
Guided Saturdays and Sundays by Shaughan
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THE OLD JEWISH QUARTER "a shtetl called Whitechapel" |
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"It is numbered with our Jewish towns"
"The piece of London which I hold in my heart is a part I have never lived in - Whitechapel. But it's the real East End, where my Jewish great-grandfather came to live, in Goodmans Fields, in the 1860s. So much of the Jewish culture I absorbed came from this area - small shopkeepers, kosher chickens on a slab, salt beef sandwiches from... Blooms Restaurant, little synagogues in small streets like Princelet Street - and lively street markets with witty stall holders shouting their wares with flair and cunning. The dirty blocks of apartment buildings, all stairs and washing lines, Brick Lane, Leman Street, Black Lion Yard - these are the streets of my family history...I grew up in Oxford - quite another feel to that place - but the emotional heart of London for me is the gritty, warm-hearted East End."
Miriam Margolyes
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CHELSEA - London's Riverside Village |
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Hampstead Graveyard, Tree & the House of the Most Famous Living English Actress |
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2 pm on Wednesdays
from HolbornTube
The British Museum is the big one...the most important museum on the planet. It's an incomparably rich treasure-chest, brimming with things of world historical importance. The Rosetta Stone, the Egyptian antiquities and mummies, the Elgin Marbles, the Black Obelisk, the Magna Carta, the 2,000-year-old Lindow Bog Man, the Sutton Hoo treasure...here is civilisation, manifest. Here the past turns on its pivots to face the 21st century. The snag is that you can't see for looking...both because of the embarrassment of riches and the sheer size of the place (the building covers 13.5 acres - set off in the wrong direction and you have to walk three times too far). Indeed, how you see it is almost as important as what you see. "The best commentary on the revolution of Greek art and the quality of its achievement is...simply to come direct to the Elgin room from the Egyptian and Assyrian ones, as if into an explosion of life, even, as in the frieze, of gaiety." Which is by way of saying, to see these things with a great guide...well, you'll never be quite the same again. In short, the secret is to use your time at the British Museum well.
And on that note, methinks it's time to garnish the words, words, words with a little photo essay. Open sesame by clicking here. The British Museum tour takes place:
every Wednesday at 2 pm,
every Saturday at 2 pm,
and every Monday at 11 am.
Meet your guide just outside the exit
of Holborn Tube.
HolbornTube is on
theCentral & Piccadilly Lines
Guided on Wednesdays by Molly or Donald
Guided on Saturdays by Karen
Guided on Mondays by Tom or Chris or Hilary
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"When it's three o'clock in New York,
it's still 1938 in London."
Bette Midler
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THE BEATLES MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR 2 pm on Wednesdays
from Tottenham Court RoadTube
(meet outside exit 3, by the Dominion Theatre)
Guided by "the pied piper of Beatlemania", this is a chance to Imagine Beatlemania and the Swinging 60s. It's a Magical Mystery Tour of the Beatles" London haunts: their Apple offices, where they played the famous rooftop session Paul McCartney's headquarters; and the world famous Abbey Road Studios and the Abbey Road crosswalk. Richard P., recaptures the era when London was the cultural capital of the world and the "Fab Four" were its rulers.  Here's a "grab" from the walk. And if you'd like to know something about where you'll be meeting Richard, well, simply click me!
The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour takes place
every Wednesday at 2 pm,
every Thursday at 11 am,
and every Sunday at 10.55 am.
Meet Richard just outside exit 3 - the Dominion Theatre exit -
of Tottenham Court RoadTube.
Tottenham Court RoadTube is on
the Central & Northern Lines
N.B. We make a short tube journey to Abbey Road,
so getting a "ticket to ride" - a 2-Zone Travel Card -
is a good idea.
Guided by Richard P
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THE LONDON WALK - St. Paul's to the Tower of London2.15 pm on Wednesdays
from St. Paul'sTube, exit 2
This is the City of London Grand Tour. It gives you a stunning overview...from St. Paul's Cathedral to the Tower of London. You can't do better than that for a jumping off point and a final destination. But - whisper it - the getting there is the real fun...because we explore twisty little alleyways and piquant nooks and crannies and a secret stretch of shoreline that'll give you a thrilling view across the river to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern. Seeing this London is like hearing music you never would have known to listen for. Like this music!
For an outsider's delightful (and delighted) take on the walk - and on Tom - click here. It's a long excerpt from Mark Mason's wonderful new book, The Importance of Being Trivial. It's from the chapter in the book that focusses on this walk (and on Tom).
The London Walk - St. Paul's to the Tower of London takes place
every Wednesday at 2.15 pm
Meet Tom or Helena just outside exit 2
of St. Paul'sTube.
St. Paul'sTube is on the Central Line
Guided by Tom or Helena
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THE ALONG THE THAMES PUB WALK 7 pm on Wednesdays
from BlackfriarsTube, exit 3
"the most exciting walk in London...
it can do more to interpet the city than anything else, a real skeleton key"
If you only have time for one walking tour, this is the one to go on - it's the classic London pub walk. It takes in London's last remaining galleried coaching inn, its best riverside walkway, its oldest market, the finest art nouveau pub in England, the most sensational art gallery in the world (on Fridays we pop inside for a quick look!), the church where Harvard University's founder was baptised, and an 18th-century pub that brews its own beer - plus lashings of Shakespeare, a jot of Dickens, lots of pub lore, and London's best skyline panorama. It gets better. Because there's also the recently discovered remains of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (and its sister playhouse The Rose)...and the thrilling, thatch-roofed reproduction that's risen, Phoenix-like, only a stone's throw away. Let alone the astonishing replica of Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hinde, the ship that the great Elizabethan mariner sailed around the world over 400 years ago. Anchored there in the murky Thames, its timbers creaking eerily in the misty London night and The Globe just yards away...it's a ghost ship lost in time. Go on this walk. (Food is available.)
The Along the Thames Pub Walk takes place:
every Wednesday at 7 pm,
every Friday at 7 pm,
and every Monday at 7 pm.
Meet Shaughan just outside exit 3 of BlackfriarsTube.
BlackfriarsTube is on
theCircle & District Lines
Guided on Wednesdays by Shaughan
Guided on Fridays by David or Mary
Guided on Mondays by Richard or Steve
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"Then one day walking round Tavistock Square I made up,
as I sometimes make up my books, To the Lighthouse,
in a great, apparently involuntary rush."
Virginia Woolf, Moments of Being
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"A quart of ale is a dish fit for a king..." |
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THE LITERARY LONDON PUB WALK - The Write Stuff
7 pm on Wednesdays
from HolbornTubeWelcome to Brian's Wednesday evening literary soire! The company's beyond compare: your good selves and the shades of Dickens and Thackeray; Oscar Wilde and G. B. Shaw; Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Circle (who lived in Squares and loved in triangles); George Orwell, W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot. The venue's a moveable feast: a procession of handsome Georgian squares; the humming little warren of streets in the Museum quarter; and a couple of the best old pubs in London. The host's a born raconteur. And depend on it, he'll stir things a bit - tell you a thing or two about the aforementioned - how they were flesh and blood men and women who lived, loved, laughed, caroused, quarrelled and spun "words so nimble, so full of subtle flame..." . (Food is available.) Brian requests the pleasure of your company... (And if you'd like to run a little bit of this one past your ears....well, click here to hear.)
The Old Bloomsbury Pub Walk takes place
every Wednesday evening at 7 pm.
Meet Brian just outside the exit of HolbornTube.
Holborn Tube is on
the Central & Piccadilly Lines
Guided by Brian
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GHOSTS, GASLIGHT & GUINNESS |
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"When my great, great, great grandfather, John Johnson, was Lord Mayor of London in 1845, London was the largest city in the world...with nearly two million inhabitants but still no basic sanitation. I'd rather have lived 2,000 years ago in Londinium. At least they had baths!" Actor and London Walks guide, Richard III
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7:30 pm Every Evening*
from Tower HillTube
He came silently out of the midnight shadows of August 31, 1888. Watching. Stalking. Butchering raddled, drink-sodden East End prostitutes. Leaving a trail of blood that led...nowhere. Yes, something wicked this way walked, for this is the Ripper's slashing grounds. We evoke that autumn of gaslight and fog, of menacing shadows and stealthy footsteps as we inspect the murder sites, sift through the evidence - in all its gory detail - and get to grips, so to speak, with the main suspects. Afterward we can steady our nerves in The Ten Bells, the pub where the victims - perhaps under the steely gaze of the Ripper himself - tried to forget the waking nightmare. And for a pictorial or two, click here.
The Jack the Ripper Haunts Walk takes place every* single night at 7:30 pm.
And every Saturday afternoon - at 3 pm - there's also a Ripper "matinee". I.E., the Jack the Ripper Walk also takes place every* Saturday afternoon at 3 pm.
Meet the guide just outside the exit of Tower HillTube.
Tower HillTube is on
theCircle & District Lines
*Except December 24th and December 25th
Guided on Wednesday evenings at 7.30 pm by Steve
Guided Thursday evenings at 7.30 pm by Angela & Shaughan
Guided Friday evenings at 7.30 pm by Donald or Shaughan
Guided on Saturday afternoons at 3 pm by Fiona or Peter
Guided on Saturday evenings at 7.30 pm by Steve
Guided on Sunday evenings at 7.30 pm by Donald
Guided on Monday evenings at 7.30 pm by Donald & Molly
Guided on Tuesday evenings at 7.30 pm by Donald & Molly
N.B., Let's call a spade a spade. Going on Donald Rumbelow's walk is as close as you're going to get to nailing the Ripper. Donald is the author of the best-selling The Complete Jack the Ripper, the definitive book on the subject. He's been the chief consultant for every major television and film treatment of the Ripper for the last 20 years. In the words of The Jack to Ripper A to Z (the bible of Ripperology studies): "Donald Rumbelow is internationally recognised as the leading authority on the subject". The former Curator of the City of London Police Crime Museum and a two-time Chairman of the Crime Writers" Association, Donald is Britain's most distinguished crime historian. And I hasten add, he's not some dry-as-dust academic. He spent 25 years on the City of London Police Force - which in effect means you'll be taken over some of the most famous crime scenes in the world by a law enforcement professional...who just happens to be the world's leading expert on those particular crime scenes! Oh and I almost forgot - he's also a top-flight professionally qualified Blue Badge Guide!
But a word of warning: never part with your money or set off with anyone until you're absolutely certain you're with Donald or - if it's another night - one of his London Walks colleagues. Donald (and co.) will be holding up copies of the distinctive white London Walks leaflet. And remember, Donald and his colleagues never ever start the Jack the Ripper walk before 7:30pm. In short, don't let anyone pull a fast one on you.
Please tread carefully and keep away from the shadows - you are about to enter the abyss... |
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