Walk of the Week: Old Mayfair

Every Sunday we’ll pluck just one walk from the vast London Walks repertoire and put it centre stage.

You can check out the full schedule at www.walks.com.

But if you only take one walking tour this week, why not make it…

OLD MAYFAIR

"The champagne & caviar of London Walks"

10.30 am on Mondays from Green Park Tube Meet on the corner, just outside the north exit

There's no need to book. A London Walk takes about two hours and costs £10 or £8 for concs. Kids under 15 accompanied by their parent[s] go free

Ahhhhh! This Mayfair walk. It's a marriage made in heaven: "the best address in London" and a bon vivant of a guide – a boulevardier and a place where Old Masters and old money, Rolls Royces and glamour, titles and butlers are par for the course. It's hob-nobbing with knobs on it – because Mayfair's been home to Admiral Nelson (and his mistress Lady Emma Hamilton), Clive of India, Disraeli, Handel, Florence Nightingale, Peter Sellers, Jimi Hendrix, Dodi Fayed, and the Earl Mountbatten, to name but a few. And the go figure factor? Try this for size. The parallelogram of purses boasts London's best village within a village: Shepherd Market, a charming little nest of alleys that hasn't lost a jot of its 18th-century scale and village atmosphere, let alone its raffishness. Now, who's for a wee photo essay? Guided by Peter or Richard III.

The Old Mayfair Walk takes place every Monday at 10.30 am and every Thursday at 11 am

Meet Peter or Richard III on the corner just outside the north exit of Green Park Tube.

Guided by Peter or Richard III

A London Walk costs £10 – £8 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.

London Spy 30:05:15 – Our Saturday Review of #London

It's our weekly London roundup starting with a few headlines that caught the eye in London over the last week or so, click the links for the full stories…

DINING: Pop Brixton is New Foodie Hotspot – Time Out

NFL: Countdown to Dolphins v Jets at Wembley – American Football International

ENTERTAINMENT: Liza Minnelli Returns to the Palladium – What's On Stage

CULTURE: Celebrating Soho – The Guardian

PROPERTY: London's New Luxury Post Codes – Daily Telegraph

FILM: Oscar-Winning Movie Director's Birthplace Found in Chiswick – Get West London

TRANSPORT: History of the 711 Green Line Bus – Reigate Mirror

DINING: Printed Food – CTV News

CITIES: New York v. London… London Wins! – Business Insider

TOURISM: Record Number of Visitors Second Year In A Row – Evening Standard

If You Do One OTHER Thing In London…

Our weekly slot in which we point you in the direction of other happenings and events in our great city. A new exhibition, a gig, a museum, a pop-up-shop – the best of London within a few minutes of a London Walks walking tour.

This week, we're recommending a book-ahead event - and we're sure booking will be essential for Afternoon Tea at Kensington Roof Gardens. 

The date is Saturday 29th August 2015 and the event is back by popular demand.

From 12pm – 4.30pm, 100ft above Kensington High Street you can enjoy a delicious selection of sandwiches, pastries, cakes and many more tasty treats!

Afternoon tea is £29.50 per person, and you can upgrade and enjoy a glass of Laurent Perrier Champagne for £10 on the day. To ensure your party are seated together please book your tickets in one transaction.

We'll be running our regular Saturday Kensington Walk, with David or Angela leading, on the day at 2pm.

The Roof Gardens website is here: www.virginlimitededition.com

Walking & Footwear News

An app that tells us how to walk.

How. To. Walk.

Sweet baby Jesus…

Back in ancient Greece, Plato told the story of a man who gazed so intently at the stars that he walked right into a well. Supposedly, Thales was "so eager to know the things in the sky that he could not see what was there before him at his very feet". Flash forward to today, and scientists have finally found a way for us to avoid the fate of an absent-minded professor. But before we get too excited about enhanced navigation, we should pause to consider why commercial applications might encourage us to embrace something awful: an alienated relation to our own embodiment.

Doh.

Full story here: www.wired.co.uk

Roger Bannister's record-breaking running shoes – in which he broke the four-minute mile barrier back in 1954 – are up for auction this September and are expected to fetch something in the region of £50,000…

The shoes, made by GT Law and Son, have long, thin spikes and weigh 4½ ounces, much lighter than other shoes at the time. “I could see there was an advantage in having the shoe as light as possible,” said Bannister, who started his running career while he was a medical student at Oxford in 1946.

Full story in The Guardian.

Seen In London This Week

A family out for a half-term stroll in Wandsworth…

Read in London This Week

Thanks to Toronto-based London Walker Vanessa B for the lovely review on her classic film blog Stardust…

Without a doubt, the best walking tour company currently operating in London, England. Each time I've gone to the UK, I've gone along on a handful of walks and I've enjoyed each one immensely! The guides are amazing and so damn knowledgeable - you can literally ask them anything and they'll have an answer ready for you! London Walks offers daily walking tours set within the city of London and day trips to just about anywhere else in England. If you know you're going to be visiting London soon, I would definitely suggest logging onto the London Walks website www.walks.com to check out their daily tour schedules.

You can visit Vanessa's blog here: stardustclassicfilmblog.blogspot.ca

Heard In London This Week

It's the London Walks Podcast! Literary London Parts 1 & 2.

  

(P.S We're currently making a few notes of the next London Walks Podcast on Crime & Punishment)

Thanks for reading! Stay in touch! London Spy will return next week

A London Walk costs £10 – £8 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.

Friday is Rock'n'Roll #London Day. Happy Birthday Noel!

Happy Birthday Noel!

No, not Noel in the London Walks office, a different Noel altogether. Here's a clue…

Another of our classic London sleeves (below) – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory by Oasis on Creation Records from 1995.

We feature it today because it's Noel Gallagher's 48th birthday.

The sleeve was shot in Berwick Street, Soho and the "stars" are DJ Sean Rowley (facing the camera) and the sleeve designer Brian Cannon. Reckless Records on Berwick Street gets a starring role in the sleeve’s photo shoot. The fact is commemorated in their window where the sleeve takes pride of place (12” version of course!) with a little sticker and an arrow with the words “You Are Here”.

You can see it with Rex this afternoon on the Rock'n'Roll London Walk.

In the meantime, here’s our own Rock’n’Roll London video…

Join the Rock’n'Roll London Walk on Fridays at 2pm, meeting at Tottenham Court Road Station (Exit 3) – to book a Private Walk call 020 7642 3978 or email london@walks.com

A London Walk costs £10 – £8 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.

Legendary London Walkers

Daily Constitutional Associate Editor and London Walks guide Richard III introduces another of his long-distance London walkers…

Meet Sarah McCabe from Toronto…

There are so many walkers from Toronto, I have had about fifteen in the last week, I think we should have a Toronto branch of London Walks. Any takers?

Hello Richard,

In the interest of London geekiness, I made a list of the 45 London Walks I took from 2011 to 2013, while completing an MA in Historical Research.  

My MA dissertation from 2012 is about underground public conveniences (toilets) in the City of London, in case you ever need help falling asleep.  

My wonderful experience with London Walks was so important that you all are thanked in the acknowledgements.

I couldn’t have asked for a more enjoyable (and thrifty!) way to delve into the history of the city.  Many thanks to you and all the Guides.

All the best,

Sarah in Toronto

1.       Blood-Curdling London

2.       Old Hampstead Village

3.       London’s Secret Village

4.       Old Westminster

5.       Stonehenge and Salisbury

6.       Darkest Victorian London

7.       The Famous Square Mile

8.       Hidden London

9.       Legal and Illegal London

10.   Old Camden Town

11.   Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol and Seasonal Traditions

12.   The Old Jewish Quarter

13.   Notting Hill and Portobello Market

14.   The Unknown East End

15.   Old Mayfair

16.   The Old Palace Quarter

17.   The Olympic Walk

18.   Behind Closed Doors

19.   The Famous Square Mile

20.   Old Kensington

21.   Secret London

22.   Old Kensington (again)

23.   Eccentric London

24.   The Old University Quarter

25.   Literary Bloomsbury and the Old Museum Quarter

26.   Royal London and Westminster Abbey

27.   A Soho Saunter

28.   Soho Unzipped

29.   Brunel’s Thames Tunnel

30.   Jack the Ripper Haunts

31.   The Beatles “In My Life” Walk

32.   Old Marylebone

33.   Charles Dickens’ London

34.   Old Highgate Village

35.   Inside the Hidden City

36.   The Tower of London Tour

37.   Secrets and Splendors of St. Paul’s

38.   Canterbury

39.   Wapping Tales: Ships, Pirates & Murders

40.   St. Albans

41.   In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes

42.   Cambridge

43.   Royal Winchester

44.   The British Museum Tour

45.   The Cotswolds

How many have you done? Drop us a line and tell us about your London Walks!


A London Walk costs £10 – £8 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.