I went on this walk expecting to find interesting tidbits about the mythology behind Rowling's stories... and was sorely disappointed. Alan went off on random and fanciful tangents, which he almost never talked about long enough for them to make any sort of sense. This walk might be enjoyable for those looking for fantasies about Harry Potter with no basis in fact, or for the cheap magic tricks that Alan never ceases to pull out (which, admittedly, are good for the children), but don't go on it if you're looking for information. That said, I've been on a few other London walks, and this is the only one I've ever been disappointed in.
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David here. Coming back to this a few weeks later. In short, this is a follow-up to what I initially wrote in response to Pamela's feedback. That first, earlier response follows this one - and it's by no means rendered null and void by this extra little bit of input. For anyone who's interested in - or has been following the contours of this discussion - that first response is worth reading, if I say so myself. What this follow-up does is get a few more pieces into play. Or - if you prefer - it looks at the matter from a slightly different perspective. By that I mean, I caught up tonight (June 15th) with the finale of Alan's walk. (In other words, this is written from some first hand experience - didn't have that, of course, when I wrote that initial response.) The turnout tonight was small - ten or so kids, some accompanying parents, and a few other people. It really was the finale of the walk - the last couple of minutes.. It takes place in Cecil Court. Alan had the little people - the kids - lined up with their magic wands and then on the count of three...well, that would be giving the game away. But for what it's worth, what I saw there tonight - with my own eyes - was some happy, excited kids
and pleased parents. And the other walkers were in that same zone. That "judgement" is borne out by the big round of applause that the group gave Alan at walk's end.In short, what I saw - and heard (and you can hear it for yourself) - was a walk that had clearly worked for the people who'd been on it tonight. And that's not to gainsay in any way Pamela's "take" on the walk. I think where we're left with all of this is that it - well, in fact, no walk (or book or film or show or stand-up comic act or television programme or whatever) is going to be able to please all of the people all of the time. That's just the nature of the beast, I'm afraid. But anyway, you can judge for yourself.
Here's the "audio" from the end of tonight's Harry Potter walk.
Okay, the initial response follows...
David here. Writing this. A couple of points. A general one first. About 36 hours after Pamela's feedback came in someone contacted us and said, "oh, you should be aware someone's put a negative review of the
Harry Potter walk up on your website".
Well, of course we were aware. I am the gatekeeper for www.walks.com - everything that goes up here has to come through me. That walker/reader had got the wrong end of the stick. In a couple of ways. First, he'd just assumed that we don't have any control over what gets posted here. But perhaps even more to the point, he'd also assumed that this is a "venue" for only really glowing, positive, highly favourable "reviews".
Wrong on both counts. We do of course have the final say about what goes up here. And we certainly wouldn't clear anything that's, say, malicious - a pot of pure poison. Not that we've ever had anything even remotely like that come in - but it could happen I suppose. And it wouldn't get through.
But the point about a "negative review" is that someone who takes the trouble to write one wants to be heard. And we want to hear them.
That's how we can get better at what we do. And that's what we want to do. London Walks is very good at what it does. And London Walks guides are very good at what they do. But there's always room for improvement. In this particular case, I suspect that Alan is falling between two stools. As a general rule, London Walks are pitched at adults. That's one reason why kids go free on the walks. And if you think about it, it makes it a lot easier to "find the range" when you're pitching the thing solely at adults. If you're pitching it at both adults and children, it's a much trickier proposition. As Pamela, in her very intelligent and considered and balanced appraisal effectively says: one of the points she makes is that the magic tricks do work for the kids but are a bit grating [the adjective is my
pas de deux to her "cheesy"!] for the adults.
There's perhaps a bit more that can be added here. To wit:
this walk's had some history. There certainly were some teething problems to start with. It was too long, for example. Mary went on it and gave Alan
some notes - in the theatrical sense of that phrase. He accordingly made some adjustments. And then she went on it again and her verdict was that certainly the kids had enjoyed it and she thought it had pretty much worked for the adults as well. Now that was a couple of years ago and it's entirely possible that the tricky balancing act this walk requires has gone awry. Certainly thanks to Pamela's note, Alan will want to - and we'll want him to - address himself to the points she's very succinctly made - "off on tangents"..."not enough elaboration" [my inverted commas], etc.
Nothing else to add except the general point that if you encounter a Readers' Comments section where everything but everything is glowing you know full well that the fix is in. That's not London Walks. That's not our approach. That's not how we do things. We want to get better at what we do. It bears repeating: someone who's got a beef wants to be heard. With us they will be heard. London Walks is the best urban walking tour company in the world. It has been for a very long time. It is what it is partly because of the approach that I've just outlined above. It's an approach that by definition means London Walks doesn't rest on its laurels. Best works for us. And getting better works even better!
Well, no, there is something else to add. And that's that Alan is a world class guide. So if the HP walk is a little bit off target for some people, that'll be stemming from the material and the, in this case, "wrong fit" between the material and the walker's expectations. The guiding itself will be as good as it gets. And
don't just take our word for it. (Indeed, afterthought this, he'll have put far more work - and indeed expense - into this one than any other work - because of the magic tricks and special effects. That stuff doesn't come cheaply.)