WINDSOR
CASTLE & ETON Windsor is a carousel of wonders. It's the largest - and oldest - continuously inhabited castle in the world. (And - hooray! - we'll see the magnificent Semi-state Apartments that are off-limits in summer.) Windsor is Georgian streets and Windsor Great Park and the silvery Thames. And over the river there's Eton College, on whose playing fields the Battle of Waterloo was won. Founded 50 years before Columbus discovered, Eton is educating Princes William and Harry today! Return to top
SHAKESPEARE'S
LONDON This one's
the full ticket. The best this town has to offer. We start with
that wonderful boat ride - downstream and back down the centuries:
from the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
and Elizabethan London. Ashore we explore the Bankside district -
the world of Shakespeare in Love. Home to the Globe Theatre,
old and new, and the other Elizabethan playhouses...and bear-baiting
dens and St. Saviour's, where he buried his brother Edmund, and an
ancient, swaybacked coaching inn in whose courtyard Shakespeare's
plays are still performed. And a bonus - there's also cobbled, echoing
Clink Street threading between brick cliffs of warehouses where bars
of sunlight probe the shadows...yes, this is also the London of Charles
Dickens's troubled boyhood. The London that formed him - and which
haunted him to his dying day. This walk takes place every Monday and Saturday at 10:00am. N.B. This walk does not duplicate Wednesday's and Sunday's Shakespeare and Dickens's London walk. Return to top
MAYFAIR
- "the best address in London" Now here's a champagne cocktail of a walk. It's a marriage made in heaven: "the best address in London" and a bon vivant of a guide - a boulevardier and a place where Old Masters and old money, Rolls Royces and glamour, titles and butlers are par for the course. It's hob-nobbing with knobs on it - because Mayfair's been home to Admiral Nelson (and his mistress Lady Emma Hamilton), Clive of India, Disraeli, Handel, Florence Nightingale, Peter Sellers, Jimi Hendrix, Dodi Fayed, and the Earl Mountbatten, to name but a few. Last but certainly not least, it boasts London's best village within a village - Shepherd Market, a charming little nest of alleys that hasn't lost a jot of its 18th-century scale and village atmosphere, let alone its raffishness. This walk takes
place every Monday and Thursday at 10:30am. Return to top
"If there
is such a thing as a shell secreted by man to fit himself here we
find it, on the banks of the Thames, where the great streets join
and St. Paul's Cathedral, like the volute on the top of the snail
shell, finishes it off."
THE
OLD JEWISH QUARTER This walk traces the history of London's Jewish community in the East End. It's a story that embraces the poverty of the pogrom refugees and the glittering success of the Rothschilds; the eloquence of the 19th-century Prime Minister Disraeli and the spiel of the Petticoat Lane stallholder; the poetry of Isaac Rosenberg and the poetry-in-motion of Abe Saperstein's Harlem Globetrotters. Set amid the alleys and back streets of colourful Spitalfields and Whitechapel, it's a tale of synagogues and sweatshops, Sephardim and soup kitchens. This walk takes
place every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11:30am. N.B. Whenever possible we visit the famous Old Synagogue; they ask for a £1 donation. Return to top
THE
LONDON PANORAMA We begin as London began - with the Thames, on the Thames. Silvery lifeline, main highway, chief processional route, the Thames is, quite simply, London's Grand Canal. Tower Bridge, where we embark, and Westminster Bridge, where we go ashore, bracket London and to take ship on this stretch of water is to glissade down the centuries. Here kings and queens were borne in painted and gilt state barges; on the one shore, Wren's St.Paul's Cathedral engraved the sublime against the London sky; on the other, Shakespeare wrought his magic, "not of an age, but for all time!" The Thames knew great men and women in death, too: these waters bore Elizabeth I's funeral and Nelson's and Churchill's. And hand in glove with the history...the most famous of all London views, as throat-catching today as it was to Wordsworth 200 years ago: Earth has not anything to show more fair. Ashore, we take in the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, St. James's Park, Whitehall, Buckingham and St. James's Palaces, the Mall and Trafalgar Square. As ever, the sights behind the sights is our watchword. In short, this is the walk that most memorably captures London's inimitable mixture of idiosyncratic detail and grand, powerful statement. N.B. the boat trip costs £4 (a good discount on the normal price). Return to top
THE
BRITISH MUSEUM WALK This walk takes place every Wednesday and Saturday at 2:00pm, and every Monday at 11:00am. N.B., This walk will not take place on January 1st. Return to top
LEGAL
& ILLEGAL LONDON - the Inns of Court The Inns of Court - habitat of the wigged and gowned English barrister - could pass for a collection of Oxford and Cambridge colleges right in the heart of London. They are a warren of cloisters, courtyards, and passageways set amongst some of the best gardens in London. So: ancient rites and customs, high drama, colourful characters, and matters of life and death amid delightful surroundings. It's a rich confection, making this the prettiest and most historical of our central London walks. This walk takes place every Monday at 2:00pm, every Wednesday at 11:00am, and every Friday at 2:00pm. Return to top
DIANA,
PRINCESS OF WALES Diana, Princess of Wales. She wrote poetry on our souls. And made us wonder. And then the heavens cracked open and claimed her. And so we go, back down the vista of years...to the places where the Princess was on the royal stage, but also to the private places, the hideaways that aren't in the guidebooks. The movie star's apartment where she poured her heart out, Dodi Fayed's penthouse apartment, a certain club, her ancestral home...this is the London of the People's Princess. And hard by it, Buckingham Palace, the Mall, Clarence House (where she spent the night before her wedding) the Chapel Royal (where her wedding gifts were displayed, and where, in those black early days of September 1997, her body lay in state) - it's all here. Return to top
LONDON'S
SECRET VILLAGE The ancient, hidden village of Clerkenwell clings to a hillside barely a stone's throw away from St. Paul's Cathedral. Its very name - the clerks', or students', spring - is redolent of antiquity; and indeed this tiny hamlet serves up brimming draughts from the deep well of its history. Mystery plays and plague pits; riots and rookeries; bodysnatching and bombing; jousting and jesters; bloodshed and burnings; monks, murder, and medicine: Clerkenwell has a tale or two to tell. Tracing its narrow alleyways and ancient squares, we take in here a Norman church; there a magnificent Tudor gateway; round that corner venerable Charterhouse, London's only surviving mediaeval monastic complex; let alone Hercule Poirot's London flat and the trendiest house in town. Return to top
THE
VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM WALK Welcome to Aladdin's Cave. Welcome to a spellbinding couple of hours. Welcome to a treasure house of vast dimensions and wealth. Welcome to the V & A. Here, like nowhere else, we experience history - because it's sensuous and immanent in these beautiful objects, rather than something dimly guessed at in the dark backward and abysm of time. Here the sense of wonder, of discovery - of moving through realms of gold - never flags. Here is one of the great sights of the world - the seven magnificent Raphael cartoons. Here are the exotica of the Orient. Here is the Great Bed of Ware. Here is fashion from the Reniassance to the present day. Here are bronzes, carpets, sculpture, and cloths of silver and gold. Here, in short, is a rhapsody of objets d'art. (And of statistics: there are over seven miles of exhibits.) As with the British Museum, the key, the secret...is to use your time well. And if you want to make a day of it, how about combining the tour with a spot of shopping at Harrod's, which is only a stone's throw away. And if you go on the Friday morning V & A walk, you can have lunch in the V & A's extremely civilised cafè! N.B., the V & A has recently introduced admission charges, but students and seniors go for free. The Adult admission charge is £4.50 And you'll like this: there's no admission charge for Monday's V & A walk! This walk takes place every Monday at 4:00pm and every Friday at 10:45am Return to top
OLD
WESTMINSTER BY GASLIGHT This is the cornerstone, the seminal London Walk. Miss it and you've missed London. For Old Westminster is London at its grandest: the place where kings and queens are crowned, where they lived, and often were buried. It's the forge of the national destiny, the place where the heart of the Empire beat, the Mecca of politicians throughout the ages. The past here is cast in stone and we take it all in: ancient Westminster Hall, the Houses of Parliament, the Jewel Tower, and Westminster Abbey. And to see it with a great guide is to have that past suddenly rise to the surface...like seeing a photographic print come up in a darkroom. And for a counterpoint we'll also go off the beaten track, exploring hidden, picturesque 18th-century back streets - the London equivalent of Georgetown - that are almost equally rich in history. What's more, there's no better time to discover "Old Westminster"...because the hordes of tourists are long gone - we'll have it to ourselves and so be able to see it properly. It just doesn't get any better than this. But how could it, considering that we'll also nip over the bridge to take in the most famous night-time view in Europe. The view across the river to the Houses of Parliament. All towers and spikes and serried windows and bathed in golden light. And Big Ben like a sentinel, booming out the hour. And garlands of Victorian lamps along the Embankment. And dark patches that suggest the old and mighty consequence of the place...well, you get the idea. Garnish with some fascinating nooks and crannies, a secret mediaeval palace and traditional old pubs frequented by Members of Parliament and you've got a great walk...the memory of it will warm your soul for a long, long time. And how's this for a bonus - on most Monday nights after the walk you'll be able to go inside Parliament and watch the House of Commons in action. And what's more, you won't have to queue to get in! Return to top
"the most exciting walk in London...it can do more to interpret the city than anything else, a real skeleton key" If you only have time for one walking tour, this is the one to go on - it's the classic London pub walk. It takes in London's last remaining galleried coaching inn, its best riverside walkway, its oldest market, the finest art nouveau pub in England, the church where Harvard University's founder was baptised, and an 18th-century pub that brews its own beer - plus lashings of Shakespeare, a jot of Dickens, lots of pub lore, and London's best skyline panorama. It gets better. Because there's also the recently discovered remains of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (and its sister playhouse The Rose)...and the thrilling and faithful reproduction of The Globe that's risen Phoenix-like only a stone's throw away. Let alone the astonishing replica of Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hinde, the ship that the great Elizabethan mariner sailed around the world over 400 years ago. Anchored there in the murky Thames, its timbers creaking eerily in the misty London night and The Globe just yards away...it's a ghost ship lost in time. Go on this walk. (Food is available.) This walk takes place every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:00pm.
GHOSTS
OF THE WEST END The West End of London comes alive at night. And so does its other population - its unearthly presences. You'd be well advised to look closely at the men and women we pass - for they say that half the people you see on the streets of London are ghosts! Particularly in the shadowy side streets and gas-lit alleys where we're going. Going in pursuit of the West End's rich tapestry of strange happenings: everything from the Man in Grey to the Strangler Jacket to Jack Lemmon's brush with the supernatural. Perchance you'll see the headless woman in moonlit St. James's Park. You'll certainly see the most haunted statue in London. But take heart, afterwards we'll renew our courage in a superb Georgian pub. This walk takes place every Monday and Thursday at 7:30pm. Return to top
JACK
THE RIPPER HAUNTS Please tread carefully
and keep away from the shadows - you are about to enter the abyss... He came silently out of the midnight shadows of August 31, 1888. Striking terror at the hearts - and throats - of raddled, drink-sodden East End prostitutes. Leaving a trail of blood that led...nowhere. Jack the Ripper! We evoke that autumn of gaslight and fog, of menacing shadows and stealthy footsteps as we inspect the murder sites, sift through the evidence - in all its gory detail - and get to grips, so to speak, with the main suspects. Enroute we'll steady our nerves in "The Ten Bells", the pub where the victims - perhaps under the steely gaze of the Ripper himself - tried to forget the waking nightmare. This walk takes place every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 7:30pm. This walk will not take place on December 24 or 25. N.B., Let's call a spade a spade. Going on Donald Rumbelow's walk is as close as you're going to get to nailing the Ripper. Donald is the author of the best-selling The Complete Jack the Ripper, the definitive book on the subject. In the words of The Jack to Ripper A to Z (the bible of Ripperology studies): "Donald Rumbelow is internationally recognised as the leading authority on the subject". The former Curator of the City of London Police Crime Museum and a two-time Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association, Donald is Britain's most distinguished crime historian. And I hasten add, he's not some dry-as-dust academic. He spent 25 years on the City of London Police Force - which in effect means you'll be taken over some of the most famous crime scenes in the world by a law enforcement professional. Oh and I almost forgot - he's also a professionally qualified Blue Badge Guide! But a word of warning: never part with your money or set off with anyone until you're absolutely certain you're with Donald or - if it's another night - one of his London Walks colleagues. Donald (and co.) will be holding up copies of the distinctive white London Walks leaflet. And remember, Donald and his colleagues never ever start the Jack the Ripper walk before 7:30pm. In short, don't let anyone mislead you. |
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