London Walks too crowded sometimes?
 

I've thought of going on a London Walk, but haven't done it yet. A couple of times I saw the gathering, but noticed how many people there were, and thought better of it. How does this work in practice? Is it really possible to get a good tour and hear the guide when there are dozens of people crowding around?

Also, I know this question probably sounds repetitive, but are you expected to tip the guide?

My experience with the Jack the Ripper walk was that I'd forget it. We were part of a group of probably 75. Our guide was horrible, difficult to hear or understand, and totally lacking in knowledge. She knew one story which she repeated over and over again. Donald's tour was already fully booked with a specific group. On the other hand we did a "Mysterious East End" tour with Donald on a Sunday and it was simply great -- only about 15 people.

As Patrick mentions you will get a variety of group sizes on the walks. I have gone on walks with as few as 6 people and as many as 100 (Jack the Ripper). The evening pub walks are popular- group sizes around 25- 45. They are fun.

The majority of the guides are very good. They have set up their walks so that they will give their talk in a relatively quiet area. On occasion, they will come up against traffic noise.

Although I have tipped a guide, it is neither required or expected. I feel that these walks are a good value, as they are good introductions to an area of London you may not know. The stories you hear are good. You may get a guide who isn't good, but I would say that is rare.

If you plan on taking more than a couple walks during your visit, ask the guide for a discount walkabout card. The standard price is 5 pounds, the discount card is 6, but then each walk after that is just 4 pounds. It would be the equivalent of getting a free walk every 5th time. The discount card is good for a month.

hi willtravel,

Okay, here was my experience with the london walks. We took two different night walks on our last london trip, and my travel friend actually took 1 more on her own during the day.

Our evening walks consisted of two popular walks, "the ghosts of old london" and "the jack the ripper walk". Both were done by the london walks company.

Our first one was excellent, "the ghosts of london". We got Shaughan as our guide and he really got into the part and made the walk not only informative, but extremely entertaining, (he was/is an actor and singer). there was a group of about 40. the walk went pretty quick (about 1.5-2 hours) and we ended up close to the same tube station so had no problems getting back safely. the walk itself was entertaining and very interesting, but having someone getting into the part, dressing the part, etc, really made the difference. we both enjoyed that 1st walk immensely.

Our second walk was much different, as least for me. We decided to take "the jack the ripper walk" on sunday which would be a day that Donald Rumbelow would be there. When we arrived, (at tower hill metro stop), there were already about 100 people there and before we knew it, there was closer to 150. Donald was taking money and told the group that there were too many people for just one guide and he introduced another guide and asked if some of us would be willing to go with him instead. about 1/3 of the people went with the other guide (I didn't realize it at the time but my friend had elected to go with the other guide instead of donald).

I kept looking for her and it wasn't unitl after we had been in the walk a few minutes that I realized that she had done so. Since I really wanted to hear Donald, I stayed with his group. This was a mistake.

First, because the group had been so big and had to be split into two, they let the other group start and get 5-10 minutes ahead of us. problem was the other guides pacing was different than donalds and we ended up not going thru the routine in the order it was suppose to be presented. They would be at the spot on the walk that the presentation was suppose to occur, and we would end up having to do ours 2 blocks away. so we basically ended up just listening to donald tell the story, without really having the actual reference spot in front of us.

To top this off, donald must have been having a bad night, or he had simply done this way to much, because instead of being entertaining his presentation was by route or very stiff. Kind of like "okay, I've said this a hundred times, lets just get it over with".

I was not impressed. We finally finished in a alleyway not anywhere close to the orginal tube stop and in a section of town I was not familiar with. My problem was my friend had our map and like alot of people on the walk, we expected to be near a metro stop at the end of the tour. When Donald finished instead of taking the group to the nearest metro, we got, "for those of you that need help getting to the metro, as soon as I finish doing the autographs and selling my book...I'll take you to the metro."

We had to wait a good thirty minutes for him to cash out and sell his books to those people wanting to buy it, and wait for the autographing. After about 30 minutes of waiting, several of us just interrupted and asked for directions and headed out. luckily we found the tube stop about 10 blocks away. I did not appreciate this.

Finally, my expectations of having the walk under Donald, "the expert" were way to high. He did not give us his opinions about the case based on his expertise, instead when asked he would say things like "he addressed that issue in his book" obviously hawking his book. Maybe I expected too much, but this was quite disappointing.

My friend and co-traveler had a much different experience with her guide, he was lively and informative, and had no hesitation sharing his views on "jack the ripper". She had a much different experience. her guide was new and fresh and not tired of it all, and instead of holding the crowd hostage to wait on the few who were buying something, her guide took them to the metro first and then took time with those that wanted to buy donald book.

My assessment of this situation. First, I think donald has been doing this too long or he was having an off day. My recommendations for those of you interested in the ripper walk is not to wait to do it with just donald. you might be better off on another night with a smaller crowd. I would still do it thru the london walks group becaue their guides are very trained and skilled.

The third walk was a day walk that penny did about london pubs and she loved it. had a wonderful time!

I recommend the walks done by this company because of this, but some of them like the jack the ripper walk have become very overcrowded and you might be better off doing it on a night other than the one donald does it. it was my experience that he did not bring his expertise to the walk, instead he brought his expertise in salesmanship.

hope this helps!

What fame can do! This makes me even sadder that our favorite guide couldn't complete with the London Walks mega-company.

Any way to figure out the least crowded walks? Or can anyone report on some. Of course these might also be the least interesting - but maybe not.

Sounds from what Patrick and Erin said that the Jack the Ripper walk might be problematic - luckily that is not a primary interest of mine :).

I have done nearly 4 dozen of these walks and I found that the least crowded ones are the morning walks. I enjoyed them as much as the evening pub walks that are more crowded.

They have several interesting walks throughout the day. Some personal favorites - Old Mayfair (Thurs. AM) with Peter. His pub walks are very good as well. Little Venice (Wed AM) with Emily. It takes you along London's canals. Eccentric London (Fri PM) with Kim or Hilary. Pubs, Playhouses and Gaslit Passageways (Tue PM) with Ruth. She is an absolute delight. The Beatles walks on (Tue and Thur AM) with Richard.

Some of my favorite guides - Shaughan, Ruth, Kim, Desiree, Gillian, Peter and Doug.
I have done several walks with most of them and enjoyed every minute.

I just returned from a week in London. As we have on past trips, my wife and I participated in 5 walks with Original London Walks including one of their "Explorer Days." None had more than 25 participants. All were well led and great fun. As near as I can tell from talking about the problem with walk leaders, the Jack the Ripper walk is often over crowded -- we did not go on that one. Also, pub walks are sometimes over crowded, and the over crowding varies slightly with the season.

Favorite walks include: Historic Greenwich (read Dava Sobel's "Longitude" before you go), Old Hampstead Village, The Inns of Court, Old Chelsea, and any of the Explorer Days.

I took the Ripper tour on a Sunday night, 2 years ago this week. There were two guides to split the crowd of around 300 people.

Keith

Are the museum walks worth doing? We plan on taking the National Gallery walk and maybe the British Museum walk.

We've done a number of London Walks over the years. Our two favorites of all time were the Bloomsbury Literary walk and the Lambeth Walk--both done by guides who grew up and lived in the areas, so we got a lot of anecdotes, stories, personal observations that really brought the neighborhoods to life.

I looked at the London Walks web site and couldn't find the Lambeth walk, and it looks as though the Bloomsbury Literary one is now some sort of a pub crawl. I guess the titles weren't as sexy as some of the other walks.

We took five or six London Walks last summer, including Donald's Jack the Ripper, and enjoyed every one--some guides more than others, of course, but all were knowledgeable and entertaining. Our experience with Donald was similar to erinb's in that the group was divided, but we stayed with Donald, who was "on", and found the whole experience fascinating; we happily bought his book and posed with him for photos. (We'd been on a tour with him before, of the British Museum; he was fabulous). I was careful to stay close to him, so had no trouble hearing--maybe that helped. Anyway, I'd say that the crowd doesn't necessarily destroy the experience, but that if the idea worries you, or maybe if you're a slow walker, you should pick another tour or another guide. Of the other guides, we, too, absolutely loved Shaughan. Another highlight was our expedition to Canterbury with Simon.

LynnieD

The musuem walks are worth doing especially if you haven't been there before. The Brtish Museum walk covers the major attractions (Rosetta Stone etc) The National Gallery walk is a nice introduction to one of the great art musuems of the world.

Across the street from the British Museum is a nice pub - The Museum Tavern. Karl Marx would come here after his day in the British Library.

I thought the walk called "Christopher Wren's London" (guided by Hilary) was fascinating, and there were only about 20 people on the walk when I took it last year.

I've done the British Museum walk and thought it was great. It was primarily devoted to the Rosetta Stone and Elgin Marbles. The guide talked about every section of the frieze. These were the things I was most interested in so the walk was perfect for me. Unfortunately, with about 30 minutes left on the tour the alarm went off in the museum and everyone had to leave and we didn't know when we would be let back in. I think what we missed in the last 30 minutes was the Egyptian art.

The other 2 walks I would recommend were Christopher Wren and the evening pub walk. I didn't care much for the Old Westminster walk. The guide was good but the subject wasn't as interesting as the other walks.

Each walk (except the evening pub walk) had about 20 people max. We could hear the guides perfectly. If there was traffic the guide would take us around the corner to a quieter street and talk and then show us the sight. This worked out well.

I haven't been on a London Walk yet but am planning to take one on my next trip (leaving in 13 days!). While Jack the Ripper seems to be the most popular, the one I'm most interested in is called "Strictly Confidential - The Distinctly Different Royal Route" which promises a peak over the wall of Buckingham Palace. Has anyone had any experience with that walk that they could share? It sounds real interesting from the brochure/web site.

The British Museum provides good guides of their own and you aren't limited to the the times that London Walks does the museum.

Keith

Hi Daisy,
I am a fan of most of the Original London Walks, I try to fit in at least one walk each time I'm in London.
A friend and I went on the Distinctively Different Royal Route walk a couple of years ago. Sorry to say, it was my least favorite London walk .
The guide was enthusiastic but her subject matter turned out to be not particularly interesting. However, maybe the guide has refined her anecdotes since I took the walk.
If one wants to 'peek over the walls of Buckingham Place ' an additional £2 is added to the usual £5 price of the walk.
The extra £2 gets one a discounted entrance ticket to see the inside of Wellington Arch , the final stop on the walk.
There is an observation platform at the top of the Arch and it is from there that a sliver of the Palace's tennis court ( which is across a road from the Arch) is visible.

Really like the London walks esp the Explorer Days with Richard with the red hat and the ghost walks. I even liked the Jack the Ripper one. Ours wasn't too crowded but then Donald wasn't there. The guide was very good and we did get to hear the stories whilest standing by the sites where they occured.

We went on Donald's Jack the Ripper walk.

The walk was very interesting. I made it a point to really keep up a get myself fairly close at each stop.

With the size of the crowd they tried to divide the group. Of course it ended 90/10.

The end was a problem. Between signing, selling and going to a pub that probably pays him a commission, a group of us set out to find the tube in a not so nice part of town.

Eventually we found it and got back.
I have an issue with that part.

The rest was very enjoyable.