London calling.
London Walks connecting.
This… is London.
This is London Walks.
Streets ahead.
Story time. History time.
Top of the morning to you London Walkers. Wherever you are.
It’s Thursday, August 28th, 2025.
First stop, the London Calling Book Club Corner. Find out what London Walks guides are reading. Today it’s my, David’s, turn. Well, the first of my turns. I suffer from an incurable case of bibliomania. What that means in practical terms is: 1) I spend a whole lot of time in bookshops. And the London Library. And a couple of other favourite libraries. 2) We’ve got a houseful of books, thousands of them. And 3) Reading wise, I’ve always got several on the go. So that’s why this is the first of my turns. There’ll be more to follow.
Anyway, let’s start with Auntie’s Charlie.
It’s Mary’s dad autobiography. Just finished re-reading it yesterday. What a wonderful man, he was. We miss him so much. A word about the title of the book. It’s of course a play on the title of the play and film, Charley’s Aunt.
Auntie in the title of Charles’ autobiography is the nickname for the BBC. And Charlie is of course Charles. Charles Chilton, the legendary BBC producer, broadcaster, and writer. He was living BBC history. Joined the Beeb as a 14-year-old messenger boy when it, the BBC, was five years old. Rose through the ranks to become, in the profile did of Charles a few years ago, “the one true genius the BBC ever produced.” Anyway, the point is that Charles was BBC through and through. Remarkable man, remarkable life. Any number of wonderful insights and passages in the book. I’ll just single out a couple. Charles was a huge Americanophile. Did a lot of programmes about America. Was invited over several and feted. Anyway, toward the end of his autobiography he talks about some of the honours and titles the Americans bestowed on him. He says, “I was now a Deputy Marshal of Tombstone, Arizona; a Deputy Mayor of Tombstone; ‘Chief Long Knife of the Osage Indians’ and Brigadier General of the Confederate High Command – not bad for a cockney lad from King’s Cross!” I’m so moved writing those last words because we scattered Charles’ ashes at St Pancras Old Church churchyard, where he played as a boy. St Pancras Old Church just north of King’s Cross. St Pancras Old Church with its magnificent literary associations: Thomas Hardy and, especially, Charles Dickens. Notably A Tale of Two Cities, which Charles Chilton’s American son-in-law, yes, c’est moi, wrote his University of London PhD thesis on.
And then there’s that marvelous tale about going to Buckingham Palace to get his MBE. The three of them, Charles, Penny (Mary’s mum). And Mary. Mary was 16 years old. As some of you know, Mary’s a dancer. She’s a dancer the way her father was BBC. When Mary’s happy or excited, Mary dances. Well, she was both excited and happy to be at Buckingham Palace for her father’s MBE ceremony. And there’s that famous staircase. I’d heard the story many times and when I got my invite to meet the Queen – 13 years ago now – I couldn’t wait to see that famous staircase. Anyway, in Charles’ telling, there were Life Guards, in their scarlet tunics, on every other step on both sides of the staircase. Mary was so excited – so thrilled – remember she was sweet 16 – she saw that staircase and the dance impulse kicked in. As Mary’s dad put it, she danced up one side of the staircase, danced across the top, and danced down the other side. And every guardsman she passed gave a low wolf whistle. Well, I’m sure Charles garnished the story a bit. But that was classic Charles. He loved to tell that tale. And everybody loved to hear it.
Ok, moving on. Our main course.
In one word, efficiency. It’s nobody’s favourite word, efficiency. It’s a bit drab, as words go. It doesn’t waltz into the room with a glass of champagne. It’s got that grey-suit, clipboard, flourescent-lighting aura about it.
But I think there’s a lot to be said for it. At least as regards our game. So I’m thinking generally about making the best possible use of your time in London. At no little risk of belabouring the obvious, time is money in London. This is an expensive city. If you’re a visitor here every minute is costing you a fair penny. And if you don’t put those minutes to good use, well, think of that scene in the Martin Scorsese film The Wolf of Wall Street. That scene where Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo di Caprio, is standing on his yacht peeling off fifty-dollar notes and flinging them down on the departing FBI agents who are investigating him.
If you’re an American visitor, say, and you’re not making good use of your time – not being efficient – well, you’re Jordan, you’re peeling off dollar bills – except they’re not bucks, they’re 20 or even 50 dollar notes – you’re peeling off those notes and throwing them overboard, scattering them to the wind.
That’s the general principle. Now let’s get specific. Let’s connect the general principle up with a specific London Walk. I’m thinking about our Legal London Walk that goes at 11 am every Wednesday from Holborn Underground Station. And it’s not the beef of the walk itself. That’s fine. It’s a rich, satisfying two hours, that walk. No, I’m thinking about the time before and after the walk. How do you not black hole it? How do you make good use of it. In short, what’s a really efficient use of your outboard time – your before and after time – if you go on that Wednesday morning Legal London Walk.
And the point is to raise your game. Go for the best. So, to start with, you want coffee, maybe a bun before the walk starts. Well, there are any number of places right there where you can get a coffee. The trick is not to settle for any old, for second best. And here you’re getting right down to the essence of the matter. It can be summed up in two words. Local Knowledge. Which is what your London Walks guide has. In spades. And you for the most part do not have.
So where’s your London Walks guide going to get that pre-walk coffee. Here’s where. Just round the corner from Holborn Underground Station, the meeting point of the walk, is Lincoln’s Inn Fields. London’s oldest and grandest garden square. There, right in the middle of Lincoln’s Inn Fields is the Pear Tree Cafe. Perfect when the weather’s great. They serve a unique house coffee blend from Volcano Coffee in Brixton. And they do in-house baked goodies. Plus a full breakfast menu. As well as a lunch menu. There’s everything to be said for the Pear Tree. Especially on a fine day.
The other venue that makes the London Walks Winner’s Circle is Redemption Roasters at 71 Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Just round the corner from the Tube Stop. As the name implies, I think, it’s a specialty coffee spot. Roast-to-cup brewing. And into the bargain, pleasing premises, a cozy setting.
Now that’s just comestibles. Pre-walk coffee, etc. There’s another extremely high-quality pre-walk possibility. But it’s so special I’m going to feature it in its own dedicated podcast. Watch this space.
Ok, now let’s quickly jump to the far end of our Legal Walk. Après walk. You want to make really good use of your après Legal London Walk time – well, the walk ends hard by the Royal Courts of Justice. What could be more spot on than to head into the Royal Courts of Justice. It’s a magnificent building. Full of interest. And they’ll be doing their thing in there. You can go into a courtroom and watch a trial. Watch English justice in action. One word to the wise, though. You will occasionally see a sign outside a courtroom that says In Camera. Or In Chambers. You see that sign do not attempt to enter that courtroom. It’s off limits. The case that’s being heard, being tried, might well be a child abuse case…and identities must be protected. There’s no public access to those cases.
Ok, that’s just about it. But there is one other really good possibility right there that needs must be mentioned. St Clement Danes, the RAF church. It’s well worth a visit and it’s right there, less than a stone’s throw from where the Legal London Walk ends. Methinks St Clement Danes is also going to have its day here on London Calling. So consider this mention something in the way of a marker.
You’ve been listening to This… is London, the London Walks podcast. Emanating from – www.walks.com – home of London Walks, London’s signature walking tour company.
London’s local, time-honoured, fiercely independent, family-owned, just-the-right-size walking tour company.
And as long as we’re at it, London’s multi-award-winning walking tour company. Indeed, London’s only award-winning walking tour company.
And here’s the secret: London Walks is essentially run as a guides’ cooperative.
That’s the key to everything.
It’s the reason we’re able to attract and keep the best guides in London. You can get schlubbers to do this for £20 a walk. But you cannot get world-class guides – let alone accomplished professionals.
It’s not rocket science: you get what you pay for.
And just as surely, you also get what you don’t pay for.
Back in 1968 when we got started we quickly came to a fork in the road. We had to answer a searching question: Do we want to make the most money? Or do we want to be the best walking tour company in the world?
You want to make the most money you go the schlubbers route. You want to be the best walking tour company in the world you do whatever you have to do
to attract and keep the best guides in London –
you want them guiding for you, not for somebody else.
Bears repeating:
the way we’re structured – a guides’ cooperative –
is the key to the whole thing.
It’s the reason for all those awards, it’s the reason people who know go with London Walks, it’s the reason we’ve got a big following, a lively, loyal, discerning following – quality attracts quality.
It’s the reason we’re able – uniquely – to front our walks with accomplished, in many cases distinguished professionals:
By way of example, Stewart Purvis, the former Editor
(and subsequently CEO) of Independent Television News.
And Lisa Honan, who had a distinguished career as a diplomat (Lisa was the Governor of St Helena, the island where Napoleon breathed his last and, some say, had his penis amputated – Napoleon didn’t feel a thing – if thing’s the mot juste – he was dead.)
Stewart and Lisa – both of them CBEs – are just a couple of our headline acts.
Or take our Ripper Walk. It’s the creation of the world’s leading expert on Jack the Ripper, Donald Rumbelow, the author of the definitive book on the subject. Britain’s most distinguished crime historian, Donald is, in the words of The Jack the Ripper A to Z, “internationally recognised as the leading authority on Jack the Ripper.” Donald’s emeritus now but he’s still the guiding light on our Ripper Walk. He curates the walk. He trains up and mentors our Ripper Walk guides. Fields any and all questions they throw at him.
The London Walks Aristocracy of Talent – its All-Star Team of Guides – includes a former London Mayor. It includes the former Chief Music Critic for the Evening Standard. It includes the Chair of the Association of Professional Tour Guides. And the former chair of the Guild of Guides.
It includes barristers, doctors, geologists, museum curators, a former London Museum archaeologist, historians,
university professors (one of them a distinguished Cambridge University paleontologist); it includes a criminal defence lawyer, Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre actors, a bevy of MVPs, Oscar winners (people who’ve won the big one, the Guide of the Year Award)…
well, you get the idea.
As that travel writer famously put it, “if this were a golf tournament, every name on the Leader Board would be a London Walks guide.”
And as we put it: London Walks Guides make the new familiar
and the familiar new.
And on that agreeable note…
come then, let us go forward together on some great London Walks.