Getting to know you part III - All aboard

Fish supper: After years of absence, wildlife is returning to the Thames






I've been up and down the river both ways - from Hampton Court Palace to Waterloo, from Waterloo to Kew Gardens, from Greenwich to Waterloo and Waterloo to Greenwich. And it's always been a pleasure.

My first trip was to Kew Gardens, it was a press trip so perhaps the free champagne somewhat coloured my rosy view of the day. Or maybe it was the two very funny watermen who told me all about their profession. The Company of Watermen and Lightermen was established by an Act of Parliament in 1555 to regulate the watermen and wherrymen responsible for carrying goods and passengers on the river - Watermen look after passengers. In days gone by only licensed watermen and lightermen could work on the river. There was a five-year apprenticeship to qualify, learning the trade from a Master. In addition to this, hopefuls took courses covering water survival, firefighting and first aid. Then followed another three years of work experience. All this has changed recently though, with the apprenticeship cut to two years.


Cruise control: The river is great place to see some of London's famous landmarks




Boats must attract a certain sort of person because the skipper of one on the Waterloo-Greenwich route, run by City Cruises, is just as entertaining. He delighted in telling us that the Thames is the cleanest ex-working river in the world: "You can drink it. It'll kill you, but you can drink it!" Last time I took that journey City Cruises were in the process of replacing the live commentary with a recording, which is a shame because the live one added real character. The recording wasn't working that day though, so they'd had to go back to good old talking.

A trip on the river gives a whole new perspective on London. It really is a slower way to see the city. You come across all kinds of wildlife. I've seen kingfishers, herons and many varieties of ducks. Apparently there are also seals and salmon. And once a whale, but that story has a sad ending. Many of London's most well-known sights are visible from the river - St Paul's Cathedral, Tate Modern, the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament. Some boats go all the way to the Thames Barrier, which is definitely worth seeing.

In the middle of the 19th century, the river, which at the time was known as the Big Stink, was so polluted that all the fish died, and so did the birds that relied on them for food. A clean up operation that has taken more than 150 years has returned all kinds of fish and animal life to the river, and today it is home to more than 120 varieties of fish.

Links

The Company of Watermen and Lighermen
City Cruises

Getting to know you part 2 - A walk on the wild side

If bus tours are a great way of seeing London without any effort, walking tours are a way of getting to know something very specific with slightly more effort. Whatever your interest there’s probably a walk for it. Jack the Ripper, pubs along the River Thames, Victorian London, the British Museum, ghosts, even the Beatles are all covered in one walk or another.


Jack the lad: A victim is found (Source: London Walks)





The most well-known company is London Walks. They run hundreds of walks every year, whatever the weather and whatever the date. There are even walks on Christmas Day. Their most famous is the Jack the Ripper walk, one of the guides for which is Donald Rumbelow. Internationally renowned as the world’s leading expert on Jack the Ripper, Donald was the man Johnny Depp turned to when researching the Ripper for his film, From Hell. Too bad he didn’t pay as much attention to the accent. Think about it though, by shaking this man’s hand, you’ve almost touched Jack Sparrow.


Time please: The George Inn is London's last remaining galleried inn




I haven’t done the Ripper walk, but I have done several others and I’ve never been disappointed. I met an American couple on the Along the Thames Pub Walk. They were on their third trip to London and they told me they made a point of doing at least one walk every time. I saw them the next day in Greenwich, small world. London Walks’ guides are knowledgeable and entertaining. These are people that clearly enjoy what they’re doing. Graham of the Ghosts of the Old City Walk really warmed to his subject on a darkening winter’s night. It wasn’t just a walk, it was performance.

And for the less lively of you out there, don’t let the word ‘walk’ put you off. Leisurely stroll with plenty of breaks would be more accurate, just not as punchy.

Links
London Walks

Getting to know you part 1- On the buses

History tour: Bus tours are a great introduction to the city




At 1,570 square kilometres, London is one of the world’s biggest cities. And it packs a lot of history into those square kilometres. The Tower of London, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, even Harrods. It’s hard to know where to start. Which is where the many guided tours you can take come in. There are several out there. Bus tours, walking tours, river boat tours, even ‘duck’ tours (a trip in an amphibious Second World War DUKW).

Bus tours are, quite obviously, tours on open-top buses (usually, some might be closed top). There are two main companies – The Big Bus Company and The Original London Sightseeing Tour. They appear to be very similar according to my investigations, although I’ve only been on the Big Bus tour. Both include river tours, both offer online discounts, both have a choice of routes and tickets are ‘hop on, hop off’ and last for 24 hours (Original’s last for 48 hours until 28 February). However, Big Bus offers a free walking tour (which is definitely worth taking) and costs slightly more.


What traffic: The congestion charge has made bus tours a much more pleasant journey




The tours have pre-recorded commentaries in a variety of languages, as well as live English-language commentaries. The English one is best, if you get the right guide. But that’s where the ‘hop on, hop off’ facility comes in useful. If your guide isn’t entertaining enough, you can always get the next bus. I got off at least two buses before happening across the perfect guide – a very funny Northern chap who had us waving at the billionaires in Knightsbridge and drolly pointed out that Westminster, at “only 1,000 years old,” was the new part of London (compared to the City, which dates back around 2,000 years).

Big Bus doesn’t seem to offer the walking tour I did any more, but it does still have a selection of three. The Ghosts by Gaslight one looks interesting. The one I chose was a Da Vinci Code tour. It maybe wasn’t the best if you hadn’t yet read the book and planned to, because it gave the end away. But for those who had read it, or didn’t mind too much, it was great. Basically a history lesson dressed up as a walk through a popular book/film, the guide (a lovely man with a big umbrella so we could recognise him) was incredibly knowledgeable. His familiarity with both the book and London’s past was impeccable – though he was at his most gleeful when pointing out one of the book’s many ‘adaptations’ to London’s geography and history. Alexander Pope, for example, didn’t preside at Isaac Newton’s funeral – he wasn’t even invited.

The bus tours are a great way of scratching London’s surface. They take visitors around all the best-known landmarks, while teaching you about some the lesser-known history. A wonderful introduction to the city. And say what you like about the Congestion Charge, at least it’s thinned out the traffic enough to keep these tours on the move.

Useful links:
www.bigbus.co.uk
www.theoriginaltour.com