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.
And coming your way right now – your daily London fix for today, Wednesday, November 12th, 2025.
We begin this one right where my Kensington Walk begins – High Street Kensington. And straight off, we’re looking at two absolute knockouts. Barkers and Derry and Toms. Two great ships of buildings moored along the High Street, their façades smooth as champagne glass, their lines pure, confident, utterly composed.
I always stop there and say to the group, “Have a good look at these. This – this right here – is Art Deco. The real thing.”
They’re not just buildings, they’re statements. You can almost hear them speak: “We’re modern, we’re elegant, we’re streamlined.” Barkers and Derry and Toms are 1930s Deco through and through – those clean, elegant lines, that rhythm, that poise. Everything thought through, nothing accidental. Not “busy” the way the Victorians or Edwardians could be – bless them – with their endless decoration, every inch crying out for another flourish, another cherub, another swirl. Art Deco swept all that away. It said: “Enough with the clutter. Let’s have order. Let’s have grace.”
No gargoyles, no curly bits. Just geometry. Proportion. Light.
Art Deco is the architecture of confidence – of the new world between the wars. The age of jazz, of skyscrapers, of ocean liners and cocktails and cinema. Deco looked like the world it was born into. If you could imagine a city wearing a tuxedo – that’s Art Deco.
And like so many beautiful, influential things, it begins in Paris.
The early sparks are around 1910. A generation of French designers and artists were experimenting, trying to find something new – something that wasn’t the floral swirl of Art Nouveau, and not yet the stark austerity of modernism. They wanted something structured but glamorous. A sense of order, yes, but order with a bit of dazzle.
Then came the big one: 1925. The Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. Try saying that after two glasses of champagne. The title was a mouthful, but the spirit was electric. And the shorthand – Art Déco – stuck.
It wasn’t just an exhibition of pretty things. It was a declaration of recovery. Europe had been through the Great War – the world’s first industrial-scale apocalypse. The old certainties had been blown to smithereens. In the aftermath, there was this deep, aching longing for order, for beauty, for something human again. The French even coined a phrase: le retour à l’ordre – the return to order.
And that, in essence, is what Art Deco is.
You can see it in every line. Geometry reigns. Zigzags, sunbursts, circles, chevrons – all in perfect balance. Nature hasn’t vanished, but she’s been tidied up – stylised, symmetrical, trimmed to a clean edge. Think of a topiary garden after the wild overgrowth of Romanticism.
Walk past Barkers or Derry and Toms and look closely. The rhythm of the windows, the vertical emphasis, the repetition – it’s like visual music. Everything has its place. There’s no clutter, no noise, but it’s not cold. It’s warm with confidence. You can feel the hum of optimism in it. Stand there long enough and you can almost hear a saxophone riff drifting through the 1930s air, or the gentle thrum of a Bugatti engine.
Because this was the style of the Jazz Age. The Chrysler Building in New York – all silver spires and radiating sunbursts. The Queen Mary – Art Deco at sea. The Orient Express – Deco on wheels. The era when the world, having gone through the trenches, looked to the future again and decided that future should be elegant.
And how fitting that a century later, Paris – where it all began – is throwing a party for it. Right now, the Louvre is hosting a blockbuster Art Deco Centenary Exhibition. It’s not just art on walls. It’s an entire world reborn. There are clothes, furniture, book bindings, lamps, tea sets, vases, room interiors – even a recreation of a carriage from the Orient Express. Walking through it is like stepping back into the 1920s and 30s, but with a sharper eye. You realise how total the style was – it wasn’t just architecture, it was a way of seeing.
And the great thing about Deco – what makes it so enduring – is that blend of discipline and indulgence. It’s all very thought through, all those straight lines and symmetrical compositions, but it never feels cold. There’s polish, gleam, a shimmer of luxury. Chrome, glass, lacquer, marble – everything gleaming, reflecting, glowing. It’s the optimism of the machine age made beautiful.
And yes, by the late 1930s, the tide was turning. Modernism came in, saying “form follows function” and “less is more.” Art Deco, with its glamour and its confidence, began to look old-fashioned. But it never really went away. Once you’ve seen that kind of elegance, you can’t unsee it. It lingers. You find it in fonts, in cinemas, in furniture, in a certain curve of a stair rail or the lettering on an old poster. It’s the ghost of optimism past – the world’s self-portrait in its moment of poise.
And maybe that’s why those buildings on High Street Kensington are so satisfying. They still work. They’re proof that order and beauty can coexist. That from chaos can come grace.
And that, my friends, is Art Deco – the return to order, and the triumph of elegance.
Now, this podcast – like a good French meal – comes with a little something extra. A few petits fours at the end.
And since we’ve been talking about Paris, let me give you a treat – my personal recommendation. My favourite restaurant in Paris. And that’s saying something. Paris has how many restaurants? Thousands? Tens of thousands? But there’s one – just one – that we go to every single time we’re in town. That’s got to be some kind of recommendation.
It’s called Le Hangar. It’s in the 3rd arrondissement, on Impasse Berthaud. Very central, but tucked away. The street dog-legs – which is important. It means the restaurant’s hidden, protected from the tourist stream. It’s what we Brits would call a close. And because of that dog-leg, it’s kept its soul.
Inside, the clientele are locals – French actors, journalists, film-makers, lawyers. The patronne, Sylvie, doesn’t speak much English, but she runs it with warmth and a touch of theatre.
Here’s what you do. For a starter, have the lentil soup with foie gras. Without exaggeration – the most delicious dish I have ever eaten. Lentil soup has no business being that good. But it is. And for your main, follow your fancy. Everything’s brilliant. Yesterday evening I had Scots salmon – the sauce was acidulated carrot juice with ginger. Carrot juice! It has no right to be that delicious. But it was. Chart-busting delicious.
Nearest métro is Rambuteau. They’re closed on Mondays. If you go on a Paris Walk, your guide can book it for you. You don’t have to book – but I always do. I’m not taking any chances.
And since we’re in good spirits, a bit of London Walks news to finish.
It’s been a very good year for new signings – by “signings” I mean new guides joining the team. One of them is Dr Stephen King. Not the horror writer – the historian. He’s got a superb walk in Clapham, and I’m thrilled to say it’s coming into the London Walks repertory. We’ll be listing it soon. And just to hold the fort, I’ll be doing a podcast on Clapham in the next few days – so keep an ear out for that.
And since we’re on the cusp of the festive season – yes, Christmas is coming into view – London Walks is, as ever, running a full programme of Christmas walks. But this year the cup overfloweth – we’ve got three brand new Christmas walks joining the repertory. All absolute crackers, if you’ll pardon the pun.
And there’s another little series brewing. Because right now, London is donning its Christmas finery, and I thought: this is the perfect moment to celebrate the great London shops – the famous ones, the must sees – at their sparkling best. So we’ll be doing a short series on those. We’ll get the show underway with a piece on Fortnum & Mason – the Queen’s own grocers, as they were fondly known for years.
So there it is – Art Deco, Parisian petits fours, a new walk in Clapham, a sleigh-load of Christmas treats, and a new series on London’s great shops.
Keep listening, keep walking.
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 Jack the 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.