Charming Chiswick

Ravenscourt Park tube station, London

Guided by Alison

Adult: £20 · Students & Seniors: £15 · Children: £5

Walk Times

Day	Walk Type	Start Time	End Time
3 May 2026	Tour du Jour	11 am	1 pm	Summer

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Alison’s Chiswick Walk has everything going for it. Any day’s a good day to be in Chiswick. because of all the Chiswick ‘extras’:t you can add – this is of particular London interest – Gillian Brett’s sculpture of Fanny Wilkinson. And quadruply so because of the white glove service London Walks lays on. Starting with the “advancer” email you get from Alison on walk’s eve. It’s the platonic ideal of an advancer email. The best of the best of the circus ponies of London Walks’ guides’ advancer emails. Quintuply so – this one makes the hand you’ve been dealt a royal flush – because of Chiswick House. In complete contrast and almost next door, Chiswick House is the perfect Palladian villa, built to house Burlington’s extraordinary collection of art. The grounds are worth exploring, particularly as the rosary, the first rose garden in England, has now been restored and designated a silent space. There is no charge for the house and there is a cafe. You can also see the famous Beatles tree that the Fab Four climbed on in the band’s 1966 music video for “Rain”. It has been nominated for the Woodland’s Trust Tree of the Year 2025 competition.

You heard it from London Walks! Here’s the podcast about a smattering of the embarrassment of riches.

“There are two things scarce matched in the universe: the sun in heaven and the Thames on earth” Sir Walter Raleigh

Old, picturesque, storied, full of character, riverine, tucked away on its isthmus, sitting pretty – that’s Chiswick.

Comes of ancient stock. The name means ‘cheese-farm.’ And ancient? Chiswick’s been answering to its name for 1,000 years. Cheese-farm and Thameside fishing village. How honest-to-goodness is that? The church, St Nicholas, goes back to 1181. Its present incarnation is a comparative youngster – 15th century.

There’s 16th-century Walpole House on the Mall. There’s Chiswick’s magnificent riverside promenade – the lazy river, the singing summer sky, the architectural feats and feasts – a stroll along that past-cosseted passage is a guaranteed medicine for melancholy.

There are cafes and specialist shops and handsome old pubs. Say it again – proclaim it – old riverside pubs. The photo-op of the walk has to be the Dove.

It’s a tracking shot because the Dove is reached by a narrow path winding through a cluster of houses. Every step along there “teems with reminiscences of poets, men of letters and artists: let us therefore softly tread; ’tis hallowed ground” (Edward Walford).

And it’s not just the shades of Thackeray and Hemingway and Graham Greene and John Fowles haunting the byways and pubs and groves of Chiswick, here we’re also deep into Arts & Crafts territory. We will pass William Morris’s London home and learn about a perfectly preserved London interior that he visited regularly. Rich repast, this walk through this olde-worlde riverside village. Pastoral perfection, a rural idyll in London.

There are so many places to eat and drink why not enjoy a leisurely lunch before you shop or retrace steps and enjoy a pint at one of the many riverside pubs? Depending on your taste Alison is happy to make suggestions, there is something for everyone.

N.B. the walk takes about two hours and ends on the High Road, very near Turnham Green Tube.

CHARMING CHISWICK – THE PRACTICALS

To go on the Charming Chiswick walk meet Yorkshire lass Alison just outside the exit of Ravenscourt Park Tube.

Alison will be holding up a London Walks sign.

LONDON WALKS REVIEWS

“Without a doubt the best walking tour company currently operating in London” Stardust

“by far the most impressive series of walks that I have ever encountered are those offered by London Walks” Travel & Enjoy

LONDON WALKS PRIVATE WALKS

If you can’t make the regularly scheduled, just-turn-up, public Charming Chiswick walk do think about booking one as a private tour. If you go private you can have the Charming Chiswick walk – or any other London Walk – on a day and at a time that suits your convenience. We’ll tailor it to your requirements. Ring Fiona or Niamh or Peter or Mary on 020 7624 3978 or email us at  [email protected] and we’ll set it up and make it happen for you. A private London Walk is good value for an individual or couple and sensational value for a group. And the clincher: a private London Walk makes an ideal group or educational or birthday party or office (team-building) or club outing.

GIVE THE GIFT OF LONDON WALKS

A private London Walk makes a very special gift – be it a birthday or anniversary or Christmas present or whatever. Merchandise schmerchandise (gift wrapped or not) – but giving someone an experience, now that’s special. Memories make us rich.

LONDON WALKS – STREETS AHEAD!

Don’t just take it from us.