Guided Walks
London Creative Club is thrilled to have launched a series of guided walks with professional guide, Laura Adams! We started off in late February with an amazing walk in Greenwich.
Each walk is two hours long and will end in or near a cafe/pub for anyone that would like to visit over a cuppa, drink or bite to eat. Our walks are for adults but youth (10+) are welcome to come along if accompanied by an adult. All the dates and details are below!
Fees for each walk: Adults £15, Youth (10-17yrs) £5
About our Guide
Enthusiastic and fun, Laura Adams is an experienced London Blue Badge Tourist Guide, former actress and storyteller. She loves to impart her knowledge of London in an engaging way and to bring the city to life. She has a special interest in women’s history (or her-story) and literature. During lockdown she founded Women Inspire, a podcast and blog which seeks to shine a spotlight on remarkable women past and present, many of whom have gone unrecognised or been forgotten.
Street Art Tour, tbc
Email us if you're interested!
Street Art Tour
Meeting Point: Liverpool Street Station
End Point: Hoxton Square
Take a guided walk around the fascinating East End of London and see some of the incredible street art, which flourishes on every corner!
Shoreditch and Spitalfields have attracted numerous immigrant groups, from the Protestant Huguenots who arrived in the 17th century fleeing persecution in France to the Jewish population escaping pogroms in Eastern Europe and the Bangladeshi community of today.
On our walk we’ll pass markets, trendy bars and vintage stores as we uncover the area’s rich and diverse history and learn how the area evolved into the “National Gallery of Street Art!”
We find out the difference between a sticker and a paste-up, a mural and a yarn bomb. We explore creative techniques such as spray painting, stencilling and woodcuts and hear about some of the incredible artists who daub our streets, each with their vibrant and distinctive styles. You never know… may even see them at work!
Shakespeare Walk, 30 April
Shakespeare Walk
Saturday 30th April from 10.30am - 12.30pm
Meeting Point: Entrance to the George Inn on Borough High Street. Close to London Bridge Tube Station.
End Point: Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub on Fleet Street
“He was not of an age, but for all time.”
On our walk today we travel back in time to experience the sights, sounds and smells of Southwark over 400 years ago. Together we walk the very streets that the Bard once trod and as we do so we explore the friendships and rivalries in his life, hear about the life of an actor and of a theatre-goer and learn about the ever important patrons, delving deep to find out more about the life of this enigmatic, remarkable figure and the world he once inhabited.
We begin our journey at The George Pub, London’s last remaining galleried inn. From there we wander by Borough Market to the River Thames, enjoying the sights and sounds of Bankside and passing Southwark Cathedral, where Shakespeare’s brother Edmund lies buried.
We encounter the remains of the original Globe Theatre, as well as Sam Wanamaker’s triumphant reconstruction and walk by the old Rose Theatre, the Bear Gardens and see the Feryman’s seat where he would wait to ferry theatregoers back and forth. We end our tour by crossing the river to Blackfriars to find the site of Shakespeare’s indoor theatre and explore this area north of the river which Shakespeare would have known well.
St James & Mayfair Walk, 21 May
St James and Mayfair Literary Walk
Saturday 21 May from 10.30am - 12.30pm
Meeting Point: Green Park Station. South Side Exit - Green Park
End Point: Berkeley Square
Today we traverse parts of the glamorous West End to meet some literary greats. who once lived and worked here from Jane Austen to Oscar Wilde, Ian Fleming to Nancy Mitford.
Beginning our tour in St James, we visit the heart of ‘Gentleman’s London’ with its exclusive clubs, once presided over by infamous dandy Beau Brummel. Here we pass by shops with the prestigious royal warrant and peer inside Hatchards, London’s oldest bookshop.
We visit St James’s Square, once the London home of wealthy aristocrats, where we see the London Library and find the home of Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer and Lord Byron’s only daughter.
In Piccadilly we come across The Albany, the mansion block featured in many an 18th century novel and move into glitzy Mayfair, where we find the site of John Murray, publisher of Darwin, Byron, Conan-Doyle amongst others and pass Browns Hotel with its many historical and literary associations before ending the tour in beautiful Berkeley Square.
Dickens Walk, 25 June
Dickens Walk
Saturday 25th June from 10.30am - 12.30pm
Meeting Point: Chancery Lane Tube Station. Exit North Side (by Staples Inn)
End Point: The Lamb Pub on Lambs Conduit Street
Dickens himself was a walker and he loved nothing more than to walk through the streets of London, soaking up the life of the city and letting it flow out into his novels for his readers to devour.
Today we walk those same streets and discover not just places where he lived and worked, but those he wrote about in his novels and as we traverse alleys and courtyards, we can imagine the much gloomier city of the 1800s, heavy with fog, gas light illuminating a horse drawn carriage as it clatters by momentarily, damp filthy streets and a rank, acrid stench, as we tread quietly over cobbled stones.
On our guided tour today we’ll bring to life not just Dickens, but the characters in his novels, from Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations to Esther Summerson in Bleak House, many of them will appear to us on our journey.
Women of Bloomsbury Walk
July TBC
Beautiful Bloomsbury with its garden squares, Georgian architecture, hidden corners and reputation for world-class education, has been a magnet for great literary figures, including a number of exceptional and trailblazing women.
On our walk we'll explore how the renowned Bloomsbury Group made such a profound impact and, as we walk through peaceful Tavistock Square, we'll discuss the life of Virginia Woolf and her sister, artist Vanessa Bell.
We’ll hear tales of novelist and philanthropist Mary Ward (who founded the anti-suffrage movement!), discover a gentle dreamer who wrote children’s stories, before being recruited as a special agent in World War II and meet Mary Prince, who escaped enslavement to become the first woman of colour to write an autobiography.
The tour ends in fascinating Mecklenburgh Square, home to numerous pioneering intellectuals. Delve with us into a leafy and learned oasis to be inspired by a plethora of great literary figures!
After the tour, you're welcome to join us for a drink around the corner at The Calthorpe Arms!