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London Jack the Ripper Walks

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

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.

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Political London - The walks are on!

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Well the political jungle has well and truly stirred and the parties are going head to head (or should that be banging heads) to try and win our vote.

Of our London Walking tours several take you around the streets of Westminster (although these are only available to private groups at the moment) and the Harry Potter London Tour, which is a DIY Walk takes you along Whitehall, past Downing Street and over Westminster Bridge, affording some splendid views of the Houses of Parliament.

This coming Thursday the three leaders, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg will take part in the first TV debate, which should be riveting!!!

Some great stories are coming out about the various political candidates. When Charles Kennedy was leader of the Lib Dems he toured a hospital with the television cameras in tow and had the good fortune to meet a patient who told him that he’d be voting Liberal Democrat at the election. “What are you in for?” asked a delighted Kennedy. “Brain surgery” came the reply!

But, with  the television appearances by politicians rapidly gaining momentum, spare a thought for poor old Martin Solomon, a 64 year old retired sailor who has just spent two weeks in jail awaiting sentencing for breaching the terms of an Anti Social Behavior order (ASBO) issued against him by Gloucester Crown Court.

What’ was Mr Solomon’s heinous offence?

He can’t stop swearing at politicians when they appear on his Tv at his home in Stroud in Gloucestershire. So frequent and loud are his outbursts that his neighbours complained about the noise and Mr Solomon was issued with his ASBO which he breached whilst wtching an episode of BBC1’s Question Time.

He has now been given a new community order for 12 months, with the first review due to take place on May 6th, the day after the General Election. No doubt the air in shroud will be turning blue and not just for the Tory candidate!

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This weeks walks news in London

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Well the clocks have done whatever it is they do at this time of year. It’s now British Summer Time (yeah right!) and it’s raining. Don’t you just love these halcyon summer days.

We had a record day on our Harry Potter London walks last week when 89 requests were made in one day. You can still get hold of a copy of the free pdf by sending an email to

harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com

That’s all there is to it. The DIY tour then comes back to you by return.

Of course you can still join us for a Jack the Ripper Tour or for one of our London Ghost Walks.

The Jack the Ripper walks take place 7 chilling nights a week and the Ghost Walks in London are currently on Friday and Saturday nights.

Richard has now finished the writing for his new book Haunted Britain, which will be published on Halloween this year. In addition the Sherlock Holmes documentary is almost completed and will be going on sale in the near future.

Richard has now begun a great new project with Sir Donald Sinden, one of the most respected names in British Theatre. Last week Richard and several others accompanied Sir Donald on a tour of some great properties and the project, when it is completed, is going to be great.

Sir Donald is now in his mid- 80’s but shows no signs of slowing down. He has a fund of great anecdotes (he actually met Lord Alfred Douglas!) and is a true raconteur who still keeps his audiences enraptured with his tales of the theatrical world.

The finished project is going to be absolutely breathtaking and we’ll be posting more information on it on this blog in the coming months.

In the meantime the Free Riverside Pub Walk is now  in its finishing stages and we hope to launch it in early May.  So keep an eye on this blog for it.

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The Harry Potter London walk

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

We recently changed the Harry Potter London walk to incorporate the fact that the photograph of the Harry Potter actors is no longer on display at the National Portrait gallery.
Both the website and the Harry Potter London tour PDF have been updated to incorporate this change, albeit since the tour actually still passes the National Portrait Gallery it is worth popping in if you have the time.

Otherwise the Harry Potter tour of London is up to date as of March 2010 and can be obtained by the simple, magical ruse of sending an email to harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com.

This is now a totally automated system so the owl responds within minutes and drops the downloadable pdf into your mail box. It’s that simple.

The great thing about our DIY London Walking Tours is that you are able to do them at your own pace. You don’t have to turn up at a scheduled departure point, and you most certainly don’t have to be crammed onto a tour with a large group of people.

Our DIY walking tour format has proved incredibly popular and we’re going to be adding a lot more of them this year. The first to go live will be the Riverside Pub tour, which has been mapped out and is now just waiting to be written up. As with the Harry Potter Tour the Riverside London Pub Walks will be laid out in such a way as to provide plenty of history, lots of atmosphere and they will also incorporate a pub quiz and treasure hunt that will keep you occupied throughout!

We’re planning on the London Pub Walks being as popular as the Harry Potter tour, as our DIY format lends itself perfectly to exploring the city’s haunted pubs.

So keep an eye on our blog for more details of the coming Free London walks.

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London walks with Harry Potter.

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Well it’s Sunday. Have a lie in. Relax. Then, when you start to get bored, or the kids start arguing, why not give our Harry Potter London walk a go? This tour has been live for almost a year now and has proved extremely popular with people from all over the world. Indeed, there’s nothing quite like it for fun, information and adventure in London.

Not many London walks are free of charge. But our Harry Potter tour and treasure hunt has always been so. It is, quite simply, one of London’s best bargains (well it’s free which is surely something of a bargain!)

It is a  PDF which you request from us and which, thanks to the magic of our automated system, arrives in your in box before you can close you eyes and wish “oh please send me the great Harry Potter London walk and Treasure Hunt so that I can have something to do with the kids on Sunday.”

You then print it off and then set off for Temple Station and hey presto your tour begins.

Unfortunately, the magic of London Underground is not working quite as well this weekend as, yet again, they’ve closed the District Line between Earls Court and Whitechapel Stations. But all is not lost. You can head for Covent Garden Station and then simply walk down to temple Station to begin the Harry Potter London Tour.

Better still, since part of the tour passes through Covent garden why not just make your way into Covent garden market and then pick up this one of our free London walks at the section that takes you through Covent Garden Market?

Whichever option you choose you will have a great day out in London and, even though the forecast for today is for atrocious weather, you really will enjoy a magical day in London.

So don’t delay. Ping us an email to harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com and the walk will be with you in moments.

Check out our various London walks.

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London walking Tour Harry Potter Walks

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

One of the great aspects of our Harry Potter London Tour and treasure hunt is that you get to do it at your own pace and on a day amd at a time that suits you. It’s the ultimate flexibility because you set your own agenda.

The Harry Potter London walk was written by Richard Jones to provide parents with a great day (or even few days) of exploring London in a way that was both fun and informative.

London is a great City for Walking in and with this free London tour you really do get to see some great parts of the City whilst visiting the various Harry Potter movie locations.

But you also get to see different neighbourhoods on your travels.  You get to walk through the lively and vibrant Covent Garden Market. You get to stand in Trafalgar Square and learn something of its history.

You make your way along Whitehall to see the site of the telephone box via which Harry and Mr Weasley descend into the Ministry of Magic.

You then get to travel over to Southwark to stroll onto the Millennium Bridge and see the soaring former Bankside Power Station, a real London landmark which is now Tate Modern.

To get your free copy of the Harry Potter London Walking Tour you simply have to send an email to harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com and within moments to full 30 page pdf will appear magically in your in box.

You then just print it off and away you go.

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A very apt quote for the day

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

We’ve always enjoyed giving you a choice about how you do our London walks. First an foremost we are fanatical about this great city and have a genuine desire to help people to see more of it.

Our guides range from top flight Blue Badge Guides who’ve done the very demanding course offered by the Institute of Tourist Guiding (we’ll be covering the Blue Badge in a future post) to well known authors who’ve published on topics as diverse as Jack the Ripper, Dickens London and Haunted Britain.

As far as our London Walking Tours are concerned we want to make it as simple as possible for you to find what you want. We won’t make you wade through a seemingly endless rant about how are competitors are all wannabes as it is our opinion that you’re simply not interested in childish name calling.  For that matter neither are we. We simply want to offer you great tours with sensible numbers and to that end we’ll highlight the differences (unique selling points to use adult language) that make our tours different and better.

What we will do is offer you a choice of joining us on one of our paid London walks - such as the Jack the Ripper Tour that takes place seven chilling nights a week, and our ghost walk that takes place on Fridays, Saturdays and on selective Sundays - or you can enjoy one of our free DIY walks in London that are provided as print off and do PDF’s.

These latter include our Harry Potter London Walking Tour and our coming soon Riverside London Pub Walk.

Our aim is pure simplicity. Which is why the following quote from Albert Einsteen in many ways sums up our ethos.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.

 

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London Harry Potter Walks.

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Today we’ll be walking part of the Harry Potter Free London walks route to ensure that it is right up to date. For those of you who have not yet had the chance to take a look at this great free London resource a little information about it might be useful.

The ethos behind our London walks has always been that you should have the choice of joining us for one of our regular and scheduled tours of London for which we make a charge of around £7 or going out on your own and doing the tour of your choice in your own time and at your own pace.

An example of the latter is the period leading up to Halloween when we posted several mini ghost walks that you could print off and follow as and when, or even if, you desired. We are firm believers in giving you step by step directions that ensure you can find your way around the route.

What’s the point of telling you to go and sit in a cafe somewhere and read about the interesting places that are nearby? Our walkers would see through that ruse straight away! We will take you to the places step by step, which is exactly what our Harry Potter London walks are all about.

This free London Walking Tour is a print off 30 page PDF which you download, print off and then follow the step by step directions. You can dedicate an entire day to completing it, or else you can divide it up into several London walks and take these segments as and when you like.

It can be great fun as you will never know what you might come across as you walk the streets of London. One family, for example, even walked into the filming of the next Harry Potter film as they followed our route around Westminster and got to see Harry Potter himself - Daniel Radcliffe. How cool is that!

So if you would like to receive your free PDF tour just send us an email to

harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com

and within seconds you will hear that little ping as, as if by magic, the fully Harry Potter London walk lands in your in box.

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A Quick Word on London - Tours and Walks

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Just a quick look at what’s going on with our London walks in November. Richard is currently hard at work on his new book Haunted Britain, which is due for publication in October 2010.

As a result he has cut back slightly on his haunted tours of London. This Friday he will be heading to Dublin to take part in the annual Paracon at which he is a guest speaker.

He is also busy working on a project with one of England’s most esteemed actors more about which will be mentioned in the new year.

It was nice to see a great turn out for the various Halloween London walks that we laid on. Richard has now clocked up a record 29 annaul Halloween Ghost Tours which makes him one of the capital’s longest providor of Halloween walks in London!

Our free Harry Potter Tour around London is still proving very popular (you can get a copy by sending an email to harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com). Tghis is our 30 page booklet that you simply print off and follow the step by step directions around the locations used in the Harry Potter films.

Two very exciting new free London walks are nearing completion and will be going live in time for Christmas. Meanwhile, our Mobile phone tours have been uploaded and our just going through the Beta stage. It is hoped that these exciting”on your phone” tours of London will be available in the new year.

Finally, we asked in the last blog how you could make a programme that included Jack the Ripper, The Titanic and The Paranormal. Well, the connection is via a man by the name of W.T Stead, who will be the feature of a full blog in the near future.

Meanwhile keep an eye on our Jack the Ripper Tours which are still filling up every night. We’re about to make an exciting announcement about this most popular of all our London walks.

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Our Popular London walks.

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Our London walks really have got London covered. We include many places that are off the beaten track, but we also include some of London’s most popular attractions, such as St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London.

The most popular of our London walks is, without doubt, the Jack the Ripper Tour. This takes place seven nights a week and explores the old alleyways, and cobbled passageways of Whitechapel in the East End.

One of the things that makes our walk in the footsteps of Jack the Ripper so popular is the fact that we are the only London walks group that limit the number on our tours to a sensible and manageable number.

Next in the pecking order comes our ever popular London Ghost Walks.

These take place on Friday and Saturday nights and explore the old streets at the heart of the City of London.

The Walks through Haunted London are a great way to see the City whilst at the same time enjoying a night out that is different, slightly chilling and, above all else, thoroughly entertaining.

Our Friday night Walk is entitled Ghosts, Ghouls and Graveyards and it explores some of the old burial grounds and Roman ruins of London.

Our Saturday night Haunted London walk is entitled the Alleyways and Shadows Old City Ghost Walk and it explores some of the wonderful old alleyways off Cornhill. These places have changed very little since Charles Dickens knew them, and it was in this area that he opened his most ghostly of ghostly tales, A Christmas Carol.

The other popular one of our London walks is the free Harry Potter Tour which is available as a 30 page PDF, which you download yourself and then follow the step by step directions setting your own pace.

So there you have a quick synopsis of our most popular London walks which really will help you to see so much more of a City that spent 2,000 years preparing for your visit.

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