GREAT BRITAIN - Best of Europe 2014 - page 768

Beatles Walks
Fans of the still-Fab Four can take one of three Beatles walks (London Walks has two that
run 5 days/week; Big Bus includes a daily walk with their bus tour; both listed earlier).
Jack the Ripper Walks
Each walking tour company seems to make most of its money with “haunted” and Jack
the Ripper tours. Many guides are historians and would rather not lead these lightweight
tours—but, in tourism as in journalism, “if it bleeds, it leads” (which is why the juvenile
London Dungeon is one of the city's busiest sights).
Two reliably good two-hour tours start every night at the Tower Hill Tube station exit.
London Walks' leave nightly at 19:30 (£9, pay at the start, tel. [phone], recorded
info tel. [phone], www.jacktheripperwalk.com ) . Ripping Yarns, which leaves earli-
er, is guided by off-duty Yeoman Warders—the Tower of London “Beefeaters” (£7, pay at
end, nightly at 18:45, no tours between Christmas and New Year, mobile [phone],
www.jack-the-ripper-tours.com ).Aftertakingboth,IfoundtheLondonWalkstourmoreen-
tertaining, informative, and with a better route (along quieter, once-hooker-friendly lanes,
with less traffic), starting at Tower Hill and ending at Liverpool Street Station rather than
returning to Tower Hill. Groups can be huge for both, but there's always room—just show
up.
Private Walks with Local Guides
Standard rates for London's registered Blue Badge guides are about £140-165 for four
hours and £225 or more for nine hours (tel. [phone], www.guidelondon.org.uk or
www.britainsbestguides.org ). I know and like four fine local guides: Sean Kelleher (tel.
020/8673-1624, mobile [phone], [e-mail] ) , Britt Lonsdale
(£190/half-day, £290/day, great with families, tel. [phone], mobile [phone],
[e-mail] ), and two others who work in London when they're not on the road
leading my Britain tours, Tom Hooper (mobile [phone], [e-mail] ) and
Gillian Chadwick (mobile [phone], [e-mail] ) .