London Walking Tours

All of the below guided walks have been lovingly researched and written by me over the past 10 years.

They are all available as private tours, and can be tailored to suit your needs.

The Famous Square Mile

The City of London is the most documented square mile in the world. Founded by the Romans and enriched by merchants in the Middle Ages, it bankrolled the British Empire and is now the country’s financial centre. It has seen more than its fair share of death, disaster and destruction but has reinvented itself each time and is now a fascinating world of soaring skyscrapers, ancient churches, and hidden gardens, with many stories to tell.

Queer Soho

Sashay through the sultry streets of Soho and explore its lengthy LGBTQ+ history, from the ‘Buggerie Act’ in Tudor times to ‘Section 28’ in the Thatcher era and beyond. Discover what the earliest drag queens got up to in their molly houses (and some of their outrageous names), how a Victorian royal was embroiled in a sensational gay scandal, where the most notorious cottaging spot was, and why a loud lesbian found herself being sat on by a BBC news reporter…

City of London: Urban Jungle

Did you know London is officially a forest?! Stroll through the gorgeous gardens of the ancient City of London and discover how death and disaster led to it becoming one of the most biologically diverse capitals in the world. Along the way you’ll hear of burial grounds brimming with bones, see a stone believed to have supernatural powers, learn how we almost never heard of Shakespeare, and the frightful fates of a medieval gay king and his murderous queen.

London’s Guildhall

Despite being over 600 years old, the City’s largest medieval hall takes centre stage in the City’s governance today. It has been a courtroom for religious dissenters, a banqueting hall for kings and queens and has witnessed some of the greatest events of British history. Housing one of the most stunning interiors in the City, finely adorned with monuments to British heroes including Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson, and giants Gog and Magog – the legendary guardians of the City.

London’s Lost Rivers: Floating down the Fleet

The River Fleet was once a major geographical feature and transport route of old London. Now invisible above ground, we will follow its lower course from Kings Cross to the Thames. You will learn how to recognise the marks it has left behind, while discovering the location of a royal mistress’s riverside residence and a notorious Dickens criminal’s secret lair. You’ll also learn a Georgian Londoners’ cure for gonorrhoea, and why a City pub applied for its licence from Cambridgeshire…

London’s Lost Rivers: Wading down the Walbrook

The River Walbrook has hardly left a trace, but without it, London may never have been formed. As we ramble down the route of its vanished valley from shabby-chic Shoreditch to the tidal Thames, there are many clues to its lost location if you know where to look... hear how an earthquake wreaked havoc on an Elizabethan playhouse, where morbid tourists gawped at raving lunatics, and why a huge natural ice rink formed every winter for over 1000 years.

Death and Damnation in the Square Mile

There are almost certainly more dead people in the City of London than live there today. Meander it’s macabre alleyways and lanes and hear some of its goriest tales from times gone by. Learn what hideous mutilation was suffered by those thought to have started the Great Fire of London, who was found swinging by their neck from a church window and why, and where the Romans carried out their most gruesome and bloody entertainment. This one’s not for the faint-hearted!

Westminster: City of Sovereigns

Westminster has provided a home to England’s royalty and aristocracy for nearly a thousand years. Ramble through regal parks and take in four royal palaces, whilst discovering the surprising central site of Tudor jousting tournaments and the public execution of a king. Learn which queen was a notorious kleptomaniac, which king was the biggest pimp in London, and the real reason that over 50 people were excluded from the line of succession…

Tales from the Thames Path: Rotherhithe to Tower Bridge

Since ancient times this stretch of the Thames has been instrumental to London’s ascendancy to a global city. Suffering in the Second World War, it has struggled to reinvent itself since, but its stories are rich and include what was dubbed at the time ‘the eighth wonder of the world’, the pilgrim fathers of America boarding the Mayflower, royal falconry, the capital of cholera, and the tear-jerking tale of a much-admired South Pacific prince.

Executions in the Square Mile

Discover the darker side of famous London sites including St Paul’s Cathedral, Smithfield Market, and the Guildhall. Learn the roles they played in the horrific practice of public execution and state sanctioned violence. From the inventive execution techniques of the Romans to a spine-tingling method of dealing with a very specific type of criminal, hear the intimate stories of the unfortunate people put to death at these sites, and the chilling culture of capital punishment in the capital city.

The Great Fire of London

Track the most famous and destructive fire in London’s long history, whilst listening to eyewitness accounts from 1666. Explore the medieval lanes and alleyways that succumbed to the sparks from a baker’s oven, and marvel at the buildings that signify the rebirth of the City we know today. Understand why the fire got out of control, who was to blame, and who paid the highest price for the disaster which ultimately resulted in 70,000 people being made homeless.

Secrets of Londinium – Roman rule in London

The Romans settled Britannia in AD43. Within 10 years they had established a new administrative capital for the province – Londinium. Over the next 2000 years it grew to become the metropolis we know today. The legions once marched through its streets, gladiators fought in its amphitheatre, and citizens bathed in its numerous bathhouses. Walk around these very same places and re-live the splendour of the classical age in our very own London town. (The tour can include optional visits to London Mithraeum and Roman Amphitheatre – access permitting).

The Queer Docklands: Sailors to Saunas

Saunter through the salty streets of Stepney, Poplar and Limehouse and uncover the lavish LGBTQ+ history lurking beneath its skin. Discover the former Chinatown of London and favourite drinking haunts of foreign sailors. Hear stories of evening escapades in holy places, the foundation of life-saving sexual health services, a polysexual club night of legendary proportions, and ‘the female husband of Poplar’, with some very famous names thrown in along the way...

Can be offered as a “Queer Beer Bar Crawl”, with pub stops at the mid- and endpoints.

Black History in the Square Mile

The presence of Black people in Britain can be traced back a lot further than you may think. Colonial expansion from initially the Roman and then the British Empire has ensured that Black people have made a huge contribution to this city’s rich history. Taking in sites from St Paul’s to the Temple, you’ll discover stories of exploration and exploitation, unparalleled injustice, impassioned African abolitionists, and a kind-hearted man of words who left an unlikely legacy.

The Preservation of Pleasure: Walking Vauxhall’s Past

Lift the veil on Vauxhall’s chequered past as you learn how it was transformed from a quiet rural village to a pleasure seekers’ paradise, lending its name to a motor vehicle on the way. You will learn about a butcher-boy known as Princess Seraphina, a secret royal outing to a legendary stalwart of London’s gay scene and discover community entrepreneurship at its best as you explore one of the most delightfully biodiverse residential squares in the whole of London.

Walking the Fashion City: The Jewish East End

In the 20th century London became a fashion powerhouse. Jewish migrants from Europe were pivotal to this meteoric rise. In the East End, the story is one of new arrivals establishing livelihoods and building careers while making the most of the job opportunities on offer. The tour covers famous East End markets, community sites of education and worship, as well as tales of great success, sadness and savviness in fashion production and retail.

Walking the Fashion City: The Jewish West End

In the 20th century London became a fashion powerhouse. Jewish migrants from Europe were pivotal to its meteoric rise. In the West End, the story is one of couturiers, boutiques, and department stores. The tour covers the whole diverse spectrum of society from humble market traders selling stockings to haute couture milliners working for royalty, as well as iconic high street brands and innovative entrepreneurs responsible for creating the cultural revolution known as the “Swinging Sixties”.

The Guildhall Art Gallery and Roman Amphitheatre

The City of London Corporation is the third largest arts sponsor in the UK. It holds a word class collection of over 4,500 pieces of art, much of which is displayed in the Guildhall Art Gallery. From Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces to contemporary London-based artists, the works on display weave together a rich tapestry of London’s history. The remains of Londinium’s amphitheatre are visible beneath the gallery – with fascinating details not immediately visible that need an expert guide.

Historic Pubs

The pub is a British institution – as important to the cultural identity of these islands as the Royal Family, Fish and Chips and queueing. Being the capital London has its fair share of these historic drinking houses. Take a walk from the Thames to Bloomsbury via Fleet Street and the Inns of Court to hear stories of talking parrots, zeppelin raids, cats in Elizabethan ruffs, and some very racy 18th century decorative tiles…

London’s Lost Rivers: At the Source  

London has over 20 rivers but over the years as the city has grown, many have been diverted underground and now swirl and surge silently beneath our feet. On this walk, high up on Hampstead Heath we seek the sources of three of the rivers that once flowed through and shaped central London – the Fleet, Tyburn and Westbourne. Along the way you’ll hear stories of the important roles the water has played in the social history of the area.

London’s Lost Rivers: Trickling down the Tyburn

The River Tyburn was one of London’s smaller rivers – renowned for its purity and diverted. Submerged long ago, it still flows below some of London’s affluent areas and recognisable landmarks. We follow its lower course through the backstreets of Mayfair, until we reach the Green Park and St James’s Park, where its trail is lost. Hear stories of royal parties gone awry, two unlikely musicians separated by time, and the salacious past of Buckingham Palace garden.

London’s Lost Rivers: The Hidden Hackney Brook

Trace the central section of the Hackney Brook above ground, from Stoke Newington to Hackney Central. Taking visible architecture as the springboard, you’ll hear how waves of migration and gentrification transformed a group of rural villages into a buzzing multicultural inner-city suburb. Discover tales of radical religionists and Egyptian revivals, one of the most important Palaeolithic sites in Northern Europe, a modern house based on a piece of infuriating music and where Samuel Pepys enjoyed cherries and cream…

The History of the City: Fish Sauce to Finance!

The Square Mile is known as the financial centre of the UK, but it is the oldest part of this great metropolis. Wander its alleys, lanes and wharves and unravel its fascinating chronology, from its murky mythical beginnings to the rise of the Romans, its subsequent decline and medieval revival, all the way through to the modern age with its soaring skyscrapers and public art. The walk culminates with a short visit to the Guildhall Art Gallery and Roman Amphitheatre (access permitting).