	September 2019
M	T	W	T	F	S	S

				6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30

The London Camino: From the People Who Walked It

Date post added: 26th September 2026

Fourteen walks. Forty-two miles. One great journey across London. From the Hertfordshire border to the Surrey Downs, these are the people who walked the London Camino, all of it or very nearly all of it. Here’s what they made of it.

Ian and Deborah’s London Camino

“One of the ‘highlights’ of our six week tour in London this year (2026) was the Absolutely Brilliant!!! London Camino walk aka ‘Ultimate London walk’, led by Charlie. He is an outstanding coordinator, highly compassionate, and possesses a vast knowledge of London, not to mention a dry sense of humour! We spent seven days travelling from the north to south crossing through Buckingham Palace and Westminster. Amazingly over four of those days we walked in green spaces along trails. With Charlie’s direction we gained a comprehensive understanding of the forces that shape London’s development to the great city it is today.

“We are so glad to have had the privilege of participating in the London Camino experience! Well done Charlie and we both hope to connect again on another London walk.” Ian & Deborah Mills

Antoinette’s London Camino

“I completed the full (almost!) Ultimate Walk – 13 out of 14 walks over 7 days, from the Hertfordshire border to the Surrey border – with our guide Charlie.

“From the very first walk, Charlie put the whole group at ease and set out the practicalities clearly each day – terrain, timings, toilets, food, safety, transport – so everyone knew what to expect. Walks started and finished on time, and the organisation throughout was excellent.

“What made the walk special was Charlie’s depth of knowledge. He wove together the story of how London grew – stagecoaches to railways to roads – and used it to explain everything we passed: common land, woodland, old mansions, new estates, garden suburbs, social mobility across the centuries, and how wealth and poverty shaped different areas. Nothing was ever just scenery; there was always a story behind it, and always more than one side to that story.

“The route itself was a journey in miniature of London’s geography and character: starting in green, semi-rural Hertfordshire, through Hampstead’s Garden Suburb, into increasingly built-up London, through Marylebone and Mayfair’s wealth (with pelicans spotted in Green Park along the way), past Royalty, palaces and the Abbey, across the river at Vauxhall into a completely different south London landscape, through wooded stretches to Crystal Palace (with its fascinating history and freshly renovated dinosaurs), past racecourses, golf courses and up to one of the best views of London, and finally down to the Surrey border for a walk of reflection on the whole journey, north and south.

“A few things stood out consistently across all 14 days:

• Every walk stands alone. Whether someone joined for one walk or all fourteen, Charlie made sure they felt as included as the Ultimate Walk regulars, and each walk worked as a complete experience in its own right – even though a few themes ran through all of them.

• Genuinely unhurried pace. Walkers could go at their own speed, and Charlie never started explaining anything until the whole group had caught up.

• Attentive to the group. If one person asked a question, he’d repeat it for everyone else, so nobody missed out.

• Reliably punctual and well-organised, even when public transport delays hit much of the group on one morning (Charlie included) – he adapted the route seamlessly and still got everyone to a lovely lunch spot he recommended.

• Deep, well-researched knowledge, clearly the product of real time spent planning routes and researching history, architecture and social change – delivered with obvious passion rather than recited.

“By the end, there was a real sense of achievement and a touch of sadness that it was over, but the knowledge gained along the way will stay with me for a long time. Three cheers for Charlie – a real gem of a guide.”

Lindsay Hall’s London Camino

I signed up to all 14 sections of this walk ( “The London Camino”) months in advance, booking accommodation in London to allow me to do so. (I came down from Scotland for no other reason than to go on the walk.) I knew very quickly during the first section that the commitment, both financial and time, was entirely worth it. Charlie is a brilliant guide and perfect for this walk. (It is ,after all, his, in discovery and invention.) He’s not just professional in his guiding, but the perfect individual, through his experience and enthusiasms, to give the walk its narrative and to explain not just the what, but the why of what we walked through. He set out to explain why London had ended up the way it did. And he succeeded! Where there were clashes or tensions ( particularly on housing issues ), he was able to describe these with nuance and understanding.

We walked through forest, parks and trails (especially in the early stages) which were at times almost magical. We landed on chocolate box village greens, came out near village ponds, in model garden suburbs and at times on golf courses, spotting deer, heron and even dinosaurs! We got some magnificent viewpoints. Very often, especially in the north, it was difficult to believe we were in London.

This walk is far more than the sum of the parts, and doing it in a concentrated time reinforced that feeling for me. (I should say that the all in one is my only experience. I am sure it very worthwhile in a different way when done each weekend.)

I feel privileged to have been on it, and I cannot thank Charlie enough. If he ever does an east west route, I’ll sign up in an instant!

Melanie Goodwin’s London Camino

Melanie Goodwin’s five-star review of the London Camino, praising Charlie’s fascinating and entertaining walks across London.

“A winning combination!” Melanie Goodwin on the London Camino and Charlie’s infectious enthusiasm.

Alison’s London Camino

“Where, why, when and how exactly did London grow to fill its modern-day big boots, and who precisely decided the extent of its footprint? These were the sort of questions which our guide Charlie initially posed, and which he subsequently set out to answer over the course of fourteen sections of walks, through his incredibly informative explanations and frequently entertaining tales of the lives, vision and work of the Londoners who have shaped this great capital.

“The Ultimate London Walk was far more than the exploration of a series of neighbourhoods; over seven days (fourteen half-day sections) it was a walked journey through the capital, Northwest to Southeast, each section contributing to the bigger picture of a living, breathing and evolving city. It was also a wonderfully handcrafted tale, interwoven strands recalling the city’s inhabitants, its visionaries and reformers, landowners, industrialists and investors, the wealthy and those fallen on hard times, the well-meaning and the misguided, the do-gooders and the ne’er-do-wells … all knitted into a tale of the footprints that London’s inhabitants have left behind.

“Somewhat surprisingly to me, very few of the 40-odd miles we covered were along hard pavements, since Charlie’s vital green thread through the capital led us as much as possible along river paths and bridleways, through woodland, past orchards, along the edge of hayfields, through parks and gardens (sensory and walled, landscaped and local, Royal and Country), across playing fields and alongside golf courses, with many sections of the walk offering unexpected vistas and panoramas (for yes, we did climb a fair few hills!)
We caught more than a whiff of the horsepower of former years, visiting one-time dairies, stables and coaching inns, and the sites of former horse fairs, races and steeple chases long since run, with a at tip to the might of the military as we passed by former barracks and misty morning battlefields as well as monuments to the fallen, both human and equine.

“We experienced a city of contrasts: housing once opulent and then no longer affordable; villas and palaces with parkland and pergolas for those with the means; alms houses, children’s homes and public baths for those without; golf clubhouses and pleasant garden suburbs with trim front hedges; more modest affordable housing, planned to include a garden and a pleached hedge; homes for heroes; a square with a garden restricted to keyholders; a rescued neighbourhood, exotically planted out by former squatters and accessible to all; venues for sport for the ladies as well as the gentlemen; commercial enterprises from historic trades to shopping arcades, from Burlington to Brixton, everything from knicker elastic and electric lighting to questionable mineral waters and patented flush loos.
Fascinating to me was the forensic detective work evident in Charlie’s research for this walk, his unpicking of the bones of a long abandoned landscaped parkland, the deciphering of ghost writing on shop gables and disused stations, the reveal of a gem of a garden, of an unexpected gravestone, the line of a river hidden from sight, a glimpsed Google Earth footprint of a long lost villa or of a well-worn park path leading where exactly…?

“Every bit as impressive was Charlie’s encyclopaedic knowledge in so many fields; ask him what you will about housing, town planning, the enclosures acts, healthcare, transport, waterways, the institutions of church, monarchy, parliament, the military… and he is a font of information and patient explanation… and all without notes. Inspirational indeed!

“Along with quite a few of the other walkers, I had originally signed up to The Ultimate London Walk in order to enjoy some fresh autumn air and exercise and to complete the challenge of an extended walk, whilst also taking the opportunity to enlarge my knowledge of London. But as an unanticipated bonus, somehow and at some point along the way, out of the common purpose of the walk seemed to spontaneously emerge a social community of open and friendly walking companions, getting to know each other a little, chatting on the longer walking sections between each stop for Charlie’s explanations, and reflecting together on the sights and surroundings, created and natural, which we were privileged to encounter together. It was a remarkable and memorable experience. Thank you, Charlie!” Alison, October 12, 2025

Kathryn Robins’ London Camino

“I have now done ten legs of this brilliant walk with Charlie. I highly recommend it.
Have been to lots of areas of Greater London that I would never have seen.
Charlie’s informative talks about how London grew and spread out is really interesting and he delivers these with his vast amount of knowledge.” Kathryn Robins, September 28, 2025

Mark Harden’s London Camino

“Charlie Forman has developed a terrific program, The Ultimate London Walk, which is a walk across Greater London. We have joined 4 sections of the walk and have seen parts of London that we had never seen before and certainly would not have seen the areas that we traversed. During the walks we learned the interesting history impacting each of the villages. Charlie brings the walk to life with his detailed research of the history of areas we walked and describing the pull of a growing Greater London, and the way communities were affected, have developed, and in many cases are protecting their green areas. We look forward to the remaining sections and are sure they will be just as engaging.” Mark Harden, October 1, 2025

Mary Alden’s London Camino

“I was fortunate enough to be able to do 11 of the 14 sections of this walk. It was truly wonderful to walk through so many green spaces on the journey. Charlie is a great guide. We learned about the outward spread of the city, various developments and resistance to development, social housing issues, how property changed hands and many other interesting things. One huge unexpected plus of this journey was meeting and becoming friends with a number of people who love walking through London. We will stay in touch and look for more walks together.” Mary Alden, October 9, 2025

David Tucker

The doyen of London walking tour guides, David is the Seigneur of this favoured realm (London Walks). A literary historian and retreaded academic (London University Ph.D. on Dickens) and former television news editor, he broods over words, breeds enthusiasms and is "unmanageable." For good measure, he's a balterer, a logophile and a lifelong thanatophobe.

Read all articles by David Tucker