THE FRIDAY MORNING LONDON WALKS |
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THE FRIDAY AFTERNOON LONDON WALKS |
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THE FRIDAY EVENING LONDON WALKS |
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SOHO IN THE MORNING - Top of the morning to you |
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"He who laughs not in the morning, laughs not at noon."
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WONDERS OF THE V & A "It's not what you see, it's what you see in it"
10.45 am on Fridays (Not Friday, December 26th)
from South Kensington Tube
Meet Margaret or Helena just beyond the ticket barrier
[subway turnstile in American parlance] in the booking hall Well yes and no. What you see - the route the guide takes and the selection she makes - is important in a museum that covers 11 acres, has 145 galleries, and runs to seven miles of exhibits and five million objects. But logistics and savvy are just the basics. The real thrill is what you see in the pieces we show you. These are objects that contain their history - that braid together culture and art. Which is why they're in the world's greatest decorative arts collection. To see them - to see into them - the Great Bed of Ware, the Raphael Cartoons ("one of the supreme sights of the world") the Ardabil carpet...well, it's like sunrise on Mount Moses. And if you want to make a day of it, how about lunch in the V & A's extremely civilised cafe followed by spot of shopping at nearby Harrods!
 But don't just take my word, have a listen - and a look - for yourself. Click here.
The Wonders of the V & A Walk takes place
every* Friday at 10.45 am.
*Except Friday, December 26th
Meet Margaret or Helena just beyond the ticket barrier
of South KensingtonTube.
South KensingtonTube is on
the Circle, District & Piccadilly Lines.
 Guided by Margaret or Helena
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ROYAL LONDON & WESTMINSTER ABBEY
10.45 am on Fridays
from Green ParkTube Ritz exit
Kettle drum buildup. Trumpet fanfare. Oh yes! This is the way to do it. Because Brian and Tom know the best place for viewing the Changing of the Guard...and time it perfectly. And because of the magic carpet of their commentary. It opens those casements.You're not just looking at famous buildings - you're looking into them. Indeed, they've both been in the palace - and not as tourists. One of them - you'll have to guess - is more or less on a first name basis with Prince Phillip! And because the "route" includes two royal parks and a secret royal passageway into London's most perfect Georgian street. And as for the tour inside the Abbey...well, again it's a question of knowing where to look. And how to look, what to look for. And because they'll get you straight in, via a cloister entrance, whereas the "public" often has to queue for an hour or more. (How much is your time worth?) And they get you a huge discount - £3 off the normal adult price - on the admission charge. Because? Well, how do you gainsay being treated royally?
Now how about some audio? Here's Mary guiding in the Henry VII chapel. (That bit where she describes the fan vaulting as looking like swirling dancers is just SO Mary.) And for another take, here's a "grab" about the Abbey from the Secret Westminster chapter of our forthcoming book, London Walks London Stories.
Meet Tom or Brian just outside
the Ritz exit of Green Park Tube.
Green Park Tube is on
the Victoria, Piccadilly & Jubilee Lines.
Guided by Tom or Brian
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ECCENTRIC LONDON - "London is stranger than fiction" 11 am on Fridays (Not Friday, December 26th)
from EmbankmentTube
This is a collector's piece of a walk...one that'll change the way you see central London. It teems with unexpected delights, odd places and passing strange things and people. You'll crack the mystery of the Trafalgar Square lions (and a royal statue), learn how an acrobat risked everything at St. Martin's in the Fields, and whether the spinning dome at the top of the Coliseum actually spins. Orson Welles and Sir John Betjeman put in an appearance...as does the most eccentric bookshop in the world. Enjoy! And afterwards you can spoil yourself with cream cakes and tea.
The Eccentric London Walk takes place
every* Friday morning at 11 am.
*Except Friday, December 26th
Meet Hilary or Kim just outside the exit of
EmbankmentTube.
EmbankmentTube is on
the Circle, District, Bakerloo & Northern Lines
Guided by Kim or Hilary
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"We do not regard Englishmen as foreigners.
We look on them only as rather mad Norwegians."
Halvard Lange, Norwegian historian and politician,
quoted in the Observer 9 March 1957
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THE OLD JEWISH QUARTER "a shtetl called Whitechapel"
11.30 am on Fridays (Not Friday, Dec. 26th)
from Tower HillTube
This walk traces the history of London's Jewish community in the East End. It's a story that embraces the poverty of the pogrom refugees and the glittering success of the Rothschilds; the eloquence of the 19th-century Prime Minister Disraeli and the spiel of the Petticoat Lane stallholder; the poetry of Isaac Rosenberg and the poetry-in-motion of Abe Saperstein's Harlem Globetrotters. Set amid the alleys and back streets of colourful Spitalfields and Whitechapel, it's a tale of synagogues and sweatshops, Sephardim and soup kitchens. The Old Jewish Quarter Walk takes place
every* Friday at 11.30 am,
every Sunday at 10.30 am
and every** Wednesday at 11.30 am.
*Except Friday, Dec. 26th
**Except Wednesday, Dec. 25th
Meet Jean or Shaughan or Steve or Judy
just outside the exit of Tower HillTube.
Tower HillTube is on
the Circle & District Lines
N.B. Whenever possible we visit the wonderful Old Synagogue, for which there's a small entrance fee.
Guided on Fridays by Jean
Guided on Sundays by Judy or Shaughan
Guided on Wednesdays by Steve or Shaughan
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LEGAL & ILLEGAL LONDON - The Inns of Court |
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"What do you say to a ramble through London?"
Sherlock Holmes
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IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES 2 pm on Fridays (Not Dec. 26th)
from EmbankmentTube
"The game is afoot!" It's time to go sleuthing with Corinna or Richard IV and their Baker Street Irregulars! You'll explore an area whose "everchanging kaleidoscope of life" intrigued Holmes and Watson. You'll follow their adventures in Charing Cross, the Strand's gas-lit alleys, and Covent Garden with its Opera House and colourful market stalls, ending, where else? at the superb re-creation of Sherlock Holmes's study. Housed in the building immortalised in The Hound of the Baskervilles and featuring many artefacts donated by the Conan Doyle family, it's a place "where a dream becomes reality". And best of all, it's free to visit! Now to whet your appetite,  here's a bite of sound!
The In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes Walk takes place
every* Friday afternoon at 2 pm.
*Except Dec. 26
Meet Richard IV or Corinna just outside EmbankmentTube.
Guided by Richard IV or Corinna
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"It is a hobby of mine", said Holmes,
"to have an exact knowledge of London"
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1890
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THE OLD UNIVERSITY QUARTER Exploring London's Sorbonne2 pm on Fridays (not Friday, Dec. 26th or Apr. 10th)
from Russell SquareTube
Full gush mode for this one. It's Disneyland for grownups.The university quarter itself is a patchwork quilt - London doesn't come any more higgledy piggledy. Which means the walk is right down the alley - so to speak - of what everyone loves about London Walks: it gets you into nooks and crannies that you wouldn't find off your own bat. But it pushes the envelope. Because we're not just out on the street - we're going into buildings to see several of the university's "collections". More than see them - we'll get a curator-guided tour of cabinets of curiosities, many of them extinct or endangered species: a Dodo, a Tasmanian Tiger, the stuffed body of a famous philosopher, the world's first calendar, the world's oldest (papyrus) wills, etc. It's like beetling around in an enchanted forest, coming upon a clearing... and finding a cromlech! But be careful - be very very careful - because this one comes with a whale in the bathtub!
The Old University Quarter Walk takes place
every* Friday at 2 pm.
*Except Dec. 26th and Apr. 10th
Meet Alison or Hilary or Kim
just outside the exit of Russell SquareTube.
Russell SquareTube is on the Piccadilly Line
Guided by Alison or Hilary or Kim
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"If there is such a thing as a shell secreted by man to fit himself here we find it, on the banks of the Thames, where the great streets join and St. Paul's Cathedral, like the volute on the top of the snail shell, finishes it off."
Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room, 1922
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SECRETS & SPLENDOURS OF ST. PAUL'S "Afloat upon ethereal tides St. Paul's above the city rides" 2.15 pm on Fridays (Not Dec. 26th or Apr. 10th)
from St. Paul'sTube exit 2
"St. Paul's is much more than a place of worship. It is a specific against grossness, brutality and despair." And "to set foot into St. Paul's is to experience that cold shock straight from the past, beauty as a genius conceived it, grace that we had forgotten." Now some practical matters. There's an admission charge to St. Paul's, but there is a Group Rate. More to the point is your other "spend": your time. To refract it through a great guide will "buy" you inestimable riches in St. Paul's. Knowing where to look and what to look for - and seeing these things through the translucent integument of their "stories" - well, it's like going from blurry near-sighted to 20:20. What's more, the new Churchill Gates are in place; centuries-old Temple Bar has come home; and, most important of all, St. Paul's hasn't looked this good - inside and out - for 300 years. In short, the wraps are finally off - the restoration work's done - and our much loved old cathedral is radiant and pristine. Indeed, we'll show you some thrilling "rediscoveries" - wonderful features that were so begrimed they were lost and forgotten. And for some "added value", check this out!
The Secrets & Splendours of St. Paul's Tour takes place
every* Friday afternoon at 2.15 pm.
*Except Friday, Dec. 26th and Friday, April 10th
Meet Judy or Helena or Margaret
just outside exit 2 of St. Paul'sTube.
St. Paul'sTube is on the Central Line
Guided by Margaret or Judy or Helena
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"Was für Plunder!"
("What a place to plunder!")
Field Marshal von Blucher, on viewing London from St. Paul's after the peace banquet at Oxford
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2.30 pm on Fridays (Not Dec. 26th)
from TempleTubeThis walk is a real eye-opener. It's a sojourn into a lost city - an Atlantis. Which is why Jean, who guides the walk in Victorian costume, doesn't look at all out of place in her bonnet and shawl and apron. Because this London - Dickens's London - has kept the 20th century at bay. It's a London of nooks and crannies and alleyways and gas lamps and 18th- and 19th-century houses - and no cars! It's the London where Dickens lived and worked. It's the London of the 400-year-old Old Curiosity Shop and David Copperfield and Pip and Pickwick. It's "Inimitable" - like Dickens himself.
The Charles Dickens's London walk takes place
every* Friday afternoon at 2.30 pm.
*Except Dec. 26th
Meet Jean just outside the exit of TempleTube.
TempleTube is on
the Circle & District Lines
Guided by Jean
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"This is a London particular….A fog, miss."
Charles Dickens, Bleak House, 1852 |
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"In Dickens architecture is
the material expression of the human spirit."
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THE ALONG THE THAMES PUB WALK 7 pm on Fridays (Not Friday, Dec. 26th)
from Mansion HouseTube, exit 1
"the most exciting walk in London...it can do more
to interpret 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 (and, for that matter, the river crossing that takes the palm d'or...and to walk across the "Blade of Light" in the gloaming...well, London vignettes just don't come any better), its oldest market, 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.) And if you want to get the measure of just how special that last pub is, click me! Then there's this. Every time I read it it sends a shiver up my spine. And for your ears, there's this. It's Katy reading from the chapter that will open our forthcoming book, London Walks London Stories, a chapter on the Thames, a chapter that is influenced by - and draws on - this walking tour.
Thought a few words about the switch of the starting point for this - "the great classic London pub walk" - might be in order. For nearly 40 years the walk has started from BlackfriarsTube. And all of a sudden - as of November 1st, 2008 - it's starting from Mansion HouseTube. So what gives? What's going on? Why the change? Short answer is we had no choice. Early in 2009 Blackfriars station - the whole complex: railway station and tube stop - is going to be closed for three years. It's undergoing a major transformation. Basically, they want to be able to move more people (has to do with the Olympics of course). At the moment Blackfriars  railway station is an eight-carriage-deep affair. They're going to extend it by 50 percent - make it able to handle trains that are12 carriages long. That was the given, that was what was in the pipeline. Was it a problem for London Walks? No chance. As usual, LW responded to the new circumstances, met the challenge - turned it into a positve. And how. A couple of days ago I totted up the "gains" from the change that was "forced upon us". Shall we look at the balance sheet? Thanks to the changed starting point you're now getting: nine Wren churches (that in itself is jaw-hanging-open-in-wonder territory!); you're getting a ton more cobbled alleyways, you're getting the City's sole surviving old alleyway of shops; you're getting a couple of Livery halls; you're getting a fugue of wharves (eight of them). You're getting one of the most famous schools in the land and the Royal Collegte of Arms. And that's not to mention the most extraordinary garden in the City of London (you'll think you're hundreds of miles away: and botantically you will be). And that's all an appetizer, that's what we get in the seven or eight minutes before we get in the "groove" of the old walk. So we've - and by we I mean both of us - yourselves and the Along the Thames guides - done very well out of the change, thank you very much. The big question - we'll cross that b. when we get to it in 2012 - is do we or do we not? Go back to Blackfriars, I mean. It's going to be a tough call. |
The Along the Thames Pub Walk takes place
every* Friday at 7 pm
*Except Dec. 26
Meet your guide just outside exit 1 of
Mansion HouseTube.
Mansion HouseTube is on the Circle & District Lines
Guided on Fridays by David or Mary
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"Go where we may, rest where we will,
Eternal London haunts us still."
Thomas Moore, Rhymes on the Road, c. 1820 |
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Outposts of the Past Along the Thames |
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THE OLD KNIGHTSBRIDGE VILLAGE PUB WALK 7 pm on Fridays (Not Dec. 26th)
from South KensingtonTube
Welcome to the other Knightsbridge. The old lanes, as they're known, are a London original. They're one of the capital's hidden delights, one of its special places. And yes they are hard to find...our higgledy-piggledy route takes us up a cobbled pathway, past a hidden churchyard, along a little mews, through a gate in a wall and down some steps and then...hey presto, we're through the looking glass and into the old lanes. Into a collector's corner of mews, alleys, and cosiness. Into unchanging London. Here we could be a million miles from Harrods and the hustle and bustle of Brompton Road. The contrast is as dramatic and unexpected as anything in London...if you didn't know better you'd think you were in the back streets of a Cornish fishing village. And that's just for openers. Stir in pots of history, add a dash of intrigue and gossip, and garnish with pubs that are real trouvailles and you've got a spiffing walk. (Food is available.)
The Old Knightsbridge Pub Walk takes place
every* Friday evening at 7 pm.
*Except Friday, Dec. 26th
Meet Nick or Richard III
just outside the exit of South KensingtonTube.
South KensingtonTube
is on the Circle, District & Piccadilly Lines
Guided by Nick or Richard III
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7.30 pm nightly
from Tower HillTube
Please tread carefully and keep away from the shadows -
you are about to enter the abyss...
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 if you'd like a bang-up-to-date independent assessment of our Ripper walk - "an eerie experience" - here are some choice words from the Toronto Star. Now, anyone for some audio? Want to hear the man who is "internationally recognised as the leading authority on Jack the Ripper" in action? I thought so. Click here. And here. And for a pictorial or two, click here.
The Jack the Ripper Haunts Walk takes place
every* single night at 7.30 pm.
Meet the guides just outside Tower Hill Tube.
Tower HillTube is on the
Circle & District Lines
N.B., on Saturdays there's also a Ripper "matinee".
It goes every Saturday afternoon at 3 pm.
*except December 24th & December 25th
Guided by Donald or Shaughan on Fridays
Guided by Fiona or Peter G. on Saturday afternoons
Guided by Steve on Saturday evenings
Guided by Donald on Sundays
Guided by Donald & Molly on Mondays
Guided by Donald & Molly on Tuesdays
Guided by Steve on Wednesdays
Guided by Angela & Shaughan on Thursdays
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 really distinctive white London Walks leaflet. And remember, Donald and his colleagues will never ever start the Jack the Ripper walk before 7.30 pm. In short, don't let anyone pull a fast one on you. In the words of the Toronto Star: "rip-off tours...capitalize on his[Rumbelow's] popularity and try to confuse people who show up knowing that this is the place for Ripper Tours, but haven't got the details straight."
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Daily Telegraph, Saturday, 1 September 1888
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"The final murder is Jack the Ripper's "apotheosis in horror". He turns that little room in Miller's Court into an abbatoir. And then he walks out into the night...and into history."
in the words of a London Walks guide
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ADDITIONAL TOURS ON SELECTED FRIDAYS |
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