Tours & Activities in London
Hello and welcome to London. I'm Jill inviting you to join me for a lovely stroll through St. James and Westminster. We'll encounter the history and highlights of the area, including part of the Changing of the Guard ceremony if you join me for my 11 o clock tour on Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Sunday. I have lived in London for twenty years and worked as a tour guide for five of those as well as working in many of the buildings we'll see along the way.
We'll meet at the Ferdinand Foch horse statue opposite the Shakespeare pub at Victoria Station.
During the tour, we'll pass the Royal Mews and Buckingham Palace, make our way down the Mall encountering other lovely habitats and hidey holes of the Royal Family and their ancestors.
Passing through St. James Park, we'll then make our way down historic Whitehall experiencing all things parliamentary, police-like, and political party-ish.
We'll finally arrive at the Houses of Parliament to say hello to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. I love to make sure my walkers get the most out of their visit so please come with lots of questions so we can make your tour your own.
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
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.
Are you on holiday or on a short business trip in London? Do you want to learn, laugh and jump into a free adventure into London's past, present and future, with an experienced tour guide ?
You are in the right place!
On the road to Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, I will do my best to explain to you why Samuel Johnson (not Boris!) once wrote :
“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of Life, for there is in London all that life can afford”.
So come in and discover 2000 years of History in less than 2 hours:
- 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
- The Commonwealth Gates
- St James' Palace and Park
- The Mall and Pall Mall
- Waterloo Place
- 10 Downing Street
- Churchill War Rooms
On Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday the 10 am tour will see and hear the horse guard and the army band march by us for the Changing of the Guard ceremony (Unless canceled due to rain or other reason.)
What you will have :
- funny anecdotes and stories about London and the UK ;
- Ideas for restaurants, pubs and hidden gems in London;
- a good laugh or two
What you may have :
- A quick chat with Royal Squirrels and Pelicans;
- A public meeting with Royals ;
- The possibility to test your ability to truly "sing in the rain"
What you will NOT have :
- A 2 hours university lecture ;
- Unicorns;
- A private meeting with Charles III.
