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Dotmaker Tours lead London walks to change your perspective. Get in touch to arrange a walk for a private group, or for students or corporates.

Dotmaker Tours surprising London walks include A Rubbish Trip, The London Ear, A Genius Tour, A Power Walk and London In Slow Motion. The walks cover different areas of Central London, The City, Greenwich and the Docklands. Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dotmakertours/

02/04/2025

Glorious weather for A Rubbish Trip today with two sixth form student groups from Switzerland. Such a great time of year to visit . Managed to photo bomb (in shadow) two pigs basking in the sun.

27/02/2025

Somerset House is one of the places we visit on A Power Trip. I devised the tour back in 2014 to explore the forces that influence and control us here in London - including the power of the government and king to raise taxes. The buildings housed the Inland Revenue until recently. And Old Somerset House was home to Royalists and Parliamentarians during the C17th conflicts over the king’s right to rule and demand tax.

But what about London’s control over the rest of the world? Well that’s a whole other difficult story that we as a nation - and as tour guides - are, I think, only beginning to get to grips with.

For example, I had no idea that Somerset House was also home to the Salt Offices that administered the Indian salt tax - a hefty and hugely unpopular colonial-era customs duty. I found this out at the Salt Cosmologies exhibition there. It clusters around the newly restored Salt Stair which once connected the offices.

Perhaps the most shocking and bizarre aspect of the tax was how the colonial authorities enforced it using a giant hedge. Yes, a hedge! 2,500 miles long, 2.5m high, and thick with thorns. Its purpose was to stop people smuggling salt across the Indian Customs Line. That history is captured and reexamined in a canvas installation in Somerset House courtyard.

We’ll pass through it all on our last ever (public) Power Trip on Tuesday 8th April at 11am. Tickets are available via Eventbrite.

BTW The tour will continue to be available for private groups (students/corporates/friends and family).

Images
1 Somerset House courtyard, old Inland Revenue sign
2 Salt Stair
3 Indian Salt Hedge
4 & 5 Details from the current Somerset House courtyard installation, namak halal/namak haram by Hylozoic/Desires (Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser)

24/02/2025

Lovely afternoon in and on A Rubbish Trip with these delightful students. Here we are by the basking in the sunshine (finally!).

20/02/2025

⚡️⚡️NEWS FLASH ⚡️⚡️

I’m leading my LAST EVER POWER TRIP (for the general public) on Tuesday 8th April! Tickets going via Eventbrite.

It’s a cracker of a walk - exploring how the powerful (from governments and kings to architects and landowners) seek to influence and control us. We explore the streets, courtyards and back-alleys from Waterloo Bridge to St Paul’s Cathedral. Loads of history, politics, constitutional law and a chance to watch a judge in action in the Royal Courts of Justice.

By the way, I’m not retiring A Power Trip. It will continue to be available to private groups, along with all my walks. So do get in touch, if you’re interested in arranging something for your work colleagues, a study group, or family/friends.

11/02/2025

Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!

I was greeted by this wonderful fellow, while out on A Rubbish Trip this morning with students from Elon University, North Carolina. Some fascinating discussions about the parallels between how we deal (not very well!) with waste over here and over there.

26/11/2024

I’ve been reflecting on how much some things have changed, and others not at all ,in the 12 years (!) since I launched Dotmaker Tours.

What has remained constant is my underlying motivation, which I think is best summed up in this blog I posted in 2014.

“I’ve been taking stock and thinking about taglines that somehow convey the ideas behind DMT. There are some fairly cheesy candidates that I won’t mention. This one, however, really resonates with me: Stop. Look. Listen. Think. It’s not that I want to suggest being held up at a crossing. The walks are about mapping an unusual route through an area, not getting stuck. But what I think the pedestrian safety mantra does well, is jolt us into an awareness of where we are and what we can see and hear around us. That’s something that has increasingly emerged as a theme of the walks. With London In Slow Motion and the London Ear in particular, I’m trying to provide an opportunity for us to pause and re-engage with our surroundings.

It’s a mission born of my own past experience rushing through the city, oblivious to so much, with my mind occupied rehashing past conversations or stressing about future ones. The moment – and there was a very particular moment – when I sat down, breathed, and re-opened my eyes and ears, had a profound effect on my sense of London and its possibilities. It’s that spirit of rediscovery, curiosity and wonder that I want to share.”

As a 2024 post-script I would add that I hope that by offering a space to pause and reconnect, the walks might also serve as a catalyst for action - however small - to make our cities better places for everyone. Speaking personally, that’s certainly a thought I’ll be taking with me into 2025.

walks

29/10/2024

Fun morning taking Eckerd College London semester students on A Power Trip from Waterloo Bridge to St Paul’s Cathedral. It’s a walk exploring London’s landscape of power - and reflecting on the institutions that wield influence control over us today, from governments to property developers.

The highlight was probably our visit to the Royal Courts of Justice where we got to sit in on the Court of Appeal deliberating and giving judgment on a criminal appeal. So much to take in to do with the theatre and performance of power in court room proceedings, from looming all-male all-white judges to the TV image of the appellant watching in from prison.

Pic 1 - outside Temple Church

Pics 2-3 from a pre tour reccie noticing the studs and k***s designed to prevent people dawdling and sleeping outside private property

Pics 4-5 - reflecting on the robots and AI surveillance systems ‘keeping us safe’

21/10/2024

Fun afternoon with last week!

Reposted •

Last week’s LSE100 Climate Futures’ Environment of London walking tour with was fascinating and a lot of fun! Our tour guide Rosie offered new perspectives on both familiar and unfamiliar London sights, and helped our students better understand how navigating climate challenges is part of the city’s rich history.

All of this year’s LSE100 events focus on one of our three themes while introducing students with different parts of London - helping them see how the real world events studied in our classrooms connect with their surroundings 🌆

Photos taken by Danielle, our LSE100 Student Experience Administrator, and our wonderful student Jiatong 📸

10/10/2024

I don’t only take students on walks (!), but I’m absolutely thrilled to have had so many American groups these past 12 months. I think I may have missed a few universities/colleges here - apologies!

London is a brilliant city to explore as a ‘pavement classroom’ - wonderfully walkable, rich in history, and something of a laboratory when it comes to policy-making on all the big issues facing cities.

Our walks are particularly loaded with things to talk about to do with
the environment, sustainability, waste, town-planning, urban infrastructure, government and the rule of law, social history, industrial history and soundscapes.

I’m taking bookings throughout autumn/winter and into spring/summer 2025. If you know anyone planning a trip to London who might be interested, I’d love to hear from them.

28/09/2024

🍁 October is a wonderful month for walking in London. 🥾 Our Chimneys & Tunnels Along the Thames tour explores the Isle of Dogs and riverside/central Greenwich - the perfect destination for an autumn day out! It’s packed with stories, surprises, fabulous sights, satisfying walking and even a boat trip.

Meet at 11am from Greenwich Pier Ticket Office
Finish at 1.30pm
Tickets are £20 including a smoky snack

Interested? 🤔
Book your place via Eventbrite 💥 Link in bio. 👆👆
Hope to see you there! 😃

15/09/2024

Gorgeous day yesterday taking gorgeous folks on A Rubbish Trip. 😁

Repost from • .birch A wonderful afternoon of walking talking and thinking about rubbish in Mudchute and Greenwich with

21/08/2024

Join me this autumn for an alternative take on London. I’d love to meet some new faces - and I always enjoy repeat offenders, too!

Tickets are available via Eventbrite - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/rosie-oliver-dotmaker-tours-4425884833

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Our Story

Dotmaker Tours lead London walks to change your perspective.

Our alternative London walks cover parts of the City, Central London, Greenwich and the Docklands. They each offer fresh ways of experiencing London – for locals and visitors alike – and richer ways of looking at the world at large. You might find yourself awed by judges in the Royal Courts of Justice, revelling in reflected sounds from St Paul’s Cathedral bells or marvelling at methods of transforming the capital’s dust. We keep group sizes small to make things interactive and conversational.

Dotmaker Tours are devised and led by fully-insured guides, Rosie Oliver and Cathy Haynes. A life-long Londoner, Rosie founded Dotmaker Tours in 2012. She also produces spoken audio features for Tickertape Productions. Rosie has a background as an environmental lawyer working in government. Cathy Haynes leads A Genius Tour. Cathy is an artist-curator and founding faculty member of The School of Life. Twitter http://twitter.com/dotmakertours Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dotmakertours LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/dotmaker-tours/ Email [email protected]