City of London Guides – Daily Guided Walks

City of London Guides offer daily, weekly and monthly walking tours around the City of London. Choose from City Highlights, or for something different try one of the themed tours including: Romans, Wren's architecture, The Great Fire of London, Riverside, and more.

Most of the daily walks start from the City Information Centre, just south of St Paul's Cathedral (but always double-check when you're booking). Advance booking via Eventbrite is required to secure your place. Note that the cut-off time for booking the daily walks is 9pm the night before. If there are no bookings by then, the walk will not take place.

In addition, City of London Guides offer seasonal walks and tours of several of the City's historic sites such as Billingsgate Roman Bath House, Smithfield Market, Leadenhall Market, Guildhall, Mansion House - plus City Gardens.

Visit the City of London Guides website for more details of all tours and to book.

Popular guided walking tours include:

• The City Highlights tour - see famous landmarks and iconic buildings throughout the City
• Friday walk: The Dark Side of the City - join a guided walking tour that tells the tale of historical crime and punishment, executions and excess.
• Roman London
• Literary themed tours:
  • Follow in Charles Dickens' Footsteps, the walk covers Dickens' own life, and events from his novels.
  • Explore the City of Dr Samuel Johnson, author of the modern dictionary, who lived and worked here in 1700's.
  • NEW! From Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde - find out about famous writers and their experiences of life in the City of London.

New guided walks from 1st April

Starting in April 2024, City of London Guides will be running two guided walks per day, with three new themes joining their regular schedule of walks:

1) News from Fleet Street - press barons, brave journalists and a foul-mouthed parrot

• Explore the street that gave birth to the newspaper trade with an expert guide.  Discover the drinking dens where writers shared the latest gossip (and where women fought for the right to be served at the bar).  Hear tales of the powerful press barons who built media empires, and the courageous journalists who ventured into war zones to bring back the real news.  Meet the man who fought for a free press over 200 years ago, and the pub parrot which entertained celebrity visitors and eventually made its own headlines.

2) From Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde - Writers and their experience of life in the City

• Join an expert guide on a walk exploring the literary legacy of the City. This is the place where the first printing press in England was established, and all written works had to be registered before publication. Hear stories of the writers who were born and raised in the City, and those like Shakespeare who were drawn here from afar to make their names. Find out about the court case that destroyed Oscar Wilde’s reputation, and the brave publisher who held out for literary merit in a notorious obscenity trial. Meet the colleagues who ensured Shakespeare’s plays were saved for posterity, and the priest poet who almost lost it all for love.

3) Secrets and Symbols - A curious wander through the City of London

• On this entertaining, enlightening, and fascinating tour, follow your expert guide. If you know where to look, the past still communicates its litany of secrets, and its hidden history concealed by a city two-thousand years old. Ever wonder why we say ‘at sixes and sevens? What are those badges on the lampposts outside the Royal Exchange? Why are there no roads in the City of London? Yet the streets have some very interesting names: Love Lane anybody! We'll take a curious wander along the environs of Cheapside - finding out why it's called Cheap, keeping an eye out for Honey Bees and Demi-Maidens, and spotting descriptive street signs.