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Posts Tagged ‘Free London walks’

Updates to our free London walks.

Friday, November 6th, 2009

We’re in the process of updating our free walking tours of London and its surroundings. Those of you who have been following our blog for some time will be familiar with our belief that we should offer you as many ways of seeing London as possible.

Our Walks of London website (www.walksoflondon.co.uk) has over the years proved a great resource for those of you who want to see more of London. We give you step by step directions that enable you to find parts of London that you would never dream existed.

But, in addition, we pack our free London walks with information about the historical figures and the places that you will encounter as you enjoy our tours.

We’re putting the finishing touches now to a free Riverside pub walk which will take you to some lovely old pubs that, literally, hang over the Thames! There will be all manner of fun things to do as you follow our detailed step by step instructions. That is important to us. We don’t think that we should tell you to go and sit in a pub and just read about the places that are nearby.

We tell you how to get to those places and then, when you are there, we tell you all about them.

How?

Well our free London walks are print off PDF’s that you download, print off and do when you want and at your own pace.

This is a much better way of doing Riverside London Pub Walks than joining a scheduled tour because you can spend as much time in the pubs as you want.

Think about this? If you explore London’s Historic pubs on regular London walks you will be arriving at the pub in a group that might number 50 or more people. If the walk lasts two to two and a half hours then that means you get an average of 20 minutes in each pub. It takes a barman round about a minute, a little longer for a pint of Guiness, to pull a pint. Then, he has to take the money, ring it up and give you your change. Even if those 50 people are in groups of 3, that’s 16 or so groups who are buying drinks.

Well, as they say in America, you do the math! Are you really going to enjoy the pub’s ambience when up against the clock like that? Suppose you want to eat at the pub? Do you honestly think 20 minutes is enough time to get a meal and eat it!

A London pub walk is best done in a small group at your own pace. So that is where our free London walks make the difference. You can spend as much or as little time in the pub as you choose.

Suppose, for example, it’s a Friday night and one of the Riverside pubs is bursting at the walls it’s so crammed with local office workers. If you were on a scheduled walk you’d have to battle to the bar, get a drink, finish it in the twenty minutes allocated for the stop and then continue to the next crowded pub. Would that really be fun?

With our free Walks you would turn up at the pub, see that it was crowded and so make the decision to move on to the next pub. And, because our London Walking Tours are about you having the choice, we will always offer suggestions for alternatives nearby. It’s a win win situation and that’s why on our walks you will always discover a welcome difference.

What was that?

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Have you ever been Walking in London when you’ve gone past something and wondered to yourself “what was that?”

It might have been a stattue you walked past and wondered who the person was.

Or it might have been a piece of street furniture that made you slightly curious.

A great way to find the answer to all questions about things in London is to go on one of our London walks.

We’ll show you some great things that you may well have not realised were there. We’ll introduce you to parts of London where there are plenty of things to make you ask the question “what’s that?”

The great thing about our London walks is that we are the only company that actually offers you a choice of free DIY or paid for fully guided walks in London.

You can join us on our Jack the Ripper Tour Ghost walks . These take place regularly and can be booked via our website.

If you are more independent then we’ve got a whole lot of great free London walks that you can print off and do yourself. We’re going to be rolling these out this winter and by Christmas we hope to have at least twelve different tours that you will print off as a PDF and then head off and do them at your own pace and when you want to.

So when considering which London walks company to take a tour with choose the one that really does give you a choice.

The Harry Potter London walk.

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

Well, that’s it for another year. Halloween has now passed and the broomsticks are put away for the next twelve months.

So today we thought we’d return to the subject of our free London walks.

It’s been a while since we last mentioned our great Harry Potter Tour of London.

Essentially our Harry Potter London walks are a series of tours that can be combined in to one full day exploring the streets of London whilst visiting the locations where the Harry Potter movies were shot.

It couldn’t be simpler. You simply let us know that you are interested in this one of our London walks by sending us an email to:-

harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com

We’ve placed an auto-responder at this address which mean that, within two minutes of us receiving your request (often it’s even quicker than that!) our auto response clunks in to action.

There’s a lot of whirring and clanking and splutterring, but then, as if by magic, the Harry Potter London walks series is sent off through the ether and, lands in your inbox! How clever is that?

The tour itself is a 30 page PDF that gives you step by step directions around the route and takes you to such wonderful places as the real Diagon Alley; The National Portrait Gallery; Trafalgar Square; The Millennium Bridge; and, of course, King’s Cross Railway Station where you can visit Platform Nine-And-Three-Qaurters.

This one of our London walks is totally free. The only cost to you is the paper and ink to print it off (and you don’t even have to do that as it will also work on your Blackberry), the travel around London and any meals or drinks you might by in the course of this sequence of Harry Potter London walks.

So why not request your copy? Just send an email to

 harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com

and within moments you could be off exploring some of London’s most fascinating places.

The Harry Potter Locations Tour

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

Just a quick reminder that our Harry Potter London walks are available as a free pdf download.

We say walks plural because the tour is actually divided up into several different areas around London.

The Walks in Harry Potter’s London are free, albeit they are DIY tours.

 But, if you think about it, it makes perfect sense to do a Harry Potter tour on your own by following our carefully planned out step by step Walking Tour directions.

Firstly, you are not confined to a particular start time whereby you have to be at a specific point at a specified time. With our free Harry Potter London Tour you can start it at any time you wish.

Secondly, you’ll see more atcual Harry Potter film locations than with the paid for London walks. It is our belief that if you want to do a Harry Potter Walk of London then you want to actually see as many of the locations used in the films as possible.

To only take you to a small number of locations and then fill the rest of the tour is with topics and places that are not actually related to the Harry Potter film locations isn’t really fair on you.

Our Harry Potter London Tour and Treasure Hunt takes you to almost all the locations in London where the films have been shot.

Thirdly, we are great believers in step by step directions. We won’t tell you to go and sit in a pub or a cafe and read about interesting locations close by.

Our philosophy is to get you out there, actually walking through the streets of London enjoying the places you are reading about by actually being there.

Finally, the Harry Potter London Tour is also structured like a London treasure hunt, so the kids can be kept occupied throughout.

Best of all the whole thing is 100% free. You simply have to send an e-mail to:-

harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com and, as if by magic, your Harry Potter London walk will be with you within moments.

Due to the exceptionally high demand for our tour we regret that you can only obtaain this one of our free London walks by sending your request to the aforementioned email address.

The Tour is a 30 page booklet that you then just print off and do as and when you choose. You set the pace, and can spend as much or as little time at the locations as you wish.

Our Harry Potter London walks

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

For those of you not familiar with the history of our unique London walks around the Harry Potter film locations here is a little background.

In 2007 Richard and Joanne Jones and their two sons, Thomas (10) and William (8)  decided to put together a London walk that would allow parents and children to explore all the Harry Potter film locations in London.

The tours then on offer were either very expensive or were London walks that weren’t really relevant to the Harry Potter theme.

What Richard and Joanne decided to do was to put together a tour of London that parents and children could do on their own and for free. They also decided that, to keep the children occupied, it might be an idea to include a London Treasure Hunt as part of the tour.

And thus was born the Harry Potter London Tour and Treasure Hunt. Beginning at Temple Underground Station they began pacing out a tour of London and visited all the harry Potter film location sites in London.

Gradually the tour came together and by December 2008 it was ready to go live on the internet. However, the problem with the website was that if parents wanted to print it off it ran to somewehere in the region of 90 or so cumbersome pages.

The whole ethos behind the Harry Potter London walks was that they were intended to offer a day out in London for families that wouldn’t cost parents the earth.

So in May 2009 the Harry Potter tour was turned into a dowlaodable PDF file that printed out at just 28 to 30 pages.

Joanne and Richard expected a handful of requests and so were had planned to simply email the pdf manually.

However, the Harry Potter London walking tour proved more popular than they imagined and they were soon having to manually upload and send over 100 pdf’s a day.

Casting round for a more labour efficient way to send the pdf they hit upon the idea of an automated response. Having tested this under all conditions they were delighted to find that it actually worked.

Not only did this mean that they didn’t have to spend two or so hours a day responding to the Harry Potter London tour requests, it also meant that those who requested the free London walks would not have to wait till Richard and Joanne were able to respond to receive the tour. Within minutes of them sending the request the pdf would be in their in box - as if by magic! It’s just a great one of the things to do in London.

So why not but this to the test yourself? Just send your request to

harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com

Then sit back and listen to the ping as it arrives. You then simply print it off and away you go exploring the streets of London on the first of a series of what, we hope, will be great London walks for families and anyone else interested in seeing more of London.

Beatles Walks London

Monday, September 7th, 2009

In 1988 Richard Jones became the first guide to offer Beatles London walks. The tour that Richard devised started at Green Park and took in the sites associated with the fab four around the West End of London.

Today, London walks around the Beatles site are an integral part of the tourist scene. But when Richard started his Beatles Tour it really was an original, so much so that the Sunday Times Magazine did a feature on it and, a much younger looking, Richard graced the cover of that issue showing a group on his London Walking Tour the Beatles former headquarters in Saville Row.

Richard’s Beatles London walk is about to get our free London walks treatment and will soon be available as a requestable PDF that you will be able to download and do at your own pace and in your own time.

Featured on the Beatles Walk of London will be the house where John Lennon and Yoko Ono posed for their notorious nude photo shoot that graced the cover of their Two Virgins album.

The flat was situated at 34 Montagu Square close to Marylebone and Baker Street Underground Stations.

This address has been in the news recently as an application has been lodged with the local council for a blue plaque commemorating John Lennon’s residence at the flat to be placed on the exterior wall of the building.

This will be just one of the stops on the Beatles London Tour which will be one of a series of Free London walks that you will be able to download in the coming months.

Our Harry Potter London Walking Tour is still doing a roaring trade and is due for an update in the next week or two ( we last updated it at the end of July to include the scenes from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince).

Meanwhile our London Ghost Walk is back after its annual “rest” in August. So things are getting back to normal and soon we will be offerring you an even wider choice of free and paid London walks. Watch this space!

Harry Potter London walk

Saturday, September 5th, 2009

The Harry Potter London walk is a free pdf that has been put together and compiled by London guide and writer Richard Jones.

The way the tour works is that we send you the London walks pdf which you then print off and follow its step by step directions on what is a truly in depth andunique London walking tour.

As well as taking you around the Harry Potter murder sites, the Harry Potter London tour is jam packed with fascinating snippets of information and historical facts.

For exampple, you will discover why London bridge is /was falling down. You will wander through some lovely old alleyways and tucked away courtyards to encounter the sites where many of the scenes in the Harry Potter films were shot.

You will explore the streets behind Whitehall, in one of a which a family following the tour route in June had the good fortune to encounter the filming  of the latest Harry Potter instalment.

But the tour is also laid out as a London treasure hunt which helps keep the kids occupied throughout the day, or days, over which you pace the tour.

Best of all we have recently automated the entire process of sending you this one of our free London walks.

To request you copy of the Harry Potter film location PDF simply send a request to harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com  and within moments your Harry Potter London walk will be with you.

The Harry Potter London walk returns.

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Yes it’s back!

We’ve had a little break from our Walking tours of London, to recharge the batteries and get rested for another year of showing you the best that London has to offer.

But we’re back now, refreshed and raring to go and one of the first things we are ready to do is re-instate our Harry Potter London walk.

For those of you who are not familiar with this, it has in recent months become one of the Capital’s most popular free London walk (The London Paper did a feature on it in August and many people have requested their copy).

It was devised and put together by Richard Jones and it far more than just a bog standard London walk. It is a step by step guide around the Harry Potter film locations in London.

But it is also a guide to some of London’s most fascinating and historic places.

In addition it is structured as a treasure hunt so that the kids will be kept occupied throughout the entire Harry Potter Walking Tour of London.

It is sent to you as an attachment and downloads as a 30 page PDF that is very detailed and which gives you step by step directions to enable you to visit almost all the Harry Potter film locations in London.

It has been fully updated top include the locations used in the new film Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

So if you would like a copy of this free London walk then please send an email request to

harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com

and your copy of the PDF will soon be owling its way towards you almost immediately. Now that’s magic!

Introducing Free Walks Of London

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Free London walks and tours can be a bit of a conundrum. There are several organisations that offer free tours of London, but these are often led by students new to the capital who have simply learnt a script and who are dependent on hassling you for tips in order that they might make a living.

Whereas these can be fun, you never know for certain if the information you are hearing on these free London walks is actually accurate.

Also these tours can often be extremely crowded so that you lose the intimacy of discovering London’s hidden away and secret places, since you are vying with 50 or so other people to hear and see the guide.

Now there is an alternative in Free London walks.

In January 2009 Richard Jones, the founder of Discovery Walks and one of London’s most innovative and experienced guides, began offering free PDF’s of his London walks.

The first one to go live was the Harry Potter London Tour and since this has proved extremely popular we would like to announce that we are now launching a whole series of free walks around London.

The next PDF to become available will be the Riverside Pub walk that will introduce you to the streets and pubs of London’s 16th century sin city.

The advantage of this free London Pub walk over joining one of the scheduled London walks is that you will be able to do the pub tour at your own pace and in your own time.

Unlike the scheduled London walks that depart from a specific station at a set time you won’t be crammed on to a tour with 40 or 50 other people (think what a nightmare that can be when you get to the bar inside the pubs visited).

You won’t be dependent on when the guide says you are going to leave the pub, (imagine if you’ve just bought your drink and the guide announces it’s time to leave - how frustrating would that be!), and if you decide that a pub is worth spending a little extra time in then you’ll be able to dally at your leisure and leave when you want to.

Best of all these London Pub Walks are all part of our commitment to providing you with a choice. You can join us for one of our scheduled London walks or you can print off our detailed, well researched PDF Riverside Pub Walk and head off on your own in search of the wonders that London has to offer.

We hope to launch the new free Pubs Of London Walk in late July. Like our free Harry Potter London Tour you will be able to request it as an email attachment which you download, print off and do.

We’re very excited about these new free London walks and, judging by the feedback we have received, so too are the people who have done them.

So watch this space for that day in a few weeks time when we make the big announcement that the second of our Free London walks is live!

Harry Potter London Treasure Hunt Walks.

Monday, July 13th, 2009

This week is well and truly Harry Potter week in London and our Walks that cover the Harry Potter London film locations are increasing in popularity with each day that passes.

We put the harry Potter London walk together in December 2008 and have been updating it ever since.

In late April we converted it to a manageable 27 page print off and go PDF tour around the harry Potter London sites.

How it works is very simple. If you wish to take our self guided Harry Potter London walks you can request it via our quick enquiry form at the top right corner of this page. We then send you the PDF as an email attachment which you then print off . That’s it really. Couldn’t be simpler!

The Harry Potter London walk is a step by step full researched guided tour that will take you all over London.

It covers the major sites that featured n the Harry Potter films. Places such as Gringotts Bank, The entrance to the Ministry of Magic, The Leaky Cauldron and, of course, Platform 9 3/4.

With regards the latter site there is a major refurbishment going on at King’s Cross Station at the moment and Platform 9 3/4 recently moved! Not to worry though, our Harry Potter London walk has been updated to include the new location, which isn’t that far from the old location, but which can prove a little difficult to find if you arrive at King’s Cross during the evening rush hour. That is why our step by step directions are so helpful.

Our free London walks and Harry Potter tours are all paced out  with step by step directions that guide you past some of the capital’s most historic sites. In addition our Harry Potter London Film Location Walk is laid out as a treasure hunt in which the children can be kept fully occupied searching for unusual items in the streets of London.

So if you would like to receive our Free Harry Potter Tour PDF please send us an email to harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com and we’ll send it by return. In addition we will also send you details of our many other London walks.