London calling.
London Walks connecting.
This… is London.
This is London Walks.
Streets ahead.
Story time. History time.
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Good evening London Walkers, one and all. It’s February 23rd, 2025.
February 23rd. George Frederic Handel’s birthday. The death in Rome of the great Romantic poet John Keats.
And in Worcester, the death of composer Edward Elgar. And in Santa California, the death of British-born comedian Stan Laurel. And on this day, 105 years ago, the launch of the first regular broadcasting service in this country. And the 80th anniversary of those six U.S. servicemen raising the flag on Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima. The photograph of that moment, unquestionably one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century.
And as for London on February 23rd, the death, in London, eleven years ago, of the oldest known survivor of the Nazi holocaust. Alice Herz-Sommer, the Prague-born accomplished pianist and music teacher.
But that’s a satellite-height sweep across the world and across several centuries of this date. I’m going to pull the switch on that satellite and hit a powerful close-up lamp. Which is by way of saying, we’ve got another guest podcast for you. From, yes, the great Richard Walker. If this were Camelot and London Walks guides were knights of the Round Table, Richard Walker would be Sir Lancelot, arguably the greatest knight in Arthurian romance. And so, picking up the ball of that analogy and running with it, unquestionably one of the greatest guides of the London Walks round table. And indeed arguably primus inter pares. First amongst equals. His battle colours being the 416 five-star reviews he’s received for his VIP Jack the Ripper Walk. Anyway, this podcast is about the great Victorian prime minister Disraeli. And what he had to say about the extremes of wealth and poverty in his times.
It makes for – as always with Richard – a fascinating listen. Yet another reminder, not that any is needed, that he reads widely. And deeply. And it’s not just his friends and colleagues – his fellow knights of the round table – that are the beneficiaries of that wide and deep reading. It’s also you. And you. And you. His walkers. As you well know, because you thank him warmly and profusely at walk’s end. And then head back to your room, sit down, switch the laptop on, bring up Google Reviews or London Walks reviews, and add your voice to the chorus. Full-throated sing Richard’s praises.
And now, let’s hear Richard, full-throated, put us in the company of the great British statesman and writer – Queen Victoria’s favourite prime minister – Benjamin Disraeli. You like food for thought – you like inflection points – get ready, there’s a lot of both coming your way.
Here’s Richard.
[Richard’s talk on Disraeli follows]
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.
And that’s by way of saying, Good walking and Good Londoning one and all. See ya next time.