What sort of tours do you do?

I specialise in small groups (couples and families), on walking tours or visits to some of London’s great sites or museums, in particular:

  • Bermondsey and Rotherhithe – a (largely) tourist-free riverside walk
  • Canalside Walk – from Kensal Town to Little Venice – where few tourists go
  • British Museum – a major highlight
  • Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace and St James’s Palace (10:30 to 11am every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday)
  • City of London walk – from Romans to High Finance
  • Courtauld Gallery
  • Imperial War Museum
  • Kensington Palace and Kensington Gardens
  • Kew Gardens
  • Mayfair’s Unexpected Sights
  • National Gallery
  • National Portrait Gallery
  • St Paul’s Cathedral (not Sundays)
  • Southwark riverside
  • Tower of London
  • Victoria and Albert Museum – applied and decorative arts
  • Wallace Collection
  • Westminster Abbey (not Sundays)
  • Westminster and Whitehall – the Heart of Government

Specialist tours and walks:

  • London’s Great Railway Stations – a celebration of Railway200, the 200th anniversary of the opening of the first passenger railway
  • Legal London – the Royal Courts of Justice and the Temple (not weekends)
  • London in the First World War
  • The Romans in London
  • The Bible in the British Museum
  • The Grand Tour in the British Museum
  • William Pitt the Younger’s London (not Sundays)
  • City Churches (not weekends)
  • Arts & Crafts in Chelsea
  • The Bloomsbury Group
  • Winston Churchill – a Life in London
  • The History of the Victoria and Albert Museum

I can arrange bespoke tours to a particular place or area in London, or covering a particular theme.  Just let me know what interests you.

I can also take you out of London for a day trip to:

  • Bath
  • Canterbury
  • *The Cotswolds
  • *Hever Castle
  • *Ham House
  • Hampton Court Palace
  • Oxford
  • Salisbury
  • *Stonehenge
  • Stratford upon Avon
  • Windsor

Most of these places can be reached by train, but for those marked with an asterisk (*) we’d need to arrange a car and driver

What does a typical tour involve?

How long does it last?  This is up to you, but for most people, two hours or so is enough to get a proper feel for a particular site and its attractions, without getting too tiring.  But a fun day could involve a walk, a highlights tours of a site (the Tower of London, say, or Westminster Abbey) and a museum or gallery (the National Gallery or the British Museum, for example).

Where do we meet?  For a museum, gallery or other site, we normally meet at the entrance.  For a walking tour we normally meet at a convenient Tube station.

What do we see?  On a two-hour tour of a museum or gallery, we will look at around 20 pictures or objects.  On a walking tour, we will typically have about 15 stops to look at points of interest.  But it’s your tour – you could choose to cover more in less detail, or less in more detail.  Look at the Gallery for pictures which I have taken on walks or visits to major sites in London, which will give you an idea of the sort of things you might see.

How do I book you?

Just send me an email ([email protected]).

You can check my availability at https://www.guidelondon.org.uk/guides/rowanfreeland/

How much does it cost?

Morning (max four hours, up to 1:00pm) or afternoon (max 4 hours, after 1:30pm): £280

Full day (max 9 hours): £420

English public holidays – +50%

If you need a car/van and driver, I can obtain a quotation for the cost.

Admission fees, drinks and snacks and other incidentals – and my lunch – are of course extra!

I hope that these answer most of your questions – if not, feel free to contact me directly by email.