London Walking Tours?

Hi Cate-

I have taken 2 walks by London Walks last year.
One is the Hampstead Heath Walk which I enjoyed a lot. It takes me out of the hustle and bustle of London, and we've got some nice views and green grass and fresh air.
http://www.walks.com/Homepage/Wednesdays_Walks/default.aspx#12862

The other is their Marylebone walk. It was good too, as it includes a visit to the Wallace Collection (free admission). Gives the visitor a good feel of what Wallace Collection has to offer so that he/she can go back after the tour for a more detailed visit. My only compliant is the tour takes place on Saturday, so the group can be huge and it's hard to hear the guide when it's such a large group (plus all the traffic noise)!
http://www.walks.com/Homepage/Saturdays_Walks/default.aspx#12911

One of the Fodorites (I think it was Rickmav?) mentioned self-guided walking tours from LondonToolKit. I plan to do one of those next time.
http://www.londontoolkit.com/walks/london_walks.htm

Lastly, I found this free walking guide of Chelsea recently. I am interested in doing the Cheyne Walk some time.
http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/vmtours/chelseawalk/default.asp

Cate, your questions aren't formulated very well.

1. Many of the London Walks guides have Blue Badge accreditation. So, what distinction are you making?

2. I first took a London Walks Jack the Ripper Walk with Donald Rumbelow in 1993. It was very crowded, and very good. I don't think much has changed in the past 15 years (except maybe Rumbelow walks more slowly now and gets fewer dropouts). Again the distinction is not between crowds and goodness, it is between walks led by well-informed, enthusiastic leaders and ones led by people going through the motions.

An additional bonus feature of LondonWalks is that they participate in the 2-for-1 offer via DaysoutGuide. http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/london-walks

My daughter and I took the "Along the Thames Pub Tour" and enjoyed it very much. The tour started with a very modern pub (the Founders Arms) and worked its way back in time to The George.

yk - Thanks for your thoughts on London Walks. I think self-guided tours are a great option too and you can't beat the price - free!

ron - I agree that good leaders are key. Is the Blue Badge accreditation important to you?

And re: Jack the Ripper, "crowded" is all relative. How many people would be too crowded for you? And does anyone have any recommendations for specific guides besides Donald?

This thread also has many responses regarding London Walks.
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/your-favorite-wwwwalkscom-london-walks-and-guides.cfm

While the topic was started in 2006, there were some newer entries in 2008 and 2009.

Cate asks, "Is the Blue Badge accreditation important to you?"

My answer is, if I was buying a private tour, it would be very important. If I was going on a public tour, it's only 2 hours out of my time and £5 or £6 out of my pocket, so it doesn't much matter. I've probably done more than two dozen London Walks since the first one in 1993, only one has been a waste of time and money. And I have no idea whether the woman hads a Blue Badge or not.

I think the London Walks are a great choice for a solo traveler. They allow you to become part of a group for a short period of time, particularly beneficial if you are beginning to feel a bit isolated.

I took the Jack the Ripper walk in 1998. Afterwards, I realized that we were not on an official London Walk but had been hijacked by a different leader. It was such a lucky accident. Our guide was very passionate about the story of Jack and enthusiastic in his postulation about who the Ripper really was. We had a small number of people, maybe a dozen, and walking through foggy and drizzly alley ways, listening to his tale was absolutely mesmerizing. Several times we passed other groups, that probably were the real London Walks groups and they were huge and seemed to be climbing over eachother to get close to the leader. Our guide and those guides gave eachother friendly waves as we passed eachother so there was clearly no animosity. Only later, when I was searching the website to read more about our leader, Tony, did I see where it said "Do not be fooled into leaving with anyone other than a real London Walks guide. They will never leave before the appointed time." I was glad we were fooled and completely enjoyed our experience.

We've done around 8-10 of the walks with London Walks www.walks.com and enjoyed all of them, some more than others though. The Greenwich walk which begins at Tower Hill then you travel by boat down the Thames was great but at about 3 hours, just too long.

My husband liked the walk at The Tower and also the one at St Pancras.

Having the Blue Badge is good because it means the guide knows their stuff but quite a few of the guides with London Walks are also actors and so they have a flair for the dramatic or a way of telling a good story and that's important to keep the group interested. We went on another walk, elsewhere in the UK, with a chap who had all the facts and figures but droned on and was so boring we ended up leaving early.

I think my favourite walk was The Famous Square Mile because I had no expectations and it was all so interesting. For anyone reading this, try and do this walk during the week as The City is deserted on weekends.

Kay

On the Open House weekend, I took one of the City's free guided walks from Guildhall around the alleys to the north, up to St Bartholomew's and Smithfield. Some interesting stuff I didn't already know, though I couldn't quite share the guide's enthusiasm for some of the new buildings on the route. He gave out a leaflet for a paid walk in a couple of weeks' time, and I see he has a range of walks on offer:
http://www.follow-me.co.uk

Also there are groups of guides in different localities, though I have no personal experience of them:
http://www.cityoflondontouristguides.com
http://www.ciga.org.uk/
http://www.greenwichtours.co.uk/
http://www.westminsterguides.org.uk/

Really enjoyed the Hampstead Health Pub Walk with London Walks last time I was in town. As a solo traveler, it was fun to join a group for a short time.

Hampstead Heath