THE THURSDAY DAY TRIP FROM LONDON |
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THE THURSDAY MORNING LONDON WALKS |
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THE THURSDAY AFTERNOON LONDON WALKS |
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THE THURSDAY EVENING LONDON WALKS |
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THE "SPECIALS" LONDON WALKS ON SELECTED THURSDAYS |
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BATH TOUR The Great Escape 'like being in heaven without going to all the expense and bother of dying' 9 am on Thursdays (from May 16 – September 26)*
from Paddington Railway  Station
Meet by the main ticket office – it's near Platform 1
For a photograph of the meeting point – and even more precise directions – click here.
You want it in 19 words? Only two cities on the planet are World Heritage Sites. Bath is one of them.
The Bath Tour. The Great Escape. The Day Trip to Bath. Call it what you will a visit to Bath is an event. How could it be otherwise? Bath is the most beautiful city in England. It's the world's most perfect Georgian city. It's a scoop of pure honey set in a green bowl. It's a graceful and airy miracle of Palladian grandeur. It's a world of arcades and crescents, of Assembly Rooms and Pump Rooms. It's a graceful and airy miracle of Palladian grandeur – a world of arcades and crescents, of Assembly Rooms and Pump Rooms. (As this photo essay attests to.) In the 18th-century it was the focus of the Age of Elegance. Today's it's our turn to to savour the accreted delights of the slow centuries as we explore this exquisite place and its stunningly cosmopolitan Roman foundations, folded into a time-warp in the lovely Somerset hills. European cities don't come any more provocative. Or profound. Or poetic. And, er, look, if you'd like a sneak preview, a click here will take you to a wonderful little film of our Bath trip.
 The Day Trip to Bath takes place
every* Thursday at 9 am
*From May 16 through September 26
And we'll also go there on Saturday: May 4, July 13 & October 19. Same time, same station.
To go on the Great Escape! to Bath meet Richard
at 9 am by the main ticket office of Paddington Railway Station.
N.B. the main ticket office is by Platform 1. For a photograph of the meeting point – and even more precise directions – click here.
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OLD MAYFAIR - "the best address in London"11 am on Thursdays
from Green Park Tube
Meet Richard III or Peter on the corner, just outside the north exit
Now here's a champagne cocktail of a walk. It's a marriage made in heaven: "the best address in London" and a top drawer guide – a chevalier and a place where Old Masters and old money, Rolls Royces and glamour, titles and butlers are par for the course. It's hob-nobbing with knobs on it – because Mayfair's been home to Clive of India, Disraeli, Handel, Florence Nightingale, Jimi Hendrix, Dodi Fayed, and the Earl Mountbatten, to name but a few. Last but certainly not least, it boasts London's best village within a village – Shepherd Market, a charming little nest of alleys that hasn't lost a jot of its 18th-century scale and village atmosphere, let alone its raffishness. Now, who's for a little photo-essay – indeed our sexiest photo-essay!
The Old Mayfair walk takes place
every Thursday at 11 am
and every* Monday at 10.30 am.
Meet Richard III or Peter or Graham on the corner
just outside the north exit of Green ParkTube.
Green ParkTube is on the
Victoria, Piccadilly & Jubilee Lines
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ROYAL LONDON & THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD
10.30 am on Thursdays
from St. James's Park Tube Broadway/Westminster Abbey exit
Yes! Eternal London. Landmark London. All the big ticket stuff. Palaces. The Changing of the Guard. 10 Downing Street. The "Royal Peculiar". Places where world history was made. All of that is must see London all by itself. But what makes this walk a game-changer is the way we see it. In short, we nook and cranny it. Get around behind. Get inside. See things Londoners – let alone the tourist hordes – never get to see. It's that "specialilty" London Walks is famous for – "the degree of granularity that you get". Everything from the import of a black circle by the 2 on a certain clock to what the Horse Guards are actually guarding. Want to read a bit more? Here's a related "take" on this walk.
The Royal London & The Changing of the Guard walk takes place
every Thursday at 10.30 am.
Meet Kim, Rex or Anne-Marie just outside the Broadway/Westminster Abbey exit – meet on the corner, opposite 40 Broadway
of St. James's ParkTube.
St. James's Park Tube is on the Circle & District Lines
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LONDON'S HIDDEN VILLAGE – Same City, Different London10.30 am on Thursdays
from Tower HillTube
Four words* that make my blood race. "Hasn't yet been discovered". And hand on heart, if you just want postcard London this one's probably not for you. But if the sightseeing equivalent of Granny Bonds isn't your thing, well, step this way. This way for old fat-lined bacon curing ovens and disused warehouses and converted factories. For the industrial corsetry of the London Bridge Quarter. For the wrong side of the tracks. But it's the right side of the tracks because something's happening here. This is a London neighbourhood coming out of its chrysalis. It's got a buzz. (And I don't mean the apiary.) In sum: 1) you won't have seen this part of London; 2) it's very central; 3) Kate Moss was here; 4) it's got a couple of cutting edge little galleries and museums; 5) it's only a seven-minute walk from Borough Market (and today's market day); 6) we start with a fab of riverscape (to say nothing of he most important mediaeval fortress in Europe and London's great iconic bridge); 7) we end with the only seven-star hotel this side of Dubai. Guided by Chris or Ann. *Right up there with hidden places, hidden history.
London's Hidden Village – Same City, Different London
takes place every Thursday at 10.30 am
Meet Chris or Ann just outside the exit of
Tower HillTube
Tower HillTube is on the Circle & District Lines
 Guided by Chris or Ann
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THE FAMOUS SQUARE MILE – 2,000 Years of History11 am on Thursdays
from Monument Tube, Fish Street Hill exit
This is the great classic London Walk. It explores the very heart of the City - the most historic part of the capital. Threading their way through an intricate network of narrow alleys and cobble-stone lanes, Tom, Judy and Fiona chronicle the 2,000 years of London's rich and tumultuous history. And illustrate 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 Thursday at 11 am
and every Sunday at 10.30 am
Meet Tom, Judy, Fiona or Graham outside the main exit – the Fish Street Hill exit – of MonumentTube.
Monument Tube is on the Circle & District Lines
Guided on Thursdays by Tom, Judy or Fiona
Guided on Sundays by Graham
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THE BEATLES MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR |
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2.15 pm on Thursdays
from West HamTube
N.B. there are no loos where we start, but tons where we end
Ok, it isn't a helicopter arrival with 007 and Her Majesty. Comes a close second, though.* Because the wonder of it is still there. There in the spiky white steel stadium. There in the glide and soar of the shiny aluminium Aquatic Centre. There in "the Copper Box." There in the ArcelorMittal Orbit. There in Gold Medal-winning sports info and back stories and whys and wherefores. There in the neighbourhood's pastscapes and futurescapes. There in that astonishing panorama – it's like being out on a tether looking back at the London Milky Way. There where the Olympic Torch entered the home stretch. (The path of the climacteric – and, yes, we'll walk there.) There in the buzz. The buzz that's still there. There in hard-earned, beyond-price local knowledge.** Yeah, you got it. I. Loved. This. Walk. Who wouldn't? It was the Olympics. See. It. While. The. Glow. Is. Still. There. Guided by Brian or Anne-Marie.
*Sports metaphor time: this approach – these vantage points – it's like making your way down to a ringside seat. Stepping into the ring will come in August, when the Olympic Park is opened to the public.
Part way through the walk we take a short journey on the DLR so you'll need an Oyster or 3-Zone Travel Card. We take that DLR journey because it gives us some additional great views of the Olympics site. And because it leaves us off right by the Olympic Village (it swooshes us into the Hi-tech station built specially for the Olympics – the station the athletes, officials and VIPs arrivee at, the station built to take the ultra high speed and appropriately named Javelin trains!). And because it saves us having to make a long dreary walk along a busy, nothing-to-see-but-plenty-of-fumes-to-breathe road. **Local knowledge. London Walks knowledge. You can't beat it. It kicked in from the get-go: "no question about it, West Hamis definitely the best place to start the Olympic London walk." As that American tourist said on the walk (you can hear him – and Julianne – here): "if you weren't on a London Walk you wouldn't know...".
In the Summer 2013 London Walks programme –
which runs from May 1 - October 31 –
The Olympics London Walk takes place
every Thursday at 2.15 pm
and every Saturday at 2.15 pm
Meet Brian or Anne-Marie just outside West HamTube.
West HamTube is on the District, Jubilee and Hammersmith & City Lines
 Guided by Brian or Anne-Marie
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OLD WESTMINSTER - 1,000 Years of History2 pm on Thursdays
from Westminster Tube, 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? Try this. 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.
The Old Westminster Walk takes place
every Thursday afternoon at 2 pm
every Saturday morning at 11 a,
every Sunday afternoon at 2.45 pm
and every Tuesday afternoon at 2 pm
Guided on Thursdays by Shaughan or David
Guided on Saturdays by Karen
Guided on Sundays by Graham
Guided on Tuesdays by Judy
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OLD KENSINGTON – London’s Royal Village2 pm on Thursdays
from High Street KensingtonTube
Meet by the 3 Phone shop – next to the pavement ("sidewalk") just inside the arcade
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. Guided by Adam or David. N.B. Special Announcement: Adam – aka the Dude (as in The Dude Abides) – has got a one-off coming up on Saturday, October 13 at 10.45 am from EmbankmentTube. Maybe give it some thought. It's not just a once-in-a-lifetime job. It's a once-in-eternity walk. And it's fun. And it comes from one of the Dude's great passions.
And afterward you can visit the State Apartments or take tea at the Orangery at Kensington Palace! Now who's for another visual or two? Or if you'd like a further word or two, click here. Or here. And finally, how about some audio? There's a chapter on Kensington in our book, London Walks London Stories. It's one of the five chapters that fell to me, David, to write. Anyway, here's a tri-partite taster – of Kensington, of the walk and of the book. In short, here's how the chapter opens.
The Old Kensington – London's Royal Village Walk
takes place every Thursday at 2 pm
and every Saturday at 2 pm
Meet David or Angela or Adam at High Street KensingtonTube. The rendezvous point is by the 3 Phone shop – next to the pavement ("sidewalk"), just inside the arcade.
High Street Kensington Tube is on the Circle & District Lines
Guided on Thursdays by David or Adam
Guided on Saturdays by David or Angela
"Kensington, especially in a summer afternoon, has seemed to me as delightful as any place can or ought to be, in a world which, sometime or other, we must quit." Nathaniel Hawthorne, Our Old Home, 1863
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CRIME AND PUNISHMENT – The City of the Gallows*2.30 pm on Thursdays
from St. Paul'sTube exit 2
And the city of beheadings, whippings and brandings. Of hanging, drawing and quartering. Of bodies of the executed delivered to Surgeons Hall for dissection (or else hung in chains). Of hundreds of capital offences. Of pillories, pressing with heavy weights, suffocating dungeons and jail fever that killed countless prisoners (and four out of six judges on the bench). Of prisoners awaiting trial with no legal claim to food. Of Londoners going on with their daily life not a stone's throw away from shocking scenes of slaughter. Three further points: 1) There are, to this day, visible traces – horrifying traces – of that London. 2) It all comes down to the guiding, so this one's guided by specialists. Tom's a barrister. Brian has a legal background (and a Law degree). Richard III has an illegal background (a charge sheet as long as your arm, a charge sheet to be proud of). 3) At the end of the walk there's a chance to visit a very nasty prison cell. *You couldn't enter London without passing the bodies of the hanged – or heads on stakes.
Crime and Punishment – The City of the Gallows Walk
takes place every Thursday at 2.30 pm
Meet Tom or Brian or Richard III just outside exit 2
of St. Paul'sTube
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THE BLITZ – London at War |
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THE ANCIENT CITY AT NIGHT Take Another Look!
6.30 pm on Thursdays
from BankTube (meet Peter by the Wellington statue outside exit 3)
If I were going to take Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Dante, Elizabeth I, Adam Smith, George Washington and Claude Monet on a London Walk this is the one I'd plump for. Because of where it goes and what we see. Historically this is the oldest part of London; but it's also the most aggressively modern part. And after hours – which is when we're heading in there – it's transfigured: crystalline, transparent as a dragonfly, submerged in its past. We can peer into its depths. And then rub our eyes and wonder at a church that "transcends originality", at the only private house in the country with its own court and cells, at a lost river, at a jewel box of a market (going there is a little touch of Harry Potter in the night), at Dirty Dick's, at the architectural equivalent of a butterfly collection. And to see it at night – washed in blue and green light – it's like moving, stunned, through the crevasses of a mountain glacier!. And that's just first impressions, a quick scratch at the surface. The behind-the-scenes stuff – hidden courtyards, dimly lit alleyways and wonderful old pubs* – will take us right down into the depths of London's ancient past. Guided by Peter G.
*Yes, pubs are included on this walk; a post-walk curry is an optional extra (which is by way of saying, the walk ends near that little parade of the best – and best value – curry houses in London!)
The Ancient City at Night – Take Another Look! walk takes place
every Thursday evening at 6.30 pm from BankTube, exit 3
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"Cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night." Rupert Brooke
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THE WEST END GHOST WALK "this part of London is like a haunted house"7.30 pm on Thursdays
from EmbankmentTube, river exit
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Gas-lit alleyways. Film set-perfect Georgian streets that nobody goes to. Crepuscular, crooked little byways. A gloomy old palace in the gloaming. A plague-pit with lit (to this day) corpse candles above it. Spectral walls and towers and domes across a fen. Faded grandeur. Old buildings frozen in another time... This is London's parallel universe. And yes, there have been some really eerie goings-on here. The haunted house analogy is spot on. The walk starts off as jolly and fun and eccentric but as the shadows lengthen – as we get into the deepest recesses of the haunted house – it really does get quite creepy. And as for the lore – "they" can touch you but you can't touch them – and the trace evidence (the "signs" of a haunting) and the just-in-case exorcism paraphernalia that guides always carry with them and the world's most haunted theatre and the creepiest statue in London... And, yes, sometimes some pretty weird stuff happens on this walk. As this creepy photograph, sent in by a walker, bears witness to.
Last, but certainly not least, the walk's got superb guides named Andy and Katy and Oliver.
Update: we're often asked: "what will we see on this – or that – walk?" By way of a fun, partial answer – here's a peek. Now who's for some audio? Here's Adam, pinch hitting on December 16, 1897. Funny thing that. Because when we turned into this alley it was June 26, 2008. Was. That's creepy old London for you. You're not careful where you're going – you turn certain corners – and time bends. What's this? It's a gas lamp. Here's Adam. And there's the famous actor, William Terriss. William Terriss, who's just been murdered tonight, right here, December 16, 1897.
The West End Ghost Walk takes place
every Thursday evening at 7.30 pm from EmbankmentTube
Guided by Andy or Oliver or Katy
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7.30 pm nightly (except Dec. 24 & Dec. 25)
from Tower HillTube
 N.B. for the rest of 2012 the Thursday night Jack the Ripper Walk is "bookable" through The London Bookstore Shop. You don't have to book it, but the option is there. Well, here – here's the link. We're taking this step for three reasons. 1) It should give us a feel for what the uptake will be for the walk on any given Thursday night. That's extremely valuable information. Seeing the road ahead makes "guide allocation" eezy peezy (as my ankle biters were wont to pipe up) – turns it from an art into an exact science. 2) It'll sort out – at a stroke – the caveat emptor problem that's just taken a very serious turn for the worse there at Tower Hill at 7.30 pm. Which is by way of saying, only the bona fide London Walks guide – Shaughan or Adam – will have your name. It stops in its tracks any hanky panky. 3) It gives us, what various concerns – and indeed some individuals – have long sought: an arrangement whereby pre-payment for a public Jack the Ripper walk is possible. If, for the time being, only on the Thursday night walk.
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. Guided by Shaughan and Adam. And for a pictorial or two, click here. Anything else? Well, yes, indeed. How does a very fine little video trailer of the walk grab you? To see it, CLICK HERE.
And this is pretty neat: Adam's made a handy little video to help out anybody who's arrived late for the walk. It's called The Jack the Ripper Catch Up Film. If you arrive late and the walk's moved off, well, just get your cell phone out, bring up this page and click here and hey presto you'll be able to catch us up.
The Jack the Ripper Tour takes place
every* single night at 7.30 pm.
N.B. on Saturday afternoons there's also a Ripper "matinee".
I.E. we also do the Ripper walk every* Saturday afternoon at 3 pm.
Meet the guides – on Thursday evenings it's Adam and Shaughan –
just outside the exit of Tower HillTube.
Tower Hill Tube is on the Circle & District Lines
*except December 24th & December 25th
Guided by Molly on Mondays
Guided by Molly on Tuesdays
Guided by Steve on Wednesdays
Guided by Shaughan and Adam on Thursdays
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
N.B., Let's call a spade a spade. Going on Donald Rumbelow's Jack the Ripper Tour 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 – 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 distinctive white London Walks leaflet. And remember, Donald and his colleagues never ever start the Jack the Ripper Tour before 7:30 pm. In short, don't let anyone pull a fast one on you.
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SPECIAL WALKS ON SELECTED THURSDAYS
| DATE |
TOUR |
TIME |
STATION |
| Oct. 31 |
The Ghostly Old City on Halloween – The Undead, the Absolutely Other |
7 pm |
St. Paul'sTube, exit 2 |
| Oct. 31 |
Haunted London on Halloween |
7.30 pm |
MonumentTube, Fish Street Hill exit
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| Oct. 31 |
The West End Ghost Walk on Halloween |
7.30 pm |
EmbankmentTube
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| Oct. 31 |
Ghosts, Gaslight & Guinness on Halloween |
8 pm |
HolbornTube
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Pacemaker Warning: Guaranteed Ghosts on most of these Halloween Walks! |
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