DC Editor Adam writes…It's the annual Daily Constitutional Christmas Shopping Guide!
Every year the London Walks guides round-up their fave shops and stalls along (or near) the routes of their London Walks tours.
LW guide Karen Pierce-Goulding recommends…
Benjamin Pollock's Toyshop, Covent Garden
"If you love art, folly or the bright eyes of children, speed to Pollocks!"*
How true!
This charming magic lantern of a shop is reached by climbing a steep spiral staircase - once on the first floor you are transported into the world of miniature playhouses, shadowboxes, circuses puppets and every conceivable theatrical device and their handmade Victorian Christmas crackers would have delighted even Dickens' Mr And Mrs Fezziwig - the experts in Yuletide celebrations!
* Robert Louis Stevenson's quote
Ask me for directions at the end of my Inside Covent Garden tour on Thursdays. If you are going under your own steam, here's a map…
About your correspondent
Karen
Karen comes trailing clouds of glory. Travel & Leisure crowned her "the world's greatest tour guide." She hosts the Canadian television travel show "London Next Stop." She won the London Tourist Board's Guide of the Year award. She's the author of Royal London. She is, quite simply, a star turn – which is why she's the "go to" London guide for every major media concern. A reformed actress and occasional journalist, she was Independent Magazine's Cultural Heritage Correspondent. Her gold standard walks are, needless to say, vivid and entertaining.
Here's she is presenting her Canadian TV series London Next Stop…
Christmas 2017 With London Walks…
On Christmas Day there are TWO London Walks: Walk up an appetite with The Christmas Morning 1660 Walk – meet at 11:00a.m by the big tree in Trafalgar Square
Walk off the pudding with The Christmas Day Charles Dickens Walk – meet by the big tree in Trafalgar Square at 2:00pm
A London Walk costs £10 – £8 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.
