Official Guides to the City of London

Rebecca Couper

Languages:

English.

Themes:

Architecture, Christmas Walks, Christopher Wren's London, City churches, Crime and punishment, Evening walks, General city tour, Great Fire of London, Guildhall Art Gallery, Livery companies, Medieval London, Public art, Romans, Women.

Guided Tours

I am a qualified City of London Green Badge Guide and I'm passionate about sharing our ancient city's hidden side to a broader audience. As a former BBC producer, I have used my skills as a consummate communicator to good use. I particularly love revealing a different view of the city and I'm still astonished that our square mile, full of modern skyscrapers, has a Roman city buried beneath the streets. I'm rather embarrassed to say, I certainly didn't know the full extent of our Roman past until I went on a tour myself. Walking in the footsteps of our ancestors is a particular interest.

 

I also love the ‘untold’ story – the secret female investors who learned to gamble on the stock exchange in an era where women supposedly had no money of their own. And the fantastic female shop owners along Cheapside who ran profitable businesses in the ‘Oxford Street’ of the city. That love of the female pioneers transcends to Bow where I've enjoyed bringing the story of The Matchstick factory girls and the Suffragette, Sylvia Pankhurst to life.

 

My regular walks include Roman London, Pioneering Women in the City, Lost Visions of the City, and Historical & Modern Buildings in the City. I've just expanded to cover Spitalfields, as I'm a resident East Ender and find this corner of London, in the shadow of the city walls, is diverse and rich in history.

When I'm not walking and talking my passion is discovering exciting new places to eat and shopping in the vintage outlets in our London markets.  I live in Hackney with my family, two cats, and a dog.