Saturday's London Walks
ALL ABOARD...
THE SATURDAY MORNING LONDON WALKS
THE SATURDAY AFTERNOON LONDON WALKS
THE SATURDAY EVENING LONDON WALKS
SPECIAL SATURDAY WALKS


THE SATURDAY EXPLORER DAYS - Away We Go!

The Saturday Explorer Day is a "moveable feast"...because we go to a different destination every Saturday.
For the particulars of the Explorer Day for any given Saturday see the following table.

DATE EXPLORER DAY TIME RAILWAY STATION
July 4 Stratford-upon-Avon & Shakespeare Country 8.30 am Marylebone  Railway Station 
July 11 Avebury & Lacock 8.45 am  Paddington  Railway Station 
July 18 Glastonbury & Wells 8.45 am  Waterloo Railway Station
July 25 Constable Country & Colchester 9.15 am Liverpool Street Railway Station
Aug. 1 Stonehenge & Salisbury "you'll never see anything like it again" 10 am Waterloo  Railway Station
Aug. 8 Oxford & the Cotswolds 9.30 am Paddington  Railway Station 
Aug. 15 Warwick Castle Knights Jousting, Mediaeval Fair & Falconry 8.45 am (tbc) Marylebone  Railway Station 
Aug. 22 Chartwell & the Weald of Kent 9.15 am Charing Cross  Railway Station
Aug. 29 Royal Winchester 9.15 am  Waterloo Railway Station
Sept. 5 Cambridge - "can such places be?" 9 am King's Cross Railway Station
Sept. 12 Avebury & Lacock 8.45 am Paddington  Railway Station 
Sept. 19 Stonehenge & Salisbury for the Autumn Equinox! 10 am Waterloo  Railway Station 
Sept. 26 Glastonbury & Wells 8.45 am  Waterloo Railway Station
Oct. 3 Chartwell & the Weald of Kent 9.15 am Charing Cross Railway Station
Oct. 10 The Cotswolds in Autumn 9.15 am  Marylebone Railway Station
Oct. 17 Stratford-upon-Avon & Warwick Castle 8.45 am Marylebone  Railway Station
Oct. 24 Bath England at its best 9 am Paddington  Railway Station
Oct. 31 Oxford & Blenheim for Horrible Happenings at Halloween! 9 am  Paddington  Railway Station
Nov. 7 Windsor Castle & Eton 9.30 am Waterloo Railway Station
THE HISTORIC CITY - Breaking the Code
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10.30 am on Saturdays (from Saturday, May 2nd)
from St. Paul'sTube, exit 2
 
"In the West End one is interested, but in the City one is deeply excited." It's easy to understand where Charlotte Bronte was coming from. Because this was the centre of the universe for nearly 300 years. It's also a bewildering maze of alleyways, lanes and courtyards. Let alone thickets of history bookended by the Tower of London and St. Paul's Cathedral. Go on, plunge in: by walk's end you'll have fathomed the great "world city". As safaris - and successes - go, that's, well, "deeply exciting"!

The Historic City - Breaking the Code Walk takes place
every* Saturday at 10.30 am

Every Saturday from Saturday, May 2nd onwards. I.E., this is a new walk. It will debut in the Summer 2009 London Walks programme - which kicks in on May 1st and runs through November 8th.  

Meet Shaughan just outside exit 2 of St. Paul'sTube

St. Paul'sTube is on
theCentral Line

Guided by Shaughan
 
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SOMEWHERE ELSE LONDON
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10.30 am on Saturdays
from EmbankmentTube

What a wonderful goulash of a walk this is. It gets you into streets that you'd never find off your own bat - streets that look like an old movie shot through a vaselined lens. Into a neighbourhood that precious few Londoners have seen, let alone visitors. It's a thrilling discovery - the real deal. There's no better sense of place in London - and no finer architectural effect. Yellow brick, perfectly preserved, all unselfconscious self-respect, real Cockney - unaltered Dickensian London. And the miracle is that it's still there, embedded in central London - screwed in to the big city. That discovery alone makes this one of those bewitching "somewhere else" London Walks. And getting there is a bit of all right too - because there's a dramatic river crossing, a high octane stroll along the Thames (here's a preview), the world's foremost arts complex, London's best loved old theatre, a real London street market (instead of a tourist trap), a stunning bird's eye view of the capital (and there's a lift, so we won't have to climb hundreds of stairs!), and buckets of character. Here's Adam reading from his chapter on Somewhere Else London in our book, London Walks, London Stories. And here's a "grab" from the walk itself.

The "Somewhere Else" London Walk takes place
every Saturday at 10.30 am
and every Tuesday at 2 pm.


Meet Adam or Stephanie just outside the exit of EmbankmentTube
(they're normally outside the exit that leads out towards the Thames).

EmbankmentTube is on
theCircle, Bakerloo, District & Northern Lines

Guided by Adam or Stephanie

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"Somewhere Else" London
 


DOCKLANDS
Cobblestones, Quaysides & Cloud-capped Towers
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10.30 am on the first Saturday of every month
from Canary Wharf Tube, main exit*
(N.B. when Canary Wharf Tube is closed - as it will be on July 4th - take the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) to Heron Quays (a DLR station). It's a very short walk from Heron Quays to the Canary Wharf Juibilee Line exit. Heron Quays is in fact closer to the Canary Wharf Jubilee Line station than the Canary Wharf DLR station is. And it's all clearly signposted.)
 
And so we come to the most extraordinary letter in London's alphabet.First, the bass note: the river. Down here the Thames is broad-shouldered, easy and big. There's a salt tang in the air. And gulls. And cat-o'-nine-tails winds. Haunted winds that whisper of tall ships and swollen sails and spices and silks and rum. And then make good on that promise when they Zephyr us round corners into a pungent past of centuries-old sugar warehouses and ships workshops and the Dockmaster's House. So, yes, like the river, time bends here. And flows. Flows backward. And then, round other corners, ricochets into the fireworks of a futuristic London. Because this is Wall Street on Water - a place where cutting-edge, 21st century power and energy are made visible and tangible.A place where this time-honoured city is re-inventing itself. Spectacularly. In short, if you like walks that have Surprise Me written all over them...well, you just turned up trumps. And a bonus...we'll end at the new, not-to-be-missed River Thames & Docklands Museum.
 
  The Docklands Walk only takes place
on the first Saturday of every month.

Meet Chris or Judy or Stephanie at 10.30 am
just outside the main Jubilee Line exit -
NOT the East exit - of Canary WharfTube.

N.B., a 2-Zone Travel Card (or Oyster Card) is a good idea, because we take a couple of short journeys on the DLR. And in any case you'll be able to use it for your initial journey to Canary Wharf Tube for the start of the walk; and use it for your return journey at walk's end; and indeed use it for the rest of the day. Bottom line: you'll save yourself some dosh if you're a card-carrying London Walker!

Canary WharfTube is on
the Jubilee Line

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NOTTING HILL & PORTOBELLO MARKET
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Saturdays at 10.45 am 
from Holland Park Tube

This is reconnaissance on the razzle - the search-party that syncopates. Because Notting Hill on a Saturday morning - market morning! - is curious and colourful, offbeat and yeasty. Here you walk with a ticket of freedom - a pass to scintillating escarpments. Just consider what's squeezed out onto the palette this hillside: swells and scruffs; market stalls and scandal; Jimi Hendrix and Carnival; Cut Throat Alley and Victorian Gothic; Madonna and Hugh Grant (let alone Julia Roberts and that bookshop); cottages, potteries and piggeries; colour washed mews and cab shelters and a race course and the gout route to Bath and butchers in straw hats and an invisible boundary between the present and the past....Magic! Speaking of which - magic I mean - how's this for a wonderful penumbra, a burst of flavour of London connections.

The Notting Hill & Portobello Market Walk
takes place
every Saturday at 10.45 am.

Meet Tom or Brian or Richard III just outside the exit of Holland ParkTube Stop.

Holland ParkTube Stop is on
theCentral Line   

Guided by Tom or Richard III or Brian

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Many a beau without a shilling,
Many a widow not unwilling;
Many a bargain, if you strike it:
This is London! How d'ye like it?
        
John Bancks,  "A Description Of London"


FROM THE REPERTORY - 10.45 am
The 10.45 am Saturday Tour du Jour!

The walk in this time slot changes weekly.

For details see the following list.

DATE WALK TUBE STOP
July 4 Defending the City - Claudian Conquest to Hitlerian Havoc (military historian-guided) FarringdonTube
July 11 Doctors' London - Pox & Plague, Leeches & Quacks St. Paul'sTube exit 2
July 18 Beneath the Bearskin - The Changing of the Guard (guided by a former Scots Guard!) Green ParkTube Ritz exit
July 25 Bohemian Fitzrovia - London's Old Latin Quarter Warren StreetTube
Aug. 1 Foodies' London - the West End! Green ParkTube Ritz exit
Aug. 8 Witches, Wizards & Warlocks (N.B. this one's guided by a practising witch!) Covent GardenTube
Aug. 15 Alfred Hitchcock's London - More than 39 Steps! HolbornTube
Aug. 22 Strand on the Green - "London's last remaining true village" GunnersburyTube Grange Road exit
Aug. 29 Primrose Hill - Village, Vistas & Celebrity Hotspot! Chalk FarmTube
Sept. 5 Terra Incognita - Seeing the Elephant in Souf London Elephant & CastleTube Bakerloo Line exit
Sept. 12 Sherlock Holmes Saves the Nation - the Great Detective in Westminster Green ParkTube Ritz exit
Sept. 19 Rustic Barnes - Riverside Village & Wetland Wildnerness Waterloo Railway Station (meet by main ticket office - opposite Platform 16)
Sept. 26 The Good, the Bad & the Music Hall Stepney GreenTube
Sept. 26 Archaeology* of the City - Fleet Street & the Strand *Guided a Museum of London Archaeologist St. Paul'sTube, exit 2
Oct. 3 Foodies' London - the West End! Green ParkTube Ritz exit
Oct. 3 Chinatown - the Mid-Autumn Festival (see it with Guide of the Year Heng!) Leicester SquareTube by Wyndham's Theatre
Oct. 10 Poetry in Motion - John Milton's London Mansion HouseTube exit 4
Oct. 10 Charming Chiswick - Olde Worlde Riverside Village Ravenscourt ParkTube
Oct. 17 Merrie Islington - A River Runs Through It! AngelTube
Oct. 24 Brass Plates & Botox - Harley Street, Medical London at its Grandest! Great Portland StreetTube
Oct. 31 Myths and Legends of London - A Halloween Special! Tower HillTube
Nov. 7 Local London - Denmark Hill & Camberwell: Aesthetes, Assembly Rooms & Market Gardens Denmark Hill Railway Station
 
OLD WESTMINSTER - 1,000 Years of History
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11 am on Saturdays
from WestminsterTube, exit 4

This is the cornerstone, the great seminal London Walk. Miss it and you've missed London. For Old Westminster is London at its grandest: the place where kings and queens are crowned, where they lived, and often were buried. It's the forge of the national destiny, the place where the heart of the Empire beat, the Mecca of politicians throughout the ages. The past here is cast in stone and we take it all in: ancient Westminster Hall, the Houses of Parliament, the Jewel Tower, and Westminster Abbey. And to see it with a great guide is to have that past suddenly rise to the surface...like seeing a photographic print come up in a darkroom. It doesn't get any better than this. And embarras de richesse, we'll also explore the private face of Westminster - the London equivalent of Georgetown! Unlike the tourist hordes, we'll get to see the hidden and ever so picturesque Georgian back streets where all the political salons are! We end at the Cabinet War Rooms, the fortified bunker that housed Winston Churchill's centre of operations during the war. You'll get a brilliant discount on the price of admission if you want to visit the War Rooms.

And fancy a listen? Here's Karen doing her high wire act across the mid-17th century. And some more? Click here. It's the opening of the Secret Westminster chapter in our book, London Walks London Stories. A chapter that was inspired by - and draws on - this walk. N.B., the little film is a primer about London Walks in general. But it's a primer that focuses on this walk - and featues Karen - winner of the London Tourist Board's Guide of the Year Award!

The Old Westminster Walk takes place:

every Saturday at 11 am;
every Sunday at 2.45 pm;
every Tuesday at 2 pm;
and  every Thursday at 2 pm.


Meet your guide just outside
exit 4 of WestminsterTube.

WestminsterTube is on
theCircle
, District & Jubilee Lines

Guided on Saturdays by Karen 
Guided on Sundays by Graham
Guided on Tuesdays by Judy 
Guided on Thursdays by Shaughan or David

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THE LONDON OF OSCAR WILDE
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11 am on Saturdays
from Green ParkTube
 (meet outside the north exit, on the corner) 

The 1890s. Gaslit streets. The rattle of hansom cabs. The silvery laughter of stagedoor Johnnies and chorus girls. The London of Whistler, Beardsley, Shaw, Lillie Langtry, and Gilbert & Sullivan. Above all, though, the London of Oscar Wilde. Oscar - of all writers, the best company. Oscar - at the height of his fame as dramatist and wit, amusing and outraging Victorian society by turns. Oscar - refulgent, majestic, ready to fall. And fall he did. His life came crashing down...mired in scandal and broken in three of the most celebrated trials of all time. We follow in Oscar's footsteps...tracing his triumph and tragedy in the very places where the drama unfolded, bringing to an end the Naughty Nineties. One of those "very places" Alan's talking about right here, in this bit of audio.


 
And while we're at it, why not hear from a walker? (Indeed, I learned a few things about the walk myself from reading her "review")

The London of Oscar Wilde Walk takes place
every Saturday morning at 11 am.

Meet Alan just outside Green ParkTube
(outside the north exit, on the corner).

Green ParkTube is on
theVictoria, Jubilee & Piccadilly Lines

Guided by Alan (who will be attired as Mr.Wilde himself, green carnation and all!) 
 
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OLD CAMDEN TOWN -
Catacombs, Canals & Cafes
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11 am on Saturdays
from Camden TownTube

Camden Town is the London smorgesbord par excellence. A place where the past melts imperceptibly into the post-modern. A place of canals, cafes, cobblestones, Catacombs, craftsmen's studios, street cred, NW1 literati, Industrial Age iron and brick, leafy terraces and crescents, antiques, artists, actors, and art deco. And that's not to mention Camden Lock, London's busiest and brightest market - and its fourth largest tourist attraction, which "at its best combines the bonhomie, excitement and buzz of Rio's Carnival"! The Lock is the centrepiece of the walk, but Judith, a local artist, also explores the sights behind the sights, unrolling the shifting scene like one of those Victorian panoramas: everything from street style and Neobeatniks to Dickens, Dingwalls, and the Vanishing Viscount by the canal; and from George Bernard Shaw and Toss the Pieman to Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan and the Electric Ballroom. Afterward, if you like, you can take a traditional narrowboat to the Zoo or Little Venice.

The Old Camden Town Walk takes place
every Saturday morning at 11 am.
Meet Judith just outside the exit of
Camden TownTube.

Camden TownTube is on
theNorthern Line

Guided by Judith


"I thought of London spread out in the sun
Its post districts packed like squares of wheat."

Philip Larkin, The Whitsun Weddings, 1964

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THE BEATLES IN MY LIFE WALK
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11.20 am on Saturdays
from MaryleboneTube

"There are places I'll remember all my life", sang the Beatles in one of their most evocative songs. Many of those places are in the "London Town" of this walk...so get back with Richard, "the Pied Piper of Beatlemania" (The Miami Herald), to the film locations for A Hard Day's Night and Help, the registry office where two of the Fabs were married, and the apartment immortalised by Ringo, John and Yoko. We'll also see the house where Paul lived with his glamorous girlfriend, actress Jane Asher. Those were the days...for it was in that house that John and Paul wrote I want to hold your hand. And to cap it all we'll go up to St. John's Wood to see the legendary Abbey Road studios and crosswalk. As the Toronto Globe and Mail said of the walk, "A splendid time is guaranteed for all." Here's a "grab" from the walk. And here's another 'un.

The Beatles In My Life Walk takes place
every Saturday at 11.20 am
and every Tuesday at 11.20 am.

Meet Richard P. - "the Pied Piper of Beatlemania" -
just outside the exit of MaryleboneTube.

MaryleboneTube is on
theBakerloo Line  

Guided by Richard P.

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THIS IS LONDON!
The Flash-Bang-Lightning Highlights Tour!*
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2 pm on Saturdays
from Tower HillTube


We begin as London began - with the Thames, on the Thames. Silvery lifeline, main highway, chief processional route, the Thames is, quite simply, London's Grand Canal. Tower Bridge, where we embark, and Westminster Bridge, where we go ashore, bracket London and to take ship on this stretch of water is to glissade down the centuries. Here kings and queens were borne in painted and gilt state barges; on the one shore, Wren's St.Paul's Cathedral engraved the sublime against the London sky; on the other, Shakespeare wrought his magic, "not of an age, but for all time!" The Thames knew great men and women in death, too: these waters bore Elizabeth I's funeral and Nelson's and Churchill's. And hand in glove with the history...the most famous of all London views, as throat-catching today as it was to Wordsworth 200 years ago: Earth has not anything to show more fair. Ashore, we take in the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, St. James's Park, Whitehall, Buckingham and St. James's Palaces, the Mall and Trafalgar Square. As ever, the sights behind the sights is our watchword. In short, this is the walk that most memorably captures London's inimitable mixture of idiosyncratic detail and grand, powerful statement.

*Opens with a boat ride and closes with our most magical - indeed fairyland - vista!
 

N.B. the boat trip costs £3.50 (a huge discount on the normal price).

This is London! - The Flash-Bang-Lightning Highlights Tour!
takes place every Saturday afternoon at 2 pm.

The meeting point is:
just outside the exit of Tower HillTube.

Tower HillTube is on the Circle & District Lines.

Guided by Chris or Judy or Stephanie

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OLD KENSINGTON - London's Royal Village
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2 pm on Saturdays
from High Street KensingtonTube 

Meet by M&S sandwich shop, in the rotunda just beyond the ticket barrier

This one's special. It's rarely the first - or even the second or third - walk people go on, but when they do get round to taking it, they often say it's the one they liked the most. And no wonder, because Royal Kensington is London at its best - picturesque, stimulating, and full of character. Its parts are as delightful as London can provide: everything from warmly handsome old Kensington Palace (home to the late Diana, Princess of Wales) to Kensington Gardens (all meadows, shaded walks, bowers, and flower gardens, it might be the grounds of a stately home in some rural shire) to cobbled little soigne lanes and mews, girt with pretty cottages and charming old shops; and from millionaires" row and regal avenues to beautifully kept squares and a clutch of the world's greatest museums; let alone a garden in the sky (the largest and most breathtaking roof garden in Europe); the secluded town house of the greatest Londoner of the 20th-century, an American president's flat, the most astonishing small literary house in the world, acres of gentility, a secret trap-door into a hidden world, and more history and colourful characters than you can shake a stick at.

And afterward you can visit the State Apartments or take tea at the Orangery at Kensington Palace! Now who's for a visual or six? Or if you'd like another word or two, click here. Or here.

And finally, how about some audio?   First, a "bite" from the walk itself: here's "the voice" - Angela - doing her stuff. Enjoy. And for a second course, well, as you've surely guessed, there's  a chapter on Kensington in our book, London Walks London Stories. It's one of the five chapters that have fallen to me, David, to write. And I've done the deed. Needless to say, it draws on - and is inspired by - the walk. And transforms it. It complements it, in other words. It's a companion piece to the walk. Anyway, here's a taster - both of the book and Kensington. In short, here's how the chapter opens.

The Old Kensington Walk takes place
every Saturday at 2 pm
and every Thursday at 2 pm.

Meet David or Angela or Adam in the rotunda just beyond the ticket barrier ("subway turnstile" in North American parlance) of High StreetKensington Tube.

High Street KensingtonTube is on
the Circle & District Lines

Guided on Saturdays by David or Angela
Guided on Thursdays by David or Adam

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The Roof Garden - The English Woodland
"the largest and most astonishing roof garden in Europe"

OLD MARYLEBONE - Psst! Read on...
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2 pm on Saturdays
from Bond StreetTube
(meet just outside exit 2, by the 
HMV shop in Stratford Place)


"London specialises in hiding the best of itself."
Old Marylebone's a case in point. Here you'll lose your way and find your heart...get gratifyingly lost and get London back the way it was. The way it was at the time of the American Revolution! The way it was just after the Napoleonic Wars - for this is Regency London at its best! The way it was for Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett - we'll see the old church where they were married! What else? Well, this one's fascinating because it's so unexpected - a quirky old village in the heart of the West End; delightful because it's our greenest walk; revealing because it takes us into one of the private worlds London excels in; stimulating because it's like a series of flashbacks to every bit of old London you've ever seen; brilliant because of the private mansion we'll go into for a quick look at a couple of world famous paintings; satisfying because everything locks into place like the lines of a sonnet; and, finally, brilliant because of the sheer voltage of the finale: here is the loveliest set-piece in London, the final expression of a classical age, "a definition of western civilization in a single view".

The Old Marylebone Walk takes place
every Saturday afternoon at 2 pm.

Meet Tom or Helena or Margaret by the HMV shop in Stratford Place -
it's just outside exit 2 -
of Bond StreetTube.

Bond StreetTube is on
theCentral & Jubilee Lines

N.B. This is one of our "weather proof" walks - if the weather is completely foul, we'll spend more time in the gallery.

Guided by Tom, Helena, or Margaret,


"I think it [London] on the whole the best point of view in the world."
Henry James, Letter to Charles Eliot Norton, 13 November 1880

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LITTLE VENICE
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2 pm on Saturdays
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!  And you'd like some more?  How about this? This one encapsulates a lot about Shaughan and his walks - just how much fun they are, how talented he is, why people like him so much and the kind of experience he turns a London Walk into. Enjoy.

Cue Shaughan, who guides the walk: "Walking this one is always a revelation - behind the elegant facade is the other story; the maids, butlers, cooks & grooms - the downstairs-backstairs people who made it work. I talk about the rise, decline and resurgence of wealth in the area - these days there are quite enough "Celebs" to turn Maida Vale into "Media Vale". I drop more mames on this one than you can fit in your basket.  And running through this stucco wedding cake - the artery that supplied goods from the Heart of England to its Brain - The Grand Union Canal. Look at London from both sides for an afternoon, and finish with chocolate cake and a boat ride."

The Little Venice Walk takes place
every Saturday at 2 pm;
every Sunday at 2 pm;
and every Wednesday at 11 am

Meet Shaughan just outside the exit
of Warwick AvenueTube.

Warwick AvenueTube is on
theBakerloo Line

Guided on Saturdays and Sundays by Shaughan
Guided on Wednesdays by Peter or Richard III

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THE BRITISH MUSEUM WALK
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2 pm on Saturdays
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 Parthenon Sculptures, the Black Obelisk, the Enlightenment Gallery, 4,500-year-old "Ginger" (the "pre-dynastic" red head!), the Sutton Hoo treasure, the Portland Vase, Roman gold, Celtic gold, ivories and enamels, tiles and pottery, an astonishing display of instruments for measuring time...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.

Okay, time to take the gloves off with this one. GO ON THIS WALK. Coleridge once said that watching Kean act was like reading Shakespeare by lightning. This walk has that kind of ampage.I'll go further: it's the only London Walk that's got that kind of ampage. These artefacts - and a great guide - it's the Everest - the summit - of this activity, this profession, this pursuit. It all comes together here - History, Art, Western Civilisation (and its counterparts). Who we are - and why we are what we are. It's more than heady - it's thrilling.  Here's an example. It's Brian, shedding incandescent light on the Parthenon.(If you thought those were just some old Greek statues - of no moment, really, nothing to do with our modern age - well, these 90 seconds will have you mopping your brow.) And this is just his introduction!
For a chaser, try this. Enjoy. N.B. this walk is a moveable feast - a diadem of delights, an amazing technicolour dream-coast. In short, every stop is cause for wonder. So come on back when you get a chance, there'll be more to sample here from time to time.

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 Saturday at 2 pm,
every Monday at 2.15 pm
and every Wednesday at 2 pm

Meet your guide just outside the exit of
HolbornTube.

HolbornTube is on
the
Central & Piccadilly Lines

Guided on Saturdays by Karen
Guided on Mondays by Tom or Chris or Hilary
Guided on Wednesday by Molly or Donald

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"The spy is as old as history..."
"Espionage is the world's second oldest profession
and just as honorable as the first."
Michael J. Barrett, assistant general counsel of the CIA,
Journal of Defence and Diplomacy, February 1984

SPIES' & SPYCATCHERS' LONDON
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2.30 pm on Saturdays
from Piccadilly CircusTube

(meet by the Clydesdale Bank, outside the subway 3 exit) 

"Espionage was the hot end of the cold war"

Spies' London is peopled with Ian Fleming's James Bond and John Le Carre's George Smiley. But it's also the London of the genuine article. The London where for over 40 years Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Blunt and the mysterious fifth man infiltrated the British and American security services and spied for the Soviet Union. This walk takes us into that hole and corner, cloak and dagger London - into the secret places of that murky nether-world. Here we venture into the covert London of MI5, MI6, and the American O.S.S., progenitor of the CIA. Here we close in on the American Soviet agent who finally confessed and unveiled the "Cambridge Ring". Here we pinpoint the "dead letter box" and unmask the fifth man. Here, in Spies' London, fact really is stranger than fiction.

And on that note, here's some audio for you. D-Day first. Then a bearing on a nerve centre. Then some Cold War.

The Spies' & Spycatchers' London Walk
takes place every Saturday afternoon at 2.30 pm.

Look for Spymaster Alan.
He'll be topped off with a black hat...and a green carnation.
He'll be just outside the subway 3 exit of Piccadilly CircusTube -
by the Clydesdale Bank.

Piccadilly CircusTube is on
theBakerloo & Piccadilly Lines

Guided by Alan

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FROM THE REPERTORY -
The 2.30 pm Tour du Jour!

2.30 pm on Saturdays 

The walk in this time slot changes weekly.   
For details see the following list.

DATE WALK STATION
July 4 Gandhi's London - N.B. This Walk is Free for Students & Seniors! See www.ghandhislondon.com TempleTube exit 4
July 4 The Independence Day Walk - Americans in Westminster WestminsterTube exit 4
July 11 Secret Islands of Green - The Hidden Gardens of the City Walk St. Paul'sTube exit 2
July 11 A Slice of India - "it's like walking through a Punjabi Village" Southall Railway Station
July 18 Harrow on the Hill - Village & Vistas, Byron & Bygones Baker StreetTube Marylebone Road exit
July 18 The City of London Sculptures Safari - Four Legs Good, Two Legs Also Good! Chancery LaneTube exit 3
July 25 Old Dulwich Village - "a green thought in a green shade" VictoriaTube exit to
Aug. 1 The Dark Side of Chelsea Sloane SquareTube
Aug. 8 Old Holland Park Village Holland ParkTube
Aug. 8 Gandhi's London - N.B. This Walk is Free for Students & Seniors! See www.gandhislondon.com TempleTube
Aug. 15 London on Film - from James Bond to Bridget Jones BankTube exit 3 by the Wellington statue
Aug. 15 The Lost World of the River Fleet St. Paul'sTube exit 2
Aug. 22 Amazing Grace - A Walk to Celebrate the Abolition of the Slave Trade MonumentTube Fish Street Hill exit
Aug. 22 Gandhi's London - N.B. This Walk is Free for Students & Seniors! See www.gandhislondon.com TempleTube
Aug. 29 Political London Guided by a House of Commons 'Insider'! St. James's ParkTube Broadway/Westminster Abbey exit
Aug. 29 Poetry in Motion - the John Betjeman Anniversary Walk (guided by Lance - "the voice") Kentish TownTube
Sept. 5 The London History Course - Roman London Tower HillTube
Sept. 5 Gandhi's London - N.B. This walk is free for students & seniors! See www.gandhislondon.com TempleTube
Sept. 12 The London History Course - Anglo Saxon, Norman & Early Mediaeval London Tower HillTube
Sept. 19 The London History Course - The High Middle Ages Mansion HouseTube
Sept. 26 The London History Course - Tudor London Chancery LaneTube exit 3
Sept. 26 A Slice of India - "it's like walking through a Punjabi village" Southall Railway Station 
Oct. 3 The London History Course - The 'Century of Change - 1603-1714' WestminsterTube exit 4
Oct. 10 The London History Course - Georgian London Chancery LaneTube exit 3
Oct. 17 The London History Course - Regency London Oxford CircusTube exit 6, Argyle Street
Oct. 24 The London History Course - Victorian London HolbornTube
Oct. 31 Beat London - Kerouac, Ginsberg & Dylan EmbankmentTube
Nov. 7 Gunpowder, Treason & Plot - On the Trail of Guy Fawkes WestminsterTube exit 4
JACK THE RIPPER'S LONDON
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3 pm on Saturdays
from Tower Hill
Tube
 
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.

The Jack the Ripper's London Walk takes place
every Saturday afternoon at 3 pm.

Meet Fiona or Peter just outside the exit
of Tower HillTube.

N.B., this is our Ripper "matinee". It takes place every Saturday afternoon (except Dec. 24 or Dec. 25). Every single night - except Dec. 24 and Dec. 25 - we do the Jack the Ripper Haunts Walk at 7:30 pm from just outside the exit of Tower HillTube.

Tower HillTube is on
theCircle & District Lines

Guided by Fiona or Peter

 
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BLOOD CURDLING LONDON -
Welcome to the Nightmare Factory
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6.30 pm on Saturdays
from EmbankmentTube


Okay you've done Jack the Ripper - now let's get serious. Heinousness in high places. Slaughter at the Savoy. A stiff in a left luggage office. Reg, Ronnie and a champion boxer's "suicide". A smoking pistol. Silk stocking murders. The pub where a 16-notches serial killer met his prey. The Hangman and his clients - oh dear, he got it wrong from time to time. Welcome to London's Chamber of Horrors...welcome to the dark side of "the most civilised city on earth". Good night Ladies. Good night Gentlemen. Sweet dreams!

The Blood Curdling London Walk takes place
every Saturday evening at 6.30 pm.

Meet Alan just outside the exit
of EmbankmentTube.

EmbankmentTube is on
theCircle, Bakerloo, District & Northern Lines

Guided by Alan

 

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THE OLD HAMPSTEAD VILLAGE PUB WALK
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7 pm on Saturdays
from HampsteadTube

Shhh!
It's a secret. Hampstead is the best place to be in London on a Saturday night. It's the roof of London. We'll look down and see the lights of the greatest city on earth spread out before us. On a clear night we'll even nip into the Old Observatory for a look through the telescope at the starry heavens above. What else? Well, it's London at its most picturesque- a perfectly preserved Georgian village. There's a superb cast of characters - ranging from the highwayman Dick Turpin to the painter Constable to the poet Keats; from Freud and D.H. Lawrence to George Michael and Boy George; from Elizabeth Taylor and Rex Harrison to Peter O'Toole and Jeremy Irons. There's London's most villagey atmosphere, great restaurants, magnificent Hampstead Heath, and well-hidden, cozy old pubs you'll fall in love with. In short, this is a great walk...they just don't come any better.

The Old Hampstead Village Pub Walk takes place
every Saturday
night at 7 pm

Meet Richard or Peter G.
just outside the exit of
HampsteadTube.

HampsteadTube is on the
Northern Line,  the Edgware branch

N.B., The Old Hampstead Village Walk - which is not a pub walk - takes place every Sunday morning at 10 am (guided by David) and every Wednesday afternoon at 2 pm (guided by Richard III or Peter). Same meeting point: i.e., just outside the exit of HampsteadTube.

Guided by Richard III or Peter G

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The Flask
 


The Other Saturday Night Pub Walk

7.15 pm on Saturdays  
The walk in this time slot changes weekly.
For details see the following list.

DATE WALK STATION
June 27 The Notting Hill Gate & Old Holland Park Village Pub Walk Notting Hill GateTube North exit
July 4 Where It All Began - Mayflower Pub, Waterfront & Old Rotherhithe Canada WaterTube exit 1, bus stop D
July 11 The London Panorama - Pub Walk & Boat Ride EmbankmentTube
July 18 Old Bayswater - Executions, Mews & Secret Pubs Marble ArchTube exit 4
July 25 The London Panorama - Pub Walk & Boat Ride EmbankmentTube
Aug. 1 The Richmond Pub Walk - Princely Palaces & a Taste of the Thames RichmondTube
Aug. 8 Upriver to Pictureseque Old London - Poets, Painters and a Pint! Ravenscourt ParkTube
Aug. 15 Bohemian Fitzrovia - A Pub Walk in London's Old Latin Quarter Goodge StreetTube
Aug. 22 "Bond, James Bond" 007 & Ian Fleming's London - the "shaken not stirred" Pub Walk Marble ArchTube exit 2
Aug. 29 The London by Gaslight Pub Walk EmbankmentTube
Sept. 5 The Somewhere Else London Pub Walk SouthwarkTube
Sept. 12 The Hitchcock & Holmes Pub Walk - Movies, Mystery & the Master of Suspense HolbornTube
Sept. 19 The Secret Village Pub Walk St. Paul'sTube exit 2
Sept. 26 Secret St. James' - A Pub Walk in the Olde Palace Quarter Green ParkTube Ritz exit
Oct. 3 The Old West End & Celebrities' London Pub Walk Marble ArchTube exit 1
Oct. 10 The Notting Hill Gate & Old Holland Park Village Pub Walk Notting Hill GateTube North exit
Oct. 17 Bohemian Fitzrovia - A Pub Walk in London's Old Latin Quarter Goodge StreetTube
Oct. 24 Backstairs Belgravia - Byways, Hidden Haunts & Classic Pubs Hyde Park CornerTube exit 3
Oct. 31 Ghosts, Gaslight & Guinness - A Halloween Special! HolbornTube
Nov. 7 The London by Gaslight Pub Walk EmbankmentTube
GHOSTS OF THE OLD CITY -
Shadows of the Unveiled Invisible
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7.30 pm on Saturdays
from St. Paul'sTube, exit 2

At night the ancient City is deserted...and eerie. Exploring its shadowy back streets and dimly lit alleys we might be in a medieval citadel, in overpowering stone. The very street names - Aldersgate, Cloth Fair, Charterhouse, Threadneedle - take us far back. We're alone...or are we? For this is the hour when the She Wolf of France glides through the churchyard, the hour when the dark figure on Newgate wall rattles his chains, the hour when the Black Nun keeps her lonely vigil, and something inexpressibly evil lurks behind a tiny window. We're on their trail...or are they shadowing us?

And here's a "grab" - a bit of audio from the walk. It's Shaughan. His timing - let alone his range (he does three different voices in this brief extract) and his responsiveness to his audience - is a thing of wonder.

  In Shaughan's words: "The first walk I ever did, and the oldest.  2,000 years of life and death in one place. The City. Soaked in Souls - the Spirit of London. Tales of faith and Devilry - Murder and possession. Not just Folk tales, documented visitations from the Undiscovered Country.

Everything is older than it looks.
 
I too, am possessed from time to time - the Spirits come to me to tell their own tale......."

The Ghosts of the Old City Walk takes place
every Saturday at 7.30 pm
and every Tuesday at 7.30 pm.

Meet Shaughan or Angela or Graham just outside
exit 2 of St. Paul'sTube.

St. Paul'sTube is on
theCentral Line  

Guided on Saturdays by Shaughan  or Angela
With his deathly pallor and swirling black cape Shaughan is "deliciously spooky!" - as the San Francisco Chronicle put it.

Guided on Tuesdays by Graham

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JACK THE RIPPER HAUNTS
Add to "Basket"
7.30 pm every night 
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 you can steady your 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.

*Except December 24th and December 25th


Meet the guides just outside Tower HillTube.

N.B., on Saturdays there's also a Ripper "matinee".
It goes every* Saturday afternoon at 3 pm.

*Except when Saturday falls on December 24th or December 25th.

Tower HillTube is on the
Circle & District Lines

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 and Shaughan on Thursdays
Guided by Donald or Shaughan on Fridays
Guided by Fiona or Peter on Saturday afternoons 

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. Oh and I almost forgot - he's also a 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 7.30 pm. In short, don't let anyone pull a fast one on you.

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Annie Chapman

 
--found murdered Saturday, 8 September 1888
Another most horrible murder has been perpetrated in Whitechapel. At an early hour on Saturday morning, the body of a woman was found lying in the corner of a yard in Hanbury-street, a low thoroughfare, not far from Buck's-row, the scene of a similar tragedy ten days ago. 
from the Daily Telegraph, Monday, 10 September 1888


ADDITIONAL LONDON WALKS ON SELECTED SATURDAYS

 

DATE WALK TIME STATION
July 4 Epicurean, Gourmets', Foodies' London 10 am MonumentTube Fish Street Hill exit
Aug. 29 Epicurean, Gourmets', Foodies' London 10 am MonumentTube Fish Street Hill exit
Oct. 10 Gandhi's London* N.B. this walk is free for students & seniors! 2.30 pm TempleTube
Oct. 31
Ghosts, Gaslight & Guinness  A Halloween Ghost Walk
7.30 pm HolbornTube
Oct. 31 Haunted London A Halloween Ghost Walk N.B. Pacemaker Warning: Guaranteed Ghosts on Some of these Ghost Walks! 8 pm MonumentTube Fish Street Hill exit
Oct. 31 Apparitions, Alleyways & Ale A Halloween Ghost Walk  N.B. Pacemaker Warning: Guaranteed Ghosts on Some of these Ghost Walks!
8.30 pm EmbankmentTube
       

*See also www.gandhislondon.com