So every London Walk – by definition – is “unusual.”
But what we mean here by the term “unusual” is walks that aren’t immediately obvious. For the most part they fall into two categories.
1. Walks – like Brook Green: The Secret Side of Hammersmith – that go off the beaten path, that explore an unfamiliar, largely unregarded part of London – a part of London it wouldn’t have occurred to you to visit. A part of London you perhaps haven’t even heard of.
2. Walks – like T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land Tour – that follow a rarefied thread. A thread you hadn’t noticed – or didn’t know was there – through an otherwise well-known part of London.
And don’t be under any misapprehensions – these are not “junior varsity” walks. Every one of them is A-List* – they’re just A-Listers that are less well known. See, by way of example, the review, below, of Rick Jones’ Wasteland Tour.
*Jessica’s February 2022 review of The Waste Land Tour: “In 20 years of London Walks, I think this is the best one I have ever been on. Rick is simply marvellous. I studied the Waste Land extensively at university but I never understood it the way I did after this tour. The stops are thoughtfully chosen to illustrate certain passages and Rick peppers in sprinklings of music and literature and history – he also sings beautifully and tells stories beautifully – it gives the Waste Land a new depth and humour. He recites long passages of the poem so that you can hear the music in them and speaks in the voices of the characters – all at once you recognize them as people, the kind of people who weave in and out of the streets all around you. It’s a beautiful homage to the City, to London, to Eliot, and to thousands of years of history that swirl around in the Waste Land. (But to be clear, even if you don’t care about this poem, this is still a WONDERFUL walk – the poem just serves as the anchor and you bob in and out of the poem and the history).”
Saturday, 04 May 2024 @ 10.45 am (Click here for more dates)
The history of tea is hidden amongst the City streets and alleyways...
Saturday, 04 May 2024 @ 11 am (Click here for more dates)
Saturday, 04 May 2024 @ 11 am (This walk goes every Saturday)
"And now, Harry, let us pursue that flighty temptress, adventure"
Saturday, 04 May 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
Discover the dark side of the empire...
Saturday, 04 May 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
Guided by the distinguished Geologist Ruth Siddall..."particularly exotic and colourful stones"
Sunday, 05 May 2024 @ 10.45 am (Click here for more dates)
Urban oases, havens of 19th-century tranquillity
Sunday, 05 May 2024 @ 10.45 am (Click here for more dates)
"London Walks puts you into the hands of an expert on the particular area and topic of a tour" The New York Times
Sunday, 05 May 2024 @ 11 am (This walk goes every Sunday)
"a corkscrew of a route that pops cork after cork of east London's vibrant, heady, dynamic street art scene"
Sunday, 05 May 2024 @ 2.30 pm
"we step into a different world here, a different world bouquet’d with incidental delights – 'The Upside Down House', for example..."
Monday, 06 May 2024 @ 2.30 pm (This walk goes every Monday)
the best of British painting and sculpture over 500 years – guided by professional arts critic Rick Jones
Monday, 06 May 2024 @ 6 pm (Click here for more dates)
"the first great comedienne..."
Tuesday, 07 May 2024 @ 9 am (Click here for more dates)
"Miraculum orbis. Wonder of the world, annexe to heaven..."
Tuesday, 07 May 2024 @ 6.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
‘where is there such another maze of streets, courts, lanes and alleys?’ asked Dickens
Wednesday, 08 May 2024 @ 10.45 am (This walk goes every Wednesday)
Four words* that make my blood race: “hasn’t yet been discovered.” *Right up there with hidden places, hidden history
Wednesday, 08 May 2024 @ 11.30 am (This walk goes every Wednesday)
"in 20 years of London Walks this is the best one I've ever been on"
Wednesday, 08 May 2024 @ 2 pm (Click here for more dates)
Through Tudor London in the footsteps of C.J Sansom’s dogged, melancholy ‘hero’ Matthew Shardlake and his ‘sidekick’ Barak
Wednesday, 08 May 2024 @ 2.30 pm (This walk goes every Wednesday)
Guided by arts critic Rick Jones, Secretary of the Critics Circle
Thursday, 09 May 2024 @ 2.30 pm (This walk goes every Thursday)
Just a little prick… from Edward Jenner to AstraZeneca
Thursday, 09 May 2024 @ 7 pm (Click here for more dates)
Friday, 10 May 2024 @ 10 am (Click here for more dates)
Tom's a barrister, Joanne's a criminal defence lawyer. Small group guaranteed.
Friday, 10 May 2024 @ 10.30 am (This walk goes every Friday)
"Fan vaulting, Bow bells, a Mediterranean courtyard, a sermon timer and a mighty organ beneath Christopher Wren's most beautiful dome"
Saturday, 11 May 2024 @ 9 am (Click here for more dates)
The achingly beautiful Cotswolds...
Saturday, 11 May 2024 @ 10.45 am
"People who love to eat are always the best people" Julia Child
Saturday, 11 May 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
The glittering whirl of Knightsbridge conceals a shadowy world of modern-day assassins, spies, and special forces.
Saturday, 11 May 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
Sunday, 12 May 2024 @ 10.30 am (Click here for more dates)
"a walk which combines places, people and the cats who lived there"
Sunday, 12 May 2024 @ 10.45 am (Click here for more dates)
The East End Gangland & The Dark Side Of The Swinging 60s
Sunday, 12 May 2024 @ 10.45 am (Click here for more dates)
Dulwich is a world – a hamlet – unto itself. There's no other place like it in London. Be sure to bring your camera.
Sunday, 12 May 2024 @ 7 pm (Click here for more dates)
'The Game's Afoot!' Follow the fascinating adventures of Holmes and Watson (and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) around London's West End. Guided by Richard IV
Wednesday, 15 May 2024 @ 11 am (Click here for more dates)
A celebration of the works of Sir Christopher Wren 1632-1723
Friday, 17 May 2024 @ 10.45 am (Click here for more dates)
"secret places and hidden interiors"
Friday, 17 May 2024 @ 6 pm
"best medley of lost lanes and hidden passageways in all of London"
Saturday, 18 May 2024 @ 10.30 am (Click here for more dates)
Guided by former ITN Editor Stewart Purvis CBE. "You got Stewart Purvis to guide Hampstead Spies? That's like getting Dan Rather to guide Dealey Plaza"
Sunday, 19 May 2024 @ 10.45 am (Click here for more dates)
Old, picturesque, storied, full of character, riverine, tucked away on its isthmus, sitting pretty – that’s Chiswick.
Sunday, 19 May 2024 @ 2.30 pm
Combines the hidden byways of London's most secret canal and the Thames' mightiest cathedral.
Wednesday, 22 May 2024 @ 10.45 am (Click here for more dates)
"hasn’t changed in 400 years"
Friday, 24 May 2024 @ 9.30 am (Click here for more dates)
A full day Rock'n'Roll exploration of historic southwest London - guided by Adam.
Saturday, 25 May 2024 @ 10.45 am (Click here for more dates)
Before Ziggy… Before the Thin White Duke… A walking tour of Bowie's Soho 1963-71. Guided by Adam
Saturday, 25 May 2024 @ 1.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
What is the evidence? And can we trust it? Archaeologist-guided.
Saturday, 25 May 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
"a murky world of treason & treachery, betrayal & murder"
Saturday, 25 May 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
"London is stranger than fiction"
Saturday, 25 May 2024 @ 6 pm (Click here for more dates)
On the trail of the great novelist...
Sunday, 26 May 2024 @ 2.30 pm
"from the Age of Canals to cutting edge, 21-st century London"
Sunday, 26 May 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
Now a chic London neighbourhood but then 'a haunt of thieves and whores'
Sunday, 26 May 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
Explores Spitalfields, chronicles the lives and times of the Huguenot silk weavers...
Sunday, 26 May 2024 @ 7 pm (Click here for more dates)
"Dickens' London was a place of the mind, but it was also a real place. Much of what we take today to be the marvelous imaginings of a visionary novelist turn out on inspection to be the reportage of a great observer"
Thursday, 30 May 2024 @ 10.45 am (Click here for more dates)
Sex, drugs, politics & fashion. "A real storyteller who has you spellbound right from the start" Tripadvisor Sept 2022
Saturday, 01 June 2024 @ 10.45 am (Click here for more dates)
What does history SOUND like? A musical walk around Westminster's statues with Adam
Sunday, 02 June 2024 @ 10.45 am
Spring in Kew Gardens. Includes the newly opened, breathtakingly beautiful Temperate House.
Sunday, 02 June 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
The London of a couple of centuries ago. A London of tunnels and bridges and narrowboats and locks.
Thursday, 13 June 2024 @ 6.30 pm
follows the events of the Revolt as the Peasants move through London in June 1381
Friday, 14 June 2024 @ 6 pm
"most of what has passed has left plenty of traces"
Saturday, 15 June 2024 @ 10.45 am (Click here for more dates)
Celebrating 60 years of the Rolling Stones. Guided by Adam
Sunday, 16 June 2024 @ 2.30 pm
"there's no lovelier piece of lowland scenery in South England..."
Saturday, 22 June 2024 @ 10.45 am
"People who love to eat are always the best people" Julia Child
Sunday, 23 June 2024 @ 2 pm
"special not least because we'll be walking along one of the loveliest stretches of the Thames"
Saturday, 29 June 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
Guided by a distinguished University College London Geologist..."the building materials of Westminster Abbey, the statuary in Parliament Square and the Houses of Parliament"
Sunday, 30 June 2024 @ 10.45 am
the fun, the delight of getting to know a London neighbourhood that's a complete revelation
Sunday, 30 June 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
History, architecture, films, the Gunners, a Ripper candidate and for good measure, a short nature walk
Sunday, 30 June 2024 @ 7 pm
Top Secret London. Cambridge Five. ‘C’. Secret Service Bureau. OSS & SOE. Le Carré & Smiley. Somerset Maugham & Ashenden. Guided by Richard IV For Your Eyes Only.
Saturday, 06 July 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
Your boon companions on this tour of London in the Middle Ages are a Museum of London archaeologist and the greatest medieval poet of them all.
Saturday, 13 July 2024 @ 10.45 am
"the King's nickname was Tumtum, he had a 47" waist, and every night a cold roast chicken was placed beside his bedside..."
Saturday, 13 July 2024 @ 2.30 pm
Guided by the distinguished Geologist Ruth Siddall..."stones are ingrained with geological and historical memories"
Sunday, 14 July 2024 @ 2.30 pm
This unusual, highly original walk – indeed, it's sui generis...
Sunday, 21 July 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
"unseen, untrodden, unexplored, unknown London beckons"
Sunday, 28 July 2024 @ 10.45 am (Click here for more dates)
Scandal! Adultery! Big Bangs! Our royal story is an opera in itself. Guided by Adam.
Saturday, 03 August 2024 @ 2.30 pm
Guided by the distinguished Geologist Ruth Siddall..."From The Thames to Eternity"
Sunday, 04 August 2024 @ 11.30 am (Click here for more dates)
Archaeologist-guided!
Sunday, 18 August 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
"part gentrified, part solidly working class"
Sunday, 25 August 2024 @ 2.30 pm
"unique in Britain. A double radial gate lock, it was designed to cope with floods and tides..."
Sunday, 27 October 2024 @ 2.30 pm (Click here for more dates)
"200 years in 2 hours"
Sunday, 27 October 2024 @ 4 pm (Click here for more dates)
All the Ghosts come out for Halloween!
Saturday, 09 November 2024 @ 2.30 pm
1. "we explore the London that William conquered" 2. "we lay bare how he changed England for all time"
Wednesday, 25 December 2024 @ 11 am
Wednesday, 01 January 2025 @ 7 pm
How London has celebrated the New Year over the past 2000 years – and some crystal ball action for 2025
We run a ton of private walks. If you to go on any of the walks below, it’s eezy peezy as well. Just give Fiona, Peter, Niamh or Mary a ring on 020 7624 3978 – or email us at [email protected] and we’ll set it up for you and make it happen.
"the first duty of society is justice"
It’s a terrible story, it’s a moving story, it will grip you.
A strange amazing day – and walk – that comes only once every four years. For the rest of the time it does not "exist."
turning points in history
Weaves an exploration of Victorian London with Dickens's London Life and writing...
We go on the trail in the Square Mile, seeing a surprising amount that Holmes and Watson would still recognise.
London adazzle – its most glorious constellation of Christmas trees...
What did the Romans ever do for us? We know what guide Ian does for the Ukraine and earthquake crisis appeals – he donates his fee.
This walk has been specially created for the Mayfair Times Literary Festival. The charge for this walk is £20 (there are no concessions).
Rocks of Ages – Urban Geology in the City (guided by a professional geologist)
an archaeologist-guided portrait of London in the early 16th-Century
"we look at evidence for 'Celtic' origins of London and how May Day was celebrated in London"
"from the deep past to a vision of the future"
"the general rule in medicine in Stuart England is ‘better out than in’"
"with a fine disregard for the rules"
we use ancient methods to divine what is in store for us in 2024
...incendiary publications, industrial strife, revolutionary trade unions, soup kitchens, housing charities and shelters for the homeless.
"more about those forgotten than those remembered"
"with a space-age American embassy tucked in behind it"
"there are places along the towpath that are little changed"
We could be in 1620. Or May 28, 1940. Or June 6, 1944.
"the source and inspiration for one of the great classics of English literature"
Take a walk through the most magical corner of the kingdom. Guided by Dan Parry
As the Sun and Moon move around our skies we look at how Londoners organised and celebrated their year throughout history. Guided by Kevin
"where they sang, wrote poetry and played rugby"
Trailblazers of the East End – Guided by Laura
"London bridge is the key to much of the history of London"
"The national dish is no longer fish and chips, it's curry"
"a feast of stunning art and architecture"
The best Dickens Christmas Festival in the world!
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen devotee must be in want of this virtual tour"
The walk tells the story of London's myths , legends and the celtic origins of Halloween. Guided by Kevin
Guided by the author of The Lonely Planet Guide to London
Almost a third of all Londoners are now foreign-born, representing 270 different nationalities and 300 languages. Guided by Steve F
“Tis the night—the night. Of the grave's delight"
"reveals the vast importance of horses in asserting the position of those in power"
Alex takes a look at the world of the 18th Century sex and brothel trade.
The history of Rock and Pop in the West End.
A story showing people at their worst and best, tells the horrors of the slave trade, the extreme cruelties and yet contains seeds of hope. Guided by Isobel
Tradeswomen, writers, lawyers, feminists, martyrs, muses and murderers: women’s stories aren’t always nice, nor are they niche.
Ever since William the Conqueror (aka William the Bastard) hit the scene in 1066, legitimacy has been a life or death issue for the Royals. Guided by Ian
The old City of London has been a haven for moviemakers for over a century, and here are some of the glorious highlights. Guided by Richard IV
"The first British Brexit?"
Your boon companions on this tour of London in the Middle Ages are a Museum of London archaeologist and the greatest medieval poet of them all... Guided by Kevin
"tiny gas-lit alleyways, unknown even to many Londoners..." N.B. Guide Ian donates all of his fee to charities!
To mark International Women's Day
An affectionate Yuletide offering from the glory days of the Great Detective and his creator.
An affectionate celebration of the real places behind this timeless classic. A revealing virtual tour of the City Dickens knew so well.
This walk tells the epic tale of the uncovering of London's past by Archaeologists...
Temperatures of more than 1000° meant everything was consumed in the inferno...
How a capital city emerged fit to rule the greatest empire the world had ever known...
"Marylebone – a magnet for so many inspiring women"
"Welcome to an English rainforest of different types of trees and plants. Then a POW! of a contrast..."
"William the Conqueror!" N.B. Guide Ian donates 100 percent of his fee to the Horizon Scandal Fund! And London Walks donates 75 percent of its commission to the Fund.
Whoa! Wow! Peekaboo HS2 & Javelin
Walk the same streets as Colin Firth in Fever Pitch...
"a place of poverty and political exiles and refugees and revolutionaries"
A get away from it all walk – down on that towpath it's 200 years ago.
Doctor-guided.
St. Petersburg on Thames – the cradle of the Russian Revolution. Guided by a fetching young Russian historian.
"how much horsepower each bus route needed – amazing eye-opener into a lost city"
"their excesses, their maladies, their treatment, their cadres of medical attendants, their post-mortems..." Guided by a Physician
"a secret corner of London closed to the public for 200 years"
Phwoar! Wrong side of the Westminster tracks – crime, grime and where the bodies are buried
"see the invisible and understand the inscrutable"
Jollying our way along a handsome, tree-lined canal on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Perfect.
We walk with Mrs Dalloway. Walk her London. See it with her eyes.
Watch the Fireworks from the Roof of London. Auld lang syne in auld Hampstead.
We follow the crisscrossing paths of Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson as they solve their only original Christmas-time case, and Arthur Conan Doyle as he reaches a crisis in his professional life.
"Guy Fawkes was hanged, cut down while still alive, castrated, disembowelled... onlookers were never able to forget that he was conscious throughout the process"
Urban Geology < Fossils, Volcanoes, Seas, Asteroids and Time
Free booklet of London poems. Double act. David guides. RSC actor Steve performs the poems.
Doctors' London – Pox & Plague, Leeches & Quacks. Guided by a Physician.
Walkers of the World Unite!
"subterranean London...London created the Underground and the Underground created London"
Follow Dr Barry Walsh in footsteps of the famous surgeon Dr John Hunter
"No country profited more from slavery and the slave trade..."
To mark International Women's Day
"...the most extraordinary letter in London's alphabet"
"Sex and death, the two subjects everybody's interested in..." Guided by a Physician
Fitzrovia: central London's best-kept secret
"Shaken not stirred"