If you’ve ever wondered where John met Yoko, or who sold Winston Churchill his famous cigars, don’t wonder when next in London. Try wandering.
In a city whose history predates the great Roman highways–and extends years beyond Paul McCartney’s barefoot walk across Abbey Road–the very length of London’s story makes walking tours possible here for people with interests ranging from the ’60s British pop scene or the London Blitz to the architecture of Christopher Wren.
Although London is navigable with a good street map, a fun way to see the city is to join one of a multitude of informal city walks, led by knowledgeable, licensed guides. If you go, you won’t even have to worry where you’re headed.
Stepping out of tea at the posh Imperial-themed Langham Hilton, which occupies the old British Broadcasting Company headquarters, a boulevardier from the Colonies recently headed down Oxford Street to Green Park for the beginning of the “Unknown Westminster” tour, headed by Graham Watson. A retired banker who has been leading groups for 24 years, Watson is an authority on the Good Old Days of England.
Today, he is showing off the clubby district near St. James’ Palace where the men of the Empire once gathered, and where the nouveau-riche now rent flats for $4,500 a week.
A Canadian immediately impressed everyone by quoting an appropriate verse from Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “Often do the spirits of great events stride on before the events, And in today already walks tomorrow.” A Wally World vacation crowd this was not.
Gliding past the ancestral home of the Earl Spencer family (a k a Diana’s people) and Churchill’s cigar shop, Watson said the district is home to the sorts of clubs made famous by P.G. Wodehouse’s character, Bertie Wooster.
“The clubs,” he explained, “started in the 1800s as coffee houses, and people started to congregate at different ones according to interests that might have been scholarly, political, military or social.
“Picture the streets as they were then,” Watson said. “Muddy.” Pausing to catch his breath, he pointed down Park Place to a building William Hogarth used in the 1730s in his depictions of “The Rake’s Progress.”
Peeking inside windows of some of the clubs that were still open, the group saw men in pressed shirts pouring drinks from crystal decanters while reading newspapers around fireplaces.
Outside White’s Club, a traditional Tory hangout, Watson noted that Prince Charles held his bachelor party inside and told the purportedly true story of former members, who, light-headed with ennui and strong drink, once bet $3,000 each on opposing raindrops gliding down the window pane. The drop of the winning bettor would reach the sill first, Watson said.
Watson’s reading and experience, as with most of the guides from all three companies, armed him with limitless monologues and anecdotes about the most arcane aspects of London life.
The guide blushed once, while unable to recall immediately Thomas Carlyle’s name as the founder of the London Library, whose members now include the playwright Tom Stoppard. He quickly regrouped, marched forward and flawlessly recounted histories of places noted, such as Christie’s auction house, Twinings & Co. and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s wartime headquarters on St. James’ Square.
Even the places that seemed mundane from the street yielded revelations. Lock & Co. Hatters, for example, was founded in 1676 and turned out to be the birthplace of bowler hats.
Today, salespeople inside will quietly show off signed customer cards from the likes of Churchill, former Australian Prime Minister Robert Hawke, Prince Charles and Jason Robards. Visitors should use tact in making way for the high-hatted regulars buying crops, riding gear and, well, custom-made hats.
While ending our tour outside Clarence House, residence of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, a green-clad Harrods delivery man with a food hamper nodded past the gatehouse just as the Queen Mum’s changing Royal Guard strode around the grounds. It was all according to Watson’s plan. His timing, it seemed, was elementary.
Evening approached, and such copious contact with the aristocracy had left me feeling like I’d eaten too many crumpets.
I decided to visit a friend who’d just had a metal rod removed from his leg after an earlier motorcycle accident. There was an hour before a more working-class tour, “Ghost Pub Walk–By Gaslight,” left the Temple tube station.
Entering the ward at St. Thomas’ Hospital, with its view of the River Thames, a groggy patient promised to be walking soon himself, and showed off his washed-up stainless steel souvenir.
The doctor entered and couldn’t help but impress a foreigner.
“This is the oldest continually used hospital in the world,” he began. “Florence Nightingale was a nurse here. …”
DETAILS ON WALKING TOURS
When walking in England’s capital, the essential companion is a comprehensive pocketbook atlas called “London: A to Z.” Walking in London can hardly be praised enough. It’s safer than most giant cities, and the mannerly residents, of course, speak mostly English. Getting lost isn’t a big deal either. Ask, or just look up, and you will soon see a sign for the Underground. (From the subway–or Tube, as the Brits call it–it’s a quick ride to almost anyplace.)
If you go with a guide, pick up the latest brochures in your hotel lobby or at a London Tourist Authority Office, such as the one at Piccadilly Circus. No advance booking is required. Just meet at the designated Underground stop.
Three major outfits are in the guided walk business, and each offers dozens of forays, often themed on events, such as the Blitz, or on historical figures like Jack the Ripper and Charles Dickens. Prices are similar, and the tours, which usually last a couple of hours, may attract a dozen people. Many of the tourgoers are themselves British.
– City Walks, 147c Offord Rd. (071-700-6931), offers 18 tours, some led by Martin Fido, who’s written biographies of Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Rudyard Kipling and Oscar Wilde. The group charges (British pound)4 (about $6.25), with some discounts. “The London Story–Romans to the Blitz” is a good introduction to London’s history. City Walks also offer a weekly “mystery” walk, whose subject matter is everyone’s guess.
– Historical Walks of London, 3 Florence Rd., South Croydon (011-081-668-4019), has 22 tours and charges (British pound)4.50 with student and other discounts. John Muffty, with degrees in history, is a specialist on the Falklands War and headed my “ghosts” tour.
– The Original London Walks (011-071-624-3978), which leads about 10 walks daily, has been operating for nearly 30 years. Graham Watson works for this group, as does Jack the Ripper expert Donald Rumbelow. One scheduled tour visits only the British Museum, and The Original London Walks also leads day-trips to near-to-London places such as Windsor, Oxford and Brighton.
