London calling.
London Walks connecting.
This… is London.
This is London Walks.
Streets ahead.
Story time. History time.
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Top of the morning to you, London Walkers. Wherever you are.
It’s Saturday, May 10th, 2025.
Announcements. Announcements with a difference – that’s what this one’s all about.
First of all, I’m going to do a quick run-through of the Specials we’re laying on this weekend. Thirteen of them. And then I’m going to double back and single out the half dozen or so that are, as it were, gala performances.
So for today, Saturday, May 10th, the hit parade of Specials starts with the Day Trip to The Cotswolds. Then this afternoon, on the Catwalk of Specials we’ve got: my, David’s, Kensington Walk – London’s Royal Village, followed by Dan’s Spies & Special Forces walk in Knightsbridge. And then it’s all the way across London to Charlie’s walk The Secrets of Northern Queen Elizabeth Olympics Park. So from Kensington and Knightsbridge to the Olympics Park, it’s as if we’re bracketing.
Zeroing in. We pinpoint the range with award-winning Geologist Ruth’s The Monument, Moon and Malta Walk. Her urban geology walk in Eastcheap in the City of London. If you haven’t experienced a Ruth urban geology walk get thee to Monument Underground Station at 2.30 pm this afternoon. You’ll come away wide-eyed and dazzled. The City of London and building stones will never look the same.
Ok, those are the Saturday specials. Now how about tomorrow, Sunday? We start with a pair of Hampstead Walks: my, David’s Hampstead Village & Heath Walk and the distinguished newsman Stewart Purvis’s Hampstead Spies Walk – Philby and Comrades. Then there’s Sue’s Kew Gardens in Springtime. And Alison’s Charming Chiswick. Those are the Sunday morning Specials. In the afternoon it’s Ann’s William Morris and Friends and Adam’s The Rolling Stones in 1960s Soho. And come the evening, if you’re not in London don’t despair, you can still do a London Walk. Because Richard IV will be doing his Alfred Hitchcock in London Virtual Tour.
Ok, that’s a quick run-through of the 13 Specials this weekend.
And now I’m going to put the spotlight on six of them. Put the spotlight on them they’ve got a little something extra going for them timing-wise.
Starting with the 2 pm Kensington Walk this afternoon. With that one, the legendary London Walks white glove service just got better. By that I mean I always send out an advancer email to my Kensington Walkers. Part and parcel of that advancer email is a list of other things to do in Kensington should people want to make a day. Where I’m coming from with that is that notion that your time in London is precious and there’s everything to be said for making the best possible use of it. So if you’re in Kensington for the walk – well, go there a bit early – or stay on after the walk – and here are some really good things to do, really good places to visit that you can sandwich around the walk. So this last advancer email I sent out – sent it out yesterday – I improved on that traditional white-glove service number. I made a recommendation for Kensington that’s date-specific, and as such dovetails perfectly with today’s walk. At 5.30 pm today – just an hour or so after the Kensington Walk winds up – the Royal College of Music Baroque and Recorder Ensembles will be presenting works by a range of composers. That concert will be held in the Performance Hall at the Royal College of Music on Prince Consort Road. Just a short stroll from where the Kensington Walk finishes. It’s just a fiver to get a ticket. And as of last night, when I sent the email advancer out, there were still 19 seats available.
Bears repeating: that concert, its timing and location, makes a perfect fit with today’s Kensington Walk.
Moving on, Sue’s Sunday afternoon Kew Gardens in Springtime. Well, it’s obvious isn’t it. This Sunday, May 11th, Kew Gardens is going to be floral perfection. That’s why Sue schedules that walk when she does.
As for Alison’s Sunday afternoon Charming Chiswick walk, well, see the most recent London Calling podcast. It was all about that walk and how and why Alison has timed it to perfection by running it this weekend.
As for Adam’s Rolling Stones in 1960s Soho Walk – well, it’s the diamond anniversary Rolling Stones walk. 60 years of the Stones. Stone the crows, it’s the Stone of Stones for the Stones. How do you go wrong with that number. It’s got Satisfaction written all over it. Especially bearing in mind who’s guiding it. As one of his walkers put it, “having Adam show you around Soho is like having your own rock star for a tour guide.”
And finally our two Hampstead Walks. Any day’s a good day to go to Hampstead. But this Sunday comes with a special plume in its hat. A special plume in its hat because Sunday, May 11th is the climax day for the Affordable Art Fair. The art fair takes place on beautiful Hampstead Heath. It showcases the best in contemporary art from over 100 galleries from the UK and around the world. Thousands of pieces. All of them affordable. What’s not to like. Either of those two great walks is a perfect fit with the Affordable Art Fair. Old Hampstead – Village & Heath is my favourite of the 59 London Walks in my personal repertory. And as for Stewart Purvis’s Hampstead Spies Walk. Well, look it up – and look Stewart up – on walks.com. Stewart’s our most famous guide. He couldn’t be more distinguished. He’s got a gong after his name, a CBE – Commander of the British Empire. He’s been described as “one of the architects of modern television news.” I think walker David Hall put it best, though. He said, “you got Stewart Purvis to guide Hampstead Spies – that’s like getting Dan Rather to guide Dealey Plaza.”
And here’s the thing, Stewart’s just back from a research trip to Hiroshima and and Nagasaki. Six months ago he was in Los Alamos in New Mexico. And he’s capped that with this most recent trip to Japan. It’s no exaggeration to say that Stewart Purvis’s walks are backed up by – informed with – research that’s been carried out worldwide.
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.