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 October 27th, 2025. And coming right up, your daily London fix.
Short one today. I’m going to have another tilt at Sotheby’s. A brief tilt.
But first of all, an envoi. Of sorts.
Got chatting yesterday with a very nice American lady on my Hampstead Walk. The subject of podcasts came up. She asked me about this one. She said, “what’s it about, what’s its flight path? Is it chronological? Or by subject? Or a special part of London? Or what?
I said, I’m not sure it’s got much in the way of a strict line through, an organising principle. I said, if you twisted my arm I’d probably say its organising principle is the butterfly principle. In other words, I flit and sip. Whatever strikes my fancy. Whatever I want to find out more about. I said – this city and David Tucker – it’s a classic case of the little kid in the toy shop. There’s just so much here, so much that’s interesting…if I had to give a one-word answer to the question what is it about London, what do you love most about it…my word would be stimulating. This place is endlessly stimulating. There’s so much history here, so much going on. It’s inexhaustible. It’s not a city, London’s a world. Or even a universe. I suppose you could say the butterfly principle – flit and sip – is informed by a couple of deeply held conviction. One of which is, “the more you know about something the more interesting it becomes.” And the Castor to its Pollux is what Constable said about seeing. We don’t truly see until we understand.
So there you are: those are the pole stars this podcast sets it course by. The more you know about something the more interesting it becomes. And we don’t truly see until we understand. And the butterfly principle. I flit and sip. I suppose you could say in a sense this podcast is a sort of diary, a record of what caught my fancy on any given day. London Calling isn’t a money maker. In fact, it’s a money loser. It’s free to anybody who’s interested. There are no ads. It doesn’t have a huge following. At bottom I’m doing it for myself. Charting my days as it were. Where my head was any given day. What I was thinking about. Or reading about. Or talking about with friends. And thought, oh, that’s interesting, I’m going to find out a bit more about that and get it inscribed on that sound tablet, the London Walks podcast. And if anybody else is interested or finds that interesting – shares some of those interest – well, that’s great, they’re more than welcome to pull up a chair and help themselves to whatever I’m dishing up about London on any given day. Whatever I’ve flitted to. And sipped. So there you go, this has been the envoi, the statement of intent. Or, if you prefer, that fine Greek word, Apologia. Great word, apologia. Literally, it means a defence. It’s a way of saying, here’s why I do this and why it matters.
Apologia is classy. If you’d rather you can also think of what’s just been said as the clatter of the train door closing, the whistle blowing, the guard’s flag fluttering. Nothing else to add except thanks for listening. And I hope you’ll keep an open mind. That’s the only ticket you’ll need.
And now let’s take another quick peek at Sotheby’s. Here’s where my mind hared off to after yesterday’s piece was down and dusted.
Sotheby’s: What’s In It for the Rich?
Sotheby’s: What’s in it for the Rich? Why do they – the rich – do it: the bidding wars, the record-breaking cheques, the raised eyebrows when the hammer falls?
They don’t need another canvas, another diamond, another bit of Ming porcelain.
So why do they do it?
Part of it, of course, is display – the peacock’s tail, the ancient urge to show plumage.
But there’s something subtler too.
At Sotheby’s, possession becomes performance. It’s not just owning the thing – it’s winning it.
The auction room turns wealth into theatre.
Those lacquered paddles, the murmur, the nod, the tension, the gavel – it’s ritual.
Money transformed into moment.
And they, the bidders, are both actors and audience.
For a certain kind of rich, Sotheby’s is the arena where power speaks softly – through numbers whispered, gestures half-hidden.
The world may watch, but only a few understand the language.
It’s the oldest human currency: I can, therefore I will.
The rich bid not for need, nor even for beauty, but for affirmation.
The reassurance that what they have – and who they are – matters.
A Rembrandt on your wall says less than a raised paddle in the room that sold it.
Because the room itself is part of the prize.
Sotheby’s is both stage and confessional.
Everyone there is both worshipper and exhibit.
And yet, for all the money and marble and champagne, it began so simply.
A London bookseller, Samuel Baker, held an auction in 1744 – just books, on the Strand.
London ink, London dust, London dreams.
From that, the whole world of art auctions was born.
The gavel, the lot number, the catalogue, the delicious suspense.
And before we leave the rostrum, a couple of grace notes.
I’ve been asked a couple of times, “Where does the name Sotheby’s come from?”
It sounds as if it’s been chiselled into marble since the dawn of civilisation, doesn’t it?
In fact, it began humbly – with that bookseller, Samuel Baker. His first sale was that 1744 library on the Strand.
When he died, his nephew John Sotheby took over, and Baker’s name quietly slipped off the letterhead.
Sotheby’s remained.
The bookseller’s name vanished; the auctioneer’s endured – a neat little parable of the market in miniature.
And then there’s Oliver Barker. You couldn’t script it better, could you?
The current Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe – a man who spends his life wielding a gavel – is literally called Barker.
Dickens himself would have blushed at the aptness.
“Mr Barker of Sotheby’s” – it sounds like a joke Henry Fielding forgot to make.
And that’s gavel down on this little two-day visit to the world’s most famous auction house.
You’ve been listening to This… is London, the London Walks podcast. Emanating from – – 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.