MHS

Beyond the generalized comment that "all London Walks are good" -- has anyone done & have comments on the following walks:
THE WESTMINSTER NOBODY KNOWS
OLD WESTMINSTER BY GASLIGHT
OLD WESTMINSTER - 1,000 Years of History
(various times on Sunday/Monday - from the description these seem to be basically the same walk although the Gaslight one includes a portion of the Thames opposite Westminster);
THE OLD CHELSEA VILLAGE PUB WALK - this is a Sunday pub walk - will light dinner fare be readily available in this Slone Sq area? Have read comments that Notting Hill is closed up tight on Sunday.
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
The Distinctly Different Royal Route
2:15 pm Green Park Underground, Ritz exit
Not much detail description on this one other than a viewpoint down into Buckingham Palace gardens -- suspect if one knew where that viewpoint was, one wouldn't need this walk!?
Any input welcome. Thanks.

Patrick

No, but we did "The Mysterious East End" with the famous Donald and it was very good and interesting. And this from me, the guy who did not enjoy the Jack the Ripper walk!

ron

The old chelsea pub walk is my favourite amongst probably 8 to 10 pub walks I have taken. I don’t know about food around Sloane Square, but there is food at the last pub on this walk, The King’s Head & Eight Bells.

If the Westminster by Gaslight walk is the one led by David, it is quite good. Sorry, I can’t remember any specific details. If I remember rightly, it stops in at the Nell of Old Drury pub.

starspinners

I have gone on several London Walks and have enjoyed all but one...that one was the Distinctly Different Royal Route!
The guide was enthusiastic , but the commentary was just not as interesting to me as that I had heard during other walks.
If you want the view of Buckingham Palace that is touted in the London Walk brochure, you will need to pay an extra £2 ( above the £5 cost of the walk).
The extra £2 is the price of admission to Marble Arch from which roof, you can look down onto the rear of Buckingham Palace (across a road).
P.S.The 'view' you will see is a tiny corner of the Palace's tennis court. <G>

adrienne

MHS - I took one of the Westminster area walks but the name you've listed don't sound familiar. This walk was my least favorite of the 4 walks we did all with Original London Walks. Thought the Christopher Wren walk was great and the British Museum walk and Pub walk were in second place. I would highly recommend the Verger's tour of Westminster Abbey. This is not with the Original London Walks company but a tour given within the Abbey by Abbey staff.

Adrienne

uhoh_busted

We used a guidebook called "Literary Walks of London" or something like that and enjoyed the couple of walks we followed, especially the one through Chelsea. We stayed on Sloane Square just last year--there is a terrific brasserie/cafe type place called Oriel, that has a nice moderately priced menu and is open all day and late into the night. We ate there twice and enjoyed it quite a bit. (The food is lighter than "pub food" but they had a good selection of ale and beer as well as some nice wines.) It is about two doors from the Tube stop.

escholtzia

We did the Westminster by Gaslight walk two years ago and loved it-we will definately take more walks.

Keith

I did a different Westminster tour with London Walks: London Panorama tour.

It started at Tower Hill Underground and includes a ferry ride and tour of Westminster area. It concluded with a walk through part of St. James Park and the changing of the Horse Guards. I liked the tour guide (Tom, a barrister) best of the three I have seen.

Keith

RufusTFirefly

Don't even know if they have them any more, but our two favorite walks were the Literary Bloombury Walk and the Lambeth Walk--Lambeth was fascinating with lots of anecdotes and trivia as the guide had grown up there through WWII and into the 70s.

JJ127

Patrick - We did the Mysterious East End with Donald also. It was enjoyable except the day we went, there was a COLD wind blowing that made it miserable at times. Being typically understated British, Donald called it "quite brisk". LOL

MHS

Thank you all for the feedback & suggestions – have put the Chelsea Pub & Westminster by Gaslight walks on my trip calendar, along with uhoh’s suggestion of Oriel, since we will be in the area for the Flower Show also. On our first trip to London, we took the interior tour of the Abbey tour but your point is well taken, Adrienne. And thanks, starspinners, for the heads-up on the Royal Route walk – that is off my calendar, freeing up time better spent elsewhere. Rufus, there is still a Bloombury walk, but not when we will be there. Would have loved your Lambeth Walk having just watched Foyle’s War and having seen The 40’s House.

RosieM

Hey Rufus - the Bloomsbury Literay walks still exists! It was exceptional. The architechture of this area is beautiful and can best be appreciated on foot, not whizzing by on a bus. The guide had loads of great info.