Here are some favourites from our guides:

 Royal Connections

“I dabble in a bit of royal gossip, so love taking guests around the royal sites, as well as the many shops which provide goods to the Royal Family. The Wallace Collection is also a favourite as there are so many gems that once belonged to the French Royal Family.  I find that with walking tours you can really get under the skin of a neighbourhood, and favourite areas include Mayfair, St James and Belgravia – home of upstairs, downstairs living.”
Sophie M

 Kings Cross Architecture

“My current favourite place has to be the Kings Cross neighbourhood.  It used to be a dive (I met my partner there – dancing on a table – in 1999. Good times!) but has been completely reborn.  Stunning new architecture complement the restored Victorian warehouses. I particularly like the old gasholders which have been turned into flats.  But what really makes Kings Cross the place to be right now, is the public spaces between buildings.  This is where the cool kids hang out at the moment.”
Jakob Hartmann

 Green Spaces

“I love to be close to the river. Walking along the banks of the Thames reveals a luminous and theatrical backdrop which recounts our city’s long history. I also love to show off London’s amazing parks, gardens and tree lined squares – did you know 47% of London is green space? And now London is the world’s first urban National Park! Perhaps London’s greatest green space is Kew Gardens. No need to be a gardener to enjoy this amazing collection of fascinating garden buildings; three huge Glasshouses, an art gallery, a royal palace, a Japanese pagoda, a high tree canopy walk, various temples and follies, and of course thousands of majestic trees, fabulous flowers and shrubs and huge swathes of sweeping lawns.”
Isabel Wrench

Historic Gin Craze

“My walking tour exploring the history of the Gin Craze of the 1700s is currently my favourite – it wanders through a really fun part of London and so reveals the hidden history behind streets people normally just enjoy for eating and shopping, and also is jam-packed full of fascinating and funny stories.”
Alfie Talmanc

 It’s only Rock n’ Roll, but I Like it

“My favourite London highlight is Soho, the birthplace of British Rock n’ Roll, but it’s also the unexpected places that can delight.  When London’s streets were closed for a huge bike ride, we quickly decided to change our programme around and ended up walking along the canals: Little Venice’s houseboats, the villas in Regent’s Park and the lively, trendy Camden Market enthralled my guests more than the planned major sites!”
Theresa Hunt

There are also obvious requirements, such as do they speak your language and are they experts in the area you’re interested.  But there are also many other ‘soft factors’ that can be intensely personal.  We asked our guides what their tips would be for choosing a guide.

“Wherever I go, I always book a local guide to show me around.  My number one criteria, is ‘friendliness’.  It doesn’t matter how clever the guide is if you don’t get on. “
Jakob Hartmann

 “My ideal guide is somebody who conveys a profound cultural understanding of their location. Somebody who shares a lot more than facts and who really ‘feels’ their city; someone who helps you seek out the poetry of the streets!”
Isabel Wrench

“A great guide knows how to pitch the tour at the appropriate level to make it informative and entertaining. A local guide should be able to spice up the facts with good stories, and up to date topical information that cannot be found in a guide book.  It is as much about fun as about facts.”
Michael Whalley

“Talk to your guide in advance.  You may have clear views on what you want to see, but your guide can also give you a lot of helpful advice.  They will know what you can realistically achieve in the time you have and take you to places off the beaten track that will surprise you.”

“I’d want someone fun, friendly and relaxed. Of course, I’d want them to know their stuff, but I’d also be looking for someone with a particular interest in the social history as well as the current state of the place I’m visiting.”
Alfie Talman

 “When I went to Rome recently, I booked a guide and I realised that it was not his knowledge that impressed me but the way he delivered it. We were just walking through lesser known areas and I just loved to listen to his stories. His kindness and friendliness was also a great bonus!”
Theresa Hunt

Albert was born only 3 months after Victoria on 26^th August 1819 in Schloss Rosenau, in today’s northern Bavaria, Germany. Victoria and Albert were first cousins: his wayward father Ernest was the brother of the German Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Queen Victoria’s mother. Albert and Victoria were even delivered by the same German midwife, Charlotte Heidensick von Siebold.

Albert never really knew his mother Alice, who was sent away when he was 5 years old because of an extramarital affair. They were never allowed to see each other again. He was raised and educated to be a “good and useful man” and to hopefully marry the Queen of England one day.

Shortly before Victoria proposed to Albert in October 1839 she wrote in her diary:

“My heart is quite going. He was excessively handsome with beautiful blue eyes an exquisite nose and such a pretty mouth with delicate moustachios.” 

But don’t forget that she had also been particularly attracted to Albert’s sense of humour, his cheerfulness, his laughter and merriment as well as his looks!

Albert was very ambitious, highly intelligent, cultured and well-educated. His role should have been solely to support the Queen but he had his desk moved next to Victoria’s and became her confidante and advisor. He was often criticised for meddling in politics, manipulating Victoria and being King in all but name, but on the positive side he definitely had very calming and positive influence on Victoria, who was emotional and impressionable, flew into rages and was by no means a good judge of people.

He had high standards for everyone, especially his own nine children. He was a hands-on Dad, something quite unusual for his time and was very close to all of them, especially to the firstborn, Victoria. But he may have presaged his early death.

A few weeks before, Albert remarked to Victoria:

“I do not cling to life. You do; but I set no store by it. I am sure if I had a severe illness I should give up at once. I should not struggle for life. I have no tenacity of life.”

Albert died on 14 December 1861 at 22:50 in the Blue Room in Windsor Castle. It’s unclear whether he really died of Typhoid fever as stated on his death certificate or Crohn’s Disease, abdominal cancer or renal failure. Victoria never stopped mourning Albert and she wanted to make sure that he would never be forgotten: She had the Albert Memorial, sometimes called The Taj Mahal of England, erected in Kensington Gardens. She spontaneously named the impressive newly built Music Hall, The Royal Albert Hall. If you have a chance to go inside of it, have a look at the balustrade. The decorations feture 100s of As.

In addition to being the Queen’s husband and advisor and father to the future King, he also accomplished many things in Great Britain in his own right:

• The popularisation of the Christmas tree in Great Britain.
• The saving of Cleopatra’s Needle and its placement on the Thames Embankment.
• The spectacular revival of Cambridge University from its medieval slumber to world eminence which it has never surrendered since.
• The foundation of Imperial College London and the museums in South Kensington
• The commissioning of the carved lions at the base of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.
• The extension to the National Gallery and its glorious early Renaissance paintings whose purchase he inspired and of which 22 are his personal gift.
• The inspiration behind the Royal Balcony on the façade of Buckingham Palace.
• The creation of the Victoria Cross as the highest award for gallantry in battle to be awarded regardless of rank.
• The commissioning of the great frescoes in the Royal Gallery in the Palace of Westminster.
• Contributing to the abolition of duelling and the final defeat of slavery.
• Designing Balmoral and Osborne House.

So when you are in London or Cambridge and you are looking for Albert’s influence “Si monumentum requires, circumspice”.

It all started with St Nicholas. He was from a wealthy family, became a Bishop in the 4^th Century and lived in Myra – today’s Turkey. He loved helping the poor. St Nicholas adventures began when he helped a man with three daughters who could not afford dowries in order to marry. One-night St Nicholas climbed up the roof of the man’s home and threw a sack filled with gold through his chimney. It landed in a stocking that was put there to dry.

This wonderful provision happened again when it came time for the second daughter to marry. Now the father wanted to know who was doing this and he set out to catch his benefactor. When it came time for his third daughter to marry, he caught St Nicholas in the act and the secret was out. From now on every secret gift was from St Nikolaus and he became the patron saint and later for sailors.  He died in exile on the 6^th of December 345 or 352.

In many countries throughout Europe children still celebrate St Nicholas by placing a boot outside their door or by the chimney on the eve of the 5^th December. In the morning they wake to find it filled with small presents nuts and oranges the next morning.

During the Reformation in the 16^th Century, St Nicholas like other saints became unpopular. But who shall bring the presents now?

In England they decided to use Father Christmas or Old Man Christmas, a figure based from the mystery plays of the middle ages.

In France it was Père Noel. In Germany and Austria it was the Christ child with blond curls and wings, and the Americanised pronunciation of this led to Kris Kringle in the 1840s.

So, what about Santa Claus then? Who is he? When the Dutch colonized much of New York before the American Revolution they brought their traditions with them, one of them was the idea of Sinterklaas, the Dutch word for St Nicholas. Again, the American pronunciation turned it into Santa Claus.

That brings us to the modern Santa Claus, the creation of which is contributed to two New Yorkers in the 19^th Century. In 1822 Clement Clarke Moore, a minister, wrote the now famous poem “Twas the night before Christmas.” In his poem, Santa flew through the sky in a sleigh with eight reindeer and brought gifts through the chimney.

But at that time he didn’t look like today’s Santa Claus. That happened a few years after the poem was published, when a German born cartoonist working for Harper’s Weekly, gave Santa Claus his grandfatherly looks with a big belly and white beard.

And no – the red and white costume has nothing to do with the influence of Coca-Cola, as many believe, but from the traditional clothing for Bishops which is red and white: So we come full circle to Bishop St Nicholas.