Sue Stamp Tours

16/12/2023

Feeling cosy and ready for the Strictly Final… 🥂

24/11/2023

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas… up in London Town 😊🙄

02/11/2023

We’ve just been really privileged to have a private behind-the-scenes tour at Great Dixter Gardens in Kent with the fabulous Fergus Garrett, Head Gardener there. We made it through the wind and rain!

09/10/2023

Fabulous private tour at Spencer House in St James’s this afternoon

06/10/2023

Home now from our very enjoyable five day tour of Cheshire. Highlights include:
Wonderful private tours of Dorfold Hall and the Macclesfield Silk Mill, seeing a modest but recognisable stained glass portrait of St Thomas Becket in a little church at Peover Hall, amazing opportunity to see Roman remains in a cellar beneath Pret A Manger in Chester, magnificent Chester Cathedral and wood carving representation of an elephant by a carver who had only heard a description of one and finally this morning a visit to Port Sunlight where Lord Lever started what became Unilever… one for those RA colleagues of mine who spent a couple of years in the Unilever building at Blackfriars…

06/10/2023

On train back from Cheshire after a great five day tour. A few highlights.. stunningly beautiful Dorfold Hall, the only other known depiction of Thomas Becket outside Canterbury Cathedral, this one in Peover Hall church. Amazing Roman remains in the cellar underneath Pret A Manger in Chester, awesome Chester Cathedral and this morning Lord Lever Hulme’s Port Sunlight village. For my former RA colleagues who moved with all the staff temporarily to Unilever House … this is where Unilever started! And the final house there starred in Peaky Blinders apparently… Anyway, great trip .. you just had to be there!

04/10/2023

I’m running a 5-day tour in Cheshire and this morning we’ve just had a fabulous private tour of Macclesfield Silk Museum. Highly recommended!

23/09/2023

23/09/2023

I went to the Paul McCartney photos Exhibition at the NPG yesterday and these are my two favourite photos … John looking so happy! On my journey (I was also doing a recce for a tour in Mayfair) I wandered down Grosvenor Hill (whose ever heard of that?) and discovered the studio of Terence Donovan and further away in Dean Street this fabulous pub sign … presumably that’s where the word chairman comes from? You have to look UP!

09/08/2023

So many amusement arcades along the front at Great Yarmouth but this was THE Arcade … opened in 1904…

09/08/2023

First time I’ve been back to Great Yarmouth since childhood holidays in the 1960’s and 70’s. It’s all looking a bit tired and sad but if you look upwards you begin to see what an extraordinary architectural and social history hides behind the brash seafront attractions … I bet there’s a fascinating walking tour to be had here …

04/08/2023

Lots more tote bags ordered- I think you can assume all going well and I’ll be carrying on yet awhile!

16/07/2023

The irony is not lost on me that my refuge for an hour while the USA Patrons group from the English Speaking Union get changed to go out for a special dinner tonight is at the RA! Their hotel is in St James’s so this was the obvious place to come and spend an hour with the Summer Exhibition.. This morning we had a private tour of the magnificent Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, with the Marchioness Salisbury and members of the historic Cecil family joining us. It really was very special to see the house but also the room in the Old Palace where Elizabeth I was told she had become Queen at the age of 25…

24/06/2023

We had an excellent ‘Alleys & Lanes of Old Hampstead’ walking tour yesterday - our guide, Marilyn Greene, took us up, down, through and along many hidden passageways and along the way we saw … a rare surviving Parish Lock Up from 1730, the original Mount Vernon Hospital built between 1879-1881 in the French Renaissance style (look at those amazing turrets!) especially as a Hospital for those suffering from Consumption and Diseases of the Chest - I don’t think the government will be building anything like this in the promised wave of new hospitals! We saw several houses where the artist John Constable lived and finished near the historic Holly Bush pub (they do a fine scotch egg!)… the walk was fun, revelatory and enjoyed by all!

14/06/2023

What an educational and inspiring tour we had this morning at the Chelsea Physic Garden!
Plants and trees are essential to life on earth and just some of the fascinating facts we learnt was that Yew tree bark and needles provided 2 of the earliest chemotherapy drugs (now both can be made synthetically), nettles and hops can actually provide stronger cordage/rope than even h**p can and childhood leukaemia can now be treated very successfully with a plant called Catharantbus Roseus (see pics).
Also… a very moving story that (see last pic) … there used to be a bench under this pomegranate tree near the original entrance gate to the Garden… on which Wilfred Owen was known to have sat with his friend and fellow poet, Osbert Sitwell, in October 1918.
It was the last place Owen visited in England before returning to active service in France … he died 3 weeks later on 4 November 1918.
Life long learning …

12/06/2023

We had a fascinating walking tour on Sunday morning, with Blue Badge Guide Jakob Hartmann, looking at Modern architecture in the city of London. Including many other buildings we saw (and discussed - always lots of discussion on the topic of modern architecture!) No 1 Poultry, considered to be James Stirling, masterpiece, the Bloomsberg building designed by Norman Foster - a ‘groundscraper’ rather than a skyscraper, iconic Lloyds building by Richard Roger’s and finishing near Liverpool St station with a look at a rather strange mix of architecture in a building owned by Alan Sugar .. there’s huge controversy about plans to redevelop Liverpool St station … but that’s a whole other story!

07/04/2023

Sending happy Easter greetings to all Sue Stamp Tours guests and supporters, 4 years since I launched the business and still going strong. I look forward to seeing you on a tour soon.

These are images from our recent guided walking tour around SPITALFIELDS with Blue Badge Guide, Robert Woolf. The sun shone, the spire of Christ Church gleamed, the street art amazed and the guests enjoyed!

22/01/2023

My sister-in-law, Alex Kingston, is starring as Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest, at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon, if you are in the UK I highly recommend you go and see the production - brilliant to see the role as a woman cutting the umbilical cord with her daughter rather than the usual interpretation of an elderly male actor feeling wronged ...
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/alex-kingston-i-dont-have-a-filter-0shxx3kzs?fbclid=IwAR1fO01tcuFZAPNgUQrqJ5pBZ9U-w6xjZRHzW4sjeHHt1awRNzm2vKYhwBM

The Doctor Who and ER actress can’t help speaking her mind — on everything from ageing to motherhood

23/11/2022

We had a fabulously sunny day yesterday for our Wapping & Its Wharfs Walking tour, how lucky we were after the previous day's torrential rain! After an atmospheric walk around the old wharfs and docks with Blue Badge Guide Robert Woolf, we had a very welcome lunch at the Prospect of Whitby (the oldest surviving pub on the riverside) followed by a fascinating visit to the Thames Police Museum, also in Wapping.

My last walking tour for 2022 but there'll be lots more coming up in 2023 - watch this space!

09/10/2022

"Dear Sue - a big thank you for a most enjoyable holiday in southern Scotland. You really have a flair at putting together a varied and and interesting itinerary and mixing baronial castles with a former jute factory and the new V& A was quite stimulating. I think the highlight for me was being piped into Glamis castle!"

26/07/2022

We had a fascinating private tour of The Old Bailey last evening and as we learned about the business of Court Number One, my group sat in the jurors seats and I sat in the Dock - guilty as charged m'lady.

London's Central Criminal Court is commonly known as 'The Old Bailey' because of its location. The street outside follows the route of the ancient wall around the City of London, which was part of the fortification's bailey, hence the metonymic name.

19/06/2022

We had a fabulous 5-day tour in Warwickshire & The Cotswolds last week, how lucky we were with the weather!

We had private tours at Broughton Castle, Coughton Court, Ragley Hall, Blenheim, Rodmarton Manor, St James's Church in Chipping Campden and then a gloriously sunny visit to Compton Verney on Friday to finish things off. Everyone at all the venues were so friendly and all our guides excelled ...

We stayed at The Manor House Hotel in Moreton-in-Marsh which I highly recommend. I'm so grateful we were finally able to make it after two years of postponing the tour!

20/05/2022

We had a really great tour of Richmond-upon-Thames this morning, despite the rain (being positive, umbrellas really make images colourful!).
An unusual highlight was a bench in the Terraced Gardens with the inscription "A good spot for a fine pint .. as enjoyed by .. (name on bench) .. who would have enjoyed the view were it not for THAT tree!" (see photo)

We covered history, architecture, pop, poppies, the river, the old Richmond Palace - really important as that's where Elizabeth I died. We rounded it all off with a v decent lunch at The Cricketers pub on Richmond Green - as you do.

13/04/2022

Fascinating tour exploring King's Cross yesterday and seeing how quickly some of the buildings are going up. The one building that doesn't have a finish date is the huge new European Google headquarters which just goes on and on and on. The length of it is apparently similar to the height of the Shard!

Some stunning architecture, contemporary art, plenty of fully-booked restaurants, King's Cross really is a go-to destination despite the ongoing noise of building works ... which will, no doubt, be carrying on for many more years!

06/04/2022

Yesterday we did our 'Lambeth Walk' tour which essentially only covered the north tip of the Borough of Lambeth, which is surprisingly large it turns out!

With our guide, Simon Whitehouse, we were taken to see, amongst many other places, the platform at Waterloo where Titanic passengers had left to board the ship at Southampton, the extraordinary Leake St tunnel completely decorated with Street Art, beautiful residential squares and, of course, historic Lambeth Palace. We also saw amazing William Blake-inspired mosaics on the walls of some old railway arches ...

All washed down with a delicious, healthy lunch at the Garden Museum Cafe. A great day!

26/03/2022

We had a really fabulous and interesting tour of Windsor town centre and Windsor Castle on Thursday. Our guide was Linda Hamar who is one of very few Blue Badge Guides permitted to give group tours within the Castle walls at Windsor.

The sun shone and Her Majesty the Queen arrived by car at her private apartments while we were there, apparently in order to record her Platinum Jubilee speech for the BBC. God bless her.

Interesting statue of Charles II without his familiar long wig, he was responsible for the extraordinary Royal Collection of Fine Art and for much of the architecture that we see today.

18/02/2022

https://charlessaumarezsmith.com/2022/02/18/westminster-gaslights/

This is Excellent news, as Charles Saumarez Smith (former Secretary & Chief Executive of the RA) has just posted on his blog.

London's historic and elegant gas lights have been SAVED!

I am often cautious about public campaigns, sceptical that people in authority pay much attention, whatever the requirement of local democracy. I certainly wasn’t aware of anyone in authority…