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 Monday, September 1st 2025.
This one’s all about great guides. Great guides leavened with a bit of 800-year-old wisdom. That ancient spark, still glowing after 800 years, is compliments of Rumi.
I probably don’t need to remind you who Rumi was but just in case, well, think of a 13th-century Persian Shakespeare-meets-Bob Dylan-meets-Mystic-Guru, a man whose words still crackle with electricity 800 years later.
And it was Rumi who said, “whoever travels without a guide needs two hundred years for a two-days journey.” No guide, 200 years for a two-days journey, that’s a cup of wisdom I’m going to drink from every time. Putting it that way, it’s the stuff of firelight and goosebumps.
And to make the connection – great guides – they’ve all got that ineffable Rumi quality, an essence that’s like an incense – the wavelength they’re on, it says come closer, burn brighter. And you do. That’s what sets them apart, makes them a great guide.
And I don’t know why – I don’t care why – but the first day of autumn – today, September 1st – we’re off to the best possible start in that regard.
Item: what James from Bristol has just said about Simon. James from Bristol went on Simon’s Square Mile Walk. His review is fresh out of the oven. Here’s what he says: “Simon is better than a great guide. I’ve been on a few walking tours in a few countries. Simon is the best. He doesn’t just have top-notch knowledge but his delivery – putting drama, humour, wit and even acting into the tales he tells – is second to none. Some tour guides just rattle off facts, this guide really knows his stuff but is so much more – the far end of the spectrum.”
Thank you, James from Bristol, for summing up what everybody says about Simon and his guiding.
Item: Fiona. London’s most decorated guide.
Fiona’s a Blue Badge Guide, a City of London Guide and a Westminster Guide. All three of those courses she won the big one, the Guide of the Year Award. No other guide in London has done that.
Trailing those clouds of glory, packing that kind of credibility, Fiona’s the one, no question. Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to know what Fiona’s reading? And so, yes, here we are, putting in at the London Calling Book Club Corner, and that’s Fiona rolling out the welcome mat. Here’s what London’s most decorated guide is reading:
Hi David,
I’ve just finished Murder on the White Cliffs by Anna Sayburn Lane. A cracking cosy murder mystery in the 20s. But anyone who fancies that might want to start with Blackmail in Bloomsbury, which is the first of the Marjorie Swallow books, and is, as the title suggests, much more London-based.
I’m now reading Unruly by David Mitchell. As a comedian who is interested in history, but not a historian, he has quite clear views on certain people. Harold Godwinson vs William of Normandy, who do you think David is rooting for? When stories are familiar it’s easy for certain chains of events to start feeling inevitable. It’s good to get the little jolt of seeing them from someone else’s perspective.
Thanks,
Fiona”
Those thanks, they’re mutual, Fiona. Thank you.
Ok, main course. And here, London’s most decorated guide hands the torch to the very model of a modern Major General of a Renaissance man. And yes, we’re still very much in the Awards realm. This is Marc, creator of the award-nominated history podcast, Extraordinary Stories of Britain. Marc’s a national journalist, a top flight photographer and a crème de la crème Blue Badge Guide.
All right, strapped in?
Fast forward to the end of the week.
Your Friday night just got epic. No crowds, no rush – just you, a handful of boon companions, an elite guide and the crown jewels of the British Museum. VIP access, small group, world-class guide, timeless treasures, maximum Wow!
Ok, let’s drill down.
I’m going to hand this round like a tray of petits fours.
Let me tell you about Petit Four one: The British Museum After Dark – A VIP Experience.
The British Museum is always a marvel. Always astonishing. Always unforgettable. But – and here’s the insider tip – go on a Friday evening and the place is transformed. It’s open late. The crowds melt away. The tour buses have trundled off. The big school groups are long gone. Suddenly the world’s greatest museum feels like it’s ours. A great palace of wonders, hushed, majestic, half-lit, whispering its secrets.
Enter London Walks. We take you by the hand and usher you into the treasure house. A VIP Friday Night Late Visit. A small group visit – intimate, friendly, personal. An elite guide – one of the best in the world, no exaggeration. And an experience you’ll remember long after you’ve flown home or hopped back on the Tube.
Petit Four Number Two.
Why Friday Night?
Well, think about it. The British Museum in the middle of the day? It can feel like rush hour at Piccadilly Circus. Brilliant, yes, but jostling, elbow-to-elbow, fighting your way through the crowds just to glimpse the Rosetta Stone. Friday night is the antidote. The galleries are calm. You can linger. You can breathe. You can hear the museum breathe.
It’s like walking into a grand old theatre after everyone else has gone home. The hush, the echo, the sense that you’re in on a secret. That’s the gift of Friday nights. You don’t just see the museum – you feel it.
Petit Four Number Three.
Small Group, Big Experience.
And something else. And this counts for a lot. We keep our Friday Night tours deliberately small. No megaphone. No herd. No straining to hear at the back of a crowd of fifty. It’s personal. Just you, your fellow explorers, and your guide. The difference is night and day. Questions welcome. Jokes welcome. Conversation welcome. It’s a salon, not a stampede.
Petit Four number four.
Elite Guides.
Now, about those guides. Not to put too fine a point on it, they’re the cream of the crop. This Friday night, September 5th, it’s Marc, very model of a modern Major General of a Renaissance man. In due course it’ll be Karen’s turn. Karen who was crowned The World’s Greatest Guide by Travel & Leisure, America’s leading travel magazine. Think about that. Not just London’s best, not Britain’s best – the world’s best. And Karen’s one of ours.
Another week, it’ll be Fiona. You already know about Fiona, London’s most decorated guide. In the lapidary words of that American journalist, If this were a golf tournament every name on the Leader Board would be a London Walks guide.
What does that mean for you? It means stories that sparkle. It means context that makes everything come alive. It means warmth, humour, and the kind of deep knowledge that turns a slab of ancient stone into a drama, a life, a moment you’ll never forget.
Petit Four Number Five
Highlights that Dazzle
Goes without saying that we’ll see the great stars of the museum. And it’s practically a private viewing. The Rosetta Stone, for example. The linguistic key that unlocked the secrets of ancient Egypt. And the Parthenon Marbles –those breathtaking fragments of the Parthenon, glowing with classical beauty. And The Lewis Chessmen – quirky, charming, Viking-era chess pieces that somehow feel more alive than the people jostling past them.
But with us, it’s never just “here’s the Rosetta Stone, move along.” No. You’ll hear the story of the French soldier who stumbled across it in Egypt. You’ll imagine the crackle of excitement when scholars first realised what it could do. You’ll feel the thrill of decipherment, of lost voices suddenly speaking again.
And do let’s circle back to the Parthenon marbles for a minute – sure, they’re masterpieces. But on a Friday night, with space to actually see them, and with your guide weaving the story of ancient Athens, they don’t just sit there on the plinth. They move. They gallop. They come alive.
And then there are the surprises. The objects you didn’t know you needed to see. A little Anglo-Saxon brooch, dazzling with gold. An Assyrian lion hunt relief, full of raw power and emotion. The kind of thing you’d walk past on your own, but with the right guide becomes unforgettable.
Petit Four number Six.
Why This Tour is Unmissable.
So why this tour? Because it’s more than a museum visit. It’s an experience. It’s walking through the world’s memory palace when the doors are closed to the crowds. It’s being part of a small, friendly band rather than a lost face in a sea of tourists. It’s having an elite guide – a world-class storyteller – turn stone and metal into flesh and blood.
And, let’s be honest, it’s just fun. You’ll laugh. You’ll marvel. You’ll see things differently. And when the tour ends, you’ll spill out into Bloomsbury under the London night sky, buzzing with the sense that you’ve just done something special. Something few visitors to London get to experience.
Petit Four Number Seven. Lucky seven.
Final Word. Let’s recap. Let’s close the deal.
There’s only one British Museum. And there’s only one way to do it properly: Friday night, with London Walks. A VIP Late Visit. Small group. Elite guide. Highlights that dazzle. Stories that sing. An experience you’ll carry with you forever.
So, yes. This is the one. The one you’ll tell your friends about. The one you’ll remember when all the other museum visits blur together. The British Museum Friday Night VIP Tour. Don’t miss it.
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.