Best LDN Walks was brought to my attention via Twitter –
someone I know had been on one of their walks where they find all the seven
noses of Soho and me and Charlotte, the girl who runs it, got chatting and lo
and behold, we organized for my meetup group to go along to one of her walks.
She has about 11 different routes, but the ones that stood out as most
appropriate for my group were the Sex, Drugs and Sausage Rolls and Haunted Pubs
tour. I went with the sex.
We met at London Bridge where the scene was set – North
London in days gone by was the posh bit, and South London was where things got
interesting – where the drinking and the partying and the fornicating happened.
Then we wended our way through Southwark and Borough, with Charlotte telling us
the more salubrious history of the places through which we travelled. I have
been on a few tours in my time (Duck Tour, Ghost Bus Tour) not to mention being
generally interested in London’s history and landmarks so expected that I would
know a good chunk of what we covered already. And yes there was quite a lot
that I had either visited already myself, or had heard of, but there was more
than enough that I hadn’t to make it worth my while. Charlotte seems to be a
sponge, continually researching and discovering the hidden histories of London.
For example, we stopped off for a drink about halfway through at a lovely pub
and she got us all ‘singing’ a Tudor drinking song she’d only just unearthed.
We didn’t know the tune but we muddled along anyway.
Fittingly, for such a tour, we ended up near a lovely pub
into which we all bundled for a nightcap. I know I speak for the whole group
when I say Charlotte was a welcoming and entertaining hostess and we all had a
brilliant time exploring the seedy side of London yore.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to add your views, or maybe suggest somewhere I should put on my list!