London calling.
London Walks connecting.
This… is London.
This is London Walks.
Streets ahead.
Story time. History time.
A very good day to you, London Walkers. Wherever you are. It’s Thursday, July 24th, 2025. Let’s get this one started with another nickname. A richly descriptive nickname. Once encountered, never forgotten.
Egg and bacon ties.
A week ago or so, there was an army of egg and bacon ties on the march in London. Especially in north London. Up St John’s Wood way. Because of the Test match at Lord’s Cricket Ground, the Yankee Stadium of English cricket. Which, needless to say, is located in St John’s Wood. Which—given the Yankee Stadium analogy—is sort of like saying St John’s Wood is the Bronx. The point at which the analogy comes acropper.
Anyway, those egg and bacon ties are the members’ ties of the MCC, the Marylebone Cricket Club. Not Middlesex, actually—though you’d be forgiven for the mix-up, as the two have been entangled for over a century. And like just about everything else in this country, those ties are a window on a lot of history and rich traditions.
And of course, thinking about them—it’s like skipping a stone across the still surface of a pond. The stone goes places. It in effect takes you places. And if you’re interested in history, those are interesting places to visit.
So, yes, seeing that dense undergrowth of MCC ties got me thinking about ties in general. Their history. When they got started. How they evolved. What they signify.
And I think the best way to “go there” is to get the MCC tie—the egg and bacon tie—into focus. What it looks like. Why its colours. Why its stripes. Et cetera.
And Egg and Bacon is a nickname. But Middlesex certainly isn’t a nickname. And that name—Middlesex—is part of the story as well.
So here we go.
The MCC tie. You see one across a crowded concourse at Paddington or Euston, and it calls out: “Lord’s man.” You know instantly this fellow’s a member. Not just a cricket fan. No, no—this is a chap who can get into the Long Room. The MCC tie is bright. Bold. Almost cheerful. Stripes of a deep scarlet red and rich yolky yellow—hence “egg and bacon.” And worn with enormous pride.
But it’s more than a garment. It’s a passport. It’s membership. It’s a declaration of identity. Of continuity. Of tradition.
And it takes us back.
Back, not just to the gentlemanly world of cricket with its whites and wickets and shouts of “well bowled, old boy,” but further—into the very history of neckwear in England.
Now—when did men in this country start putting cloth around their necks in any deliberate, decorative way?
Not ties, as we know them. That’s 19th century. But we go further back than that. Try 1660s. Restoration period. Charles II returning to England after his long exile. And what does he bring back with him? Amongst other things: fashion.
He’d seen Croatian mercenaries in the service of the French wearing bits of cloth around their necks—what became known as cravats. And the cravat, that elegant bit of knotted linen, took England by storm. It was flamboyant. It was European. It was dashing.
And over time—over a couple of centuries—it shrinks and slims and gets reshaped. The cravat becomes the stock. The stock becomes the neckcloth. And then, in the 1800s, the neckcloth starts to morph into what we now recognise as the modern necktie.
Victorian gentlemen began wearing ties daily—often with particular patterns or colours to signal allegiance to a school, a club, a regiment, a university.
And that’s the moment when the tie becomes not just decoration, but declaration.
You weren’t just dressed. You were coded.
Stripes mattered. Direction mattered. Diagonal stripes from upper left to lower right? British club. Reverse the stripes—bottom left to top right? American. Colour combinations? Absolutely critical.
Let’s take the Middlesex County Cricket Club tie—different from MCC but equally historic. Navy blue with fine gold or crimson diagonal stripes. And a repeating motif of three little curved swords: seaxes. Anglo-Saxon short swords. That’s the symbol of Middlesex, and has been since heraldic times. You see it on the county arms.
So when you wear that tie, you’re not just saying you like cricket. You’re flying the banner of Anglo-Saxon history. You’re aligning yourself with Middlesex. With heritage. With continuity.
Same goes for regimental ties. Or old school ties. The infamous “Old Etonian tie,” say. Wear one of those in certain circles and doors open. Or eyes narrow.
Ties tell stories. They’re identity. They’re access. They’re tribal.
Now, most of us—when we wear a tie—just wear it because the situation demands it. Wedding. Funeral. Job interview. Bit of theatre, really. But for those in the know—for clubmen, cricketers, officers, public school old boys — that little strip of silk is a flag.
And the MCC egg and bacon tie? That’s the banner of banners. Loud. Striped. Cheerfully old-fashioned. You can’t buy one in a shop, not unless you’re a member or know a man who knows a man. It’s the key to the Pavilion. The key to the bar at Lord’s. The uniform of the true believer.
And of course it’s more than that. It’s a stone in the pond. Skip it once and you’re off across four centuries of English history. From Croatian cravats to Charles II. From cricketing legends to county arms. From silk merchants in Spitalfields to schoolboys in Henley blazers.
So next time you see a tie — don’t just think, “Oh, he dressed up.” Think: “What’s he telling me?”
Because odds are, that little loop of silk or polyester round his neck? It’s whispering. Or shouting. Or singing. It’s got something to say.
And that, my fellow walkers, is today’s stroll. Through cravats and clubs, cricket and colours.
Until next time—tie one on.
Sounds like an out, a Parthian shot. Did you hear that? I didn’t say parting shot, I said Parthian shot. Which of course is where we get the expression parting shot from. But words, phrases preserve history. As if in aspic. So, yes, there’s history, ancient history in that expression parting shot. Which comes from Parthian shot. But that’s to whet your appetite. That’s for another day. But yes, cravats and clubs, cricket and colours…until next time– tie one on. Sounds like a parting shot. But it isn’t. I’ve got a petit four for you. And a coffee.
The petit four is a bit of history. Another bit of history. An anniversary. Today, July 24th – 321 years ago – July 24th, 1704 England wrested Gibraltar from the Spaniards. And they’ve held on to it ever since. It’s a tiny bit of England on Iberian peninsula. Has been for nearly a third of a millennium.
And for coffee? Richard Walker – actor, adventurer, author, consummate guide – has just rung in to say three people have baled from his Friday night VIP, Small Group Guaranteed Jack the Ripper’s Whitechapel Walk. Now here’s the thing, that walk always sells out. No surprise, that. It’s the Rolls Royce of Jack the Ripper Walks. It’s garnered nearly 500 – yes, you heard right – 500 five-star reviews.
Anyway, Richard’s got three returns for a walk that’s been sold out for weeks. Tomorrow night’s – Friday Night’s VIP Jack the Ripper’s Whitechapel Walk. So especially if you were someone who wanted a ticket so to speak, but were turned away because “sorry, it’s sold out” – well, a windfall has just come your way. Richard’s got three tickets for the walk. Jump in there and grab them if you’re so inclined. Go to Friday’s Walks on www.walks.com and scroll down to Jack the Ripper’s Whitechapel. Grab your ticket while the grabbing’s good.
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.