The East India Company – Guided by a Distinguished Diplomat
Monument Tube, Fish Street Hill exit
Guided by Lisa
Adult: £20 · Students & Seniors: £15 · Children: £5
Walk Times
| Day | Walk Type | Start Time | End Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 October 2026 | Tour du Jour | 2 pm | 4 pm | Summer | Reserve Online |
| 30 October 2026 | Tour du Jour | 10.30 am | 12.30 pm | Summer | Reserve Online |
| 14 November 2026 | Tour du Jour | 10.45 am | 12.45 pm | Winter | Reserve Online |
| 1 January 2027 | Tour du Jour | 10.30 am | 12.30 pm | Winter | Reserve Online |
Join distinguished former diplomat and qualified City of London Green Badge guide, Lisa Honan CBE, for a captivating East India Company walking tour through the historic streets of the City of London. Discover the fascinating, and often dark, history of the world’s most powerful multinational corporation and its lasting impact on the Indian subcontinent, global trade, and modern society.
Lisa Honan CBE in action, guiding our East India Company Walk. Former diplomat, former Governor of St Helena, and a guide with quite a story to tell.
Want to meet your guide before you meet your guide? Read: Meet Your Guide: Her Excellency Lisa Honan CBE.
A Unique History Walk with a Former Governor
As a former Governor of St Helena – a critical East India Company stronghold – Lisa offers unique, firsthand insights into the corporation’s legacy that you simply will not find on any other tour.
For the record, Lisa was the first female Governor in the territory’s 500-year history. She lived in the 1792 East India Company Governor’s mansion – the very same house where her 19th-century predecessor, Sir Hudson Lowe, lived while guarding Napoleon Bonaparte during his exile. (She even shared her front garden with Jonathan, the world’s oldest land animal – a giant tortoise.)
Jonathan, the world’s oldest living land animal, in the grounds of Plantation House, St Helena, where London Walks guide Lisa Honan CBE lived as Governor.
Her personal connection to this history makes this one of the most authentically led historical walks in London.
“The craving for power and wealth is an atavistic instinct. The lust for conquest is part of the human condition. The spirit of imperialism is not dead: it haunts the modern world and its manifestations are legion” – Piers Brendon
What to Expect on the TourOn this immersive City of London walking tour, you will trace the footsteps of merchants, adventurers, and corporate imperialists. Drawing on her distinguished diplomatic career and extensive archival research, Lisa takes you to the exact sites where history was made, laying bare the company’s story from 1600 to the present day.
Highlights of the walk include:
- The Original Courtyard: Stand exactly where the East India Company began its 17th-century operations.
- Global Trade & Monopoly: Learn how the company revolutionised what the world ate, drank, and wore through its aggressive trade networks across India, Indonesia, and China.
- Corporate Power & Conflict: Uncover how a private corporation amassed its own private army, ruled over 300 million people in India, and incidentally sparked the Boston Tea Party.
- The Dark Side of Trade: We do not gloss over the brutality. We explore the systemic corruption, the “sustained protection racket” of colonial rule in India, and the exploitation that defined the company’s 300-year reign.Exclusive Archival Research: Hear untold histories based on Lisa’s own original research into the St Helena archives, revealing the East India Company’s hidden connections to slavery.
You go on this walk, and matters of world-historical importance brush you with their wings. The East India Company wasn’t just the largest and most powerful multinational corporation in the world—it was history’s fulcrum.
Tour Details & Booking
- Duration: 2 hours 15 mins
- Meeting Point: Monument Tube Station (Fish Street Hill exit).
- End Point: The Royal Exchange (Bank Underground Station is just a few yards away).
This highly rated historical walking tour is perfect for anyone interested in the history of the Indian subcontinent, the spice trade, corporate history, and London’s hidden past. Reserve your place online today to experience history where it actually happened.
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE GUIDING
Julie Gough –
Perfect tour. Information well delivered, in perfect amounts, walking to digest it all, between key sites. This tour provides an indisputable grand narrative of what the East India Company was and did, and legacies, including its embeddeness in the fabric of this city. Very recommended.
Jack Griffiths –
Absolutely excellent tour packed full of information. If you have any interest in the topic then I thoroughly recommend it
Caroline Simpkin –
Absolutely brilliant walk, Lisa so knowledgeable and entertaining. One of the best that I have been on.
Diana Skelton –
Lisa’s tour was absolutely wonderful! I learned so much, and the global scope is impressive. All delivered with great wit and charm. Highly recommend!
Melanie Curtis –
A really great walk that takes you through marvellous streets and alleyways of the City of London that you would otherwise miss and gives you an excellent insight into what the East India Company was and how it became huge and notorious. Lisa’s engaging manner, wealth of knowledge and special perspective (ex Governor of St. Helena) make this a very enjoyable and rewarding walk. Highly recommended.
Aruna –
Lisa is such an informative, entertaining and wonderful guide.we’re londoners and wouldn’t normally take a ‘touristy’ activity like this, but it was recommended to us, and in turn, we’ll be recommending to all our london and non london friends alike. It is so worth it! You’ll learn everything you ever wanted to know about the sorry history of the EIC
Professor Dr Devyani Prabhat –
I was born in Kolkata and as a legal scholar with deep interest in history I know quite a bit about the East India company and the British empire especially in India . However Lisa through her unique insights and research was able to connect many dots for me on why/how events unfolded ad they did and their lasting impacts during this excellent tour. This tour is a must if you want to know how the company became so powerful and how it came to an end. A thrilling story & Lisa did not gloss over the pain while keeping it informative and engaging.
Anita Kapoor –
Well researched and very interesting walk through nooks and crannies of the City.
Barbara Hearn –
I went with 12 friends on Lisa’s East India Company walk in April 2024. We agreed wholeheartedly that it was excellent. We were taken carefully through key points in the development and collapse of the company…. It’s critical role in laying the foundations for the British Raj…It’s appalling theft and violence across what we now know as India led to many squeals of horror and shame. To see its starting point in a coffee shop, the spread of its wealth and links to people like John Stuart Mill and Daniel Defoe was all so very interesting. Well organised and well run. Thankyou Lisa.
Mani Ranjan –
This London Walks isn’t your average stroll – it’s a groundbreaking journey into the dark heart of history’s most ruthless and money making corporation: The East India Company. Prepare to be blown away by the guide’s passion and meticulous research as you delve into the untold story of this brutal company.