Bowl of Chalk

Bowl of Chalk Walking tours in London ...mostly. My book 'Why is Downing Street Painted Black?' is available now. Each about 2.5hrs(ish).

'Pay what you want' London tours that currently take place most weekends. The groups are kept small, which means that you're guaranteed to get a better experience. You will just need to contact me through the website and say which walk you'd like to book on. The weekend walks work on a 'pay what you want' basis and during the week I do 'private' tailor-made walks for which I have set fees. Weekend

Walks

There are two Saturday walks and a Sunday walk. SATURDAY 10.30am - Trafalgar Square to St Paul's. SATURDAY 2.30pm - St Paul's to Monument

SUNDAY 11am - My neck of the woods (east end)

For more detailed descriptions and dates please regard the website.

11/06/2026

London, 1983. Serial killer Dennis Nilsen is sentenced to life imprisonment after a string of murders that shocked the UK.

Before his arrest, Nilsen worked for years at a job centre on Denmark Street in Soho, where colleagues knew him as quiet, helpful… and famous for cooking curries for the office.

What they didn’t know was that the large saucepan he used at work dinners was also tied to the horrifying crimes taking place inside his North London flats in Cricklewood and Muswell Hill.

One of the darkest double lives in British criminal history.

10/06/2026

Hidden behind the rush of central London lies one of the city’s best-kept secrets: Gray’s Inn. 🌿⚖️

One of London’s four historic Inns of Court, this peaceful enclave has been home to lawyers, scholars and thinkers since the 14th century. Its magnificent 16th century hall hosted the very first performance of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, while the gardens still follow the walkways planted by Francis Bacon in 1597.

From Shakespeare to Baroness Hale — the first female Justice of the UK Supreme Court — centuries of history live quietly within these walls.

A timeless corner of London many walk past, but few truly discover.

09/06/2026

What connects a tiny funeral directors on Lamb's Conduit Street with Horation Nelson?

08/06/2026

London then vs now 🇬🇧✨

This 1904 postcard captures the magnificent Hotel Cecil overlooking Victoria Embankment Gardens. Built in the 1890s, it was once one of the largest hotels in Europe before being replaced in the 1930s by the Shell Mex building — now home to the UK’s largest clock face. ⏰

One of my favourite things is comparing these old postcards with the modern-day view of London, especially the handwritten messages on the back. With up to 12 postal deliveries a day in the early 1900s, postcards were often used just like today’s text messages — quick, personal updates sent across the city in hours.

London is always changing, but these postcards keep its stories alive. 📮

07/06/2026

What is a Cordwainer?

;

05/06/2026

The reason there’s a pub called Punch & Judy in Covent Garden 👀👇

On 9th May 1662, Samuel Pepys stood in Covent Garden and watched an Italian puppeteer, Pietro Gimonde, perform a show called Pulcinella opposite St Paul’s Church — now known as the Actor’s Church.

Pepys loved it so much, he went back again later that same week… and unknowingly recorded the birth of Punch & Judy in Britain 🇬🇧

Over time, Pulcinella became “Punch & Judy” — one of Britain’s oldest and strangest surviving traditions 🎭

Even today, every second weekend in May, puppeteers gather in the old burial ground of St Paul’s to celebrate Punch & Judy’s birthday… on the exact date Pepys wrote about over 360 years ago.

London history is everywhere — if you know where to look.

04/06/2026

Hidden in Bermondsey is the site of London’s real first railway station 👀🚂

While London Bridge station is often called London’s oldest mainline station (opening in December 1836), that title actually belongs to Spa Road railway station — which opened around 10 months earlier.

Built as a temporary stop while the line into London Bridge was being completed, trains once ran between Deptford and Bermondsey, helping the railway company start making money before the full route opened.

Although Spa Road Station closed to passengers in 1915, traces of it still survive today hidden among the railway arches of an industrial estate. Look closely and you can still spot the old “Booking Office” signs and faded markings from the South Eastern & Chatham Railway. 🏛️✨

London history hiding in plain sight.

01/06/2026

📍 London in Lyrics: Sheila by Jamie T

Released on Jamie T's 2007 debut album, Sheila is packed with London character and references to the city that shaped it.

The track also features a sample of poet John Betjeman reading The Cockney Amorist, evoking a man walking alone through London's streets "which once seemed all our own", past suburban churches and gaslights.

Remarkably, around 1,300 historic gas lamps still illuminate parts of London today, offering a glimpse of the city Betjeman described decades ago.

🎵 A song, a poem, and a city intertwined.

Have you spotted any of London's surviving gaslights?

Due to copyright reasons the music included in the video is not 'Shelia', but please do look it up.

30/05/2026

Ever been in to the incredible Temple Church, just off Fleet Street?

Here's a fun fact about their pillars.

29/05/2026

What’s in a name? 🌳 Honor Oak.

Honor Oak in south east London was once part of the Great North Wood — an ancient woodland that stretched across much of south London. Today, only a small fragment remains: One Tree Hill, named after the “Oak of Honor”, a tree that once marked the boundary between Camberwell and Lewisham.

The area’s name dates back to the 12th century, when the land formed part of the ‘honour’ estate of the Dukes of Gloucester. And because the name predates the standardisation of English, it kept the older spelling “Honor” — without the “u” we’d now associate with British English.

A small piece of London history hidden in plain sight.

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