Yo! Summer is icumen in!!
If you’re looking past April 22nd – if you’re looking for the Summer 2010 London Walks programme – well, stay put. You’re right where you need to be – you’re on the right page. In short, what follows is a “preview” of the Summer 2010 programme.
As always, the forthcoming (Summer 2010) London Walks programme won’t be all that different from our current (Winter 2009-2010) programme. We set a lot of store by that wise old saw: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So the London Walks programme doesn’t change very much from season to season. 90-95 percent of it stays the same. We just change it enough to freshen it, keep it bracingly alive and fizzing.
1) from April 23 – St. George's Day, Shakespeare's birthday and Day One of the Summer 2010 London Walks programme – we'll be doing the Olympic London Walk – its proper title is Going for Gold in the East – See It Before 2012 – every Saturday afternoon at 2.15 pm. There's a review of the walk – and a photo or two – and a very good taster of a soundbite
here;
2) in the Summer 2010 programme we'll be doing a London on Film walk every Sunday morning. The exception that proves the rule is the 5th Sunday of the month – when there is a 5th Sunday (the other exception that proves the rule is April 25th – London on Film won't run that day because the London Marathon plays havoc with the route);
4) in the Summer 2010 London Walks programme we'll be doing a Tower of London Tour every Sunday afternoon at 2 pm;
5) in the Summer 2010 London Walks programme we'll be doing a Spies' London Walk (it'll be called Eye Spy London) every Tuesday evening at 7 pm. It'll go from Embankment
Tube;
6) the Sunday afternoon Harry Potter walk is moving to 2 pm and it's undergoing a major overhaul – i.e., instead of The London That Inspired Harry Potter it's going to be called The Harry Potter Film Locations Tours. Tours plural because there'll be two different ones. On the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sundays of the month it'll be Harry Potter in the City of London. It'll go from Bank
Tube. On the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month it'll be Harry Potter in Westminster, which will go from Westminster
Tube.
7) in the Summer 2010 programme the Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday Greenwich Walks will start five minutes later – i.e., at 10.45 am;
8) in the Summer 2010 London Walks programme the Old Univeristy Quarter walk on Fridays will be replaced by The Old Palace Quarter. It will go at 2 pm from Green Park
Tube, the Park exit.
9) in the Summer 2010 London Walks programme The Best Tour Ever (the National Gallery tour) will move from Tuesday to Friday. It will go at 2.15 pm on Friday afternoons. The reason for the move? A) Tuesday is the day the staff at the National Gallery are regularly picking on for their "Industrial Action" - i.e., their wildcat strikes - so it gets us away from that botheration; B) it turns Friday into a very artsy day (because we have the V & A tour in the morning), so what a great start to a long artsy weekend!; C) to open up a slot on Friday afternoon for the National Gallery tour we are moving Secrets & Splendours of St. Pauls' to the vacated (by the NG tour) spot on Tuesday. And what we like about that is that it turns Tuesdays (for anyone who is interested) into a Christopher Wren Special (of sorts) in the year (2010) of the tercentenary of the cathedral. Turns it into a Christopher Wren special because we do the Christopher Wren and His London walk on Tuesday afternoons. And now - well, from April 23rd - Secrets & Splendours of St. Paul's will be taking place every Tuesday at 10.30 am; and D) the afternoon slot for the Best Tour Ever is better because the school groups have of course quit the place and are on their way home - so the National Gallery will be less crowded, less "groupy"; and the converse of that is E) namely that a morning start for the St. Paul's tour is preferable because at the end of it people have time to go up to the Whispering Gallery (if they want to) - at the moment, i.e., with that walk taking place on Friday afternoons, they are very hard pressed time-wise to do that.
It is a question – always – of refining, refining, refining. We just keep fine tuning things – doing whatever it takes to make the London Walks programme even a smidgeon better.
And that should be it for the big ticket items – the weekly guided walking tours in London in the London Walks programme. Obviously the Tour du Jour walks and the Special Walks sections – both of which are, by definition, "date specific" – will be unique to their specific (Summer 2010) season
So, yes, enough to keep it fresh but nothing in the way of sweeping, wholesale changes to the in-town programme!
The out-of-town programme - the Away We Go! Here's England!! Destination Days!!! - is a different story. In short, the big change from season to season is in the
Explorer Days strand of our programme. "Explorer Days" is London Walks parlance for our out-of-town trips - to Stonehenge & Salisbury, Oxford & the Cotswolds, Bath, Cambridge, Richmond & Hampton Court, Avebury & Lacock, Constable Country, Warwick Castle, Blenheim Palace, Lavenham & Suffolk Village Country, etc. etc. The plain fact of the matter is we run a lot more out-of-town trips in the summer than we do in the winter.
We'll be going to
Bath every Thursday from June 10th through August 26th.
We'll be running special
The Cotswolds in Mid-summer trips on June 6, June 20, July 11, July 25, August 8, August 22 and August 29th.
And – as always – on Mondays we'll be running a smorgasbord of Special Explorer Days. The Monday Special Explorer Days programme will go up here any day now, so do check back.
As for the biggest movable feast of them all – Here's England – Away We Go! The Saturday Explorer Days – well, most of them are already up on this website.
Click here to see the particulars.
And I've just this morning – April 8th – put up the at-a-glance "table" of the Summer 2010 programme. They're all set out there, by date. All 128 of them – from April 23rd to October 31st (Day One and Day Last of the Summer 2010 London Walks programme). A
click here takes you to that set-out-and-groaning-with-goodies-for-your-delectation "table".
Okay, below is the rest of the "log" for the Summer 2010 London Walks schedule. Log because I've listed – in chronological order (i.e., as I got them done) – the various "components" of the Summer 2010 programme. And, yes, because it's a "log" it does read like a diary – work completed noted down as it got done.
I've just now this morning (March 24th) put up here the full Summer 2010 schedule of Sunday Afternoon at 2.30 pm From the Repertory – Tour du Jour Walks.
Click here to see it. Let alone savour it!
And another update, I've just this evening (March 27th) put up here the full Summer 2010 schedule of Sunday Morning at 10.45 am From the Repertory – Tour du Jour Walks.
Click here to see it. Ditto the savouring (as per the 2.30 pm From the Rep offerings on Sunday Afternoons).
And another 'un. Update I mean. This morning (March 29th) the full Summer 2010 schedule of Saturday Afternoon at 2.30 pm From the Repertory – Tour du Jour Walks has gone up. And is firing on all cylinders.
A click here takes you to it.
And today's (Tuesday, March 30th) update: the Other Saturday Night Pub Walk schedule for Summer 2010 is now all but complete.
A click here takes you threre. And the Pomp & Circumstances Walks schedule (the P & C walks – Secret Ceremonies: A Private View we call them – are the ones that look at ancient, colourful and little known City of London ceremonies) is now complete (bar two more dates).
A click here flits you there.
The
Additional Special Tours on Selected Fridays for Summer 2010 are now up and live. A
click here takes you to them.
Ditto the
Additional Special Tours on Selected Tuesdays for Summer 2010.
Click here to see them.
Ditto the
Additional Special Tours on Selected Saturdays for Summer 2010. A
click here magic carpets you to them.
Ditto the
Additional Special Tours on Selected Sundays for Summer 2010.
This click does da trick.
Ditto the
Additional Special Tours on Selected Mondays for Summer 2010.
This click will get you there.
Ditto the
Additional Special Tours on Selected Thursdays for Summer 2010. Yup,
this click does the trick.
Ditto the Additional Special Tours on Selected Wednesdays for Summer 2010.*
Here's the click.
*The asterisk because if you pop along over there you'll see that the titles for a couple of the walks are still very basic. They'll be gussied up sometime this weekend. But the basics are there.
The rest of the From the Rep Walks – Saturday Morning at 10.45 am Tour du Jour offerings, and the potpourri of Odds & Ends Specials on any given day to follow over the next few days. Do check back.
And the schedule for the special beyond words
Beneath the Bearskin – The Changing of the Guard walks conducted by Martin (the former Scots Guard) is now up here and firing on all cylinders.
Click here to see it. (For those of you who don't know Martin and these tours, here's the gen. Because Martin's an "old campaginer", so to speak, these are the ultimate "insider" tours of the Changing of the Guard. Not only does he know what it's like to wear that uniform and what goes on behind the scenes – he brings the bearskin and the scarlet tunic along. Ultimate "insider" tour – and ultimate photo-op. Yes, you, we're talking about – you wearing that tunic and crowned to the north with the bearskin! How special is that!!
Anything else? Well, yes. As always, we'll be running the fortnightly Midsummer Canal Walks at 6.30 pm. The specifics will go up here very shortly.
And do stop back when you get a chance. Because I've got a few more bits and bos to add to this. And pretty special bits and bobs they are. You'll want to know about them.