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 Tuesday, August 26th, 2025.
First stop, the London Calling Book Club Corner. Find out what London Walks guides are reading. Today it’s Sam’s turn. Yes, that Sam – the City of London specialist. Dream of a guide. As attested to by the non-stop rave reviews his walks get. Sam does a walk and it’s a five-star frenzy unleashed. A buzz you can trust. And where do we find this guy, you say? Well, Sam’s the one and only Sam. He does lots of City Walks but his headline act is Decoding the City – Secret Stories & Symbols. And it’s coming soon. On September 9th. Now, what’s Sam reading? Over to Sam:
“I’m reading Fair Play by Mary Hegarty. It’s a bestseller murder mystery set in a country house in contemporary Ireland. And then it flips into an Agatha Christie-like jazz Age detective story. It’s fascinating. And I’m trying to figure out if it works. An interesting read and a real challenge to work out whodunnit.” Thanks, Sam. It’s going to be fun to follow the contrails of this one.
Ok, main course.
Anyone for a hot London tip? A really neat tip.
Thought so. The Big Bang London Theatre experience this summer is the revival of Evita at the Palladium. Against all the odds, Mary went last night.
Against all the odds because you can’t get a ticket. Or if you can get one they’re an arm and a leg. Something like £350 for a rattle your jewellery seat. Getting on for £200 for a clap your hands seat. Huh, you say. Well, Abide. The Dude will explain due course. And if you can’t abide the £350 rattle your jewellery seats are in the dress circle or the stalls. The £200 clap your hands seats are the not very good seats.
Anyway, she, Mary, came home raving about it. Loved it. Said it’s very slick, beautifully choreographed. And beyond clever. She said for the Don’t Cry for Me Argentina number, sung from a balcony, the actress actually goes out onto the balcony looking out over Argyll Street and sings to the huge and thrilled crowd of passersby down on the street. So the people outside the theatre – down on street – get the signature moment – the show’s most famous number – for free. The rattle your jewellery and clap your hands crowd in the theatre get to see it, but they see it on a screen in the auditorium. Argentina – the people out on the street, out on Argyll Street – they see it live. There she is, up on the balcony, singing to Argyll Street. What a hoot. And if you want to get your timing right. Mary says it comes after the interval. The interval’s at 8.30. So approximately 9 o’clock. I’d get there at about ten minutes to nine just to make sure. Bound to be the most memorable – and unusual – theatre-going experience in your entire life.
Ok, that’s the hot tip. Now for good measure, and as long as we’re there, let’s do a little number on the Palladium. It is after all, the Queen of London theatres. Let’s go there. You’ve ducked out of the neon inferno of Oxford Circus. You’re off the main drag. You’re in Argyll Street.
It’s like slipping into a side chapel after being blinded by cathedral floodlights. The traffic roar fades, the pace eases, and you’re moving along the slender, dignified back street passage that is Argyll Street. And there it is, smack in the middle, the jewel in the crown: the London Palladium.
And let’s get one thing straight. The Palladium’s not just another West End Theatre. The Palladium is Britain’s national treasure of a stage. It’s the grande dame of variety theatres, the mothership of music halls. You want to talk about cultural DNA? This is where the double helix spirals. Every household name in British entertainment — and a good many international ones — has trod those boards.
A bit of history.
The Palladium opened in 1910. It was all Edwardian swagger. Let’s put a name to it. It was designed by Frank Matcham, the genius architect of theatres. Matcham churned out nearly 150 playhouses, many now sadly gone. But the Palladium — it was his masterwork. Step inside and you feel the opulence: gilt and crimson, sweeping curves, a horseshoe auditorium that hugs you close but somehow seats over 2,000. It’s grand, yes, but not aloof. That’s the magic. The Palladium has always been plush but welcoming — less snooty opera house, more people’s palace.
And boy, did the people come. The great tradition of variety — song, dance, comedy, speciality acts — all found their apotheosis here. Think of it as a Noah’s Ark of talent: two of everything, from jugglers to crooners. Bing Crosby sang here. Judy Garland belted her heart out here. Frank Sinatra crooned here. And yes, the Beatles — 1963, the Royal Variety Performance, with the Queen Mother in the royal box. John Lennon – here it comes, I warned you about this – John Lennon, cheeky as ever, delivered his immortal line: “Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewellery.” The place erupted. It’s a moment that’s eetched into British showbiz folklore.
And of course, the Palladium is indelibly tied to television. Sunday Night at the London Palladium, launched in 1955. If you were around in the ‘50s and ‘60s, you didn’t need to ask what was on telly Sunday night. You knew. Bruce Forsyth, Norman Wisdom, the Tiller Girls high-kicking in sequined unison, and that revolving stage that whisked acts off with perfect comic timing. The Palladium wasn’t just a theatre — it was a national hearth. Families gathered round the flickering box, and there it was: London glamour beamed into sitting rooms from Cornwall to Carlisle.
And as for Argyll Street itself. It takes its name from the Dukes of Argyll, whose mansion once loomed nearby. These days, it’s a curious mix. You’ve got Liberty’s department store, that great half-timbered Tudor revival fantasy, at one end. Cross Regent Street and you’re back in the thick of Oxford Circus madness. But in between? It’s got a tucked-away quality. A little slice of theatreland history hidden in plain sight.
Stand outside the Palladium and look around. You’re in the West End, but not quite the tourist conveyor belt of Leicester Square or Piccadilly. It’s got its own feel — a bit more discreet, more intimate. You might spot performers sneaking in at the stage door. The buzz before a big show has a special electricity. People queueing, programmes in hand, faces lit with anticipation.
And behind the scenes — well, every theatre has its ghosts and its gossip. The Palladium is no exception. Houdini performed at the Palladium, baffling London with his death-defying escapes. Laurel and Hardy did a turn at the Palladium, sending audiences into convulsions. And Liberace — dripping with rhinestones, candelabra on the piano — held court like a Vegas emperor.
The Palladium’s also famous for its Christmas pantomimes. Generations of London kids had their first taste of theatre magic here — the Dame, the slapstick, the “oh yes it is!” chorus. Those panto seasons weren’t just shows; they were rituals. They cemented the Palladium in family memory.
Bottom line, the Palladium isn’t just bricks and plaster. It’s a distillation of British popular culture. From vaudeville to Beatlemania, from Bruce Forsyth’s banter to modern megastars, the London Palladium has mirrored and shaped the entertainment landscape. Walk down Argyll Street and you’re treading on hallowed ground, even if the tourists rushing past don’t quite realise it.
And here’s the kicker: unlike many venerable venues, the Palladium’s very much alive, still thriving. Big names still headline. Variety in the old sense may have faded, but the spirit’s still there. It remains London’s theatre of theatres. A place where the curtain goes up and you feel the crackle in the air, that sense of belonging to a long, unbroken chain of audience and performer.
So here’s the general recommendation: the next time you touch down at Oxford Circus and feel the tug of those glowing letters — PALLADIUM — give in to it. Wander along Argyll Street, admire the façade. And one day, I’m not sure it’ll be Evita, given the ticket situation, but one day, yes, sure, treat yourself to a show at the Palladium. You’ll be joining a century-long parade of dazzled Londoners and visitors who’ve sat in those plush seats, laughed, gasped, clapped till their hands were sore.
Because this isn’t just a theatre. This is the Palladium. And as long as it’s there on Argyll Street, doing its thing, you can rest assured London’s showbiz pulse isn’t going to flatline any time soon.
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.