Tours & Activities in London
City of London Tour: From Sugar and Slaves to Tea and Opium.
Welcome, I'm Justin. But some friendly advice! If you just want to take pretty pictures to put on social media (and don't really like walking much), I am the wrong tour guide for you! My tours attract people who like ideas, history and books. If that is not what interests you, book another tour 🙂
I have 6 walking tours on GuruWalk: 1) The City), 2) Soho, 3) Covent Garden, 4) the South Bank, 5) Mayfair & St James & 6) ArtLand, which together have around 1,500 reviews averaging 5 stars (the highest on GuruWalk in London).
City of London is my flagship tour.
This tour takes you through the "City of London", which is not the same thing as London!
The "City", as it's known to locals, is many things. Nowadays, we know the "City" as the central business district, with its many iconic skyscrapers, towering over ancient churches (providing the chance to take some stunning photos). It's also, however, the "old town", built within the footprint of the Roman city of Londinium.
The "City" also has its own police force, ancient laws and unique government and once financed the largest Empire the world has ever seen, spanning a quarter of the globe.
From being a European backwater in the 1500s, London became the largest city in the world in the 1800s, the centre of immense power and wealth.
I'll tell the story of London's rise by walking with you along the English capital's oldest streets, many of which date back 2000 years.
The triumph of London is also often a tale of "dirty money", from the Bishop of Winchester's brothels; sugar and the slave trade; and the East India Company's rape of a subcontinent and hooking of China on opium. Come with me to learn all about London's secrets
Highlights of the tour include:
- The Monument: Centre of the Great Fire of London: an event that ironically marks the start of England's global dominance
- St Mary-le-Bow: A beautiful Wren church with a connection to England's first colony in the Americas
- The Modern City: the Gherkin, Cheese Grater, Scalpel and Walkie Talkie. Where the City stands in the world today.
- The Golden Triangle:The tiny alleys that housed the coffee shops of the 17th & 18th centuries frequented by stock market speculators and fraudsters but which also gave birth to modern capitalism
- The Bank of England and the Royal Exchange: Financiers of sugar and the slave trade
- Watling Street: Best view of St Paul's in London
- The Guildhall: the political centre of the City of London that has frequently wielded more power than the monarchy & has a Roman amphitheatre hiding below it
- Leadenhall Market: Stunning Victorian marketplace used as a set in a Harry Potter movie
The tour will end a short walk from the Monument Tube Station where the tour started. I do have a card reader so can can take credit/debit cards for tips.
Would you like to see the city with a native English-speaking tour guide who has had the honor of being a full-time tour guide in multiple European cities since 2014? Then read on. 👇
Through years of experience, I have learned that these tours are most enjoyable for you if I hone it down to just the most exciting stops and the most interesting stories.
Alfred Hitchcock once said "the length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder," and I think that applies doubly so to a tour. You're on holiday, I appreciate that. You want to see the main sites, take the best photos, maybe laugh a little, and then head off on to the next adventure.
With that in mind, I keep the tour to an entertaining one hour and fifty minutes. During that time we will see the main sites, allowing you to take photos of:
- Buckingham Palace
- Houses of Parliament
- "Big Ben"
- Westminster Abbey
- Trafalgar Square and Nelson's Column
- Horse Guards Parade
- Wellington Arch
- St Martin's In The Field
- National Gallery
- Apsley House
- RAF Bomber Command Memorial
- The Commonwealth Gates
- St James' Palace
- The Mall and Pall Mall
- Crimean War/Nightingale Memorial
- Waterloo Place
- 10 Downing Street
- Churchill War Rooms
- On Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday the 11am tour will see and hear the army band march by us for the Changing of the Guard ceremony. Unless it is cancelled due to rain.
More important than the sites themselves are the stories. Little insightful or interesting anecdotes; what the little horse steps are at Waterloo Place, why Constitution Hill is called that when we don't... um.. have one, tales from the Battle of Britain, the Gunpowder Plot, what the Queen did when she woke up to find a drunken man had climbed the walls of Buckingham Palace and broken into her bedroom at 7am, etc, etc.
Having done these tours for the better part of a decade, I can usually field any history question you may have about the nation or the city, and can also offer suggestions of the best places in the city for gin, pretentious coffee (my vice), or the most memorable dining experiences with something unique to them.
I hope to see you soon,
Theo
Old Money, New Money, Dirty Money in Mayfair & St James Tour: London's Super Wealthy (Not Suitable for Children)
Welcome! I’m Justin. This one of the newest of the 6 tours I lead in London, which together have gathered around 1,500 reviews averaging 5 stars (the highest on GuruWalk).
The Mayfair & St James district of London boasts the highest concentration of billionaires in Europe. Some got their money honestly, some not!
Traditionally, this part of London was home to royals and aristocrats along with the nouveau riche of Empire (the sugar-and-slave plantation owners of the West Indies and senior East India Company employees, rich from looting India and China).
Today, the old British elites are being sidelined by a tsunami of new money arriving from all over the world as London becomes the second-home capital of the world's mega wealthy.
While Britain has lost an empire, it has instead found a new role as butler and fixer to anyone who will pay. In the process, dictators, tyrants, oligarchs, plutocrats and kleptocrats have been welcomed with open arms into the UK's capital city.
But some friendly advice! If you just want to just take pretty pictures to put on social media and have no interest in history (and don't really like walking much), I am the wrong tour guide for you! My tours attract people who like ideas, history and books. If that is not what interests you, book another tour 🙂
You do get a chance to take some great photos, but also I hope you get to "think" a little about what this area of London represents as well!
Also, this walking tour is not suitable for children unless they are older teens interested in history, politics, economics or international affairs.
Still reading? OK, this is the tour's heart.
I'll navigate you through the natural habitat of many of the richest people on the planet, centring on St James's and Mayfair.
You will get to see the traditional "old money" haunts, but I'll also point out the $200 million homes and $30k-a-month apartment complexes and private members clubs beloved by the "new money" (often dirty money). And you'll see the places this new global mega elite go to shop, eat and play.
You'll also learn how the web of hedge funds, private equity companies and family offices based in this area put both clean and dirty money to work around the world: tax free of course!
Highlights of the tour include:
- Saville Row: Famed for its tailors, who make high-end suits for the world's wealthy.
- St James Street: Street hosting old money, new money and dirty money clubs along with a Russian oligarch's trophy building frozen by the UK government after Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
- Burlington Arcade: Central London's longest and most beautiful shopping arcade dating back to 1819.
- Pall Mall: The heart of London's "old money" club land, where royalty, aristocrats, politicians and civil servants mix.
- St James Square: One of the capital's most exclusive squares. Home to the East India Club, the private members only London Library and famous think tank Chatham House.
- St James Palace: The oldest royal palace in London: the venue where the King greets new ambassadors when they arrive in London.
- Marlborough House: Commonwealth Headquarters. HQ of ex and current British colonies club, the latter group of which have turned themselves into the world's largest dirty money laundering network.
- Berry Brothers: London's most exclusive and oldest wine merchant, which also hosts a hidden alley and pocket square.
- Piccadilly Arcade: A beautiful arcade of shops fronted by fashion icon Beau Brummell.
The tour will end a short walk from Piccadilly Circus underground stations. Note I do have a card reader so can take tips by credit or debit card.
The South Bank: A Story of Pubs, Prisons, Prostitutes and Shakespeare's Plays
Welcome, I'm Justin. But some friendly advice! If you just want to take pretty pictures to put on social media (and don't really like walking much), I am the wrong tour guide for you! My tours attract people who like ideas, history and books. If that is not what interests you, book another tour 🙂
I have 6 walking tours on GuruWalk: 1) The City, 2) Soho, 3) Covent Garden, 4) the South Bank, 5) Mayfair & St James and 6) ArtLand, which together have around 1,500 reviews averaging 5 stars (the highest on GuruWalk).
My South Bank tour is especially liked by those interested in history and literature
The South Bank of the Thames at Southwark is one of the oldest parts of London. The wealthy and powerful traditionally lived and worked north of the Thames in the "City of London" and pushed the theatre, entertainers and lower classes across London Bridge into Southwark.
The area is fascinating and associated with the birth of English theatre. It is also the oldest part of London south of the river. Apart from Southwark Cathedral, it does not have big, impressive buildings like Westminster but it has so many different stories to tell!
Highlights of the tour include:
- The George Inn: Ancient galleried pub reputed to have staged Shakespeare's plays
- Crossbones Graveyard: Home to 15,000 bodies of paupers and prostitutes
- Borough Market: London's foodie mecca
- Southwark Cathedral: Rich in American associations, from the founder of Harvard University to a governor of England's first successful colony in North America, Virginia
- The Clink Prison: Used to imprison religious dissenters, the forerunners of America's Pilgrim Fathers
- The Golden Hind: The ship that opened the door to the English colonisation of America
- The Globe Theatre: Plays were popular entertainment in the late 1500s and early 1600s. Shakespeare was not high culture, but a fun night out for the masses!
I do have a card reader so can can take credit/debit cards for tips.
