“There is only one recipe – to care a great deal for the cookery.” Henry James
“The dust jacket features the original cover created by Virginia Woolf’s sister, Vanessa Bell, for the Hogarth Press. Beneath the cover ‘deep rust’ boards printed in gilt take inspiration from the finish of the first trade edition.” And yes, I bring this facsimile first edition with me on the walk. You’ll be able to hold it, admire it, open it, read it. It’s an exact replica, right down to the width of the margins. “What a lark! What a plunge! ”
A ONCE IN A CENTURY CHANCE
And these two June 2025 Mrs Dalloway’s London walks will be special in another important respect. Hatchard’s, London’s oldest, classiest bookshop – you’ll recall, Mrs Dalloway stops by there on her walk to Mulberry’s The Florist in Bond Street – stops by there and looks at the books in the window display, reads the telling Shakespeare quote in the window – Hatchard’s has, this summer and this summer only, devoted a whole window display to the novel, to Mrs Dalloway. We go there. We will see it.
And these two June 2025 Mrs Dalloway’s London walks will be special in another important respect. Hatchard’s, London’s oldest, classiest bookshop – and remember, Mrs Dalloway stops by there on her walk to Mulberry’s The Florist in Bond Street – she looks at the books in the window display, reads the Shakespeare quote she sees there – Hatchard’s has devoted a whole window display to the novel, to Mrs Dalloway. We go there. We will see it.
It gets better. Hatchards have published an exclusive limited edition (2,000 copies) of Mrs Dalloway for The Hatchards Library. Mine is copy No. 1600. My copy will be one of four copies of the novel that I’ll be bringing along. The Hatrchards Library Edition is a very beautiful book. And, yes, if there are still copies, well, what a wonderful present for a dear friend. Or indeed for yourself.
“I love walking in London,” said Mrs Dalloway. “Really, it’s better than walking in the country.”
Meet a recent group of Mrs Dalloway’s London walkers. That’s Andrea holding my copy of the novel. His review of the walk – you can read it down below – is a tour de force. And this setting for the photograph because… well, let’s remember how Virginia Woolf opens the novel. The first sentence reads: “Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.”
INTRO FOR THE 100th ANNIVERSARY WALK
Virginia Woolf put her pen down – finished her great modernist novel Mrs Dalloway – just over 100 years ago. October 9, 1924 to be exact.
And the novel was published – hand-printed by the Hogarth Press, Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard’s small independent publishing company – exactly 100 years ago. On May 14, 1925.
And as long as we’re at it, let’s remember how – and when – the novel opens.
It was on a Wednesday in the middle of June 1923 that “Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself” and went for her walk. The novel gets underway with those nine words – “Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself” – and “What a lark! What a plunge!” (the opening of the third paragraph in the novel) because just minutes later she hears Big Ben strike 10 o’clock. “There! Out it boomed. First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable. The leaden circles dissolved in the air.”
We keep the faith timing-wise on our Mrs Dalloway’s London walk. It always forms up at 9.50 am so we can, once again, start the walk by hearing what Mrs Dalloway heard when she started her walk at the start of the novel: Big Ben strike 10 am. Hear those “leaden circles dissolve in the air.” And then set out on our jaunt, just as Mrs Dalloway did: “‘I love walking in London,’ said Mrs Dalloway. ‘Really, it’s better than walking in the country.'”
Now as you’ll have gathered from the above, the centenary anniversary for that June day in 1923 when Mrs Dalloway went on her walk is now history. But what I say below about the walk on that June day is 99 percent applicable to every Mrs Dalloway’s London Walk we do. The only exception being that it’s no longer possible to hear that bell exactly – to the second – 100 years after Mrs Dalloway heard it on that June day in 1923. This past June (2024) we heard it exactly (“the leaden circles dissolving in the air”) – to the second – 101 years after Clarissa Dalloway heard it.* And on these two Wednesdays in June 2025 we’re going to hear Big Ben exactly (“the leaden circles dissolving in the air”) 102 years to the second Mrs Dalloway heard it. And, yes, the walk takes place on both mid-June Wednesdays because it’s a much debated question whether Clarissa went for her walk on June 13, 1923 or June 20, 1923. That in itself is a fascinating question and I, David, will shed a great deal of light on which of the two was likely to be the front runner. But in any case, running it on both mid-June Wednesdays covers all (all? no, make that ‘both’) bases. And unpacking that moment – especially with the 102-year-old materials I’ve unearthed – Exhibition A, Exhibition B, etc. – is a significant part of the fun and wonderment and indeed revelation of the walk.
* And we’re proud of this. We do our best to be super responsive to our walking public. So we also ran the walk last August – August 7, 2024. Which was 101 years and 56 days (or 49 days, take your pick) after Mrs Dalloway’s London walk. That August walk was put on last year at the special request of a Canadian Literature professor, who wasn’t here in the middle of June but was here the first two weeks in August. And why do we always run it on two successive Wednesdays in June? This bears repeating. It’s run on those two Wednesdays because we know – from the novel – that the year is 1923. And that the month is June. And that it’s the middle of June. And that it’s a Wednesday. But there are of course two Wednesdays that fall near “the middle of June.” So we cover both bases.
What a moment: “a particular hush, or solemnity; an indescribable pause…before Big Ben strikes. There! Out it boomed. First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable. The leaden circles dissolved in the air…what she loved; life; London; this moment of June.”
“This moment of June” – Clarissa Dalloway’s walk at exactly that moment 102 years on – is what we’re after. Both those times are now past. But we can give pursuit. And, yes, still hear that plaintive anthem as it fades. And in any case, was it just for the sake of the nice round number of the centenary? No. That moment, that walk – at any time – is much more important than that. In literary terms Mrs. Dalloway’s walk is the pathfinder walk, the walk into modernity, the walk into depths of understanding of the human mind, of who we are – of what makes us tick – that hadn’t been previously plumbed. That morning in mid-June, 1923 Mrs. Dalloway crosses a bourne that hadn’t been crossed before.
What’s more, as adumbrated above, it’s delightfully convoluted. Unpacking all of that is part of the fun. Whatever the day, we get the hour right – we start the walk at 9.50 am so we can hear Big Ben when Mrs Dalloway heard* it, hear those leaden circles dissolve in the air.
But the date – well, it was a Wednesday in the middle of June in 1923. There were two mid-month Wednesdays in June 1923. The great Virginia Woolf scholar Elaine Showalter favours the first of the two. I – Guide David – favour the second (for reasons I’ll make clear on the walk). But in any case, in the centenary summer we covered both bases. We did the walk on both those dates. Well, those dates 100 years on. Though I’ll be able to get you back to 1923 in lots of ways. I’ll show you things – extraordinary things, things that have bearing on Virginia Woolf and the novel – that haven’t been seen, by anybody, in 102 years. Yes, I know, that’s an extraordinary claim but I’m able to make good on it. Hint: you’ll see some of the material the literary historian in me has unearthed.
*Can we be sure she heard it? It’s going to be fun to watch your reaction when I untie the string round my documents portfolio, take those 102-year-old documents out, and set them before your eyes.
STANDARD INTRO
Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway is a tour de force. It is essentially a prose poem – arguably the most beautifully written novel of the last 100 years. Literary modernism reaches its peak of perfection in Mrs Dalloway – on that walk through London on that day in 1923. We walk with Mrs Dalloway. Walk her London. See it with her eyes.
The walk is guided by David. David is a literary historian.
David’s understudy is Stephen, a Royal Shakespeare Company actor. Just occasionally they double-team, they do it together.
In situ David* and Steve** read relevant passages to us. The words, the delivery, the setting – everything comes together. Special walk, special couple of hours. More than special – unforgettable.
*The distinguished scholar and critic John Sutherland described David as “one of the liveliest PhD students I ever supervised.” David (with a one-word assist from a former Editor) describes David as: “the Seigneur of this favoured realm, David broods over words, breeds enthusiasms and is “unmanageable.”* A balterer, literary historian, university lecturer, journalist, and lifelong thanatophobe, he’s also the London Walks ‘pen’ – he writes ‘the famous white leaflet’, let alone the document you’re reading (this website).”
**Fiercely intelligent, terrifyingly talented, distinguished actor. Royal Shakespeare Company, West End shows, lots of films, Sir Peter Hall’s Shakespeare productions, etc. Best ear ever. His impersonation of John Lennon is a resurrection. Doesn’t just guide Shakespeare, performs him. Brilliantly (on his Sunday afternoon Shakespeare’s & Dickens’ City walk – but see for yourself, here’s the video).
MRS DALLOWAY’S LONDON – THE PRACTICALS
The meeting point for the Mrs Dalloway’s London walk is just outside exit 4 of Westminster Tube.
LONDON WALKS PRIVATE WALKS
If you can’t make one of the regularly scheduled, just-turn-up, Mrs Dalloway's London – the 100th Anniversary it can always be booked as a private tour. If you go private you can have the Mrs Dalloway's London – the 100th Anniversary 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 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 – they’re good value for an individual or couple and sensational value for a group – 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 fab 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.
21 reviews for Mrs Dalloway’s London – the 100th Anniversary
Rated 5 out of 5
Grace –
The walk with David on the 13th of June was a wonderfully in depth exploration of the famous walk that Mrs Dalloway takes on the morning of her party. I appreciated David’s enthusiasm for the topic and the resources he brought along to evidence his ideas about the actual date of the events and locations of Mrs Dalloway. I thoroughly recommend this tour (the 100th anniversary only comes around once!). If you have read and enjoyed Mrs Dalloway this is a terrific way to revisit the story and deepen your knowledge of it. And if you haven’t… what better introduction?
Rated 5 out of 5
Phillip –
There are many walks and guides, today was my first with David, walking yesterday we discovered Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, somebody I knew little about her or the authoress but new walks and new subjects are always interesting. David came prepared with so much information about our walk and his booming voice sounded out together with illustrative documentation that made the walk that much more interesting. Loved the roads in Westminster as we reenacted the walk that Mrs Dalloway took from Big Ben to Bond Street (yes I was listening) – along the way I noted houses with snuffers (take the walks around Westminster), homes of T.E. Lawrence, Sir John Gielgud and others. The parks St. James and Green Park were teeming with people and we stopped for a group photo (11 of us) on the bridge in Green Park with iconic views of Buckingham Palace. David was most engaging and has a most interesting connection to WW1 (for that you must go on one of his walk’s). A wonderful morning in good company with a new subject of litereature.
Grace –
The walk with David on the 13th of June was a wonderfully in depth exploration of the famous walk that Mrs Dalloway takes on the morning of her party. I appreciated David’s enthusiasm for the topic and the resources he brought along to evidence his ideas about the actual date of the events and locations of Mrs Dalloway. I thoroughly recommend this tour (the 100th anniversary only comes around once!). If you have read and enjoyed Mrs Dalloway this is a terrific way to revisit the story and deepen your knowledge of it. And if you haven’t… what better introduction?
Phillip –
There are many walks and guides, today was my first with David, walking yesterday we discovered Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, somebody I knew little about her or the authoress but new walks and new subjects are always interesting. David came prepared with so much information about our walk and his booming voice sounded out together with illustrative documentation that made the walk that much more interesting. Loved the roads in Westminster as we reenacted the walk that Mrs Dalloway took from Big Ben to Bond Street (yes I was listening) – along the way I noted houses with snuffers (take the walks around Westminster), homes of T.E. Lawrence, Sir John Gielgud and others. The parks St. James and Green Park were teeming with people and we stopped for a group photo (11 of us) on the bridge in Green Park with iconic views of Buckingham Palace. David was most engaging and has a most interesting connection to WW1 (for that you must go on one of his walk’s). A wonderful morning in good company with a new subject of litereature.