Old Westminster Walking Tour

St. James's Park Tube, Broadway/Westminster Abbey exit

Guided by Ann or David or David T. or Isobel or Judy or Karen or Oliver or Shaughan or Simon

Walk Times

Day	Walk Type	Start Time	End Time
Tuesday	Weekly	2 pm	4 pm	Winter Summer	Reserve Online
Thursday	Weekly	2 pm	4 pm	Winter Summer	Reserve Online
Saturday	Weekly	11 am	1 pm	Winter Summer	Reserve Online

NB The meeting point is at the Exit of the Tube station opposite the Conrad Hotel

The seminal London Walk. Miss it and you’ve missed London ( NB this walk is all outside it does not go inside any buildings).

Long read: 1,000 Years of History…

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, Westminster Abbey, etc.

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE GUIDING

Don’t just take it from us…

And to see it with a great guide (Karen, for example, winner of the Guide of the Year Award, Travel & Leisure’s “World’s Greatest Guide,” Presenter of Discovery TV’s London Next Stop) 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. Embarras de richesse, we’ll also explore the private face of Westminster – the London equivalent of Georgetown.

Unlike the tourist hordes who never find them, we get to see the hidden and ever so picturesque Georgian back streets where all the political salons are! We end very near the Cabinet War Rooms, the fortified bunker that housed Winston Churchill’s centre of operations during the war. N.B. So, yes, the walk ends very near Parliament Square, just a stone’s throw from Westminster Tube.  Want a preview of the walk? Click here to watch the video.

OLD WESTMINSTER – THE PRACTICALS

Old Westminster takes place Tuesday at 2 pm, Thursday at 2 pm, and Saturday at 11 am.

The meeting point is just outside  St James’ Park tube Station, the Broadway/Westminster Abbey opposite the Conrad Hotel

The Tuesday at 2 pm walk is guided by actor Oliver (the David Niven of London Walks) or Guide of the Year Award-winning Judy or Isobel (Isobel’s another award-winning Blue Badge guide).  It’s Shaughan or David at the helm on the Thursdays at 2 pm walk. The Saturdays at 11 am walk is guided by Karen, recently crowned by Travel & Leisure as “the world’s greatest guide.

THE WEATHER – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

“In four decades of guiding I’ve never once taken an umbrella;* it doesn’t rain on my walks” – David, the Seigneur of this favoured realm [London Walks].

London Weather Facts: Jerusalem, Gibraltar, Rome, Rhodes, etc. all get more rainfall than London. Precipitation-wise, London is one of the driest cities on earth.

You want a European city that does get (just slightly) less rain than London, Sevilla’s your ciudad. The line on Sevilla and rain is: “rainfall in Sevilla isn’t abundant and it’s concentrated;” by the same token the line on London and the wet stuff should be “rainfall in London isn’t abundant and it isn’t concentrated.” 

Bottom line: Don’t let the rain bogeyman call the shots. Send him packing. He’s all hat and no cattle, as they say in Texas.

Ok, we get the occasional mizzle but it’s easily seen off. A brolly – which I (David) refuse to carry – does the trick every time. And as long as you’re at it, always allow for the lost in translation factor: on the other side of the Atlantic the word ‘rain’ = rain; over here the word ‘rain’ = damp; or a mizzle.**

For a deep draught of the subject, try this richly satisfying (and eye-opening) podcast – https://www.walks.com/podcast/london-weather/

Cue tag team London Walks moment: “I divorced weather forecasts five years ago. It’s like being unchained from a lunatic. You might as well look at a horoscope as pay any heed to UK weather forecasts” (London Walks guide, Adam, Visit England Superstar Finalist 2022).

*Historically, the British public regarded the idea of not getting soaked when it’s pissing it down as ‘too French’, with accounts saying we called people a ‘mincing Frenchman’ if they were caught using an umbrella.

**A mizzle does not pleasure and pain make, let alone a downpour [‘pleasure and pain’ is Cockney rhyming slang for ‘rain’]

LONDON WALKS REVIEWS

“Best Tourism Experience in London”  Gold Medal Winner, Visit London

“The best walks are conducted by London Walks”   Toronto Globe & Mail

“The best walking tours are organized by London Walks”   USA Today

“London Walks was acknowledged as the premier walking tour company in the entire world“  American Tour Guides Convention

“The original and best – there are several companies offering walking tours of London but London Walks (London’s oldest) is easily the pick of the bunch”   London, Cadogan Guide

Want to find out more about wonderful Westminster? Check out our other Westminster tours.