London Walks
London Walks is the oldest urban walking tour company on the planet. It’s the gold standard of this profession, this craft. Here you can listen to our guides' stories and anecdotes of London.
The Blind Beggar Murder – When Ronnie Kray Shot George Cornell
The Blind Beggar shooting was too brazen.
The Man Who Made London Roar – Landseer and the Lions of Trafalgar Square
He didn’t just paint animals. He gave them emotion.
Thirty-eight Seconds of Perfect Guiding
He didn't know it but at that moment Charles Cross insured his immortality within the pages of history books.
The American Who Reinvented Oxford Street
After Selfridge, shopping became a leisure activity.
Oxford Street Without Traffic?
Now if you know Oxford Street you know the soundtrack. Buses roaring. Taxi horns. Engines revving. Delivery vans edging forward inch by inch like nervous chess pieces. It’s noisy, chaotic, gloriously unmistakably London. So imagine this: Oxford Street… without traffic.
When John Lennon Said the Beatles Were More Popular than Jesus
Sixty years ago a seemingly innocuous feature in a London newspaper triggered one of the most extraordinary cultural storms of the 1960s. In a quiet interview with the Evening Standard, John Lennon made a remark that travelled from Fleet Street to the American South — and ignited bonfires of Beatles records. In this episode we trace the tiny London tremor that became an international cultural earthquake.
Everest – At Eve, The Rest
Why is Everest called Everest? At dusk on the world’s highest peak, we discover a name, a surveyor, and, yes, a London story. A March 3rd story.
Happy New Year, Londinium – When March Was New Year
Before January claimed the crown, the year began in March. In this London Walks dispatch we step back into Roman Londinium to see how New Year’s Day once fell on March 1st.
Roger Daltrey – from Shepherd’s Bush to The Who
Born in Shepherd’s Bush and armed with one of rock’s great roars, Roger Daltrey helped define the sound of modern London. Today’s London Calling marks the birthday of The Who’s legendary frontman.
The Man Who Drew Wonderland
Meet John Tenniel, the London artist who gave the world Alice, the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat. Born on February 28, this quiet Punch cartoonist drew the definitive Wonderland.
The Bayeaux Tapestry is Coming to London
It’s about the seismic shockwave that followed, and is still being felt nearly a thousand years later.
In Paper We Trust
The Bank of England. did something quietly revolutionary.
The Great Trafalgar Square Pigeon War
a city that understands the fine art of dignified absurdity
Extra! Extra! – Tube Etiquette, Ukraine, etc.
By early evening the blue-and-yellow flags will start to appear.
Mother’s Ruin
It's one of the most jaw-dropping episodes this city has ever produced.
The City’s Flag – and the Story It Tells
Seven centuries of continuity
Trouble Brewing on the Heath
Change is in the air.
A Feline Fix from the Capital
"the trains are now painted with whiskers and paws"
The Night the Fuse Was Lit at Drury Lane
If we could but look into the seeds of time...
Meet Your Guide – On the Scene with Catherine Randall
the book came in for praise from a very distinguished quarter
The Duke in the Barrel
trouble wearing velvet
The Ladder into Thin Air
Halfway to heaven on a ladder that looks about as reassuring as overcooked spaghetti.
How Many Nobel Prizes Has London Won?
The city did not just inherit brilliance. In many cases, it saved it.
Tagore in the Vale of Health
a tear drop on the cheek of time
London’s Last Line of Defence
A medieval city that once feared fire now fears water.
Bart’s – Born of a Fever Dream
that black, bottomless pit was death
When London Drank Death
the “Great Stink” of 1858 made Parliament gag
Ave Atque Vale, Sylvia Plath
she was in the grip of the most ferocious creative surge of her life.
Death Arriving
Painted across the 1860s, it isn’t a single memory – it’s grief revisited.
The Man Who Weighed the World
He weighed the world...and made it run on Greenwich time.
Grave Business
There was no honour among body thieves.
Extra! Extra!!
Down below, chaos. Fear. Guns. A body on the steps.
Sir Thomas More – Born in London
Into that street, that soundscape, that smellscape, comes Thomas More.
Out of the Palace of Dim Light
Old Rowley had put the country back in foal.
The Sage of Chelsea
“So this is Death: well …”
One of London’s Most Beloved Fall Guys
London grit meets London showmanship.
When the Haymarket Closed In
The familiar made strange; the invisible made visible.
Candlemas in a Dying City
Outside, the carts are rumbling past, piled with bodies.
Imbolc
London is permanently pregnant with itself.
London Takes On Slavery
London does something extraordinary. It decides to fight back against itself.
