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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.

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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.

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Harry Potter Walks London.

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

We are going to take a break from our London walks of art and return to the theme of our great Free Harry Potter Tour of London.

We are currently receiving around 20 requests a day for our London walks Harry Potter Treasure Hunt and Walking Tour and are receiving some pretty good feedback from people who have taken it and have enjoyed it immensely.

The Harry Potter film locations walk was updated at the end of September, following the closure of the Thames Footpath between Blackfriars Bridge and The Founders Arms Pub.

This section of the London Riverside Walks is going to be closed for sometime, a few years at least, but the detour isn’t that bad and adds, at most an extra fifteen minutes walking onto the Harry Potter London Tour.

If you are not familiar with this great free London walk then it is a full tour of London that takes in the movie locations where the Harry Potter films are shot.

So, for example, we visit Diagon Alley, the Leaky Cauldron, Platform nine and three quarters, not to mention Gringotts bank and sundry other locations associated with the Harry Potter locations in London.

But the tour is also a fully paced out London Walking Tour that is structured to include a London Treasure Hunt so that parents with children can enjoy a memorable day out in London that won’t cost the earth.

To receive this memorable one of our London walks you simply have to send an email to harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com and, before you can say Hogwarts, the full downloadable pdf will be winging its way to you.

You simply then print it off (it runs to 30 pages) and then go off an explore Harry Potter’s London at your own pace and in your won time.

It’s as simple as that!

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Our Free London walks - Beyond Harry Potter

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

In 2003 Richard Jones launched his series of free London walks. Since then many people have explored London following the careful step by step directions that Richard has paced out for them.

London walks should be a liberating experience and it is our belief that our customers should have a choice. To that end we are the only London walks company that offers you both pay and join tours of London or the free print off and do it yourself option.

Our Harry Potter London walks have blazed quite a trail across the London sightseeing scene. Thousands of people have asked for the PDF of the Harry Potter Tour and treasure Hunt around London. One family, who were following the route, even had the amazing experience of encountering Daniel Radcliffe and a film grew shooting scenes for the next Harry Potter Film in Westminster.

Indeed this PDF has been so popular we’ve now decided to roll out a whole series of walking tours which will commence in November and which will feature all manner of subjects. Our Riverside London Pub Walk will be the first to go live and will take you to some amazing Riverside hostelries that have changed little in over a hundred and more years.

As we explained back in June the London Pub Walk will include a quiz and treasure hunt as well as lots of fascinating facts and history about the streets through which you walk and the pubs that you visit.

The finishing touches are just being done now and then it will go through are usual rigorous quality control whereby it will be walked several times by an independent assessor to ensure that the route and directions work and then it will be offerred up as one of our Free London walks PDF’s that you will be able to download and do as and when you choose.

Of course, if you are looking for a private group tour or an office social or team building you can book a tour guided tour with us from just £7 per person.

So there you have it, more choice of ways to see London than any other Walks company. So why not get to know us and Experience a Welcome Difference?

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Harry Potter Walks London - Update

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Our Harry Potter London walks have undergone a new update. We have now arrived at version six of the tour since, as we stated in July, the east bound Thames Path over Blackfriars Bridge has closed to facilitate the expansion and redevelopement of Blackfriars Station.

It’s going to look great when it’s finished but in the meantime it’s added a little bit of extra walking to the Harry Potter London walks.

In a nutshell, when you have crossed over Blackfriars Bridge, you just need to veer left and cross the road by the crossing just after Dogget’s Coat and Badge. Once on the other side you turn right walk down to the busy traffic junction and turn left along Southwark Street. Having traipsed under the railway bridge you go first right along Hopton Street and then just keep straight (you’ll need to walk through a covered passage that passes under the light brown brick buildings at the end) until you reach the riverside again by the Founders Arms Pub.

That’s it really, nothing that major, just a little extra walking which, as walking in London is extremely good for you, can’t be a bad thing!

Our Harry Potter London walks PDF has been updated to include this new detour so why not request you copy of this exciting innovative and, best of all, absolutley free London walking tour and London Treasure hunt?

Since we have now automated the whole process, getting hold of a copy couldn’t be easier. Simply send an email requesting one to harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com and, as if by magic, you’ll receive a copy almost immediately.

You then print off your copy (it runs to 30 pages by the way) and off you go. The great thing about this is that, unlike other London walks where you have to be at a station at a specific time and join a group of other people who follow one guide, this is a stand alone do it yourself tour of London. So you set your own pace, you do it as and when you choose and you can stop as often as you wish.

Since there are lots of wonderful things to see on the route that will appeal to parents and chilren alike, it really does make sense to be independent. To get out of the herd mentality of just following a guide and experience London on your won with the help of our carefully planned out step by step directions.

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London walks Quiz - The Answers

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

Yesterday we set you a little quiz that consisted of questions regarding topics that come up on our various London walks.

From the Jack the Ripper London walk.

1. How many victims is it believed that Jack the Ripper had?

The general consensus, which it has to be said is by no means certain is that Jack the Ripper had five victims.

2. In which part of London did the Jack the Ripper murders occur?

Several of our East End of London walks cover the quarter of London where the murders occurred. The murders occurred in the districts of Spitalfields and Whitechapel, with one murder, that of Catharine Eddowes, the fourth victim taking place in the City of London.

3. Can you name one of the detectives who investigated the crimes?

There are so many that you could choose from but the man in charge of the on the ground investigation was Inspector Abberline. He incidentally was the person upon the character of Johnny Depp in the film From Hell was very loosely based.

If you would like to experience one of our Jack the Ripper London walks, they take place seven chilling nights a week at 7pm

From the Dickens London walks.

1. What was Charles Dickens first major work?

The first major work by Dickens was Pickwick Papers.

2. Which book was he working on when he died in 1870?

Dickens died suddenly in June 1870 whilst he was working on The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

3. What was the name of the magistrate before whom Oliver Twist appeared?

Having been taken for pick-pocketing on Clerkenwell Green Oliver appears before Mr Fang at Hatton Garden Police Court.

From our City of London walks.

1. Where is Christ’s Hospital School now located?

Close to St. Paul’s there is a blue plaque on the wall of what is now Merrill Lynch that marks what was the site of Christ’s Hospital School. However in the 1890’s the school moved to its current location at Horsham.

2. What was Sir Christopher Wren’s first architectural commission?

Wren’s first architectural commission came about as a result of nepotism. His uncle, who was Bishop of Ely commissioned him to design the chapel at Pemroke College in Cambridge in 1663. This was followed in 1664 by a commission to design the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford.

3. Which London market became Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films?

Leadenhall Market, London’s most beautiful Victorian market was used for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films.

So there you have it. A handful of questions that really demonstrate the sheer breadth and variety of subjects and facts that you can learn on one of our acclaimed London walks.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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News On Our Free Harry Potter Tour

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

It’s now almost a month since our Free Harry Potter London walk PDF offer went live and we’re simply overwhelmed by how popular this free London Tour has proved.

When we began putting together our free London walks we thought there might be a little bit of interest, maybe 6 or so requests a month. But our Harry Potter London Tour has exceeded our wildest expectations.

Furthermore we’ve had some lovely comments from people telling us how grateful they are that somebody has actually put together something that is 100% free (other than of course the paper and ink required to print off the 28 page booklet).

A cub scout leader requested a copy for his troop that will soon be visiting London. Once he received the pdf he had this to say about it:-
Thanks that looks excellent, told my groups of Cubs about it and they can’t wait to do the tour. Thanks for the advice.

Another lady, whose grandson is an avid Harry Potter fan, write to say:-

Thank you very much.  I came across your site as if by magic - it’s wonderful and the harry potter walk treasure hunt looks great.  It will be a ‘must do’ for my grandson who is a great harry potter fan who loves to visit London.

One Lady who actually did the Harry Potter London walk on 20th May 2009 emailed to say:-

It was great fun and the clues would keep loads of kids amused. I couldn’t believe how many times I’ve walked past the little alleys and never noticed them. I knew the Strand Underground was near its site but never actually saw it and I’d walked passed that too.

So why not join the growing band of people who are experiencing and discovering more of London on our Free London walks?

If you would like us to send you the free PDF of the Harry Potter London Tour then please simply fill in the quick contatc at the top of this page and we’ll whizz it over to you.

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