In praise of the specialist tour guide

Spoiler: we end with walks covering Legal London.

.........

The guide hoists their umbrella. Bored and listless, they lead the group off to the next location. A snake of people follows, thirty plus in number, extending beyond 50 metres, folk chatting aimlessly and drifting across roads in front of traffic. At the stop the guide starts off well before the stragglers have caught up - this might not matter so much if the group is hearing through earpieces, but even then only the frontrunners can connect to what the guide is pointing out. By the time everyone is present and correct, some of them are standing in the road, and passers-by find it difficult to get through on the pavement.

I must immediately say that there are thousands of excellent tour guides operating in London and in other UK cities, and that their standards are not of the character painted above, although I have walked the streets of the capital enough to have seen individual examples of the behaviours I have described. Guides holding professional tour guiding association qualifications (I have two) have to pass exams that not only assess their knowledge and their ability to select and present appropriate material, but also their skill in managing groups, the latter with a special emphasis on safety.

As to whom to choose, take your pick. Some guides are generalists, though if that is your angle you will find yourself fishing with a lot of competition; others will focus on subject-matter that plays to their niche strengths, whether through their academic study, job experience, local knowledge within a town or city, or anything else that can mark them out as an expert. On the simple principle of supply and demand, the latter should be able to find a market if they are any good.

In my case, the schtick is that I am a professionally qualified tour guide but also a former practising solicitor and partner in a City law firm. This means that I can do all the stuff about eg the history of the Inns of Court or the architecture of the Royal Courts of Justice, but can also cover the structure of the courts, legal stories (those on where lawyers have fallen from grace are always good value) and even cases. Cases might seem dry and unappetising, but often have a large element of human interest, for example the Charlie Gard case where the Supreme Court permitted Great Ormond Street Hospital to end a young child's life support when it was ruled that further attempts at treatment would not be in the child's best interests. In other cases there can be some demystifying of a big court decision, such as the Supreme Court ruling that the Conservative Government had unlawfully prorogued Parliament in the lead-up to Brexit. 

What does one get out of going on a guided walk, leaving aside the content? There is a modicum of exercise, not enough to trouble your Fitbit or similar, but better than being rooted to a phone screen. There is socialisation: things you see, things that are talked about, naturally prompt a chat. Even amongst strangers, and without getting uber pious, if someone is on their own then this is a great way to enjoy the company of others in a comfortable environment. 

In the pre-booked group world, whether corporate, friends, family, or common subject interest, the walking tour can be used for a purpose: a friends day out in town with a meal tacked on; the birthday present; the enhancement to what might be a first visit to London and seeing 'the sights'. In my tour guiding world (out of which Legal London is a specialist area and I do lots of other stuff as well), I have done events for visiting lawyers from other jurisdictions; for law firms doing a social evening where the walk bridges the early evening gap between end of work and the restaurant booking; and as part of an induction programme for new trainee solicitors or students on work experience. With these last groups, and without overstating the impact of what I provide, I can do a tee hee story on the fate of a solicitor who forged  a document, but in the moment of voyeuristic fascination ram home the fundamental duties of honesty and integrity set out in the Solicitors Code of Conduct. 

So there we have it. There is a lot more to the guided walk than is offered by the bored person with the umbrella. 

.........

The author is former managing partner of a City law firm. See Reviews page for feedback on his tour guiding and related work. He is contactable at colinwalkslondon@aol.com