Leo Heaton, Tour Guide

23/10/2024

This week I’m with a group of lovely visitors from the USA who were lucky enough to enjoy a private dinner this evening in the Painted Hall 😊

Greenwich is one of my favourite corners of London to guide - and just look how sensational the site looks at night 🥰🤩 Tonight’s shot has the added bonus of two iconic Routemaster red double decker buses which we used to transport our guests, and the unmistakable green laser in the background which marks the Prime Meridian of the world (zero degrees longitude) at The Royal Observatory.

You can visit the Painted Hall during the daytime to see the remarkable 18th century murals which were designed and overseen by the artist Sir James Thornhill. Tickets are available on the door or in advance via the Old Royal Naval College website 😊

You can also go and stand with one foot in each half of the world by going up to see that Meridian Line at The Royal Observatory; it is open daily and tickets can be purchased via ☺️

🇬🇧

17/03/2023

I really do have a truly unique and special job 😊

I always try to give my all to every client I meet, but sometimes a group will leave a little indelible high five in my soul in return 💘

Thank you to my new TAMU buddies for your lovely words and a week of fab memories!

😘

07/12/2021

London is getting seriously festive right now 🎁🎉🎄🥰
I spent the weekend on a wonderful corporate guiding job (I know - ACTUAL GUIDING JOBS AT LAST, woohoo!) and the client was staying at the rather lovely . The hotel is rocking a most elaborate, gravity-defying, red, green and gold festive feast for the eyes in their decor this year, got me properly in the Christmas spirit ❤️💛💚
Hope wherever you are “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…” 🥰
❣️

01/10/2021

Who has crossed this most unusual of London footbridges…?
This is the Royal Victoria Dock footbridge, constructed 1998-2000 and designed by architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands. It allows pedestrians to get from the south side of the docks (West Silvertown, the Tate & Lyle sugar refinery, and London City Airport) to the north side (Custom House, Gallions Reach, and the enormous Excel Exhibition Centre complex).

The Victoria Dock was originally constructed from 1850, and opened in 1855. It was the first and largest of what were known as the ‘Royal Docks’, designed specifically to accommodate large 19th century steam ships. Nearly 4km of warehouses, granaries, and storage buildings used to line the quayside, and by the 1860s they were processing a whopping 850,000 tons of shipping every year - a huge commercial success.

Most of London’s central docks declined with the advent of container shipping from the 1960s onwards, and the Royal Docks were redeveloped in the 1990s. Today London City Airport’s runway sits over Albert Dock’s southern quayside, the Excel Centre and its surrounding hotels, bars, and restaurants enclose the Victoria Dock, and most of those old warehouses and granaries have been replaced by neat rows of new residential blocks.

The Royal Victoria footbridge has great views to east and west, and is a fantastic spot to watch the planes taking off and landing from City Airport’s tiny runway - scroll ➡️ for a photo of how close the airport is to the bridge!

15/09/2021

Finally, finally, FINALLY - I am back to guiding lovely families and groups around this incredible city I am lucky enough to call home… 🥰
I know I haven’t posted in a really long time, and sincere apologies to those of you who have missed my random factoids and cheesy grin. The first six months of this year were basically awful, and sometimes it didn’t feel like there was a single glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. I was hardly leaving my flat, I didn’t know what to post or what to say that would be even vaguely entertaining or fun, and those of you who know me well know I find the ‘pretending all is fine for social media’ aspect of this little platform a challenge at the best of times…
But some green shoots at last - visitors are quietly, slowly starting to make enquiries, I have a handful (tiny, but a handful!) of jobs in my diary, and I got to go back inside the glorious, inspirational this week, for the first time since the pandemic began.
I made a promise over the weekend to re-start being a little more proactive in my creative endeavours (massive thank you to for the pep talk 😉) so I have been plotting a few more virtual tour ideas for the autumn, and more content here now that it feels like the guiding world has begun, at last, to turn again.
I really hope you are all doing ok out there. Much love and a big squish from this little corner of south-east London 😊💞
(also thank you to for that hashtag!) 😘

15/07/2021

Always be the first to know about new virtual and in person tours I’m running for UKToursOnline.com by signing up to the mailing list 🙂

The full autumn and winter programme will be winging its way into your inboxes later in the year!

We’re a group of Blue Badge Guides (and friends) who’ve come together to share our expertise and knowledge in this new ‘virtual’ world. If you can’t visit the UK, we& #…

23/06/2021

BRAND NEW VIRTUAL TOUR 😄

Thursday 24th June, 6:00pm

What’s the maddest myth or legend you’ve ever heard or been told about London’s history…? How many times have you wondered, “surely that story can’t be true…?” Well come along for an entertaining hour online, where I will be sifting the facts from the fiction and revealing whether there is in fact any truth at all behind some of the capital’s most established “true stories”. Tickets still available via the link below!

London is FULL of entertaining stories, but some are difficult to verify as being 100% true, or even 10% true in some cases.

22/06/2021

Good morning lovely folks! This Wednesday is your last chance for a while to catch my virtual tour of the history and beauty of sensational St Paul’s Cathedral 🤍

Tickets via the link below, Wednesday 23rd June, 7:00pm. Hope you can join me 😊

Discover the wonders of this magnificent cathedral in this London Walks Virtual Tour of Christopher Wren’s baroque masterpiece.

03/03/2021

It’s been a full year since I was last inside this most spectacular of London buildings. I normally am lucky enough to see it several times a week with different visitors, so to say I miss it would be a vast understatement! This is a STUNNING little film capturing the construction of the Abbey over the course of its 1000 year history. It gives a genuine sense of how breathtaking it is from inside and out. This brought me a real shot of joy today and I hope you enjoy it too ☺️💗

08/02/2021

Happy Monday gang!

Two chances this week to come on an archaeological explore with me 🙂

7pm today for ‘Archaeology in the City’ - full of Roman goodies and secrets hidden in plain sight.

Then 7pm tomorrow for ‘Archaeology of Crossrail’ - for some of the truly amazing discoveries found along the entire route of this megaproject!

Tickets as always are available via my eventbrite booking page.

Wishing you all a great week!

Leo is an award-winning Blue Badge Tourist Guide offering fun and informative tours of some of London's most memorable and famous sites, including Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, The British Museum and The National Gallery. During these strange times of limited travel or...