Official Guides to the City of London

Robert Woolf

Languages:

English.

Themes:

Architecture, City churches, Financial Institutions, Gardens and open spaces, General city tour, Great Fire of London, Guildhall Art Gallery, Journalism and the press, Lectures and talks, Legal London, Literary tours, Magna Carta, River Thames, Romans, St Paul's Cathedral.

Biography

In London for the first time? The 10th time and still not seen it all? Would you like a half day tour, a full day? Use your valuable time well: see the key royal and historical sites and learn all you can with a professional and entertaining guide. I will create a unique tour for you, your family, your group, for example:

Outside the City of London, I offer a walking tour around the regeneration area of Kings Cross and a tour around 'Silicon Roundabout', the new young financial technology business area to the north of the City and east into Shoreditch including some wonderful street art!

Beyond London, I lead tours that showcase Britain's rich heritage to locations such as Hampton Court Palace with its Tudor history, and further afield to Windsor, and Oxford.

A volunteer at Westminster Abbey, I lead educational tours of the Abbey to student groups and school children. 

I am a published authored with a book on Lord Mayors' Portraits from Dame Mary Donaldson (Lord Mayor in 1983) to Dame Fiona Woolf (2013).

I am a Friend of The City Churches and have the Freedom of the City of London.

 

More information about me is on my website: www.robertwoolfguiding.com

 

 

 

 

Qualifications

I am a qualified London Blue Badge Guide and Westminster Guide in addition to being a City of London Guide

 

 

 

Guided Tours

I offer tailored City walking tours. Themes of my walks include: the City’s development into a world financial centre; Modern Architecture; Justice & Journalism – Temple & Fleet St; Gardens, Spaces and Surprising Places – places we often miss; City People; City Churches; Literature; the Riverside; Roman London; Magna Carta; The Great Fire; The Mansion House; Guildhall - the Great Hall & Art Gallery.

Example of tours I lead:

  • The City of London, the ‘Square Mile’, a global financial centre characterised by its cutting-edge modern architecture, its medieval lanes, and St Paul’s Cathedral. Find out which famous and infamous people have left their mark.

 

  • Modern Architecture - a walking tour in The City of London where some buildings seem to be designed to be controversial!

 

  • Business and Finance – The City of London, a world financial centre  - and just what was the role of coffee in its development?

 

  • Westminster, the second ‘city’, with palaces, Royalty, parks and pageantry. Visit Westminster Abbey and hear about the famous lives commemorated there. What heritage!

 

  • Love Art ? View paintings in the leading London Galleries or the Street Art in the East End of London.

 

  • The origin of robbing Peter to pay Paul….? St Peter and St Paul – an Abbey and a Cathedral - 2 contrasting Christian historic buildings. Plus around St Paul's are many beautiful parish churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London. Walk in the footsteps of Samuel Pepys.

 

  • Castles and Palaces – Her Majesty’s royal palace and fortress: The Tower of London with the Crown Jewels. Buckingham Palace and surrounding town palaces offer a complete contrast.

 

  • A retail tour of the West End of London. From fashions in Carnaby Street to the up-market chocolatiers of Piccadilly. James Bond shopped nearby!

 

Talks

 

I offer talks on topics including City Livery companies, Magna Carta, London Markets, Joseph Bazalgette and London Bridge