The NEW Hampstead Spies walk meets this Sunday 21st November, 10.30am at Belsize Park tube.
David writes…
New walk. Instant classic.
Here’s why
it goes straight onto the must-do list.
I.E. here’s
what you get (well, some of what you get), what you see (well, some of what you
see), what went into the walk (well, some of what went into it), and why you should go on it.
1. Guide first. Always. Because it all comes down to the guiding. Famously and uniquely
London Walks fronts its walks with people of real substance, people who are
accomplished – indeed, in several cases renowned* – professionals.
Stewart
Purvis, who’s created and guides the Hampstead Spies walk, more than fits the
bill. He’s the former Editor and CEO of ITN (Independent Television News) and
the author of Guy Burgess The Spy Who
Knew Everyone.
2. Spellbinding subject. Let’s turn the magnification up on
that word spellbinding. The
ingredients in the dish Spellbinding
are: gripping, intriguing, important, fascinating,
change-the-way-you-see-a-neighbourhood potency.
In this
instance you’ve got – and this is just a lucky dip, a sampling – our biggest
memorial to World War II (no, you won’t be able to see it without Stewart); ships (and tanks) made out of ice; sexual
shenanigans that make your head spin; the letter “m” on a typewriter; a
paparazzi-packed street; a famous actor or two (let alone that jazz musician);
Agatha Christie; show-stopping (in its time) architecture; a street of spies; a
whole neighbourhood that went “alien”; the “6th man”; a suicide
note; a prominent member of a European dynastic family (let alone the very top
of the British establishment); the
American actress who never wore knickers and was given to doing cartwheels at
dinner parties; the Archbishop of Canterbury; the Red Army; Cambridge; the
stern admonition: “don’t tell the FBI”; a nest
of spies building that Stewart’s secured access to (waiting outside to get in there is a Checkpoint Charlie moment in NW3);
the woman who was one of the most important individuals in the history of
British espionage; six nuns (the sisters
of mercy, they are not departed or gone); putting the pieces of the puzzle
together; what do spies do? how do they do it? why do they do it?
Speaking
for myself (David) here – hand me a programme like that my instanta response is: beam me
up Stewart; and make it a front row seat.
And all of
this in toniest South Hampstead-Belsize Park. OMG, the goings on on the white
cliffs of NW3!
3. The Platonic
ideal of London Walks research.
Here’s Stewart: “these documents were
off-limits – classified – [this said while he’s showing us some of them]. MI5
don’t release files by their age – 50 years, etc. They release whatever suits
them whenever. I was tipped off [my italics] a year ahead that these
files would be opened up in October 2015. I was down there in Kew [at the Public Records Office] like a shot as
soon as that October day rolled round. Getting my hands on that treasure trove
of MI5 documents – being the first person to see them in all those years – the
first person to see them since they were “live” in the Cold War Stalin/Khruschev-Eisenhower
era – I felt like Howard Carter peering into King Tutankhamun’s tomb. Getting
my hands on them and going through them, I can’t tell you how exciting that
was…there have been very good books written about that history and about Burgess,
Philby, Maclean, etc. But they were written before these documents were
released. There’s important stuff in those files – these documents being a case
in point – vital information that’s cleared up questions those earlier
biographers and historians weren’t able to answer because they didn’t have access to these materials, to those Top Secret, Classified files.”
Stewart
adds: “I also went through the Electoral Registers for these streets. It was a spy hunt – that’s what you do.”
And I –
David – add: he also did the digging that made it possible to “back story”
these houses. Census Returns, Wills, Probate records, etc. In the interests of
getting a wider view, getting perspective, getting a feel for this
neighbourhood that ranged across several decades. What kind of neighbourhood
was it, who was living in these places – what sort of people were here – before the spies
moved in?
That’s the
only way you get an idea of the iridescence
of a house, of a neighbourhood. That sense that you’re peering into depths.
You add
that sort of thing to the mix – put it together with the overpowering sense
that in this neighbourhood again and again you’re
touching the hem of the gown of history – the Cold War, World War II, the
Red Army, the atomic bomb, the Nazis, a world in flames – well, it’s thrilling
stuff. An immediacy that you can’t get out of a book. That you can only get
from going over the ground, from a great walking tour. From going there and
seeing the real thing, seeing where they lived. Immediacy. Sense of place. The
way the quotidian can resonate. You don’t get that out of a book. You get it by
going there, being shown it by someone who knows what happened there, who knows
what he’s talking about.
And it
doesn’t end there – I mean this walk being the Platonic ideal of great London
Walks research. Which is by way of saying – and
how perfect is this? – Stewart “door stepped” these houses. He went through
gates and up steps and knocked on doors. “Are
you aware that one of the most important individuals in the history of British
espionage lived here?” Stewart did that not just to bring the remarkable
tidings to the current occupants (and stop and think how set up are today’s
residents, from here on out, for dinner party conversations about the “ghosts”
in their house?) – but to get a feel for – get a better idea of how and where the
dramatis personae lived. How did
Churchill put it? “We make our houses and
then our houses make us.”
But you
have to love it – the former Editor and CEO of ITN door stepping houses in
Hampstead. But Stewart was once a cub reporter – he’s got form.
4. Local knowledge. Stewart’s lived up
here for 30 years. He’s a local. He’s known and trusted. That’s given him
access. It’s opened doors – and memories. Local
knowledge – you can’t beat it.
5. The Hampstead Spies walk has been trialled,
been test-driven. I can vouch for it because I’ve been on it. With an
American friend – a connoisseur of walking tours. The Yank pal – another David –
has been on walking tours all over the world. We call him the Sommelier of
walking tours. Because he’s so experienced, exacting and discerning. Really
high standards. Doesn’t suffer fools – or shoddiness. Knows and wants – indeed,
insists upon – highest quality. We try to get him to go on every new London Walk.
His opinion is so valuable because of his exacting standards and because he’s
disinterested, doesn’t have a dog in the fight.
Bottom
line: if a walk works for David H. from Manhattan a walk works.
And David
H.’s verdict? He loved Stewart’s Spies of Hampstead walk.
We both
did.
For me – I
wouldn’t have thought this was possible – there was this added bonus: the walk
took me into Hampstead streets I’d never been in. I’ve lived up here for 40
years. I guide it (I’ll be thinking of you all on Sunday morning because I’ll
be guiding my completely different Hampstead walk further up the hill at the
same time – well, half an hour earlier). To take me into nooks and crannies of
Hampstead that I didn’t know were there – I had to pinch myself, I thought “this
has to be a mirage, Stewart’s conjured these backwaters up” – that takes some
doing. Stewart did it.
And the
material – see point 2 – was also
completely new to me in the most spellbinding
(that word again) sense of “well I never”, “good heavens”, “who’d a thought
it?” moments.
6. This
should go without saying – Stewart’s in complete
command of the material. Assured, at ease – it’s a consummate performance.
The hard won effortlessness of mastery.
7. Stewart’s got the other sine qua non in spades. He’s warm,
friendly, gracious, at home with an audience, has the bearing,
the marvellous voice, the infectious enthusiasm for his subject – the whole
package.
8. Stewart’s
got this…
Case
closed – establishes bona fides –
wouldn’t you say. And he’ll have some of them along on Sunday if any of you
would like one.
9. Stewart will be happy to make après walk
lunch recommendations. Local knowledge again.
Ex-ITN
CEO, ex-Ofcom, now Channel 4 board director, co-author of 'Guy Burgess - the Spy Who Knew Everyone.
Coda:
London Walks’ “signing” Stewart Purvis is absolutely of a piece with Donald Rumbelow
– “internationally recognised as the leading authority on Jack the Ripper” –
heading up our team of Ripper guides; of a piece with barrister Tom guiding
some of our Legal London walks; of a piece with Intertidal Archaeologist Fiona
– “the world’s foremost expert on this stretch of the Thames foreshore” –
guiding our Beachcombing walks; of a piece with historian Hilary OBE guiding
her specialist tours; of a piece with physician Barry guiding his Medical
London tours; of a piece with actress-author-travel show presenter Karen – “the
world’s greatest guide” as Travel &
Leisure dubbed her – guiding whatever she turns her hand to, etc. etc.
In
the lapidary words of that journalist, “if
this were a golf tournament every name on the Leader Board would be a London
Walks guide.”
The NEW Hampstead Spies walk meets this Sunday 21st November, 10.30am at Belsize Park tube. Full details at www.walks.com.
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