THE MAN WHO MURDERED SHERLOCK HOLMES
An Exclusive Preview From our new film that you will soon be able to buy on our London Walking Tours.
Well the winter has well and truly gone, and the sun is shining. Mark Ubsdell and Richard Jones took a break from conducting our various London walks and have been working on the new Sherlock Holmes documentary throughout the winter and we’re pleased to announce that the trailer for it is now live. Much time was spent walking the streets of London and Edinburgh throughout what just happened to be the coldest winter for thirty years. But, thanks largely to Marks hard work and dedication, our next drama documentary “The Man Who Murdered Sherlock Holmes” is almost ready and you will soon be able see it on our various Sherlock Holmes London walks.
The drama-documentary really is a stylish piece that features interviews with some of the world’s leading Sherlockian academics. There are some fantastic dramatic reconstructions, a specially composed soundtrack and in between Richard introduces you to the streets of London and Edinburgh and the various locations that featured in the life of Conan Doyle and the world of Sherlock Holmes.
So take a look at the preview trailer. We hope you enjoy it.
With the snow falling all around London prts of the City are looking truly and wonderfully magical. Which makes a nice link to this week’s big news about our Harry Potter London Tour. It’s about to be updated.
With the release of the new film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One drawing fans into the cinemas we’re in the process of updating the free Harry Potter London walk to include locations featured in the new blockbuster.
Admittedly, London doesn’t feature extensively in the latest movie (the inside of a tent gets a bigger part!) but there are several locations.
Most notably Scotland Place again features as the entrance to the Ministry of Magic and the big brown doors at its junction with Great Scotland Yard feature in the scene when Harry, Ron and Hermione drag the employees of the Ministry of Magic in through the door to be transformed into them courtesy of a slurp of polyjuice.
Whether it is worth while heading over to Shaftesbury Avenue because Harry, Ron and Hermione walk along it prior to going into the cafe where they have a memorable encounter with two Death Eaters is debatable, albeit it does make it possible to include a pleasant stroll along Haymarket, so it might yet make it into the walk.
So if you would like a copy of the new Harry Potter London Tour, the wait until Monday and send an email to
and then, as if by Magic, the PDF will land in your inbox within a few minutes.
Incidentally the free Harry Potter London walk has now reached 30,000 downloads and has even been featured in USA Today. It will soon be joined by several new free London walks that will include a pub walk and a Dickens walk. Like the harry Potter tour these new walks will be fully guided walks and will feature quizzes to keep you on your toes as you make your way around the route.
Since we launched the free Harry Potter Tour two years ago many people have commented on how enjoyable the quiz and treasure hunt elements of the tour are, so the new walks will. hopefully prove equally popular.
London is currently gripped by an icy blast of wintry weather. But, our Jack the Ripper London walks are still going ahead and still going strong.
A few of our clients, particularly those traveling from places like West Yorkshire, Scotland and, last night, Surrey, have not been able to get in to London to take the Jack the Ripper Walk and, in these cases we’ve either moved them to another night or given a full refund on the booking.
Yesterday I took a walk around Westminster getting ready for one of the new free London walks. I’ve never seen so many police. I had to get down Cowley Street, where the Liberal Democrat headquarters are, but the police had it cordoned off at both ends, so obviously they were expecting a few students to try and disrupt the Liberal Democrats. As it happens the students needn’t have bothered as Vince Cable did a perfectly good job for them!
We had a group of students booked for their own private Jack the Ripper walk on Monday night. As it happens they were coming down from Manchester but, since they were coming by coach they persevered and got to the start of the tour only fifteen minutes late.
But the big story on our London walks this week has to be the weather. There’s not been a great deal of snow in central London so the walks themselves haven’t been too affected. The temperatures are plummeting at night (actually they’ve not been much better during the day), but by wrapping up warm and by setting a brisk pace, we are managing to keep nice and snug and warm.
So the message is the walks are going ahead as promised, but we are advising our clients to wrap up nice and warm and that way they will enjoy a great evening exploring the streets where the infamous 1888 murders occurred in the company of London’s premier Jack the Ripper Walking Tour guides.
WHY JOIN A GUIDE WHOSE READ A FEW STORIES IN A BOOK WHEN YOU CAN JOIN THE GUIDE THAT WROTE THE BOOK?
Richard’s new book Haunted Britain was published by the AA in October 2010 to universal approval.
The great and legendary Tom Baker wrote the forward for Richard’s latest collection of spooky stories and has generously given the book a lovely write up on his website.
Richard’s London Ghost Walks are going strong and the Halloween walk around Haunted London sold out in early September. The reason why Richard’s London walks of the capitals darker aspects are so popular is because, when you join Richard Jones for a walk around haunted London you are not joining a London walks guide who has just read a few stories in a book bu way of research you are, in fact, joining the man that wrote the book.
Richard has written 20 books on Britain’s darker and more sinister history. He has travelled the length and breadth of this Spectres isle collecting and setting down the ghost stories that other London walks guides often use.
However, it is a far richer experience to join the source than to join someone who kust uses the source. In musical terms it’s nice to go and listen to a trinute band, but its far better to go and see the band itself!
So when you’re planning your haunted london walks, be sure to join the master of the macabre and get the heads up on the most up to date, spine chilling tales of London.
With Halloween rapidly approaching it’s nice to see the usual sinister comments about knock-offs, wannabees and amateurs being hurled around by some of the London Walking Tour Guides.
We’ve never gone in for that sort of questionable behaviour. We don’t do personal insults. We don’t do rants. We prefer to act like grown-ups. We just do great tours that people love. After all if you have to market your tours by hurling unfounded insults at your competitors it says more about the quality of your tours than about your competitors. Our clients have come to expect a certain level of service from us and our mission is not insult but to entertain. And boy have we got some great things going on at the Original London Ghost Walk.
Richard’s latest book, Haunted Britain has now hit the shops and has been extremely well received. And, though we say so ourselves, it really does look great. The forward was written by Tom Baker, who has kindly posted it on the newsletter page of his website.
This is Richard’s sixteenth book on the paranormal and no other London Walking Tour Guide can offer you the same level of expertise. That’s why Richard’s acclaimed Halloween Ghost Walk has been sold out since mid September. It’s a fun-filled, chilling night of pure (ish) entertainment that unfolds against the backcloth of one of the most haunted City’s in the world.
Richard’s new documentary, The man Who Murdered Sherlock Holmes, has won the approval of the world’s most notable Sherlock Holmes Societies, whilst Richard and several of the London Discovery Walks Jack the Ripper guides have been featured in the exciting new Jack the Ripper documentary that will be airing in December this year.
Richard has also achieved several entries in the the latest edition of that bible of Ripper studies, The Complete Jack the Ripper A To Z, one of which hails him as “one of London’s leading Walking Tour guides” .. how’s that for international recognition?
So, as Richard approached his 30th year of offering quality guided walks in London you can see why it is that he is most certainly the guide you wanna be with.
Have a watch of the introduction to our London Jack the Ripper Walks.
Our walks are the only one’s to be consistently led by experts, four of whom are internationally recognised as leading authorities on the Jack the Ripper mystery.
Furhermore ours is the only Jack the Ripper Tour that starts right in the heart of the area wehere the murders occurred.
The tour takes place seven chilling nights a week at 7pm and, since we are the only London walks compnay to limit the numbers on our Walks, we ask you to book your Jack the Ripper Walk in order that we can limit the participants on our tours to a sensible and manageable number.
Also, we are the only Jack the Ripper walk to provide a full online resource of Jack the Ripper information.
London is a lovely City with a wide variety of buildings featuring all manner of architectural styles. Combined these make it a truly photogenic place to explore. But, if you have a limited amount of time to spare, how do you best utilise that time to get those all important great shots? Well, how about a London Photography Walk?
Every so often we at Discovery Walks encounter someone who has come up with a really unique approach on showing people this great City. There are, for example, the wonderful London Fashion walks offered by our friends over at London Guided Tours.
Well now, we’ve come across another unique London Tour that we just know is destined to be a classic on the London walks scene. Corinna, who founded and operates the Hairy Goat London Photography Mystery Tour, has come up with what is a brilliant and winning formula that will appeal as much to London residents as it will to visitors. Throughout July and August this tour that offers a fun, informative and interactive 3 hour walk exploring the often un-noticed and unexpected photographic treasures of London, will take place daily at 11am and will meet on the steps of the Royal Exchange, situated directly outside Exit Three of Bank Underground Station.
In addition Corinna also offers the Hairy Goat Photography Workshop and Tour, which is a one day event that includes a 4 hour Photography Workshop and 2 hours of London Photography Mystery Tour accompanied by the Workshop tutor and guide.
What better way is there to explore this wonderful City than being led around by a photographer/guide who can, not only introduce you to the more offbeat aspects of the City, but who can also show you the best angles to photograph them from and help you get those memorable shots that you’ll truly treasure.
For more details of the Hairy Goat London Photography Mystery Tour just pop along to Corinna’s website or just give her a call on +44 (0)7540 832771.
Our free london walks are now nearing completion and, hopefully, will be going live very shortly. There has been a bit of a delay in launching them as things got very busy over the last few months. Our great new documentary The Man Who Murdered Sherlcok Holmes was launched in early July, and has received some great reviews in Sherlock Holmes studies circles. Richard has been snapping the final photos for his upcoming book, which will be published in october this year, and we’ve been working on a bit of wizadry that will bring our London walks right into the 21st century. So watch this space.
Meanwhile our Harry Potter London Tour has gone from strength to strength, the other week we received 300 requests for the free PDF in one day!!!
Our Jack the Ripper Walk just gets better and better, whilst our London Ghost Walk will soon be taking its annual August break. We give the walk a rest in August for several reasons. Firstly, it’s alway lead by Richard Jones the man who is internationally recognised as the leading ghost walk guide in London. With almost 20 books published on the paranormal and haunted Britain no toher guide comes close to matching his kowledge of the ghostly metropolis. But, even an enthusiast like Richard needs a break and every August he and his family get to spend more time together to make up for the the rest of the year when he is out working virtually every night. Secondly, August is just too light for a Lonon ghost walk to be effective. So we give it a rest in August and come back re-charged in September.
But if you want to see spooky London our Jack the Ripper Walk will operated throughout August.
Finally, we’ve just updated our great Jack the Ripper resource site by adding a wonderful piece of film that shows Petticoat Lane in 1903. This really does capture the vibrance of the area and is a joy to watch.
So, what with our free Harry Potter Tour, our soon to be launched free London walks, and the fact we offer the best Jack the Ripper and Ghost Walks you’re sure to find something to interest you, whether you want to join a Walk of Jack the Ripper’s London or enjoy a self guided walk.
As we like to say - We’re With You Every Step of the Way.
Ok, so the nights are bright and the sun is shining. But what better weather can there be to enjoy a London Ghost Walk than a summer’s night!
True, you might fancy the cold wet winter nights when the City is at its spookiest. But the summer nights have a great deal going for them as far as ghost walks in London go.
For a start, you can really appreciate the old buildings that our ghost walks cover. And we really do see some great parts of historic London on our Walks.
To begin with there is the oldest parish church in London, St Bartholomew the Great, which recently featured in the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movie by the way.
The there’s the old Roman ruins that really look great on a summer’s night .
The old alleys and courtyards that we explore are a true joy in the summer because you can really look at them and appreciate them.
The other point is that a ghost walk is about the storytelling. And with Richard Jones, the man who is internationally recognised as London’s best ghost walk guide, as your host you will find yourself in the company of a masterful storyteller. His skills as a narrator will keep you looking over your shoulder be it a dark winter’s night or a light summer’s evening.
Are you looking for a night out in London that is a little bit different and a little bit creepy?
Then why not join us for a Jack the Ripper Walk?
Our tour of Jack the Ripper’s London takes place seven chilling nights a week at 7pm.
The great thing about our tour is that we are the only one of the companies offering London walks that ask you to book in advance so that we can limit the number of participants to a sensible and manageable number.
This approach, coupled with the fact that we follow a more atmospheric route and visit more of the actual murder sites than any other London walks, has helped make our Jack the Ripper walk the premier such tour in London.
When you join our tour, you won’t be on one of the unsightly cattle drive London walks, that cram over a hundred people onto a tour with one guide. Rather, you will be a part of a much smaller more intimated group that will number around 34 people. As we like to say our Jack the Ripper walk is the one that’s heard not herd.
In addition three of our guides are published authors who between them have written five acclaimed books on the Whitechapel Murders, so in a addition to smaller groups than the London walks cattle drives, atmospheric routes, and actually visiting more of murder sites, you will be guided around the area by the proven experts on the case.
You will picture the Victorian police as they hunt the Ripper through the cobblestone streets through which you pass. And so skilled will your guide's narrative be that, as one recent Jack the Ripper Walk participant put it, "you can just feel that you're walking alongside them!"
Our Most Popular Walks
Walking tours offer one of the best value and most entertaining and most environmentally friendly ways to get to know one of the world's most fascinating cities.
Our London walks are carefully crafted to ensure that you get the most out of exploring the historic streets of old London.
It's been a busy few months at Discovery Walks and we have two big announcements to make.
Firstly, Richard Jones completed the Blue Badge Tourist Guide Course in February. Having taken the required exams he had to then wait until the end of March before the results were in. And the great news.... HE PASSED!!! The Blue Badge is the highest achievment in the guiding world and to attain it candidates must undertake a gruelling two years of study followed by a rigorous series of exams.
This means that a Blue Badge Guide is the top of the tree when it comes to guiding and Richard will shortly be launching a new series of exciting tours.
