Walking Tours with Simon Collins
A days tour is for 8 hours (including one hour for lunch with my guests at one of my
favourite London haunts) or choose a half day tour of 3 hours and 30 minutes.
Remember my walking tours can be tailor made to suit your requirements. Feel free to request
any unique tour that tickles your fancy, and I will always try to accomadate.
Just as a taster. Here is a list of my top five walking tours!
Westminster and the West End - The essential tour of London!
Westminster and the West End need no introduction. See the London of History Books,
Film and Television brought to life before your very eyes.
This tour takes in all the best known sights of London including Horse Guards Parade,
Downing Street, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace,
St. James's Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden
and this is just a selection.
Take a walk through living history and explore the best of London past, present and
future. Take in the sights you’ve seen a thousand times, learn the back-story and discover
new sights that other miss. It really is a must see tour and it’s all for the taking!
book your guided tour now!
Mayfair – London’s most exclusive district
The most expensive property on the Monopoly board and this is no error. This exclusive
enclave in the heart of west London is the original home of the London elite. The area was
developed in the 17th and 18th centuries by the Grosvenor family and named after the annual
15 day May Fair (which was stopped in the 18th Century as the local nobles considered the
fair ‘Lowered the Tone’ of the neighbourhood).
The area is a beautiful collection of elegant squares, Georgian thoroughfares and
picturesque parks. It is home to an extensive range of exclusive shops, art galleries,
restaurants and hotels that never fail to impress in the scale of their grandeur (and
eliteness).
A walking tour of Mayfair is a delight for anybody seeking visual treat. Take in the
magnificence of the architecture of this stunning London neighbourhood at a casual walking
pace. You will learn all about the areas intriguing history as you stroll around
Grosvenor, Hanover and Berkeley squares, wander through the through the historic Shepherd
Market and take the back roads and alley ways missed by most visitors.
book your guided tour now!
Clerkenwell – The hidden village of Old London
Perhaps my favourite neighbourhood of London due to its magnitude of mostly missed
historical treasures available to those in the know. This small and ancient neighbourhood
in London is stepped long and dark history, all of which is just crying out to be
discovered.
Clerkenwell took its name from the Clerks' Well in Farringdon Lane. The area has played
host to numerous ‘persons of note’ including (to name but a few): Marie Lloyd, John Bunyan,
Katherine Par, Elizabeth I, Lenin, Nell Gwynn, Daniel Defoe and not least one of its most
famous fictional visitors Oliver Twist.
If you are looking to find the common man’s history, in the heart of London, then this is
a tour not to be missed. A history buff’s dream unfolds as we make our way slowly around
the ancient streets unveiling tales of the neighbourhood’s religious past, urban squalor,
notorious prisons, ghosts and ghouls, radical thinkers and social change.
book your guided tour now!
Dickens London
Dickens London was a dark and dirty place. Dickens new the streets of Clerkenwell
intimately and gives vivid descriptions of the filth, sleaze and squalor which existed at
the time. The neighbourhood is also home of Fagin’s Den from Dickens’s classic Oliver Twist
including Hatton Garden Police Court where Oliver was brought before Mr Fang the
magistrate!
See London through the words of Dickens and we stand on the sites that inspired his
tales.
book your guided tour now!
Jack the Ripper Tour
No list of London Tours is complete without a thrilling retracing of the steps of the
world famous Whitechapel murderer known only as “Jack the Ripper”!
On the 31 August 1888 Jack the Ripper claimed his first victim, Mary Ann Nichols a
prostitute in London’s Whitechapel district. In a killing spree that lasted only 3 months,
Jack the Ripper laid slain a further four women, butchering all with gruesome efficiency.
Despite the high profile of the murders nobody was ever captured for the crimes and the
mystery lives on.
Walk the Rippers hunting ground and discover the truth behind the legend. Learn about
the murders, the suspects and review the evidence for yourself.
The above is just a list of a handful of popular tours which I conduct around London.
We can mix and match tours or we can arrange a tailor made tour to suit you!
So feel free to enquire about the walking tour that you want, with no obligation!
book your guided tour now!