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 Sunday, September 14th, 2025.
And sure enough, our first port of call is the London Calling Book Club Corner.
Actor and veteran London Walks guide Peter Glancy in the Chair today. Peter Glancy of Hampstead and Little Venice fame. Not to mention The Ancient City by Night fame. Here’s what Peter’s been reading.
“One of the best writers on London is George Gissing.
I recently read THE NETHER WORLD a wonderful and vivid portrait of Clerkenwell, so very different in it’s artisan sweatshops and warehouses to the genteel, and fashionable area of today. He is a vivid and engaging writer whose most famous book is, of course, NEW GRUB STREET, which explores the desperate world of struggling writers. He is what happens after Dickens, to whom he bears a strong resemblance.
Essential reading!”
Many thanks, Peter. And I couldn’t agree more.
Moving on. A quick update about The Ultimate London Walk. The walk all the way across London – 40 miles in all – from the northern edge of London in Hertfordshire to the southern edge in Surrey. It’s not 40 years in the wilderness. It’s 40 miles. But in the wilderness is spot on because so much of the walk is through London woods and London countryside and London parks and London hayfields and London open spaces. It’s a London undreamt of in your wildest dreams, a London you didn’t know was there, a London you’ve never seen. And it needs must be stressed the Ultimate London Walk is not a yomp, it’s not a 40 mile forced march in one go. Guide Charlie – the Moses of the Ultimate London Walk – has broken it down into 14 linked walks that are taking place throughout september and on into October. The first two walks – lift-off for The Ultimate London Walk – took place last weekend. I was there on the first day. I was one of the twenty plus walkers who got the show on the road. And I wish I were there this weekend for Stage Two. The best laid plans, though… It wasn’t to be. Couldn’t be. Because I’m thousands of miles away. On the South China Sea. But believe me, I’m there in spirit. Wondering how the second leg went. Communicating with Charlie. Watching it like a hawk. And amazed to think that already a good few of those people I was with on that first day have now covered nearly a third of the distance. Have done four of the fourteen walks. Are now come ten to twelve miles from the northern edge of London, the Hertfordshire border, on into the north London that is the north London that I know, that’s my patch of north London. So, four walks and twelve miles or so covered, ten walks and 28 miles or so to go.
And how did that second tranche of walks go – walks 3 and 4 that Charlie rolled out this weekend? Well, the proof of the ramble is in the rave reviews. Or another way of putting that, the proof of the wander is in the wonder.
And the wonder – the rave reviews – well, they’re cascading in. Here’s a sample. Justin Whitmarsh had this to say about Section 5, from Golders Green to South End Green. “Charlie’s walks are always great. He gives ‘off the beaten path’ a whole new meaning.”
And here’s John Mcclintock on Section 3, Woodside Park to Mill Hill East. “Charlie is THE walking encyclopedia of London. Walking with him is a most pleasant education.”
And Dorothy MacDonald did Sections 3 and 4. Here’s Dorothy’s verdict: “More surprises in Sections 3 & 4 with fascinating stories behind them. What delights will unfold as we pursue the rest of the route through the centre and onwards to London’s southern boundary? Thanks to Charlie for all the research and hard work that’s gone into such a great walk.”
Well, you get the idea. And that’s not me cherry picking. They’re all in this vein.
And moving on some more. Main course now. And here we go. Welcome back to the Rolling English Road to St Albans. Again.
A deja vu of sorts because A couple of days ago, it was curtains up on the Cinderella City.
The Cinderella City being St Albans.
It was curtains up because – we go there this Wednesday.
September 17th.
That St Albans trip only comes round once or twice a year – it’s a rare bloom.
So of course, we’re going to showcase it this week.
And today, well, another taster. Another scene setter. Another morsel – or do I mean quaff – of what that day’s got going for it.
First, The Journey Down
From West Hampstead remember. So it’s swift as an arrow our jaunt to St Albans. Just a touch over fifteen minutes.
Alison – picture her – hops off the train.
St Albans station.
The air smells faintly of history…
and maybe, just maybe – of hops.
Perfect really – because this is beer season.
September’s when Britain gets positively foamy about beer.
The 7th – exactly a week ago – was National Drink Beer Day.
Yes – that is a thing.
And at the end of the month?
The St Albans Beer & Cider Festival.
St Albans turns into a kind of liquid Disneyland.
And Alison? She gets us there in style.
Her journey – our journey – is quick – and smooth.
It for sure would meet with Tennyson’s approval. The great Victorian Poet Laureate imagined the new railways as “the ringing grooves of change” –he thought the rails were grooves cut into stone.
Well – he got the poetry right.
Anyway, yes, our train whisks us from West Hampstead to St Albans in just over 15 minutes – straight as a die.
Tennyson would have approved of the grooves…
though he might have spilled his sherry
if he saw how fast the trains actually go.
But once you step off the platform –
ah! that’s when the straight lines stop.
This is Chesterton country.
Here the roads meander, roll and reel – “rambling round the shire,” as he put it – as if invented by a tipsy genius with a taste for the scenic route.
And since it’s St Albans – St Albans in September – well, when in St Albans do as the St Albanites do. Or at least be aware of what they’ve got going this time of year. It is, after all, one of the reasons Alison’s timed this visit for mid-September.
You want it in five words:
The Drink of the Nation
And let’s face it – if there’s a national drink of England…
It’s beer. No contest.
The Scots have whisky – peat, smoke, poetry in a glass.
But you need a fireside, a roaring gale outside,
possibly a set of bagpipes to go with it.
The Irish have whiskey too.
And Guinness, of course – but that comes with fiddle music and the irresistible urge to sing.
The Welsh?
Well – they’re quietly making some of the best whiskies in Europe – Penderyn is the name to know –
but their cider orchards have been keeping them cheerful for centuries.
England though?
England is pint country.
This is where beer is at its most democratic, its most sociable.
No need for a fireside or a fiddle –
just a bar, a pump handle, and a few mates.
And so – Alison, bless her thoroughly English heart, has chosen exactly the right destination.
And that’s by way of saying, St Albans has more pubs per square mile than any other city in England.
Back in the 19th-century it boasted nearly a hundred commercial drinking establishments.
Enough to make a Victorian town planner wonder if he’d drawn a city map – or a treasure hunt.
The Oldest of the Lot
And then – oh yes – there’s that pub.
Ye Olde Fighting Cocks.
Alison passes it on the tour –
can’t resist stopping for a photo.
Who could?
Squat and self-satisfied –
the Guinness Book of Records’ very own oldest pub in England.
Parts of it go back to the 11th century.
And you can hear Chesterton chuckling in the background:
“Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire…”
The Romans came here – they built their dead-straight roads.
But the rolling English road won out in the end.
St Albans’ lanes still wander, still ramble –
often, conveniently, straight to a pub door.
The Pubby Way of Life
But here’s the thing.
This isn’t just about beer.
It’s about the pub itself.
That very English institution.
By all means, make inquiries. Alison will get you up to speed – an English pub isn’t just a place for drinking.
It’s a place for being.
There’s a couple with a dog under the table.
Two old friends arguing about cricket.
A man at the bar who seems to know everybody’s name.
The pub is part living room, part stage, part philosopher’s café.
And because this is St Albans, Alison can’t help thinking of CAMRA – the Campaign for Real Ale.
Their HQ is just up the road.
And as long as we’re at it, let make a quick detour across the Irish Sea. A detour with Alison. She’s no longer in St Albans but in a small Irish pub. It’s 1971.
It’s raining outside – proper Atlantic rain.
Inside: four friends.
A battered wooden table.
Pint rings like medals of honour.
One thumps his pint down.
“It’s all keg these days. Dead beer.”
Another sighs: “Someone ought to do something.”
There’s a pause.
And then a grin.
“Fine,” he says, “we will.”
And that was it.
The spark that lit CAMRA.
A slightly mad idea that changed the course of British beer.
CAMRA? What’s CAMRA you say.
Cue a small But Important Aside
CAMRA: The Campaign for Real Ale
Born in 1971.
Four friends on holiday in Ireland – who saved cask beer from extinction.
Their HQ here in St Albans is still the beating heart of Britain’s beer renaissance.
Not a Pub Crawl (Promise!)
But look – and this is important –
rest assured, this St Albans day out is not a pub crawl.
Not in the least.
You won’t be rolling back onto the train singing rugby songs.
The pubs we mention?
They’re there because they’re part of the story.
Like the abbey.
Like the Roman ruins.
Like the market.
If you fancy ducking into one for a half-pint – or a lemonade –
or simply to soak up the centuries-old atmosphere – lovely.
If not – just enjoy them as living history on the way past.
Each to his own. Everyone welcome.
Ok, time for a September Toast
And so – Alison moves on.
Past the abbey. Past the Roman ruins.
But the feeling sticks.
This is a city that knows how to raise a glass.
Chesterton had it right – these are merry roads, mazy roads,
the kind you tread with ale-mugs in your hands.
So here’s to Alison’s Wednesday jaunt.
To St Albans on September 17th.
To history underfoot – perhaps fortified, if you’re so minded, by a pint or half-pint in the Fighting Cocks at lunchtime –
or merely mellowed by St Albans itself – and the great English tradition of talking the day away.
There are still “good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen” – and what better way to find them
than to go to Paradise by way of St Albans?
And when the day’s done – you’ll be glad of Tennyson’s “ringing grooves of change” –
smooth, straight, just soporific enough to cradle you back to London with a smile and maybe the faintest trace of a song.
And if you happen to pass CAMRA HQ on your wanderings – raise an imaginary pint.
Give them a silent cheer.
They’re part of why this city – and this pint – taste the way they do.
Welcome to deepest, dyed in the wool England, folks.
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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 familiarand the familiar new.
And on that agreeable note… come then, let us go forward together on some great London Walks.