Hamish the Guide

21/06/2024

Here are 3 of the 7 ravens that guard the Tower of London. One can see just how diligently they keep an eye on the place.

The Tower of London is a fortress , royal palace , former prison and contains the Crown Jewels. It's well worth a visit!

I'm Hamish, a knowledgeable, friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out my website in the bio to book tours.

   

29/04/2024

It’s always a joy to guide on the old 1960's Routemaster buses. The safety attendant had purchased the genuine uniform, ticket dispenser, and ticket paper from the era. Apparently, there is still a lot of Route master gear in circulation, which just goes to show the success of this masterpiece of public transport. 

Routemasters were used in regular service with Transport for London from 1956-2005! They are now only available for private hire, due to their high maintenance costs.

I'm Hamish, a knowledgeable, friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out my website in the bio to book tours.

   

31/08/2023

Where can you have one of the best afternoon tea experiences in London?

Fortnum & Mason is a upmarket department store on Piccadilly , London. It’s best known for its tea, china, and Christmas hampers. The store was co-founded in 1707 by a footman in Queen Anne’s household.

It serves one of the best afternoon teas experiences in London , which should be booked in advanced and costs around £85 a head. It features all you can eat finger food, like scones, sandwiches, and cake.

One can choose from a large section of high quality teas. I was particularly excited when I found out they sold “first flush” tea, which has one the best quality cuts of the tea leaf.

Afternoon tea was introduced in England by Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, in 1840. The Duchess would become hungry around four o’clock in the afternoon. The evening meal in her household was served fashionably late at eight o’clock, thus leaving a long period of time between lunch and dinner. The Duchess therefore asked for a tray of tea, bread and butter.

I'm Hamish, a knowledgeable, friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. If you would like to learn more then check out my website in the bio to book tours.

&mason

27/07/2023

I was fortunate enough to watch the Oppenheimer blockbuster film on the same screen used for its UK premier a week earlier, in the odeon cinema in Leicester Square. Built in the Art Deco style and completed in 1937, it was to be the flagship cinema for the odeon cinema chain. It is often used for UK film premiers , with the red carpet rolled out front.

Being such a prominent location , this screen offers screenings in 70mm (analogue film). This means the film can be stretched on big screens without losing resolution. It also has the latest sound technology.

My ticket was £16 off-peak but this can go up to £23 at peak times. Needless to say the film and experience were exceptional and I really felt like the sound and sight brought back my love of film.

I'm Hamish, a knowledgeable, friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out my website in the bio to book tours.

09/07/2023

I always love guiding groups on an old London Route master. The 1960's legend of London public transport.

I'm Hamish, a knowledgeable, friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out my website in the bio to book tours.

16/06/2023

Did you know there is a Toilet for Hi**er in the Tower of London?

During World War Two, if the allies caught N**i Dictator Adolf Hi**er, they planned to imprison him in the Tower of London.

The Tower of London is London's castle, a royal Fortress, and has been used to hold political prisoners for nearly 1000 years.

Keeping him at the Tower would have been a symbolic victory for the British.

They found a room to keep him in but it didn't have a toilet so they installed one there.

Hi**er took his own life in 1945 as the Soviets closed in on Berlin, so he never made it there. But his toilet remains!

I'm Hamish, a knowledgeable, friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out my website in the bio to book tours.

04/06/2023

Had a lovely day showing a family around london on a privately guided tour.

I'm Hamish, a knowledgeable, friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out my website in the bio to book tours.

08/04/2023

Ever seen the view from the dome of St Paul's Cathedral?

If you pay the entrance fee. You can climb 528 steps to get to the top of the dome and see stunning panoramic views of the City of London's financial district.

St Paul's Cathedral is the seat of the Bishop of London, a key seat of the Church of England. It's where princess Dianna was married to prince Charles in 1981. It is also where national War Heroes are buried including Admiral Nelson and the Duke of Wellington.

I'm Hamish, a knowledgeable, friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out my website in the bio to book tours.

21/02/2023

Here are some of the provide tours I have guided. Contact me via the link in my bio if you would like to get the most out of your time in London.

29/12/2022

Borough Market in Southwark, is a former fruit and veg wholesale market. Since the 1990's it has focused on street food, and farm to table speciality food.

It's a great spot to grab lunch, and open every day but Sunday.

I'm Hamish, a knowledgeable, friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out my website in the bio to book tours.

20/12/2022

Exploring St Paul's Cathedral. Did you know the famous dome at the top was unpopular at the time ?

In the late 1600's the architect Sir Christopher Wren knew the public wanted a spire, but he stuck to his guns and built the magnificent lead dome that dominates London's skyline today.


I'm Hamish, a knowledgeable, friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out my website in the bio to book tours.

10/12/2022

This adorable home at 67 Hopton Street, Southwark is a real fighter.

Despite redevelopment and 1940's bombing in the surrounding area, this little gem still stands strong.

I'm Hamish, a knowledgeable, friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out my website in the bio to book tours.

03/12/2022

What a night!

To celebrate 20 years since the founding of the Institute of Tourist Guiding, an Anniversary Reception was held at Spencer's house for Blue Badge Guides.

The house was commissioned by the Spencer acrosticratic family in the 1750's. Unlucky for them, the Spencer family ran out of cash and since the 1940's the house has been continuously let out. The current tenants are the Rothschild's family.

Princess Daina was a Spencer, her brother being the Earl of Spencer. The Earl's daughters were doing a modeling shoot there once and they remarked that it was the first time they had ever been in their ancestral home before.

It was designed by James "Athenian" Stuart, who had studied the arcadian values of Ancient Greek architecture. As a direct result of this, Spencer House was to have authentic Greek details in the internal decoration, and thus it became one of the first examples in London of the neoclassical style, which was to sweep the country.

The house was designed for entertaining, and partygoers include queen Victoria. I am a big fan of James Athenian Stuart's work so it was a real treat to see inside.

I'm Hamish, a knowledgeable, friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out my website in the bio to book tours.

10/10/2022

Had a great time showing these lovely ladies around London . Book me privately to save $$$$$$ and get custom tours designed just for you!

Hi, I'm Hamish, a knowledgeable, friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out my website in the bio to book tours.

12/06/2022

Panoramic Guiding in London today on a 1960's routemaster!

Hi, I'm Hamish, a friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out my website in the bio to book tours.

26/05/2022

This leather helmet with hanging Chain Mail was made for World War One tank operators. If the tank was hit with heavy rounds and explosives , it would cause hot metal fragments to spread around the inside of the tank and which could cause serious facial scaring.

I'm Hamish, a friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out my website in the bio to book tours.

24/04/2022

Great to be out guiding again!

hamishtheguide

13/03/2022

The Mail Rail is located in Clerkenwell, underneath the Mount Pleasant Mail Centre which was once of the largest Postal sorting offices in the world.

The Mail rail was formally known as the London Post Office Railway and is a narrow driverless underground railway in London built in the early 1900’s by the Post Office to distribute mail across London sorting offices.

At its peak it transported 4 million letters every day, for 22 hours a day!
During World War I the tunnels were used to store art treasures from national museums. They were also used as a film location for the unsuccessful 1991 film Hudson Hawk starring Bruce Willis.

Since its closure in 2003 it became frozen in time with old rotas still hanging on the walls. The tunnels are still littered with spare parts that had been left there a hundred years ago in untouched storage rooms and alongside the tracks.

Whilst no longer used to transport post, the Mail Rail has been incorporated into the Postal Museum. The Postal Museum tells stories of Britain's postal heritage and uses a mile section of the tunnels to run the Mail Rail. This is a specially designed battery designed mini train that you can ride on for £16 a adult ticket.

Recently I had the privilege of walking through the underground tunnels of the Mail Rail at the Postal Museum.

The tunnel is so narrow you had to crouch to walk under sections of it. There are 22 miles of tunnels in total and just one mile is maintained and used as part of the Postal Museum. The remaining 21 miles of tunnels are locked up and only viewed by the odd engineer. I can’t even imagine the wonders you could find there.

To take part in the tour I booked about a month in advanced, paid £50 and could only get a single ticket for myself. I would recommend the tour to anyone who likes to see the dark and gloomy parts of London.

22/11/2021

Here are the photos from my recent Graduations Ceremony after qualifying as a Blue Badge Tourist Guide, the highest guiding accreditation in the UK.

This two-year course included rigorous examinations in written and practical examinations. This included memorising over 10 hours’ worth of verbal presentations and the ability to coach guide for over 150 main roads across London.

I found the course very challenging and at points it felt like I was behind everyone else. But I never gave up. Thanks to perseverance and guidance from mentors I eventually passed the all exams in style.

By now my inspirational story has probably moved you to tears, but if you can read a bit longer, I would like to finish the with a quote that motivated me throughout my studies. It’s by the late Professor Stephen Hawking, who overcame Motor Neurone Disease to become an acclaimed physicist.

“However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. Where there's life, there's hope.”

09/10/2021

Learn more about London through my recording as part of the Guide London A-Z Letter P https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItBID-wrUfk&t=27s

How many London tourist attractions can you name that start with the Letter P? Blue Badge Tourist Guide Hamish Carroll continues our Guide London A-Z video ...

12/09/2021

Do you know where the last working victorian (1800s) hanging pit is in the UK?

Bodmin Prison in Cornwall, was built in 1779 and closed in 1927. The buildings became derelict until it was converted into a hotel with a £15 entry museum in 2015.

55 ex*****ons took place within its formidable walls, for crimes ranging from arson to murder. When you were sentenced to death you had the right to three clear sundays before your ex*****on to repent your sins.

After victims were hanged a death mask was made of there face. As they couldn't afford portraits and photography was not invented , these were often the ever images taken of the condemned. You can still see the rope marks on them.

The prison is regarded as one of the most haunted buildings in the country. I actually had a weird experience there when I heard someone whistling behind me, but when turned around, know one was there! Spooky!

In 2005 spiritual medium Derek Acorah went to Bodmin Jail to communicate with spirits for the TV show "Most Haunted". Derek was fed misinformation about a fictional South African Jailor called "Kreed Kafer" (an anagram of "Derek faker"). Derek decided to become possessed by this fake person, which caught him with his pants down, revealed him as a fake psychic, and ended his career.

If you think you can do better than Derek then why not attend the jail's £45 ghost tours which last from 10pm-3am.

Hi I'm Hamish, a friendly and fun London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. I look forward to showing you the best London has to offer. Check out hamishtheguide.com to book tours.