London is our main course but we also serve up wonderful side dishes in the shape of Here's England – Away We Go! daytrips to Stonehenge & Salisbury, Oxford, Bath, Cambridge, Hampton Court, The Cotswolds, Canterbury, Glastonbury & Wells, Constable Country, Royal Winchester, etc. etc. etc. And be sure to check this out!
And look, if you know the score, and just want to know what's on when – just click here for a table, laid out in chronological order, of all the out-of-town trips we'll be running in the Summer 2010 London Walks programme. And a tip of the hat to walker Chuck B. who came up with idea ("please set them all out in order in a single table").
And here's a video taster - a taster of one of our destinations and indeed of the experience itself. Speaks for itself, I think you'll agree.
And here's an accompanying piece. This one covers all the practical details – how it works, the timing, the logistics, the transportation arrangements, etc.
An Explorer Day is an interesting, fun, and inexpensive way to get the most out of your visit to these not-to-be-missed places. After all, if you've only got a few fleeting hours to take it all in, why squander a good part of your time wandering around trying to get your bearings? See below and each day's page for full details.
Explorer Days consist of two completely different walks - one in the morning and one in the afternoon - with a lunch break in between. Afterwards there's some free time for shopping or a museum or gallery visit. We travel by comfortable, high speed train - it's fastly superior!
Ok, the image is of course of an old fashioned railway carriage. But it gets the feel - the tone, the mood, the agreeableness - of rail travel right, even if in technical and mechanical terms it's from a bygone era!
The ride through the lovely old English countryside takes an hour or so. We get back to London in time for you to go to a show or do an evening walk.
To go on an Explorer Day simply meet your London Walks guide by the main ticket office of the designated London  railway station at the time stated. Your guide – Richard or Gillian or Chris or Hilary or Simon or Alison – will be holding up copies of the distinctive white London Walks leaflet.
Explorer Days are unbeatable value: just £14 for adults plus the tariff  (your train fare and any entrance fees). And they're only £12 (plus the tariffs) for students, Super Adults [over 65s], and Discount Walkabout Card holders. Children under 15 go free (apart from the tariff). And there's "added value" galore because time and again the tariffs – which are available through the guide – are a big saving on the normal price.
See below for the adult tariff for a given Explorer Day. N.B., there are often further reductions for students, senior citizens and children. British Rail Pass holders travel free.
A word about how this page is organised. Listed below - in alphabetical order - are the descriptions of the Explorer Days that we're running at the moment - i.e., in the current, Winter 08-09 London Walks programme, which kicked in on November 1st and runs through April 30th.. After you've scrolled down right through them all - from Bath to Windsor you'll come to a table, wherein I've set out the "Additional Explorer Days" for the Winter 08-09 programme. Beneath the table are three parallel lines. And then, just to whet your appetite, beneath those lines I've set out - in alphabetical order again - all the other Explorer Days in the London Walks repertory. So the whole page gives you the full monte, so to speak. And by all means, if you'd like a private Explorer Day for a group summer or winter...well, as I've spelled out here, the full panopoly is on the menu. Just give us a bell and tell us what you'd like and we'll make it happen for you.
And bang goes the starting pistol. Read on...
|
 |
 This is some kind of wonderful. Lacock is the most exquisite village in England. No wonder Harry Potter, Pride & Prejudice and Emma were filmed here. We're talking a living village: just four streets, houses of every century from the 13th onward, the river Avon and a swabbling brook, Snaylesmead Meadow and Lacock Abbey. And as for Avebury, it beggars all description. The largest stone circle complex on earth, it speaks to us across the ages, speaks of a secret geometry and lost science, of an ancient time more clairvoyant and star-born than ours. And that's not to mention the white horses cut into the hillside or Silbury Hill, the largest Neolithic monument in Europe. It's the same age as - indeed, it is England's Great Pyramid. And on that note, here's a little feast-your-eyes photo-essay on Avenbury & Lacock!
And if you want a lengthy - a really thorough, really detailed - description/account of the Avebury & Lacock outing, click here.
 In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme - which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st -
we go to Avebury & Lacock on:
Saturday, September 18
Tariff £39
Meet Richard at 8.45 am by the main ticket office
(it's right by Platform One) of Paddington Railway Station.
|
|
BATH - "Bath is to England what Venice is to Europe" You want it in 19 words? Only two cities on the planet are classified as a UNESCO World Historical Site. Bath is one of them.
You want it in rather more words? Okay, let's tell it like it is. Here goes...
Bath walks. Bath tours. Call it what you will, guided walking tours of Bath are streets ahead! The little video that shows our Bath tour in full flow surely underlines the point. You can't see Bath in a couple of hours. Let alone get to know it. That's why our Bath Tour spends the whole day there. That's why it's two different guided walking tours of Bath conducted by a top flight Blue Badge guide – guided tours that explore the highlights – the Roman Baths, the Royal Crescent, the cathedral, etc. of course – but that also go off the beaten track. Nor is it "just" two walking tours of Bath – there's also some free time in Bath for a museum or gallery visit. And, yes, we get to Bath and back the classy way – we go by comfortable, high speed train (rather than, ugh, the coach, the motorway, the crawl). So, if it's Bath walks – guided walking tours of Bath – you're looking for, well, you've just turned up trumps. And it's not just us saying that. Three top awards in four years – including two Golds (for the Best Tourism Experience in England and for the Best Tourism Experience in London) – well, you can take that to the bank. In short, this is the Bath tour that's full of win! C'est tout. Except to say, enjoy the Bath walks video! And looking forward to seeing you "full of win anticipation" at Paddington Station on one of those Thursdays (or Saturday, May 1st or Saturday, August 26th) this summer!
Bath is like being in heaven without going to all the bother and expense of dying. A scoop of pure honey set in a green bowl, Bath is, quite simply, "the world's most perfect Georgian city". A graceful and airy miracle of Palladian grandeur, it's a world of arcades and crescents, of Assembly Rooms and Pump Rooms. (As this photo essay attests to.) In the 18th-century it was the focus of the Age of Elegance. Today it's our turn to savour the accreted delights of the slow centuries as we explore this exquisite place and its stunningly cosmopolitan Roman foundations, folded into a time-warp in the lovely Somerset hills. Bottom line: a trip to Bath is an event. European cities don't come any more provocative. Or profound. Or poetic. And if you'd like a sneak preview, a click here will take you to our wonderful little film of our Here's England - Away We Go to Bath Tour!
And talk about travelling back in time to the ancient world...feels like we've waited 2,000 years for this!
Meet by the main ticket office – it's by Platform One – of Paddington Railway Station at 9 am.
 In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme -which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st -
we go to Bath:
Every Thursday (from June 10th through August 26th)
And we'll also go there on:
and Saturday, October 23rd
Tariff: £36
|
|
Blenheim: three acres of palace; 600 rooms; 'the longest corridor in Europe'; 2,500 acres of park; a 390-foot bridge over the vast lake; 180 servants; Winston Churchill's birthplace. King George III conceding, "we have nothing to equal this." Oxford: "towery city and branchy between towers; cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmed, lark-charmed, rook-racked, river-rounded"; town and gown and dreaming spires; poets and punting; kings, wits, celebrated eccentrics, Brideshead Revisited, Inspector Morse, and, yes, American presidents who didn't inhale: "there's no other place like it in the world, it is a despair to see such a place and ever to leave it". And the thing is, what I've written above is just the scorecard. The reality melts it. Enough said? Not enough? Okay, in that case, click here.
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme –
which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st –
we go to Blenheim Palace & Oxford on
Saturday, October 30th (for Horrible Happenings at Halloween)!
Meet Richard at 9.30 am by the main ticket office -
it's right by Platform One -
of Paddington Railway Station.
Tariff £39
|
|
BRIGHTON - "London by the Sea""Brighton is a quintessential English experience." Brighton is Brighthelmstone...the mediaeval fishing village, echoed to this day in the Old Town, the famous "Lanes" of narrow cobbled alleys and fishermen's cottages. Brighton is Regency elegance, the oldest and for 200 years Europe's most fashionable sea-side resort. Brighton is patrician and plebeian - the Royal Crescent and spacious sea-view garden squares and fish & chip shops and antiques and the largest marina in Europe. Brighton is hidden green corners and a heart-stopping view of the whole sweep of the coast and sugar-cake hotels and antique cars and Jane Austen dandies and promenading along the garish but magnificent Victorian Palace Pier. Last but certainly not least, Brighton is the Oriental splendour of the Royal Pavilion, the most exotic palace in Europe, the Taj Mahal of our hemisphere. Here's a photo-essay.
In the London Walks Summer 2010 programme –
which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st –
Monday, October 4th
Meet Simon at 9.30 am by the ticket office of
Victoria Railway Station.
Tariff £17
|
|
CAMBRIDGE - "can such places be?"
"the most beautiful city in Europe"
Cambridge. Miraculum orbis, wonder of the world; annexe to heaven. Mediaeval courts; emerald, velvet-soft lawns; the unearthly beauty of Kings*; Newton's room and garden where he experimented and, yes, that apple tree - think of him "forever voyaging through strange seas of thought"; the calm of the tree-fringed Backs; the willow-shrouded banks of the Cam; the Bridge of Sighs; the American cemetery; Darwin's college and specimens from his famous voyage; the pub where the structure of DNA was announced; punting on the Cam (we'll get a really generous discount if you want to take a turn - or, indeed, just go along for the ride). Let alone leafy streets and twisty alleys; and the whispering wind and yellow lantern; the shadowed passage and haunted bookstore; bicycling students; cheese and fish stalls in the market; people who talk like books... Here's a photo-essay. And more video anyone? Here's a little how-it-works job - the logistics, the practical details, etc. And here's a hot-off-the-press (2010) Cambridge piece that was earmarked for the London Walks Blog but found a home here instead. You'll learn something fairly tasty from it.
In The Summer 2010 London Walks programme –
which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st –
we go to Cambridge every other Monday from May 10th through October 11th.
The Summer 2010 Cambridge Mondays are: May 10th, May 24th, June 7th, June 21st, July 5th, July 19th, August 2nd, August 16th, August 30th, September 13th, September September 27th and October 11th.
And we'll also go there on Saturday, September 4th.
Meet Simon at 9 am at the start of Platform 8 –
by the main ticket office –
of King's Cross Railway Station
Tariff £35
|
|
CHARTWELL & THE WEALD OF KENT "A day away from Chartwell is a day wasted." Winston Churchill
We're rolling through stunningly beautiful countryside.
On our way to drop in on Winston Churchill at Chartwell.
No question about it, he's here - the dining room's set for afternoon tea, there are daily newspapers and fresh flowers and cigars at the ready. Here's his study. And his library. Outside there are black swans on the lake and panoramic views over the Weald of Kent and his favourite refuge - his garden studio.
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme – which kicked in on April 23rd and runs through Oct. 31st – we go to Chartwell & the Weald of Kent on
Saturday, September 11th
Meet Gillian or Chis at 8.45 am
by the ticket office of Charing Cross Railway Station.
Tariff £39
|
|
CONSTABLE COUNTRY & COLCHESTER "It's like spending the morning in a painting."
Constable Country is the site of The Haywain, the river Stour, Dedham Lock. It's the archetypical English landscape. And for a chaser - and they don't come any better - we'll explore the oldest town in Britain...with its Roman wall and gateway, its Norman castle (and the finest keep in England!)...
its Dutch quarter, its Victorian park, its ancient street market. In short, if you haven't been there, go - because this is a very special day out!
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme –
which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st –
we go to Constable Country & Colchester on
Saturday, August 28th
Meet Hilary at 9.15 am by the main ticket office of
Liverpool Street Railway Station.
£36
"The sound of water escaping from mill-dams, etc., willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts, and brickwork, I love such things. Shakespeare could make everything poetical; he tells us of poor Tom's haunts among "sheep cotes and mills". As long as I do paint, I shall never cease to paint such places...Those scenes made me a painter and I am grateful." John Constable, letter to the Rev. John Fisher, 1821.
|
|
The Cotswolds are achingly beautiful.
The Cotswolds are the fresh green lap of this fair isle.
The Cotswolds are thatched roofs and honey-coloured stone and cottages wreathed in wisteria and honeysuckle. The Cotswolds are stone bridges and old mills and millponds. The Cotswolds are storybook villages and matchless flower gardens. The Cotswolds are rural England at its best.
And here's where we come in. A Tour of the Cotswolds. Cotswolds Village Tours. Cotswolds Countryside Tours. Call it what you will, guided walking tours of the Cotswolds – well, okay, four Cotswolds villages and a taste of the Cotswolds countryside – are streets ahead! Oh, okay, Cotswolds village lanes and Cotswolds countryside byways ahead!
Now as to the practicals...here's how the London Walks Cotswolds Tour works. Meet the famous Richard – he of the honeyed voice and just-stepped-out-of-the-pages-of-Gentleman's-Quarterly mien (as always, he'll be topped to the north with that distinctive red cap) – by the ticket office of Paddington Railway Station at the time stated. (Scroll down for the date/time particulars of our Cotswolds Tours.) We travel to The Cotswolds by comfortable, high speed train (rather than, ugh, the coach, the motorway, the crawl). It's fastly superior. Quicker and far more comfortable. It's coach-time when we get to The Cotswolds. Richard's chartered a little local coach to get over the ground between the Cotswolds villages that we tour. That's what we call getting the balance right. It's very little coach time indeed, but it's there for us when we need it. We're not on a long-distance Cotswolds countryside walk, we're on a tour of The Cotswolds, and in particular four of the most exquisite villages in the whole of the Cotswolds. The coach takes care of those intervening miles. Though even those are something to be relished. Rather than endured. For the very good reason that because we've got the timing right – we've not eaten up three to four hours crawling through London traffic and motorway madness just to get up there – Richard can pick and choose his route through the Cotswolds, his route connecting the Cotswolds villages that we tour, very carefully indeed. The which he's done. It's a gorgeous, back country roads routes – a best of the Cotswolds countryside route. In short, the coach time isn't down time, isn't to-be-endured, grin-and-bear-it time – it's also absolutely part and parcel of our Cotswolds tour. It's a plus not a negative. And when we're in the villages, well, it's out and about, out and stretching a leg. More than stretching a leg. A lot more. They're proper guided walking tours of four of the very best – four of the most exquisite – Cotswolds villages. And – you gotta love this – two of them are sufficiently close together that we can – and do – walk the short Cotswolds countryside fields and lanes and stiles path that connects them. Can you guess which Cotswolds villages they are?
Bottom line. If it's an all-day Cotswolds tour – a guided walking tour of Cotswolds villages and Cotswolds countryside – you're looking for, well, you've just turned up trumps. Our Cotswolds Tours are full of win! And – this bears repeating – it's not just us saying that. Three top awards in four years – including two Golds (for the Best Tourism Experience in England and for the Best Tourism Experience in London) – well, you can take that to the bank! These are the best Cotswolds Tours going. They're not just different in degree, they're different in kind.
Oh, and do enjoy the little video of our Cotswolds Tour. Hardly needs saying, that – because we're ragingly confident that you will. Who wouldn't.
Here it is – the taster - it's a lovingly shot little film of day, destination, and guide (ah, Richard! cynosure of guides, golden of voice, red of cap, pink of courtesy! Not to mention platinum of well connected, etc. etc.). And here's another (it's a little photo-essay).
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme -
which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st -
we run The Cotswolds Tour on the following dates:
Saturday, May 8 (this one's called The Cotswolds in Spring)
Saturday, October 2 (this one's called The Cotswolds in Autumn)
For the The Sunday Cotswolds Tours –
which take place on June 6, June 20, July 11,
July 25, August 8, August 22, and August 29 –
by the main ticket office (it's by Platform 1)
of Paddington Railway Station.
For the two Saturday Cotswolds Tours –
The Cotswolds in Spring, which takes place on Saturday, May 8,
and The Cotswolds in Autumn, which takes place on Saturday, October 2 –
meet Richard at 9.45 am
by the main ticket office (it's by Platform 1)
of Paddington Railway Station. Tariff: £36
|
|
The Holy Grail of Deepest England
A living – shaping – past your thing? Then listen up. Folklore and fact choir in the Glastonbury of King Arthur, Avalon, vast ruined Abbey, witches, healers and hippies. In the rolling Mendip Hills. In Wells, our gem-like English cathedral city. In moated palace, mediaeval streets, bustling market, verray parfait cathedral plumed with – pealing with – statues. Visits don't come any more vivid. Or vital. Or rainbow-rich. Okay, here's the photo-essay.
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme - which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st -
we go to Glastonbury & Wells on:
Saturday, July 24th
by the main ticket office (opposite Platform 16)
of Waterloo Railway Station
£46
|
|
LAVENHAM & THE VILLAGES OF SUFFOLK
"Q. Are we in England? Q. If so, what century is this? A. Yes. A. the 16th century. Q. Huh? Come on, Where are we? A. Pretty close to heaven. Because half-timbered, once-upon-a-time, film-set Lavenham is almost waaaaaaay too perfect. This England. This scrap of England. Ooooooh to be here in these mid-year moments of birdsong and streamsong and distant bells and vivid, singing skies and lanes and cottages and flower blazes and classic patchworks of valleys, woods and fields. To say nothing of what Suffolk's laureate describes as "remote settlements in a remote land… unconventional beauty, inward warmth distilled by the years.” Places like Long Melford (can you hear it? mill ford), all stately homes and antique shops and a cathedral of a parish church and 2,000 years of history. Or Chelsworth with its 1,000 years of history and the Brett Valley and cottages and (the day we go there) villagers inviting us into their private gardens. And the guiding? Richard’s local – his country house is here. No surprise then that he's a library of unexpected juxtapositions and gloriously out-of-the-way yet telling facts: “a typical 15th century Suffolk farm house – figure about 330 oak trees to make it.”
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme –
which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st –
we go to Laveneham & the Villages of Suffolk on
Sunday, June 27th at 8.30 am
and Saturday, August 7th at 9 am
Meet Richard by the main ticket office – it's opposite Platform 10 – of Liverpool Street Railway Station.
£39 |
|
LEEDS CASTLE & ROCHESTER – Festivals & Jousting As good as it gets! The ripe perfection of the Kentish countryside. Leeds Castle ("standing on its twin islands in the river Len, [it] rises romantically above the reed-fringed waters of its moat-lake." It's a fairy-tale setting so no wonder it's "the loveliest castle in the world". Let alone Jousting and Festivals galore. Timing is everything!
Monday, May 3rd at 8.30 am it's the
Leeds Castle & the Rochester Chimney Sweeps Festival*
Friday, June 4th at 9 am it's
Jousting at Leeds Castle & the Rochester Charles Dickens Festival
Saturday, October 9th at 8.30 am it's the
Leeds Castle Flower Festival & Rochester
*Ancient England on the Medway: folk music, food stalls and morris dancing; castle & hog roast; brushes and soot and ragamuffin locals.
Meet Simon by the ticket office of Victoria Railway Station.
£43
|
|
from Paddington Railway Station
Meet by the main ticket office of
Paddington Railway Station
(the main ticket office is by Platform One)
If you're thinking about going on this one you're on the edge of perfection. Don't turn your back on it. Which is by way of saying, Oxford makes words sing. Towery city and branchy between towers; cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmed, lark-charmed, rook-racked, river-rounded."
Yes, yes, yes, welcome to the city of dreaming spires! "There's no other place like it in the world, it is a despair to see such a place and ever to leave it." Our setting: Oxford's 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. Want to see more? Click here for a very special photo-essay. And here's one [it's a work in progress at the moment] of The Cotswolds leg of the tour.
And that's just the half of it! In the Cotswolds we'll explore a world of chuckling streams, stone bridges, and thatched cottages; of ancient churches and manor houses; of old mills and millponds; of vast panoramas, rolling hills, and deep green valleys; of villages out of a storybook. Explore, in short, what is quite possibly the most beautiful countryside in the world.
Here's a taster - it's a lovingly shot little film of day, destination and guide (ah, Richard! cynosure of guides, golden of voice, red of cap, pink of courtesy! Not to mention platinum of well-connected, etc. etc.).
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme –
which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st
we go to Oxford & The Cotswolds:
every Wednesday from April 28th through October 20th.
And we'll also go there on Saturday, August 14th.
by the main ticket office - it's right by Platform One -
of Paddington Railway Station.
Tariff £32
|
|
ROYAL RICHMOND & HAMPTON COURT In Hampton Court "dead kings and queens
walk again and dead lips ask,
"what of the isles of England and her sea?
"till whispers fill the tower of memory"
There are any number of ways to "do" Hampton Court, but this is the best. In the same way that tailored is superior to off-the-peg. Because with Hampton Court "content" - Great Hall, Haunted Gallery, State Rooms, Private Apartments, Maze - takes care of itself. What doesn't take care of itself is "presentation". And presentation makes all the difference - the difference between something that seamless and timeless and unforgettable as opposed to theme-parky. And that's why we go by boat from Richmond. Just as Henry VIII did. It's a living act of "restoration" - because Hampton Court is a riverside palace and was meant to be approached by water. It makes for a golden day - stimulating and peaceful, beautiful and companionable.
Or to put that another way: can there be a finer way to start the week or start the weekend? (Start the week because six of our Summer 2010 Richmond & Hampton Court trips take place on Mondays: May 17, June 14, June 28, July 26, August 23 and September 20; and start the weekend because the other one takes place on Saturday, April 24th.) We begin at Richmond, the prettiest Thameside village of them all. The picturesque old streets and buildings here are the very stuff of history: Maids of Honour Row, Old Palace Yard, Trumpeters Court, the old Tudor Gatehouse. Then it's on to Hampton Court Palace. Like Henry VIII, we travel by boat. (We'll get a sandwich from the best sandwich shop in Richmond and picnic on board!) Upstream, a final loop of the Thames brings us along the watermeadows of our best loved national monument.
"It typifies the grand alliance of history and architecture more than any building in England." And so the stage is set for our afternoon walk, a tour of the palace and its precincts, everything from Henry VIII's Real Tennis Court and the Maze and the Haunted Gallery to the State Rooms and Great Hall and Private Apartments. (N.B., you'll save yourself a lot of money if you start your journey by getting a 6-Zone Travel Card: it'll cover your fares to Richmond and back from Hampton Court...and of course it'll also be good for any other travel you undertake in the London area for the rest of the day.)
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme –
which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st –
we go to Royal Richmond & Hampton Court on
Saturday, April 24th
Monday, May 17th
Monday, June 14th
Monday, June 28th
Monday, July 26th
Monday, August 23rd
Monday, September 20th
at 9.45 am by the main ticket office (it's opposite Platform 16) of
Waterloo Railway Station.
6-Zone Travel Card recommended.
£18
|
|
In Winchester the whole tapestry of English history unfurls before us. It's the city of King Alfred the Great, quondam capital of England, perhaps even the Camelot of Arthur. It's Winchester College, founded in 1382 and the very pattern of the English public school. It's the Great Hall of the Norman castle. It's the mediaeval Westgate. It's - glory of glories - the Cathedral. (Words can't begin to do justice to the astonishing vista of its seemingly endless interior – it's the longest cathedral in Europe.)
It's the Round Table of King Arthur. It's Jane Austen country and the muted voices of grazing sheep and the merry click of bat upon ball and the lush green fields of England. Cue the little photo-essay.
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme -
which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st -
we go to Royal Winchester on:
Saturday, July 3rd
and
Monday, September 6th
Meet Hilary at 9.30 am by the main ticket office
(it's opposite Platform 16)
of Waterloo Railway Station.
£29
|
|
RYE, BATTLE & 1066 COUNTRY 
Photo by Rob Roy
True story. Two of our guides honeymooned in Rye. They chose it because they wanted "the most ancient, picturesque, romantic, and interesting village in southern England"...and everybody they asked said, "ok, then you have to go to Rye". And in case you're wondering, it was the Mermaid Inn, which dates back to 1156 and was rebuilt in 1420. We can have cream tea there. After we've visited the most important battlefield in the world. Where everything changed, changed utterly, in that "year of four kings and Halley's comet".
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme -
which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st -
we go to Rye, Battle & 1066 Country on
Saturday, May 29th
Meet Gillian or Chris by the ticket office of
Charing Cross Railway Station at 8.45 am.
Tariff £39
|
|
The most fascinating small city in England is just 20 minutes from London. St. Albans is England in miniature, an essence of England. You can stand on the bank of its little river, the Ver, and suddenly feel yourself touched, saddened by the great passage of time - Romans, and Saxons, and Normans, and Lancastrians rode across this stream, galloped up that hill, and disappeared into the centuries. And the same goes for the little town itself (little town, hell, long, long ago this was the most important city in Roman Britain!) - here you see it all - from the Legions of Julius Caesar to the dynasty of the Churchills. These streets are corridors in the vale of time. Here's the only Roman theatre in Britain; here's the oldest street market in this sceptered isle - it dates back to the Saxons; round this corner there's a 600-year-old Moot hall; round that one a clutch of mediaeval and Tudor coaching inns; hard by, a rare curfew clock tower; up these lanes a sprinkling of half-timbered Elizabethan houses; over there, streets and buildings that are essays in Georgian England; here, a Victorian prison. Let alone all sorts of hidden, curious places and things - and a skein of enthralling history. Not to put too fine a point on it, St. Albans is London's best kept secret! Okay, here's the photo-essay.
 Okay, who's for a "grab", a "soundbite"...here's Alison before that rare clock tower...
Want to read more? Click here...
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme – which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st –
we go to St. Albans on:
Sunday, June 13th*
Monday, July 12th**
Sunday, September 12th*
Sunday, October 10th*
*Timed to coincide with St. Albans' very special, once-a-month Farmers' Market – a real taste of old England
** The Monday, July 12th trip is an in-depth exploration of Verulamium – Roman St. Albans. Roman theatre, villa, walls, gates, hypocaust, mosaics and museum. N.B., the meeting time for this one – "Verulamium St. Albans – is half-an-hour earlier (at 10 am).
The Sunday trips (June 13, Sept. 12 and Oct. 10) go at 10.30 am.
Meet Alison just outside the exit of West Hampstead Tube.
For the Monday, July 12 Verulamium St. Albans trip meet Hilary at 10 am
on the pavement just outside the exit of West HampsteadTube.
Tariff: £10 (for the June 13, Sept. 12 & Oct. 10 St. Albans trips)
Tariff £20 (for the July 12 Verulamium trip)
And looking waaaay down the road, we normally run the St. Albans trip on the Saturday just before Christmas. It's Ding Dong Merrily on High! because our annual Christmas season trips to St. Albans are timed to coincide with St. Albans' Christmas street market – the oldest, longest, bestest traditional Christmas street market in England
|
|
"You'll never see anything like it again"
from Waterloo Railway Station
(meet your guide by the main ticket office, which is opposite Platform 16)
Behold. And then look at each other with a wild surmise. Because here, on Salisbury plain, under a sky like moving marble, you're going to be face to face with primeval Britain...
Stonehenge! That place of ancient ghosts. Stonehenge..."those storm-sculptured stones...that outlast the skies of huistory hurrying overhead." Stonehenge...observatory? altar? temple? tomb? ...to serve strange gods or watch familiar stars. And before that, there's Salisbury. Salisbury...even the name is mellifluous. Salisbury is the most spectacularly beautiful cathedral in Britain. Salisbury is the river Avon and mediaeval streets lined by half-timbered houses with high oversailing upper floors and tall gables and rejoicing in names like Ox Row and Silver Street and Fish Row. Salisbury is Thomas Hardy's Melchester and Anthony Trollope's Barchester - and views over the meadows that Constable painted. And betwixt and between...there are picturesque country roads that take us past the ancient site of Old Sarum and through a lush valley, past old churches and thatched cottages and country mansions. And if you'd like some more views – more imagery – click here! And if you'd like to read some more – well, pop-ups don't come any better than this!
To go on the Stonehenge & Salisbury Explorer Day meet
by the main ticket office – it's opposite Platform 16 – of Waterloo Railway Station at 10 am
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme –
which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st –
we go to Stonehenge & Salisbury every Tuesday.
Meet at 10 am for the Summer 2010 Tuesday trips.
And we'll also go there on
and Saturday, September 25th (for the Winter Equinox).
For the two Saturday Summer 2010 trips meet at 9.45 am.
Tariff: £39
|
|
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON & SHAKESPEARE COUNTRY This one's got get out a red pencil and circle Saturday, July 10th written all over it. (Let alone Saturday, May 15th and Saturday, October 16th.) Even without-you-know-who. Because Stratford - heart of England, on a river, olde worlde, 16th stone bridge, ancient church, orchard-dappled - is wag-a-tale wonderful. Add Shakespeare to it and the ampage goes way into off-the-chart, not-to-be-missed territory. Not miss is the mot juste. We see it all: the birthplacde, Anne Hathaway's cottage, Hall's Croft, the old town, etc. Anything else? Well, it's Richard who guides it. So you can add can't-go-wrong to not-to-be-missed.
Three blurbs for the price of one for this one. Here's last summer's (if you're interested). To cross the ancient stone bridge he crossed; to visit the half-timbered birthplace; to walk through the grove of trees to Holy Trinity in its bend on the Avon; to stand before that mysterious tombstone (the quiet there is preternatural - you really do sense a presence far more deeply interefused!)...all this is to get things into true. Because Stratford bred Shakespeare. Because its imprint is all over him. Because he's the measure and template of our humanity. Because he's so fundamental to our language and culture - to the way we think and feel. Welcome home, everybody.
And finally, let's draft in the wonderful Carol Rutter, who knows the man and his work and his Stratford and his Warwickshire better than anyone. "His imagination - its reach and resources - is cathedral-sized. Yet its particularity, the metaphors it utters itself in, are as familiar, as human-sized as the parish church still standing in a Warwickshire that is still recognizable from the writing, where the lark still sings at "heaven gate"; where...rain still runs down 'eaves of reeds; and the daffodils 'come before the swallow dares'; where latter-day greasy Joans still 'keel the pot' and slug-a-bed schoolboys still 'creep like snail' unwillingly to class, stepping over drunkards who've been thrown out of public houses and will wake up in the gutter."
And for a final bow, here's a little photo essay.
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme –
which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st –
we go to Stratford-upon-Avon and Shakespeare Country on
Saturday, July 10th
And on Saturday, May 15th
and Saturday, October 16th
there's a "double header".
Which is by way of saying, on those two dates we'll also go to Warwick Castle on that day. Here's the photo-essay for the Warwick Castle visit.
To go on any of the Stratford-upon-Avon trips
meet Richard at 8.45 am by the ticket office of
Marylebone Railway Station
£36 for the Saturday, July 10th trip to Stratford & Shakespeare Country
£46 for the "double header" to Stratford and Warwick Castle
|
|
Timing is everything, so we go to Warwick Castle when it's in full plume! When pikestaffs are aloft and swords are clashing, when knights are jousting in the tiltyard - it's like being at a mediaeval tournament! When there's falconry, a mediaeval fair and "live" ghosts in the castle. Enough said? And a bonus – we'll also do a tour of the historic - and very picturesque - old town itself. Here's a little photo-essay.
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme –
which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through October 31st –
the Warwick Castle Festival Explorer Day takes place on:
And we'll also go there on:
and Saturday, October 16th
N.B. the May 15th and October 16th trips are "double headers" –
because on those two dates we go to Warwick Castle and
Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon!
Meet Richard at 8.45 am by the ticket office of Marylebone Railway Station.
Tariff for The Warwick Castle trip is £36
Tariff for the "double-header" – the Stratford-upon-Avon & Warwick Castle trip – is £46
|
|
CHARLES DICKENS CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL "May your day be merry and bright..."
What could be jollier? It's 1827 and the streets are thronged with hundreds of costumed characters. Everywhere you look there are top hats and frock coats and bonnets and hooped skirts. Yes, it's Christmastime in Charles Dickens's hometown. Welcome to the best Dickens Christmas Festival in the world. And there's guaranteed snow! Let alone a parade and a candle-lit carol service.
Dates of operation: the Charles Dickens Christmas Festival normally takes place every year on the first weekend in December. Every year. And two bites at the cherry for you because we go there on both days!
In 2009 the Charles Dickens Christmas Festival Explorer Day will take place on
and Sunday, December 6th
Meet Alison and Simon (he'll be wearing a topper and a Victorian frock coat! and she'll be in Victorian costume as well ) by the ticket office of
Victoria Railway Station at 9.30 am.
Tariff £12
|
|
LEEDS CASTLE & CANTERBURY Like Chaucer's pilgrims to Caunterbury we wende. And what tales Canterbury has to tell. Tales writ in the ancient mediaeval cathedral towering moodily over the nearby pubs and shops. Tales gleaned from half-timbered, white-washed little houses lining narrow streets. Tales borne by the river Stour swabbling past brilliant flower beds and under arching stone bridges. In Canterbury we enter another world...we step into mediaeval history. Speaking of which, we'll also go to Leeds Castle: "standing on its twin islands in the river Len, it rises romantically above the reed-fringed waters of its moat-lake". It's a fairy-tale setting: no wonder it's "the loveliest castle in the world".And on that note, here's the photo-essay.
In the Winter 2009-10 London Walks programme -
which kicks in on May 1st and runs through November 8th -
we go to Leeds Castle & Canterbury on
Thursday, December 31st
Meet Simon by the main ticket office of Victoria Railway Station at 8.45 am.
Tariff £41
|
|
"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas any more".
Windsor is Camelot on the silvery Thames. Windsor is a 1000-year-old castle commanding the Great Park and brooding over a mediaeval town. Windsor is the most famous royal residence in the world. Windsor is "the architectural epitome of the English nation...its fabric provides an insight into the evolving ideas about kingship and related rituals, about techniques of military defense, and about developing expectations of domestic comfort and convenience. But despite its familiar appearance, nothing at Windsor is quite what it seems...for behind its imposing walls and gates lie centuries of secrecy, intrique and forgotten visions of grandeur." And - embarras de richesses...just over the 18th-century footbridge there's Eton, ancient Thameside town and legendary school. And here the superlatives peal like bells...because Eton College, founded 50 years before Columbus discovered America, is the most famous school in the world. It's the nursery of kings - Prince William was educated here - and the crucible of a defining moment in history: for "the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton."
In the Summer 2009 London Walks programme - which kicks in on May 1st and runs through November 8th - the Windsor Castle and Eton College Explorer Day takes place on:
Saturday, November 7th (meeting time for the November 7th trip is 9.30 am)
In the Winter 2009-10 London Walks programme -
which kicks in on November 9th and runs through April 22nd -
we go to Windsor Castle & Eton on
Saturday, February 6th (meeting time for the Feb. 6th trip is 10 am)
by the main ticket office (opposite Platform 16) of
Waterloo Railway Station
Tariff £21
|
|
SISSINGHURST & Tenterden, Tudely, Twittens & Tapestries of Kentish Countryside "If you have a garden and a library
you have everything you need" Cicero
Some places are so special they become part of you - rendered in needlepoint there above the hearth of memory. Such is Sissinghurst. It is, quite simply, the world's most celebrated garden. It's a place where literature and nature fuse. It's an Elizabethan tower and cottages and Virginia Woolf; it's a walk of pleached limes and T.S. Eliot; it's roses clambering over the warm brickwork of the gateway and a mediaeval profusion of herbs; it's E.M. Forster and Robert Graves. It is, in short, a lost world. An Eden tucked away in a Kentish countryside of orchards and oast houses, of Tudely and tableaux.
In the Summer 2010 London Walks programme -
which kicks in on April 23rd and runs through NovemberTBA -
we go to Sissinghurst (let alone to Tenterden and Tudely and along Twittens & through Tapestries of Kentish Countryside) on TBA
Meet Gillian at TBA am by the ticket office of
Charing Cross Railway Station.
£31
|
|
ADDITIONAL HERE'S ENGLAND – AWAY WE GO! EXPLORER DAYS |
|
Chatsworth, Peak District & Plague Village
Glory be. For Chatsworth. For its matchless setting on the slope of a valley against a backdrop of rolling hills. For its winding drive and River Derwent and 200-metre cascade (unmatched anywhere in Britain) and gravity-fed, 296-foot highEmperor fountain (unmatched anywhere in the world!) and rockeries and Maze and canal and Rose, Cottage and Kitchen Gardens and Serpentine Hedge and Farmyard (and adventure playground)and deer herd and 17th-century state rooms and 17,000-volume library and painted ceilings and Oriental and European porcelain and dazzling silver collection and Old Masters. For its history. For its ghosts. Ranging from Mary, Queen of Scots and Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, to the extraordinary Mitford girls and "the Kennedy connection". Is it any wonder Chatsworth has just been voted the nation's favourite stately home? And glory be for the stunning Peak District: drystone walls and dales and lush green hills and diamond blue streams...make no mistake this part of Derbyshire is every bit as beautiful as the Lake District. And glory be for Eyam. It's very picturesque - and very moving - because Eyam is "the Plague Village". What took place here in 1665 was terrifying...and unbelievably heroic. Bottom line: what Hilary's put together here will ravish you into admiration. And wonder. And delight.
Chatsworth Library...Photo by Rob Roy
. |
|