Chris Van Hayden Tours

01/09/2024

K-Pg BOUNDARY

The highlight of my mini Italy break. The crevice behind me is the K-Pg boundary - the boundary between the end of the Cretaceous period and the Palaeocene epoch.

It was near this spot that scientist Walter Alvarez found high concentrations of iridium (very rare on Earth) in the thin layer. With the help of his father, Alvarez posited that the Mass Extinction at the end of the Cretaceous, that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs, was as a consequence of an asteroid impact which produced catastrophic climate change which saw 75% of life destroyed.

I am just a few hundreds yards away from the beautiful town of Gubbio in Le Marche, Italy.

🦕 🦖 🦕 🦖 🦕 🦖 🦕 🦖 🦕 🦖 🦕 🦖 🦕 🦖

26/08/2024

Allosaurus - Strange lizard

Way before the much larger T-Rex roamed the Earth, the Allosaurus was the top predator of the Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago. It was smaller, largest found is about 10 metres in length, nonetheless it was a stunning theropod, with arguably more proportionate arms than the T-Rex armed with 3 deadly claws.
This specimen found in Wyoming early 2000s is displayed in Marqueyssac estate in the Bordeaux region 🦖

25/08/2024

Boxwood galore in Marqueyssac, France

25/08/2024

Boxwood galore in Marqueyssac, France

11/08/2024

Sharknado on the Regent’s Canal

06/07/2024

A triceratops skull, the one thing I’d like to buy at Harrods if only I could squeeze it through my front door.

The famous department store is just a stone’s throw from the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, so it apt this is on sale in Harrods’s basement.

Get in touch for a tour of London’s ‘Cathedral to Nature’, to learn about its history, the history of palaeontology, geology and its fantastic collection of dinosaurs 🦕, stuffed mammals, human ancestors, rocks and more.

10/06/2024

Winston Churchill’s washing hand basin, in his office/bedroom in the Churchill War Rooms. There was no running water in the War Rooms. Nonetheless, his was the most luxuriously kitted room in the complex, with wall to wall carpet, a sizeable desk, maps on the walls and a inconspicuous potty chamber hid under the bed.

24/05/2024

John Lennon’s Phantom V Rolls Royce in front of the former Apple HQs on Savile Row

29/03/2024

Natural History Museum, a cathedral to nature…

28/03/2024

Plaster cast of Lucy, the Australopithecus afarensis which confirmed our early ancestors, which looked still like apes, started walking upright. This strategy had many benefits such as freeing hands to do other tasks like carry food and tools. This in turn stimulated our increased brain size and corresponding intelligence…in some of us at least.

Lucy lived about 3.7 million years ago and was named by the team who found her in Ethiopia, after Lucy in the sky with diamonds, the opener track on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band, by the Beatles.
You can find this replica of Lucy at London’s Cathedral to Nature - the Natural History Museum

26/03/2024

Best photograph I took yesterday from Sushi Samba at the top of the Heron Tower. In the bottom left Tower Bridge, the Gherkin centre stage and in the distance on the right the Shard.

The sushi was deli 😋

08/02/2024

A small little known church in Milan’s town centre, Santa Maria Presso San Satiro features one on the earliest Trompe-l’œils from the 15th century.

The apse shows a deep recesses perspective of a barrel vault supported by classical style pilasters. This space is only 3.11 feet or 95 cm deep, but the illusion tricks the ey to think the space recess much deeper.

Designed by the Renaissance pioneering architect Donato Bramante.

16/01/2024

Echidna, also known as spiny anteater. One of 4 species which along with the platypus are the only mammals that lay eggs. These are common in Australasia.

So why do they lay eggs? Well, about 19 million years ago they revolved from platypuses, which in turn where egg laying mammals that took to the water, once they were outcompeted by marsupials. Effectively the Monotremes, as they are known features traits that most other mammals lost in their evolution, such as a cloaca - an single rear opening used to defecate, urinate and mate - like crocodiles!

11/11/2023

The Grave of the Unknown Warrior today, with candles at each corner in celebration of Remembrance Day. At 11am a 2 minute silence was observed in the Abbey to remember the fallen.

28/10/2023

The incredible collection of stuffed mammals, fish, reptiles and insects amassed by Lionel Walter, 2nd Baron Rothschild, and now known as the Natural Museum of London at Tring. A great complement to the South Kensington museum, as at Tring you will find many specimen not on display in London.

15/10/2023

Today’s ride to Windsor Castle!
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28/09/2023

https://www.chrisvanhaydentours.uk/blog/pittriversmuseum

A blog I wrote a while ago about the incredible Pitt Rivers collection in Oxford

Oxford’s Cabinet of Curiosities: The Pitt Rivers Museum

28/09/2023

On this desk, the TG12345 Mk.II, Abbey Road & Dark Side of The Moon, by The Beatles and Pink Floyd respectively, were recorded at EMI Studios, now Abbey Road Studios.
A few weeks ago I got to visit the studio and see some of the vintage gear used on some of the greatest rock albums ever recorded and the spaces were they were made 🎸🎹🎵🎧🥁🤘

20/09/2023

This cute little double deck bus is Old Bill and mas made in 1911. It was used during WWI in Belgium and France to transport up to 24 fully kitted infantry men. Back in London it was repurchased by the London Omnibus company and shown to King V at Buckingham Palace. You can now see it at IWM Duxford, amidst the most jaw dropping collection of military aircraft’s, including Spitfires, Hurricanes and a fully functional Lancaster bomber ✈️

03/09/2023

Father Thames at 630 Mortlake, high tide but fast flat water

06/08/2023

The famous Canning Jewel held in the V&A depicts a merman holding a scimitar over his head with which he has beheaded a sea monster. The figure was cleverly created around a rough pearl used as his torso. The rest of the jewel is decorated with diamonds, pearls, rubies and enamel.

At one point it was believed it had been made by Renaissance artist and scholar Benvenuto Cellini, then owned by the De Medici who gifted it to a Mughal Sultan. In recent times the V&A has concluded it was created in the Victorian period. It is nonetheless a stunning and amusing piece.
&a

22/07/2023

A very busy year so far with the business growing in the right direction. All the while I have been hard at work on my new venture: London Louder.

I am finally marrying my past life as a musician with my new historian and guiding career. Over the last few months I have been reading through dozens of books and magazines, uncovering London's musical heritage. These last few weeks I have run numerous tours for a variety of agencies and private bookings, covering the Swinging 60', The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Cream, The Yardbirds, The Who, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie and more.

I like to enrich the history of these great bands and artists with social history, fashion, pop art, and all sorts of anecdotes. I am hoping to launch a social media campaign in the autumn to promote the business and a new dedicated website.

I have also caught the science history bug and find myself researching and reading about the science of medicine, natural, history, geology, natural philosophers and scientists and their accomplishments. I am sure this will lead to some new tours next year.

Lastly, having delivered dozens of Churchill War Rooms tours, I will be preparing an extended Winston Churchill tour, covering his life, politics, writing career and locations associated with the man.