"I guide walks because I enjoy it, I like meeting the people who come along for a wander, I like watching them look at the rooftops, peer down alleyways and into doorways. I like introducing them to Londoners of the past, to the traditions of the City and most of all, I like to see them enjoy something a bit different about London."
The City Mole
CITY OF LONDON PENNY DREADFUL
£15.00
'Penny Dreadfuls' were the cheap forerunners of pulp fiction and had a huge influence on the development of horror and gothic literature. We look at some City of London facts and fables that appeared in their pages - or perhaps should have! We will encounter cannibalism, a spectral black dog, grave robbers, horrible martyrdoms, a devil's curse and the mysterious street that is in London, but isn't.
This walk covers the lesser known Western side of the City of London. It starts at Temple Bar, near St Pauls and finishes at Holborn. Duration is 1.5 - 2.0 hours.
SEX AND DRUGS AND HEADS WILL ROLL
£15.00
The City of London is built on hard work, ingenuity, flair and talent but there is always a flip-side to any story. This walk takes a look at the city behaving badly. We'll include questionable morals, poor hygiene, political scapegoating, enslavement, alcohol, vile punishments and bad language. Sometimes horrific and occasionally humorous this walk starts at the Monument and ends near Tower Hill.
The walk includes atmospheric streets, churchyards and quiet alleys alongside more famous locations. Duration is 1. 5 hours.
SUFRAGETTE CITY
£15.00
2017 is the centenary of the partial granting of the vote to women, not that that has ever stopped the women of the City! Meet your very own Suffragette at Monument and let her guide you through the 'herstory' of this fascinating bit of London. We meet brewers, aristocrats, maidservants, Queens, businesswomen and of course: suffragettes! Along the way there will be tales of determination, rebellion, business sense, disaster and even ice cream. Representatives of the patriarchy (men) are also most welcome!
This walk commences at the Monument and finishes by St Paul's Cathedral. It takes 1.5 - 2 hours.
BEGINNERS GUIDE TO THE CITY
£15.00
Back to basics. Why did the Romans come to London? What about the Plague and the Great Fire? Why are all the banks here?
Who is the Lord Mayor of London?
We'll look at a church, a pub, London's first shopping mall and finish up at Guildhall - the oldest medieval civic building in London. A fun way to learn all you need to know about the City and a little more...
Starts at Monument, finishes at Guildhall Yard. Duration 1.5 hours.
CITY BRIEFING
£15.00
This walk is designed for those new to the City, whether they have just started working, living or studying here. It is designed to answer the whys, whats and hows of the City. Why is it here? Why is it successful? Why is it unique? But, as ever, the aim is to do it in an entertaining way.
We will look at the Romans, a City church, a venerable Livery Hall, a Coffee House, the Bank of England, Guildhall and, of course, an ancient pub. If Guildhall is open we will visit the interior. Along the way we'll encounter philosophers, fire, plague, traders, slavers, merchants and we'll understand why it became the great financial hub it is today.
This walk can be tailored to fit professions (Insurance, Banking, International Business) and scholastic interests. Please contact me if you have any enquiries.
Duration is 1.5 - 2 hours.
BACK IN TIME - THE 19TH CENTURY.
£15.00
Much of the popular image of London is from the 1800's: pea-souper fogs, hackney carriages and gaslight. We will consider the docks from which goods and people from all over the world arrive, we'll visit places associated with tea, opium and the terrible trade of slavery. We will cut through old alley ways past Victorian taverns and Georgian coffee houses, learn about the criminals of the time, and their nemesis, the policeman. We'll learn about the hackney carriage and see some original gas lamps.
This walk commences at Monument and stops near St Paul's underground station.
Duration 1.5 - 2 hours.
SHERLOCK AND THE CITY
£15.00
This tour is similar to 'A Victorian City Peculiar' but with a Sherlockian hue. There is no need to know the stories or be a Sherlock scholar.
It is a world of stockbrokers' clerks, caped policemen, hackney carriages and dangerous criminals. We will go to St Bartholemew's, the hospital where Sherlock carries out his research (and where the modern Sherlock falls to his faked death). We'll consider the location of opium dens and the myths of monstrous hounds. We'll pass a venerable livery hall and finish at a famous pub that Arthur Conan Doyle most certainly knew.
This walk commences at Monument and stops at Fleet Street. Duration 1.5 hours.
“I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air — or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.”
Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, 1887
D. Morrier Evans, The City, 1852
“The City is a world within itself. Centred in the heart of the metropolis, with its innumerable capacities for commercial pursuits, it presents at first sight, to a stranger, a most mysterious and unfathomable labyrinth of lanes and alleys, streets and courts, of lanes thronged with bustling multitude whose various occupations, though uniting in one grand whole, seem to have no direct association with each other.”
Please email me for further information about forthcoming tours, booking lectures, presentations or tours.
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The City of London
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