Every Monday we’ll pluck just one walk from the vast London Walks repertoire and put it center stage.
You can check out the full schedule at www.walks.com.
But if you only take one walking tour this week, why not make it…
CHELSEA – London's Riverside Village
1.45 pm on Wednesdays from Sloane Square Tube Chelsea is a many-hued prism! Here is the shale of the past, locked in the embrace of the Thames. And seeping through it - like shining rivulets - the avant-garde . Here is one of the grand set-pieces of London architecture: Wren's Royal Hospital. Here you cross a threshold into another era. Because the "pensioners" - old soldiers - are resplendent in 300-year-old scarlet uniforms, the garb of British soldiers - Redcoats! - in the 17th-century! Here is Whistler's Thames - best seen in the afternoon with the sun like a blob of melted butter burnishing the luminous water. Here is Sir Laurence Olivier's house - and Carlyle's - and Mick Jagger's - and Oscar Wilde's "Tower of Ivory" - for these village streets are as clamorous with great names as rooks in a wood. Here are artists" studios and the ancient - and enchanting - Apothecary Garden that changed the course of American history (on Wednesday afternoons it's normally open to the public!) and Sir Thomas More's church and Crosby Hall (historical frissons don't come any more intense - because Crosby Hall was built nearly 20 years before Columbus discovered the new world - and Richard III was staying in it when he heard the news about the little Princes in the Tower).
The Chelsea – London's Riverside Village Walk takes place every Wednesday afternoon at 1.45 pm. Meet Brian or Stephanie just outside the exit of Sloane Square Tube. Sloane Square Tube is on the Circle &District Lines
Guided by Brian or Stephanie
