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
Judy –
A fascinating tour by Lisa which such a passion for her subject and real research plus her personal interest from having been the governor of St `Helena. The East India Company played such a crucial part in our history, its own history should be widely understood. Thank you Lisa.
Jem Bowen –
I did the East India Company walk on New Year’s Eve 2023 with Lisa, and it was absolutely wonderful!
Such a fascinating tour, and Lisa is brilliant!
I’d really recommend this walk.
Michaela Butter MBE –
Lisa was an excellent guide providing a lively and informative tour that brought the East India company to vivid life. I really enjoyed the thoughtful way she had planned the walk to include hidden historic and artistic gems within the City. The tour was well paced with places to sit along the way for those who needed it. We can’t wait for her tea tour!
Eddy –
Best walk around the city of London explaining the history of the East India Company that shaped the world we are today.
Bennett Brooks –
Friends and I just did the East India Company walking tour this morning with Lisa, and it was fantastic. Lisa has done such fascinating research into the company, and she spooled out the stories in such a compelling and thoughtful way. It was also great to be shown the historic out-of-the-way alleys and sites that are seemingly everywhere downtown and yet so hard to find if you don’t know where to look. Such a treat!! Highly recommend!
Anna –
The East India Company tour has been one of the most interesting and memorable walks I have been on over the years and Lisa was a very entertaining and knowledgeable guide. Thank you Lisa I really learnt a lot today !
Karen –
Absolutely fascinating to hear how the EIC became so powerful and basically laid the foundations of the British Empire. Lisa really knows her stuff and relays the narrative in a non-judgemental way. It’s amazing that so little is widely known about the EIC given it’s importance in British and world history – it may just as well have been running the country for 200 years. Never thought I would ever want to visit St Helena – but now I do!
Stephane Bosshart –
The English East India Company played such an important role in shaping London, the United Kingdom, and even the world that this tour is a must when visiting London.
No other guide is better suited for this tour than Lisa. From her governorship of St Helena, she possesses insider information on the trade that transited through this island. After her retirement, she spent a year and a half researching the history of the company.
During the tour, Lisa shares her knowledge with great enthusiasm and welcomes questions from the group. She ends the tour in an old pepper storage cellar which has been converted into a very nice bar and restaurant. Take the tour to find out where it is.
stephen –
Lisa was a delightful guide with a personal passion on the subject that’s enhanced by her background as Governor of St. Helena. I was awed by the power and influence of the East India Company, essentially a direct competitor for power and influence with the Crown. A fascinating tale of history brought to life by Lisa. Highly recommended.
Karyn Walker –
We joined this tour a week ago and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. It’s a very interesting topic and Lisa was a great guide. It was a real walk of discovery, visiting parts of London we hadn’t been to before, and learning how the formation of the East India Company had shaped parts of the city, and the impact on trade, commerce and significant parts of history.