Ripper Tour experience - car accident!
 

Just thought that instead of a "trip report", I'd mention experiences from our trip by topic, so it might reach people interested in a certain subject. This one is about London Walks' Jack the Ripper Tour, which my husband and son took on a Tuesday night.<BR><BR>Donald Rumbelow and his wife split the walk, though most people - about 200 - went with Donald. My husband said he frankly didn't know how they could be sure that everyone paid, since it was such a huge group. But, Donald had a stool he stood on to talk to the group, and they could hear him quite well.<BR><BR>They both enjoyed the walk, even with so many people, though there was one negative experience to it - a woman in the group got hit by a car while crossing the street. She wasn't too badly hurt, but nevertheless had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance, and they waited until she was in the van before continuing the walk. Kind of marred the experience, and with that many people, I guess it's surprising that sort of thing doesn't happen more often.<BR><BR>If you go on this walk, all I can say is to be very careful crossing the streets and trying to stay up with the rest of the group!

200 people on a walking tour?!? Is this simply a reflection of the current movie about Jack the Ripper or are all London Walk tours this large? We have done the Ghost walk many years ago & various walks in many cities but never with more than 30 people. Have possible pub walk on our list for May, but if this is "standard" acceptable number for London Walks -- we may think again. Thanks for your report. PS- like the split into topics.

I think it speaks to the popularity of Donald Rumbelow. I went on two London Walks and neither were even close to that size.

I took the tour in spring 2001, well before the movie came out. I was very surprised to see such a large turnout - well over 150 people. Despite the large crowd, everyone could see and hear Donald Rumbelow. Unexpectedly, the tour ended up being one of the highlights of my London stay and I highly recommend it to anyone. And... I am happy to report there were no injuries.

Rumbelow was getting crowds of 200+ as far back as 1993, when we took his walk.<BR><BR>On a walk in the City a couple of years ago, we were passing St. Bartholemew's Hospital and the guide reminded us not to get hit by a car, because the nearest hospital with a casualty ward was deep in the wilds of Essex.

We took the Jack the Ripper tour with Donald Rumbelow in March and there were at least 150 - 200 people.<BR>Also, he warns his groups to be careful crossing the streets.<BR>

I took the walk with Donald earlier this summer, and we also had about 250 people, split between Donald and his wife. He stressed being cautious of the traffic several times throughout the tour. This accident is a shame -- thankfully the woman was not badly injured. <BR><BR>My impression is that most of the other "London Walks" tours are much smaller -- the one we did of Little Venice probably had 25 - 30 people.