With our Daily Constitutional archive now bulging with more than 3,500 posts, we've decided to spend the long summer days of August sharing some of our favorite moments from the past seven years. We hope you enjoy them!
This one was first posted back in April this year…
London Walks guide and Daily Constitutional Associate Editor Richard III gives a BIG shout out to Marc Hodes (pictured above), the Long Distand London Walks Champion who has now completed more than 100 walking tours with London Walks & Paris Walks! Congratulations Marc!
Here's an email Marc sent to Richard…
Dear Richard,
My completed walks are listed below. Not bad for someone who has actually only been in residence here for one month – the rest were on weekend trips and the like from Ireland.
I moved here for these seven months in no small part motivated by the fact I need to get more serious about getting these walks done. A bonus is my 10 month old son’s favorite toy is the London Walks pamphlet. Each one lasts about a week…
Best Wishes
Marc
London Walks 1. Old Westminster 2. Historic Greenwich 3. The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour 4. The Old Jewish Quarter 5. The London Walk: St. Paul’s to the Tower of London
6. Little Venice 7. Murder Most Foul 8. Bath (Explorer Day) 9. Stonehenge and Salisbury (Explorer Day) 10. Subterranean London 11. South Ken – Albertopolis, Alcazar and Alcoves 12. Old Kensington 13. Shakespeare’s and Dickens’ London 14. The Christmas Lights and Seasonal Cheer Pub Walk 15. The British Museum Walk 16. Notting Hill and Portobello Market 17. St. Albans (Explorer Day) 18. Avesbury and Lacock (Explorer Day) 19. The Regent’s Canal: Islington to Mile End 20. Old Hampstead Village 21. Old Marylebone 22. The London of Oscare Wilde 23. Spies and Spycathers London 24. Hampstead Village Pub Walk 25. The Famous Square Mile 26. Old Camden Town 27. Off the Beaten Track in St. Pancras Pub Walk 28. The Dark Side of Kensington 29. The Old Chelsea Village Pub Walk 30. Royal Richmond and Hampton Court (Explorer Day) 31. Chartwell and the Weald of Kent (Explorer Day) 32. Scandalous St. John’s Wood 33. Past Preserved - Nookes and Crannies in Charlie Chaplan's London 34. The London of the Rothchildes "The True Lords of Europe" 35. Reds, Radicals and Revolutionaries 36. Christmas Morning 1660 – Samuel Pepys’ London 37. The Christmas Day Charles Dickens’ London Walk 38. Soho in the Morning 39. Old Mayfair 40. Soho Unzipped Pub Walk 41. Cambridge: Can Such Places Be? (Explorer Day/Day Trip) 42. The Olympic Walk 43. Pie Crust to Upper Crust 44. All Change at St. Pancras 45. “Somewhere Else” London 46. Historic Wimbledon Village Winners & Wildcards, Sweetspots & Set Points in SW19 47. The Iron Lady: Thatcher’s London 48. Clubs and Clubmen: The Gentlemen's Clubs 49. London's Literary Golden Mile 50. Jack the Ripper Haunts 51. Bond, James Bond: 007 & Ian Fleming’s London, The “shaken not stirred” Pub Walk 52. The London Tour: Westminster and the West End 53. Westminster at War 54. Lavenham and the Villages of Suffolk (Day Trip) 55. Brunel's Thames Tunnel: Mayflower, Riverside Village, Time Warp London 56. Victoria: Gateway to the Continent 57. Victoria and Albert Museum Tour 58. Rock ‘n’ Roll London 59. Doing the Lambeth Walk 60. Harry Potter on Location in London Town 61. Ancient London: Knights, Nuns and Notoriety 62. Pox and Penicillin: Medical Paddington Past and Present 63. Docklands: Cobblestones, Quaysides & Cloud-capped Towers 64. The “Somewhere Else” London Pub Walk 65. Bonny Barmy Balham: Gateway to the South 66. Rat’s Castle to Midtown: Sordid Past to Sort of Posh 67. Haunted London 68. The Secrets of Westminster Abbey 69. The Beatles In My Life Walk 70. The Tower of London Tour 71. The Unknown East End 72. A Village in Piccadilly 73. Old Westminster by Gaslight 74. Behind Closed Doors 75. The Hidden Pubs of Old London Town (2 times) 76. Legal and Illegal London: The Inns of Court 77. Chelsea: London’s Riverside Village 78. The Monopoly Walk: Advance to Mayfair 79. The Street Art Walk: Bombing with Banksy and Co. (Shoreditch, as opposed to Spitalfields, Version) 80. The Old Knightsbridge Village Pub Walk 81. George Orwell’s London: Big Brother is Watching You 82. The Along the Thames Pub Walk 83. The Great Melting Pot: Immigrants London 84. Old Highgate Village 85. Leighton House: Palace, Studio, East Meets West Treasure Cave 86. Meet the Anglo Saxons: The Sutton Hoo Gallery in the British Museum 87. Brunel’s London: Boat Trip, River Walk, Tunnel Descent... 88. What Ho, Jeeves! The London of P.G. Wodehouse 89. Elephant and Castle: The Regeneration Game 90. Frozen Music: The City of London Architecture Walk 91. Inside London’s Fashion Scene: Savile Row to Stell McCartney 92. Roaming by the River: The Thames is Liquid History 93. The City of Money and the Crash: How It Really Happened 94. Eccentric London: London is Stranger Than Fiction 95. Classic London Mews and Hidden Passageways 96. The Huguenot Silk Weavers of Spitalfields: Riches to Rags 97. Backstairs Belgravia: Byways, Hidden Haunts and Classic Pubs 98. Sherlock Holmes Saves the Nation! The Great Detective’s Westminster 99. The West End Ghost Walk 100. The National Gallery: The Best Art Tour Ever 101. The Greatest Multicultural City: Invaders and Immigrants, Exiles and Escapees 102. The Boat Race Sneak Peak: Blue Boys, Buoys, Bridges and Troubled Waters 103. Harry Potter Film Locations in the City 104. London’s Secret Village 105. Strand on the Green: “London’s Last Remaining True Village” 106. Bohemia Fitzrovia: A Pub Walk in London’s Old Latin Quarter 107. West Hampstead Village: The Other Hampstead
Paris Walks 1. The Marais Circuit I 2. The Marais Circuit II 3. The Village of Montmartre 4. The French Revolution 5. Old Les Halles Market 6. Occupation and Liberation 7. Institut de France 8. Jefferson’s Paris 9. Cite Island and Notre Dame 10. The Paris Chocolate Tour 11. Napoleon and Josephine at the Château of La Malmaison 12. The Paris Opera House 13. Montparnasse, the Val de Grace Convent and the Luxembourg Gardens 14. The Resistance, the Occupation, and the Vél d’Hiver 15. Underground Tour of the Sewers and the Story of the River Seine 16. Secrets of the Left Bank
17. Hemingway’s Paris
The Ed. adds: Phew! Well done Marc! And the list has grown longer since April!
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