My son arrived unexpectedly from University for the weekend (for Mothers’ Day – aw!) so I took him along with me on this walking tour of London in the hope that he’d work out how to use my new camera for me. We’re both Londoners and whilst I am pretty clued up on the history of the City of London, I thought it would be valuable for him to learn a little more.
So we set off from West London early Saturday morning to arrive outside the Royal Exchange for the 1050am start of the three hour tour, not realising that he would be so impressed with the Travelator at Bank tube station. It’s the little things that we take for granted. I was stunned at how quiet the City is without the hustle and bustle of all the workers. Mind you, the various construction crews were in full swing.
We found Corinna, the tour leader, in her blood-red jacket with the Hairy Goat logo (it’s an Australian expression for “running around” – but not in the headless chicken way). There were two tourists from the Netherlands and another four folk who worked in London and wanted time to take in the sights and improve their photographic skills.
After checking out everyone’s cameras (most had impressive-looking SLRs and only I had a Canon Ixus – although she said that some people came equipped only with their iPhones or iPads and that was just fine), Corinna started with a 20 minute historical overview of the City of London to put things in context.
She zipped through the Romans (stone buildings), the Saxons (wood buildings) and the Normans. The 13 plagues (I never knew that they thought that dogs and cats were responsible and therefore slaughtered them – and that’s how Houndsditch got its name!) and The Great Fire of London. I never knew either that after the fires, the tenants had to replace the buildings for the landlords – thus the start of insurance.
It was interesting to be in the shoes of a tourist to hear the origins of street names such as Poultry, Threadneedle Street and Cornhill. She also encouraged us to look closely at all the City of London Corporation dragons and its emblem with the England St George cross with the St Paul’s sword. We learned a fair bit about the livery companies too – and I had never noticed that each of the street lamps was “sponsored” by them. Bet you can’t guess who owns the princess with a crown emblem?
So then she let us wander around the area taking pictures – coming to each of us to point out unusual angles, interesting compositions and to use various settings on our cameras for different effects. She encouraged us not just to see but to really look and pointed out all sort of things – architecture and decoration - that our busy lives prevented us from noticing when racing around.
I was impressed that I found a number of things that I had never noticed before – particularly the lovely Threadneedle Hotel with an awesome domed glass ceiling (which had been stored safely during the war) – where the staff were kind enough to let us go in and take photos. I made a mental note to suggest the place to visitors as the weekend rates were very attractive.
We stopped at various places around Bishopsgate and the insurance district taking in both the very newest (some unfinished) buildings as well as the oldest. I blessed Corinna when she found the only open coffee shop – thank God for Prets! - as we really needed to warm up a bit as it was getting a bit nippy. We discovered the origins of “tulle” and was amazed at all the detail (like the history of London engraved in the pavement at Plantation Lane opposite Minster Court).
The tour ended in the beautiful St Dunstan’s-in-the-East gardens which is one of my favourite spots. And this left us tantalisingly close to Tower Hill so the two of us popped over to St Katherine’s Dock to take in the views there before returning home.
The three hour walking tour costs £40 for adults and there are concession rates for those over 12 and under 12s are free. Buggies and wheelchairs are easily accommodated. There are also one hour “tenner tours” for those who want to try it out. There are also longer sessions and walks at night time.
Note: I was told that as the “mystery” tours go to different places each time it was OK for me to write about some of the locations – I wouldn’t want to be a spoiler!
For further information - http://hairygoat.net/
