THE SUNDAY MORNING LONDON WALKS |
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THE SUNDAY AFTERNOON LONDON WALKS |
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THE SUNDAY EVENING LONDON WALKS |
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 10 am on Sundays
from Hampstead Tube
(Hampstead Tube is on the Edgware branch of the Northern Line)
This is a great walk...they just don't come any better than this. Our setting is London's most picturesque neighbourhood...a perfectly preserved Georgian village crowning the top of a handsome hill and garnished with the capital's most elegant old world promenade, a medley of cobble-stone lanes, pretty cottages, surprising turnings, and unsurpassed views. As for our cast of characters...well it's every bit as beguiling as our setting, ranging from the highwayman Dick Turpin to the painter Constable to the poet Keats; from Freud and D.H. Lawrence to Sting and Boy George; from Elizabeth Taylor and Judy Dench and Emma Thompson to Rex Harrison, Peter O'Toole, Neil Gallagher and Jeremy Irons. And for good measure, there's London's most villagey atmosphere, white swans on a lake, and magnificent Hampstead Heath. More (in the words of the guide)...
 And if you're up for a listen, here's the opening of the Old Hampstead Village chapter in our forthcoming book, London Walks London Stories. A chapter inspired, it should go without saying, by this walk. Here it is...
The Old Hampstead Village Walk takes place
every Sunday at 10 am
and every Wednesday at 2 pm.
And it also takes place every Saturday night at 7 pm as a pub walk.
Meet your guide just outside the exit of HampsteadTube.
The "Late-comers' Catch-Up Stop - for the Sunday morning walk - is "the viewing platform". From it we can see right across the Thames River Valley. London panoramas don't come any better - the whole city is spread out before us. To get to "the viewing platform" come out of the tube, cross Heath Street so you're standing directly underneath the clock tower, turn right and head up Heath Street. About 40 yards up Heath Street you'll come to some steps. They'll be on your left. The steps take you up to a narrow, twisty little lane. Follow that lane all the way up. At the top end of the lane there's another set of steps. Go up those steps and hey presto you've reached "the viewing platform". That's where we go to start the Sunday morning walk and we're there for a good few minutes. And from there we make our way along to the Holly Bush pub - it's at the opposite end of the little street from the "viewing platform".
HampsteadTube is on
theNorthern Line
 Guided on Sunday by David
Guided on Wednesdays by Richard III or Peter G.
Guided on Saturday evenings by Richard III or Peter G.
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One of Hampstead's Mysterious Old Lanes |
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THE FAMOUS SQUARE MILE - 2,000 Years of History
10.30 am on Sundays
from MonumentTube
(meet Graham just outside the main exit, in Fish Street Hill)
This is the great classic London Walk: the London Walk of London Walks!. It explores the very heart of the City - the most historic part of the capital. Threading his way through an intricate network of narrow alleys and cobble-stone lanes, Graham chronicles the 2,000 years of London's rich and tumultuous history. And illustrates it by drawing upon everything from street names to ancient customs to the frozen music of London's great buildings, among which are the ruins of the Roman Temple of Mithras, the Bank of England, the Lord Mayor's Mansion House, and ancient Guildhall. (The walk includes, whenever possible, a visit inside Guildhall!)
The Famous Square Mile walk takes place
every Sunday at 10.30 am
and every Thursday at 11 am.
Meet Graham just outside the main exit -
the Fish Street Hill exit - of MonumentTube.
MonumentTube is on
the Circle & District Lines
Guided on Sundays by Graham
Guided on Thursdays by Tom, Judy or Fiona
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SUBTERRANEAN LONDON - What You're Overlooking
The "Cobra Room", Secret Tunnels, Bomb Shelters,
Crypts, Lost Rivers & Trains & Drains
"nowhere else is the tangle of infrastructure - new and old -
with history and geology more intriguing or problematic"
Beneath the Metropolis The Secret Lives of Cities Alex Marshall
10.30 am on Sundays
from Embankment Tube
Most of London is under London. The London we "know" is just the crust. There's another world down there. A fascinating, freakish, disturbing world. Everything from the squat, camouflaged, granite-hard redoubt where the last stand would be made against the Nazis to the ultra-secret "cobra room". Scope out that London under London with a guide who's like ground penetrating radar...and who can show you the tell-tale ripples on the surface - vents, secret doorways, emergency exits, the "last stand" redoubt - and old familiar London will never look the same again.
N.B., for safety and security reasons we will not be crawling through tunnels and wading through sewers! The walk is a ground-level survey - the topographical equivalent of a scan - of what's down there. More...
The Subterranean London walk takes place
every Sunday morning at 10.30 am.
Meet Kim or Peter G. just outside the exit of EmbankmentTube at 10.30 am.
EmbankmentTube is on the Circle, District & Northern Lines.
 Guided by Kim or Peter G.
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THE OLD JEWISH QUARTER - a shtetl called Whitechapel |
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HISTORIC GREENWICH - and the best boat ride in London
10.45 am on Sundays
from Tower HillTube
We begin with an overture: the best boat ride in London. The Tower, Tower Bridge, Docklands, and then, three miles downstream, the Thames bursts into one of the sublime sights of English architecture: "the most stately procession of buildings in England." Moments later, another frisson: the mast and spars, the web of rigging of the Cutty Sark, the hauntingly beautiful old tea clipper. As the poet said, "they mark our passage as a race of men; earth will not see such ships again." Welcome to Greenwich! Maritime Greenwich. Royal Greenwich. Greenwich the home of time and centre of space. The Greenwich of crooked lanes, bric-a-brac shops, and bustling antique and flea markets. Greenwich the "green village." Greenwich of the Queen's House, Old Royal Observatory, Royal Naval College, the world's largest nautical museum, the Millennium Dome, and the Cutty Sark itself! Richard or Chris will turn the pages of its history for you.
The Historic Greenwich Walk takes place
every Sunday at 10.45 am,
every Tuesday at 10:45 am,
and every Thursday at 10:45 am.
Meet your guide just outside the exit of
Tower HillTube.
Tower HillTube is on
the Circle & District Lines
N.B. The boat trip costs £3 (a huge discount);
Gillian, Chris, Nick or Hilary go with you on the boat.
Guided on Sundays and Tuesdays by Gillian or Chris
Guided on Thursdays by Nick or Hilary
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FROM THE REPERTORY - The 10.45 am Tour du Jour! 10.45 am The walk in this time slot changes weekly.
For the particulars of the 10.45 am Tour du Jour
on any given Sunday see the following table.
| DATE |
WALK |
 TUBE STOP |
| May 11 |
The Tate Modern Tour |
St. Paul'sTube exit 2 |
| May 18 |
Paved with Gold - "some of the richest, wickedest, the oddest of London"
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Sloane SquareTube |
| May 25 |
Beachcombing on the Thames |
Blackfriars Tube exit 3
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| May 25 |
"One the Square" in Freemasons' London - Rituals, Secrets & Cabals |
Covent GardenTube |
| June 1 |
Tudor Whitehall -
The Forbidden City
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EmbankmentTube |
| June 8 |
Lives of the Filthy Rich -
Movers, Shakers & Money Makers
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Marble ArchTube Park Lane exit |
| June 15 |
In Winston Churchill's Footsteps - London's Finest Hour |
EmbankmentTube |
| June 22 |
Old Shoreditch Village & Hoxton - "London's Hippest Triangle" |
Old StreetTube exit 3 |
| June 29 |
Frozen Music - the City of London Architecture Walk |
Tower HillTube |
| July 6 |
Local London - Tales of Tea & the Must-See Horniman |
Forest Hill  Railway Station |
| July 13 |
Kensington Gardens & the London of Peter Pan |
Lancaster GateTube |
| July 20 |
Enlightened Doctors & the British Museum (guided by Dr. Barry) |
Russell SquareTube |
| July 27 |
Children, Charity & Change - optional Foundling Museum visit at the end! (£4 charge) |
HolbornTube |
| Aug. 3 |
London on Film -
from James Bond to Bridget Jones
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Bank Tube exit 3 by Wellington statue
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| Aug. 10 |
Visions of Albion - the Annual William Blake Memorial Walk |
Oxforfd CircusTube exit 6 |
| Aug. 17 |
Jane Austen's London (Janet will be dressed as Jane Austen!) |
Green ParkTube, Royal Academy exit |
| Aug 24 |
In Winston Churchill's Footsteps - "The Verdict of History" |
EmbankmentTube |
| Aug. 31 |
Paved with Gold - "some of the richest, the wickedest, the oddest of London" |
Sloane SquareTube |
| Sept. 7 |
Musical London - Baroque to Rock |
Leicester SquareTube meet by Wyndham's Theatre |
| Sept. 14 |
Old Spitalfields - Riches to Rags |
Liverpool StreetTube Bishopsgate exit |
| Sept. 21 |
Scandalous St. John's Wood Mistresses, Mystics & Mansions; let alone Artists & Cricket! |
St. John's WoodTube |
| Sept. 28 |
The Shock of the Old -
500 Years of West End Architecture
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Green Park Tube north exit
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| Oct. 5 |
Beachcombing on the Thames |
BlackfriarsTube exit 3 |
| Oct. 12 |
The Bells of Stepney - Reform,
Ragged Schools & Dr. Barnado
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Mile EndTube |
| Oct. 19 |
"Fashion is the mirror of history"
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Bond StreetTube Oxford Street North exit, by HMV |
| Oct. 19 |
Beachcombing on the Thames |
Blackfriars Tube exit 3
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| Oct. 26 |
The Lost World of the River Fleet |
Blackfriars Tube exit 1
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| Nov. 2 |
Gunpowder, Treason & Plot -
On the Trail of Guy Fawkes
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Westminster Tube exit 4
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| Nov. 9 |
Alfred Hitchcock's London -
More than 39 Steps!
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HolbornTube |
| Nov. 16 |
Archaeology and the Origins of London -
Archaeologist guided!
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MonumentTube
Fish Street Hill exit
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THE BEATLES MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR 10.55 am on Sundays
from Tottenham Court RoadTube
(Meet Richard P. just outside exit 3, by the Dominion Theatre)
Guided by "the pied piper of Beatlemania", this is a chance to Imagine Beatlemania and the Swinging 60s. It's a Magical Mystery Tour of the Beatles' London haunts: their Apple offices, where they played the famous rooftop session Paul McCartney's headquarters; and the world famous Abbey Road Studios and the Abbey Road crosswalk. Richard P., recaptures the era when London was the cultural capital of the world and the "Fab Four" were its rulers. And if you want to know something about the area where you'll be meeting Richard, well, simply click on me!
The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour takes place
every Sunday at 10.55 am,
every Wednesday at 2 pm,
and every Thursday at 11 am.
Meet Richard P. just outside exit 3 - the Dominion Theatre exit - of Tottenham Court RoadTube.
Tottenham Court RoadTube is on
theCentral & Northern Lines
N.B. We make a short tube journey to Abbey Road, so getting "a ticket to ride" - i.e., a 2-Zone Travel Card is a good idea.
Guided by Richard P
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ANCIENT LONDON - Knights, Nuns & Notoriety |
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WESTMINSTER AT WAR "Hitler will have to break us in this island or lose the war" Winston Churchill1.45 pm on Sundays
from EmbankmentTube
 N.B. This is one of the new walks coming into the Winter 2007-08 London Walks programme, which kicks off on November 1st and runs through April 30th. In other words, the first day this walk will take place is Sunday, November 4th.Thereafter it will run every Sunday afternoon (except March 13th). Okay, blurb and other details follow...
Let's start with a few salient facts. 1) Where we meet - if you know how and where to look - you can see the dagger that was plunged into the heart of Nazi Germany. 2) Until the middle of 1944 there were more British civilian deaths than military. 3) Europe, like a prison door, had clanged shut - this country stood alone and at bay in guarding the future of the civilised world. And Westminster? The nerve-centre of the entire war, it was a city transformed: sandbagged tombs in the Abbey (ditto Eros in Piccadilly Circus); a pillbox and barbed wire in Parliament Square; a machine-gun nest on the Members' Terrace; bombers caught in the scissors of searchlights; barrage balloons and air-raid shelters; nights out of the Revelation of St. John - fires that turned the moon blood red and canopied the Thames with smoke. Any of that left? Well, more than you'd think. And in some cases it's not just "trace evidence". That history is writ here in stone. 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. Guided by Tom or Helena.
The Westminster at War walk takes place
every* Sunday at 1.45 pm
*except April 13th
Meet Tom or Helena just outside the exit of
Embankment Tube.
Embankment Tube is on the Circle & District & Northern & Bakerloo Lines
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OLD HIGHGATE VILLAGE - "a place apart"
1.45 pm on Sundays
from HighgateTube
(Highgate Tube is on the branch of the Northern Line that goes toward High Barnet/Mill Hill East)
What kind of sorcery is this? We're just a few stops up the Northern Line, but we're in a country village nestling round what was once an old pond. Yes, we've taken a brief tube journey into timeless England. Here are lanes and cottages and Georgian houses and spectacular views across London. Here are Coleridge, Dickens, Betjeman, Cromwell, Nell Gwyn, Dick Whittington, Yehudi Menuhin, George Michael, Annie Lennox, and Sting. And after the walk, there's Highgate Cemetery ("one of the most astonishing places in London...architecture's answer to Hieronymus Bosch") or, on its wooded slope on the Heath, Kenwood House. In short, this is the perfect London Walk for a crisp Sunday afternoon. But keep it under your hat, because if the word got out Highgate would be a major tourist attraction!
The Old Highgate Village Walk takes place
every Sunday at 1.45 pm from HighgateTube.
HighgateTube is on
theNorthern Line
Meet Brian or Tom in the station booking hall.
Guided by Tom or Brian
Back to top
"Oh the after tram-ride quiet,
When we heard a mile beyond,
Silver music from the bandstand,
Barking dogs by Highgate pond."
Sir John Betjeman
"'London!' It has the sound of distant thunder."
James Bone, The London Perambulator, 1925
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SHAKESPEARE'S & DICKENS'S LONDON - the Old City2 pm on Sundays
from St. Paul'sTube, exit 2
London was to Shakespeare and Dickens what Paris was to Balzac. It held them in its thrall, was both their canvas and their inspiration, their workshop and their raw material. They in turn made it their own, imaginatively colonising it. And, like "special correspondents for posterity", bequeathed it to us. Today, despite the ravages of time, riot, bombing, and especially fire, traces of their London - shipwrecks from the past - still abound in the City. Everything from superb half-timbered Elizabethan dwellings to the magnificent early 16th-century gatehouse where Shakespeare went with his plays to the offices of the Elizabethan Master of the Revels. (Iintermezzo called for here.) And from London's grandest Tudor manor house to crooked little alleys which fed the fires of Dickens's "hallucinating genius".
And if you'd like to read a bit more about this one - here's some press coverage of this walk. First, a recent piece in The Guardian by the distinguished critic and scholar, John Sutherland. Here's what he says (and to accompany it, there's some further "particulars" about the walk - and some very fine old imagery!). Or there's this from the Observer.
Shakespeare's and Dickens's London - the Old City
takes place every Sunday at 2 pm
and every Wednesday at 11 am.
Meet David or June just outside exit 2
of St. Paul'sTube.
St. Paul'sTube is on
theCentral Line
N.B., This walk does not duplicate Monday's and Saturday's "Shakespeare's London" walk.
Guided on Sundays by David ("none better" The Observer, 2005)
Guided on Wednesdays by Andy or Corinna
And you're going to like this. If you roll up early for the walk and you want a sit-down and a coffee, well just make your way to Casa di Caffe - it's directly behind exit 2 of St. Paul'sTube Stop (at the top of the exit 2 staircase do a U-turn and walk toward St. Paul's Cathedral, Casa di Caffe is on your left, half way between the cathedral and the tube stop. And why Casa di Caffe? Well, it's the best coffee shop in the neighbourhood for one. And for two, London Walks has carved out some "added value" for you. If you print this page out and show it to Mehran and his wonderfully international staff - Estonian lasses, a Chinese chap, etc. etc. etc. - you'll get a whacking great 20 percent discount on whatever you order, whether it's a cappuccino or one of their delicious paninis or this, that or the other. Can't be bad! And it's just an attractive place for a sit-down: light streaming in, brightly coloured overstuffed chairs, a view of the cathedral. YUM YUM!
 
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2 pm on Sundays 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 café.
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 Sunday at 2 pm;
every Wednesday at 11 am;
and every Saturday at 2 pm
Meet Shaughan just outside the exit of Warwick AvenueTube.
Little VeniceTube is on
theBakerloo Line
Guided on Sundays by Shaughan
Guided on Wednesdays by Peter or Richard III
Guided on Saturdays by Shaughan
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SOUTH KEN - ALBERTOPOLIS, ALCAZAR & ALCOVES Village, Vignettes & Victoriana in SW72 pm on Sundays
from South Kensington Tube
(Meet just beyond the ticket barrier [subway turnstile] in the booking hall)
Fairy dust. Seven no trumps. Slice after slice of unreality. Carousel. Green matrix. Cultural Core. Urbane village. Mews and views to die for. Tot it up how you will this is the least likely neighbourhood in an unlikely city. It's a cabinet of curiosities: campanile, President Kennedy's house, the SAS, 140 billion frozen peas, Darwin, a Russian cathedral, South American shrunken heads, the weird subway that inspired the greatest London poem ever, Shackleton and Livingstone, a quarter of a million butterflies, the Apollo 10 command module, meteorites, earthquake simulator, Crystal Palace...let alone those secret, painter's palette mews (which you'd never find off your own bat) and the most astonishing piece of "countryside" you'll ever see - woodland, fen, pond, chalk downland, meadow - right in the heart of London. Guided by Margaret or Fiona.
The South Ken - Albertopolis, Alcazar & Alcoves walk
takes place every Sunday at 2 pm.
Meet Margaret or Fiona just beyond the ticket barrier
in the booking hall of South KensingtonTube.
South KensingtonTube is on
the Circle, District & Piccadilly Lines
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FROM THE REPERTORY - The 2.30 pm Tour du Jour! 2.30 pm The Walk in this time slot changes weekly!
For the particulars of the 2.30 pm Tour du Jour
on any given Sunday see the following table.
| DATE |
WALK |
STATION |
| May 11 |
Terra Incognita -
Seeing the Elephant in Souf London
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Elephant & Castle Tube Bakerloo Line exit |
| May 18 |
Myths, Legends & the Archaeology of London (Archaeologist-guided!) |
Tower HillTube |
| May 25 |
Secrets of the Kabbalah |
St. Paul's Tube exit 2
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| May 25 |
The Regent's Canal -
King's Cross to Old Camden Town
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King's Cross Tube |
| June 1 |
The Regent's Canal - Islington to Mile End
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AngelTube |
| June 8 |
The Rothschilds's London
"The true Lords of Europe"
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Green ParkTube north exit |
| June 15 |
The Secret Thames -
Mudlarks, Mortuaries & the Mayflower
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Tower HillTube |
| June 22 |
The River Lea Walk -
Enfield Lock to Ponder's End
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Enfield Lock Railway Station |
| June 29 |
Penicillin & Pox in Paddington -
A Doctor-guided History of Medicine Walk
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Lancaster GateTube |
| July 6 |
Three Mills, the Bow Back Rivers & 2012 Games London |
Bromley-by-BowTube |
| July 13 |
Frozen Music - The City of London Architecture Walk |
Tower HillTube |
| July 20 |
The Regent's Canal - Islington to Mile End
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AngelTube |
| July 27 |
London's Literary Golden Mile -
ends with a tour of the new British Library!
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Warren StreetTube |
| Aug. 3 |
Uxbridge & the Grand Union Canal |
UxbridgeTube |
| Aug. 10 |
the Hidden Village
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Walthamstow Central Tube bus station exit |
| Aug. 17 |
The River Lea Walk -
Enfield Lock to Ponder's End
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Enfield Lock Railway Station |
| Aug. 24 |
Classic Mews & Hidden Passageways
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Earl's CourtTube Earl's Court Road exit |
| Sept. 7 |
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AngelTube |
| Sept. 14 |
Merrie Islington - A River Runs through It |
AngelTube |
| Sept. 21 |
Three Mills, the Bow Back Rivers &
2012 Games London
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Bromley-by-Bow
Tube |
| Sept. 28 |
"England Expects" - Aye Aye!
Shore Leave in Admiral Nelson's London
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Green Park Tube Ritz exit
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| Oct. 5 |
The Regent's Canal -
Little Venice to Old Camden Town
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Warwick AvenueTube |
| Oct. 12 |
Wapping Tales -
Ships, Pirates & Murders
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Tower HillTube |
| Oct. 19 |
The Regent's Canal -
King's Cross to Old Camden Town
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King's CrossTube (meet by the taxi rank) |
| Oct. 26 |
Witches, Wizards & Warlocks
This one's guided by a practising witch!
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EmbankmentTube |
| Nov. 2 |
The Regent's Canal -
Mile End to Limehouse
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Mile EndTube |
| Nov. 9 |
A River of Memory -
A Special Walk for Remembrance Sunday
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EmbankmentTube |
| Nov. 16 |
The London of Samuel Pepys - Bloody, Flaming, Poxy London |
Tower HillTube |
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OLD WESTMINSTER - 1,000 Years of History
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2.45 pm on Sundays from
WestminsterTube, exit 4
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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.
The Old Westminster Walk takes place:
every Sunday at 2.45 pm;
every Tuesday at 2 pm;
every Thursday at 2 pm;
and every Saturday at 11 am;
N.B., every Monday evening at 7 pm
Old Westminster by Gaslight takes place.
Meet your guide just outside WestminsterTube, exit 4.
WestminsterTube is on the
Circle, District & Jubilee Lines
Guided on Sundays by Graham
Guided on Tuesdays by Judy
Guided on Thursdays by Shaughan or David
Guided on Saturdays by Simon
Here's the kind of catch-in-the-throat, "writing on the wall" history that you get on the Old Westminster walk. This old sign is fading, almost ghost-like...and all the more moving for being so. It's an old World War II bomb shelter sign that we see in one of those "picturesque Georgian backstreets" on this walk. A stark reminder that this neighbourhood was right on the Luftwaffe's flight path. And into the bargain, if you're looking at the sign from this angle you're standing right in front of the house where the Anti-Appeasement movement got started! Welcome to 1940 ladies and gentlemen. This isn't "textbook" history. It's in-your-face history. Standing here looking at this sign you're going to hear the sirens in your mind's ear. And smell the cordite. And shudder. And thank Winston Churchill. And his generation.
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THE LONDON THAT INSPIRED HARRY POTTER 5 pm on Sundays
from EmbankmentTube
"Nothing like a night-time stroll to give you ideas"
Let's put the cat amongst the pixies: Harry Potter isn't just kids' stuff. There are very real tales - and real locales - behind the stories of Harry and friends. Those tales, those locales inform this walk. Was there really an invisibility cloak? What's the truth behind the Philosophers' Stone? What place inspired Diagon Alley? Where was the legend of Dracula born? Where in a famous movie did a werewolf go on a rampage? There's good gripping London stuff behind a lot of the Harry Potter goings on - everything from characters' names to the origin of monsters. We'll solve a mystery or two: e.g., where is the entrance to The Ministry of Magic and can we get in? In short, this walk is a serious study of a subject more fantastical than fiction. And, yes, there's even some magic. As one walker put it, "dead brilliant." Guided by Alan.
The Myths and Legens behind Harry Potter Walk takes place
every Sunday evening at 5 pm.
Meet Alan just outside the exit of EmbankmentTube.
Embankment Tube is on the
Circle, District, Northern & Bakerloo Lines
Guided by Alan
DISCLAIMER: Alan's The London that Inspired Harry Potter walk is not an official 'Harry Potter' event and is not endorsed, sanctioned or in any other way supported, directly or indirectly by Warner Bros Entertainment Inc, the Harry Potter book publishers or J.K.Rowling and her representatives.
All rights to the series of “Harry Potter” books are the property of J.K. Rowling and her publishers including Scholastic Press, et al. Film rights and image trademarks are the property of Warner Bros Entertainment Inc.
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THE OLD CHELSEA VILLAGE PUB WALK |
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"Man hath no better thing under the sun
than to eat and to drink and to be merry." The Bible
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THE LONDON WALK - Westminster & the West End
10.45 am on Sundays
from WestminsterTube, exit 4
Whoa! Here it is. The all-in-one London Walk. It's the Grand Tour. The London equivalent of the Yellow Brick road. So it's hey ho and off we go - off to see all the classic sights in Westminster and the West End. Tick "em off: the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. James's Palace, the quintessential Royal Park, classy St. James's, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, you name it. They're all here - all the London pearls. And here's the clincher - Helena and Tom have strung them together with quaint little back streets and passageways that give you the real essence of London.
The London Walk - Westminster & the West End
takes place every Sunday morning at 10.45 am.
Meet Tom or Helena just outside
exit 4 of WestminsterTube.
WestminsterTube is on
theCircle, District & Jubilee Lines
Guided by Helena or Tom
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THE SOHO PUB WALK - "brilliant and wicked"7 pm on Sundays
from Leicester SquareTube
(meet by Wyndham's Theatre)
Colourful and cosmopolitan Soho is the free port that every city must have. It's London's hottest - and coolest - social melting pot. It's a place of bewitching contrasts. Homely village and red-light district; workplace and playground; Chinatown and Theatreland; a paradise for gourmands and the haunt of artists, con-artists, artistes and artisans. Today it's a by-word for style; in the 60s it was the cradle of British pop music; a century ago it was the worst slum in town; earlier still, the hub of aristocratic life. There's no place like it. (Food is available.)
The Old Soho Pub Walk takes place
every Sunday evening at 7 pm.
Meet Richard III or Pete |