London Walks

I used to love London Walks — they were high-​quality historical tours, led by knowledgeable, interactive guides. Sadly, I’ve found that the quality of the walks has gone downhill. They seem more geared to entertainment now than history. Also, the guides seem to have a «script» for a given walk — I asked several guides some clarifying questions during tours, and they brushed me off. The first walk I took consisted of a grumpy guide taking us near some mediocre sites, mostly grumbling about how they had changed, and even saying he had «almost come to blows» with one of the people in charge of one of the old churches when changes were proposed. A few of the guides were really good — Simon, as well as the guide who did the Beatles walks (outstanding). The Tower of London tour was mediocre, the Dickens walk was odd. Sadly, I probably won’t be taking any London Walks on my next trip. So sad — they used to be so good.

So glad we found these walks during our stay in London! They are a great value (only 7 pounds for students and 9 pounds for others) and a great way to learn more about an unfamiliar topic. My husband and I did 3 walks, so I’ll review them separately:
1) JACK THE RIPPER tour with Simon. We did this tour on a Friday evening and had been quite unsure of whether to go after a full day of walking and sightseeing. We were SO glad we did. Simon was an excellent guide, so entertaining and interesting, clearly very knowledgeable, and spoke loudly enough so that we could hear wherever we were in the (fairly large) group. We knew nothing about these murders and aren’t especially interested in serial killers, but we wanted to try it out since it’s a uniquely London experience, and we were not disappointed. This was the tour that inspired us to try tour #2, since we had such a good experience. Many people brought their children, but I would caution that some of the content is a little gruesome, and the guide states that the victims were prostitutes… so perhaps not kid-​friendly, although the pace is reasonable. We left the station around 7:35 and the tour ended around 9:20.
2) BRITISH MUSEUM tour. Not sure of the name of the guide on this one, but we went to the 2 PM Saturday tour. The guide was fantastic as well. She definitely lived up to the expectations set by our tour with Simon. Again, we did not have much knowledge of Greek or Egyptian or Syrian history and were not especially interested; we just wanted the London experience and to see some highlights from the museum, which is exactly what we got. The main things the tour covered were: the museum’s history, the rosetta stone, the parthenon sculptures, and a piece of Syrian artwork involving lions that I can’t recall the name of. I do wish there was a little less history of the museum so that there could have been content about a few other artifacts. However, the guide did make every minute of the tour interesting, and again, we had no trouble hearing her. I understand why so few artifacts are covered — the museum was SO SO busy on a Saturday afternoon and took ages to navigate. The tour also ends at the entrance to the Egyptian exhibits, so you have the chance to check out the mummies.
3) MAGICAL MYSTERY tour with Richard. This one was highly anticipated by my husband, who loves the Beatles, but it didn’t quite meet my high expectations set by tours 1 and 2. Richard is clearly an expert, but I just didn’t find the actual sights we visited all that interesting (exception being Abbey Road). Maybe you need to be a big Beatles fan to appreciate them. It was definitely informational and contained some other historical facts unrelated to the Beatles. Richard spoke very loudly (don’t stand too close) and gave very good instructions on taking the tube to the Abbey Road location (be sure to have a tube ticket for this part). There’s also plenty of time for photos and the pace was easy. A little disappointed with the schedule on this tour, since it started at 11 and ended at 1:15 (and you still have to make it back to Central London — which may put you at 2 by the time you’ve taken your Abbey Road pictures), it felt hard to do anything significant either before or after.
All in all, a big fan of London walks, and I wish we could have done even more during our visit.

This is one of the best ways to see London and learn about its culture and history. There is a London «walk» that will meet anyone’s taste both young and old. The guides are outstanding and and often have theater backgrounds which add a little zest to their presentations. I have probably taken 20 – 30 walks over the years and even my least favorite ones were fascinating. They are also an excellent value.
A couple words of warning. You need to be reasonably fit for many of these walks. They can cover many miles and they move along briskly. Make sure you wear comfortable and sturdy shoes. Also, the vagaries of the British climate can be a challenge so make sure you dress appropriately.
Some of the best tours are just outside London. I highly recommend taking one of these half or full day excursions. They are often less crowded and more relaxed in terms of their pace.

Signed up for the Dickens/​Shakespeare Tour, LOVED IT. Then we went on the Changing of the Guards Tour. LOVED IT! Took the Westminster Abbey Tour, LOVED IT! Would have tried a fourth but had that blasted flight home!: (Can’t recommend these tours enough. Enjoyed them all. The guides are knowledgeable and friendly. None of these walks were strenuous, more standing than walking. I only mention this because there was a nice lady with a cane on one of our tours. The guide made sure she had a place to rest or lean as we went along. Even without the breaks, I think she would have made it. Not many bathroom breaks along the way, so go, before you go.

I have been to London many times and even have family there, but I still take a London Walk EVERY TIME I am there. They are fabulous, entertaining, educational, and simply fun! The pub crawls are perfect if you’re looking for some history, some swill.

We took the Jack the Ripper Tour. Finding the meeting place was easy enough and we paid right before the tour. There were a lot of people so the tour was split into two groups and we went of different routes. Our guide was good and kind of funny. It was an interesting tour with lots of history. You will do a lot of walking so wear comfy shoes, and bring cash!

Absolutely abysmal experience.
We were greatly looking forward to the Cotswolds tour, and showed up at the designated meeting time at the designated place. There were several people around the tour guide, and we had to be told by another person that the tour had apparently «sold out» we could never get the guide, Richard, to acknowledge us or answer our questions.
HE DASHED OFF AND SIMPLY IGNORED US.
This was an extremely unprofessional way to treat people who had flown 5,000 miles to get to London, had been on the tube for nearly an hour, and who were greatly looking forward to the tour.
There is no way to pre-​register on their site, so if you are planning on one of their day trips out of London, be aware that you might have the same experience we did.

This was the best money we spent on our entire trip to London. For a family of four, the cost for a two ½ hour tour was $ 25 plus tip. The guide was incredibly-​knowledgable and entertaining. Our teenage sons really got into this and learned a lot. Be sure to bring an umbrella as these tours are held rain or shine. Also, if you do this tour in the spring as we did, dress in layers and bring a stocking cap and gloves as it does get a little cold in the evening.

Went on the Westminster Abbey Tour. Our group was large and split into three. We got Federer as our guide. What a poor experience. We could not hear half of what she said and that’s when we were standing right next to her. She also didn’t know that much about the Abbey. She would speak about English history but not tell us what room we were in. She’s not listed as a regular guide on this walk, so perhaps we got unlucky. We ended up leaving the tour and walking around on our own and listening to some of the other guides who seemed far more entertaining and could actually be heard. If we saw her as a guide again, we would not participate.

We took the London Walks tours of Salisbury/​Stonehenge, Oxford/​Cotswolds, and Bath. All three trips were fabulous. Our guides were Simon and Hillary. Both guides were excellent. They made the trips fun and informative.
All three trips were day trips out of London. We took a train to the various locations, and were either able to walk to the sites, or were picked up by coach busses. There was a wonderful mix of tour and free time.
The cost of the trip was much less than the cost of the train ride if we were going to arrange the trip on our own.
I highly recommend using London Walks.

We joined three London Walks: the «Jack the Ripper» tour, the «Tower of London» tour, and the «London Underground» tour. It was a great experience learning more about London’s history and culture through these tours. It was a nice change of pace since we have been going to tourist attractions such as the Westminster Abbey, the House of Parliament, the London Eye, etc. The guides were all very professional, knowledgeable, and entertaining above all. I would definitely recommend these tours to others instead of just the typical tourist sites.

We know that European City Walks can be crowded, especially those without reservations (just show up) so we waited until a Monday (instead of the weekend) to try a London Walks tour. We arrived at the St Paul’s subway exit as directed at 2:30 to find the female guide taking money from 35 tourists. Wow. She was directing people how to pay and we could not even understand what she was saying through the teeming throng. Note to Tour Operators: we would gladly pay double for trips limited to 15. We explored St Paul’s and the Millennium Bridge area on our own with a Rick Steves guidebook and had a great time.

I definitely agree with the other reviews that London Walks provide a great value for a 2 – 3 hour tour. We took the Rock and Roll Pub Crawl tour with Richard, and we had a great time. The guides are very knowledgeable and passionate about what they do, and are very approachable to answer your individual questions. It was quite cool to see and learn about many of the old haunts of famous rock n rollers. You visit a few pubs and have some time to take in a pint while enjoying some good company.

London Walks is an affordable way to discover the hidden gems in London. Our friend had recently visited London and thoroughly enjoyed the Old Hampstead Pub Walk so we decided to take the same walking tour.
The cost of the walk is only 9 British Pounds and there is no need to make a reservation. Just bring cash the day of the walk. The walks are hosted by actors and comedians so expect a lively performance. Our tour guide, Richard, gave a wonderfully amusing tour of Hampstead’s and London’s history.
We made three pub stops on our 2 ½ hour walk. Drinks are obviously not included with the price of the walk so be sure to bring cash for beer and cider! We stopped by The Holly Bush, Duke of Hamilton, and The Flask for drinks. All three pubs were fantastic!
If you have no interest in visiting pubs, London Walks offers a variety of other tours:
TIP: The tours go on: rain or shine so be sure to bring a proper jacket and umbrella.

This review is specifically for the «Jack the Ripper» tour, but London Walks offers several different options.
For me, no trip to London would be complete without this tour. I’m a huge fiend for true crime stories but didn’t know a lot about Jack the Ripper. That needed to be remedied. We had originally decided to go on another «Ripper» tour, but as luck would have it, we never found that particular tour guide (contradictory information and a nonworking website/​phone number don’t really help your customers to find you). After waiting around in the cold, a nice gentleman named Donald noticed us and mentioned that he was conducting a Jack the Ripper tour that would commence shortly and we were welcome to join, but he didn’t pressure us at all. Since we had made the journey anyway, we took him up on his offer.
What a fortuitous decision! Donald is a qualified Blue Badge and City of London Guide and just so happens to be THE leading authority on Jack the Ripper, as well as the former curator of The City of London Police Crime Museum AND the author of the preeminent book on Jack the Ripper. In other words, this guy really knows his shit.
The tour meets at the Tower Hill Tube Station and makes its way around various streets and sites relevant to the case; it lasts about two hours.
It was foggy, dark and lightly raining on this particular evening, which of course was entirely appropriate and only added to the atmosphere and spookiness. We were also a relatively small group of just ten people (apparently that’s an unusually small group size) so it made it easier to traverse the cobblestone streets as well as ask a ton of questions (hard to do if there’s too many people chatting at once).
The tour covered a lot of territory and was fraught with loads of history, interesting tidbits/​trivia, and humor. Even though it was frightfully cold and windy, I loved every minute. I was chilled to the bone, both literally and figuratively.
The tour concludes at the Ten Bells pub (right across from the Spitalfields Market – another place worth checking out), which was known to be frequented by at least two of the victims of Jack the Ripper – and perhaps even the man himself – back in 1888. A pint was enjoyed there after.
Donald obviously is passionate about the case and conducts the tour with the utmost enthusiasm. I imagine he’s not doing it for the money or his love of walking around in the cold for two hours every night. He also offers his book for sale (again, zero pressure to buy one) if you want to learn more about the case. Needless to say, I bought a copy of the book and he autographed it for me. The book was a great read for the long flight back to the States.
Tour was £9 (not sure about other London Walks tours) and the book was £10. Money well spent.
There’s many other «Ripper» tours to be found in London (and probably for less money), but as far as I’m concerned, this is the only one that matters.

I was standing around Temple Tube station and noticed a walk was about to commence. Curious to see what they offered, I asked if I could have a brochure.
I was promptly given one and started to look through it. After a minute, a woman comes over and asks me if I was going on the walk.
I tell her that I wasn’t and she reaches out to snatch the brochure out of my hand. I ask her why can’t I have the brochure and she says that I didn’t pay for it. She then tightens her grip on the brochure, forcibly snatches it from me and returns to the group gathered for the walk.
I am completely dumbfounded and a bit alarmed by her behaviour. I then walk over and ask her what her name is. She says that her name is «Gillian» and that she’s just regular customer. She then says that she paid for the tour and in turn for the brochure but then says that she didn’t get one because there aren’t enough.
I’m sorry, what?
1. No customer would seriously snatch a brochure out of a complete stranger’s hand.
2. If you didn’t have a brochure, then why snatch one of of my hands and then give it away. Again, if you were a customer wouldn’t you have kept it?
Overall, I’m quite appalled by the behaviour of «Gillian» and am convinced that she is an employee of this company.
Her behaviour is appalling, unprofesssional and quite frankly shocking. If London Walks treats their potential customers in such a disgusting manner, I’d hate to see how they are on their so called «professional» walks.

I’ve done about 6 London Walks since 2005. The breakdown is 3 in 2005 (2 pub crawls, one day walk), 2 in 2008 (one pub crawl and one evening walk) and one in 2010 (pub crawl).
I’ve had mixed experiences more recently but attribute that more to the location and guide than anything. 4 of the 6 walks have been stellar and I’ll continue to try them when I’m in London.
Hits: Old Kensington daytime walk, Old Thames, the Hidden Pubs of old London and one (other one I can’t find anymore) pub crawls.
Missed: Haunted London (HUGE miss) and the Old Chelsea Pub walk.
I think the ones that were hits had character, beautiful scenes (buildings, thames, etc) and excellent history. Some of the pubs we visited on these are way out of the way ones that there are NO tourists in at all. THe guides were all stellar. The misses were either lame (really — the guide came dressed up in a cape and had white paint on her face to look «haunted») or there was no scenery, random history and really unimpressive /​insignificant pubs visited.

Wonderful, educational and well priced.
Offers education walking tours where you meet at tube stops. Led by a knowledgeable tour guide I saw the Jack the Ripper tour, the Westminster neighbourhood tour and countless others. As a tourist it is a must!
Also some great exercise!

We attended the London Walks «Sherlock Holmes» Tour this past Friday and it was an absolute delight… all due to Corrina
Our lovely guide Corrina was not only informative but funny, musical and dramatic. She quoted episodes of Sherlock Holmes, sang us songs about The Strand, and definitely kept track of our whole group
I appreciated how she waited for us to all gather around the point of interest before speaking — I have been on some tours that are so rushed that they will move along whether we’re there or not
Corrina also does a Haunted London Tour as well as others & I would definitely sign up for her to lead me through London again & again!

These walks are not for tourists only. We have taken a couple with friends who were born and raised in London and they enjoyed them as much as we did.
We have taken three of the four different ghost tours they offer and all of them were sensational. Two of them — Ghosts of the Old City and Haunted London — were guided by Shaughan, a professional actor who used his baritone voice and black cape to great effect. He also led an afternoon tour of Little Venice we took and his detailed descriptions gave us a deep appreciation of this beautiful neighbourhood.
Other tours we recommend are the London of Oscar Wilde (with a guide in authentic Wilde attire) and Old Camden Town.
All tours are £7 each or, with a discount walkabout card available from the guides, only £5 each, and they probably are the biggest travel bargain in London.

Ein absolutes Highlight. Wir haben bislang drei verschiedene Walks gemacht und jeder war interessant und kurzweilig. Das System ist sehr einfach, jeden Tag finden nach einem festen Plan Walks statt. Man muss sich nicht anmelden, sondern geht einfach zum Treffpunkt. Die Kosten für die etwa 2-​stündigen Walks mit 7 Pfund sind auch fair. Neben Walks in den klassischen Touristenbereichen gibt es auch echte Themenwalks oder auch Walks in touristisch nicht so erschlossenen Bereichen. Die Führer sind gut zu verstehen, alles war auch mit unserem Schulenglisch kein Problem. Wir werden mit Sicherheit bei zukünftigen Londonbesuchen immer einen Walk machen.