JUST THE FACTS

Q. What’s a pub walk?

A. It’s a normal London Walk but it takes a bit longer because we work anywhere from one to four pubs into the mix. Pub walks are convivial. They’re a completely natural social situation. They’re a chance to sit down, a chance for some refreshment. What’s not to like?

Q. Sounds fun. When do they take place?

A. Short answer is see below. And up above for the Specials for the current time of the year. Pre-pandemic we did a pub walk every night of the week and two on Saturday. The pandemic put paid to that. But we’re slowly making a comeback. The gold standard pub walk is the Along the Thames Pub Walk. Some of the others listed below are not full-fledged pub walks but they have – or can have – a pub element (they end at a famous pub, e.g.). When that’s the case we make that clear.

REGULARS

Fridays (every Friday night in the summer season, and most Friday nights in the winter season) – it’s The Along the Thames Pub Walk

Wednesdays Hidden Pubs  of Old London Town (every Wednesday evening in the summer season, May 1 – October 31 and quite a few Wednesday evenings in the Winter season).

SPECIALS

Rick Jones’s Thursday afternoon at 2.30 pm East Enders Pub Walk.

How “Special” is it? Put it this way: if London Walks did greatest hits – this would be side one, track one.

Let me expand a little bit on this gem of a walk. Rick Jones – musician, raconteur, natural-born storyteller – takes you on a rollicking ramble through the East End, pint glass in one hand, history in the other. He knows this patch of London like a local born within earshot of Bow Bells – the pubs, the people, the music, the mischief. You’ll hear stories soaked in beer and bravado, laced with cockney humour and a dash of poetry.

This isn’t just another pub crawl – it’s a performance. Rick doesn’t guide so much as riff, weaving song, story and spirit into something utterly of the East End. He’ll conjure music hall and market cries, dockers and dreamers, villains and visionaries.

By the end, you’ll feel you’ve met the real East End – rowdy, warm-hearted, full of life and laughter. And you’ll have raised a glass or two to its ghosts along the way.

As for skipping it – don’t even think about it. This one’s a belter. Unmissable. The kind of walk that reminds you why you fell in love with London in the first place.

But don’t just take it from us. Here’s what walker Chris Taylor said about the walk earlier this autumn.

“This wasn’t just a walk, it was an immersive experience!! Rick took us round the back streets of Whitechapel, giving us the fascinating history behind the many alleyways and old buildings there, many in the shadows of the towering metal and glass office blocks of today. And then onto the pubs- not many in London have a piano, but Rick knew where to find them! And then he transformed a “guided walk” into a party! What a talented musician he is, and true to the theme of the walk, he played all the old London songs that we remembered from early childhood, while we (and the rest of the pub too) belted them out, whether we knew all the words or not! You really couldn’t get more “East End London” than this “walk”. Brilliant, Rick – thank you for a truly memorable day!”

WALKS WITH A PUB ELEMENT

Mondays Old Westminster by Gaslight (this one has a pub element – some of the walkers go to a parliamentary pub at walk’s end)

Tuesdays The Ancient City at Night (another “pub element” walk – it ends at London’s most famous pub, Dirty Dicks!)

JULY SPECIALS

The Rock ‘n’ Roll London Pub Walk (with live music from Guide Adam) takes place at 7 pm on the following Thursdays in July and August: July 4, July 11, July 18, July 25, August 1 and August 8

Andy’s Covent Garden Pub Walk takes place at 6.30 pm on Tuesday, July 9

Andy’s Clerkenwell Pub Walk – Monks, Malt & Mayhem takes place at 6.30 pm on July 16

WATCH THE VIDEO

The Along the Thames Pub Walk

More video anyone?

Perfect on a Winter Evening – Cozy Pub Walks

LOOKING AHEAD, THE WINTER SPECIALS

Simon will be doing his Christmas Lights Pub Walk at 6 pm on TBA

Andy will be doing his Hidden Pubs of Old London Town walk at 6 pm on TBA

Andy will be doing his Monks, Malt & Mayhem Clerkenwell Pub Walk at 6.30 pm on TBA

Simon and David  will be doing the Along the Thames Pub Walk at 6 pm on TBA

David will be doing his Belgravia – Hidden Haunts & Classic Pubs Walk at 6 pm on TBA

In February Margarita will be doing her London 1902 -1916 – Seedbed of the Russian Revolution tour as a pub walk. Date TBA – Watch this space.

Another ‘un in the 2025 pipeline is David’s Bohemian Fitzrovia Pub Walk Date TBA – Watch this space.

For the ‘regulars’ – all of them pretty “special” – see below.