Fleet Street: extra, extra read all about it

March 11 marks the anniversary of the establishment of Britain's first regular newspaper, way back in 1702. Newsheets and newspapers had been printed for years but on a hap hazhard basis. The new daily paper was called The Daily Courant and it was printed on Fleet Street. Printing of regular newspapers emerged on the Continent in the early seventeenth century. According to The Britannica Online Encyclopedia: the word courant comes fromm the Dutch "corantos" (literally meaning current of news).

Major national titles such as The Times (first published in 1785), The Observer (1791), The Daily Telegraph and The Sun were published on Fleet Street. The Telegraph, as is often called, was originally published on June 29, 1855 under the title of The Daily Telegraph and Courier. After a change of ownership the name was shortened to The Daily Telegraph. Now all the major newspapers have left the area - a process which began in 1985 when The Times and The Sun relocated to Wapping.

Fleet Street is named after the River Fleet which now flows under Ludgate Circus and into the Thames.

Visitors to London can hear more about Fleet Street's association with the printed word with the Ride & Stride London city walking tour.

The Ride & Stride London audio tour is narrated by Jonathan Keeble. To hear an audio sample from the podcast guided tour please click here.

Legend has it that Sweeney Todd plied his trade on Fleet Street. Indeed, he was later labelled the Demon Barber of Fleet Street by dramatists. Listeners to the Ride & Stride London city walking tour will have the chance to sort the facts from the legend.

With a Walk Talk Tour London audio guide listeners have the flexibiltiy to stop, start and listen again to any part of their commentary. Each Walk Talk Tour London travel guide costs just £5.95 a piece and is available in French, German and Spanish.

London at your fingertips

London is synonymous with certain things, as all great cities are. The British capital might make you think of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London or black taxis.

For many people, a red double decker bus is a symbol of London. If red double decker buses are typical of London, than the Routemaster is the daddy of London buses. The iconic red Routemaster buses were withdrawn - from all but two Heritage routes - in 2005. London's elected Mayor (not to be confused with the Lord Mayor of London), Boris Johnson, promised a new Routemaster that would be fit for the twenty-first century. Visitors and bus enthusiasts alike can see the winning designs and noteworthy entries at the London Transport Museum until March 29, 2009.

Independent minded sightseers can enjoy a ride on an original Routemaster bus with the Ride & Stride London audio tour. Listeners will hear about the other British icons that the design consultant employed on the project was responsible for. (Please note that the cost of the bus ride is not included in the tour price). Listeners are then instructed to disembark at St Paul's Cathedral.

The eagle eyed among you, might notice that one of the fingers on the figure pictured left (which surround the statue of Queen Anne) is missing a finger. The four female figures are said to represent England, France, Ireland and North America. The statue stands in front of the west door of St Paul's Cathedral.

Listeners to the Ride & Stride London audio guide have the freedom to enter the Cathedral if they wish. Simply pause your mp3 guided tour and then resume it, once you're done. Sir Christopher Wren was charged with designing a new St Paul's after the previous cathedral on the site was destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666. Queen Anne was on the throne when Wren's masterpiece was completed in 1711. To hear an audio sample from the Ride & Stride London city guide please click here.

Hear about the influence that a contemporary architect and his firm have had on London with the Ride & Stride London travel guide. Sir Norman Foster's commissions in the British capital have included the Millennium Bridge. The bridge links St Paul’s Cathedral on the North Bank of the Thames, with the Tate Modern, a huge modern art gallery housed in Bankside Power Station on the South Bank. On grey London days, such as the one pictured above left, a Walk Talk Tour makes an ideal guide, as listeners have the flexibility to stop, start and resume their tour as they wish or as the weather dictates.

Listeners to the Ride & Stride city walking tour will hear about Tate Modern's history and have the chance to go and contemplate the meaning of art.

See and hear about the new Globe Theatre which opened thanks to the tenacity of an American actor, Sam Wanamaker, who has since passed away. Learn about the origins of various terms as you stroll along the South Bank. Walk past City Hall and then cross the River Thames, using Tower Bridge. At the commentary points along the route you will hear about the stories and characters associated with well and lesser known London.

The Ride & Stride podcast guided tour concludes in front of the Tower of London. There are five Walk Talk Tour London city guides all of which are available in English, French, German and Spanish.

Each Walk Talk Tour London iPod travel guide costs just £5.95 a piece. Purchase two tours simultaneously and receive a twenty per cent discount.

Changing the Guard (and the water)

London has earned a reputation - which it is keen to dispel - of being an expensive city. Many of the great displays of pageantry associated with royal London such as Changing the Guard (pictured left) can be enjoyed for free.

The sentries on duty on Whitehall form part of the Queen's Life Guard, which is charged with protecting the monarch when she is in London.

The area just beyond Horse Guards, before you reach St James's Park, is known as Horse Guards Parade. This is the venue for Beating the Retreat and Trooping the Colour in summer.

Independent minded travellers can enjoy the freedom to explore the best of royal and monumental London with the Walk Talk Tour Palace Trail city walking tour. It is easy to confuse Changing the Guard with Mounting the Guard. The former ceremony takes place at Horse Guards, the latter is performed at Buckingham Palace. To hear a short audio sample from the Palace Trail London city guide please click here.

In these troubled economic times, a Walk Talk Tour London audio guide represents excellent value at just £5.95. Buy two tours simultaneously and receive a twenty per cent discount. There are five Walk Talk Tour London audio guides in all. Each of the London city guides is available in English, French, German and Spanish.

Visitors to the British capital can find out when Changing the Guard is scheduled to take place by checking out the Palace Trail London audio tour's Where & When page.

The Palace Trail London travel guide begins outside Westminster Abbey and concludes in front of Buckingham Palace. En route listeners to the Palace Trail podcast guided tour walk through St James's Park. The lake in the Park is currently being drained. See picture above left.

St James's Park is the oldest of the six royal parks in London. King Henry VIII bought the land in 1532. The lake which is being drained in stages was built to the designs of architect John Nash in the early nineteenth century.

The spring clean of the lake is due to be completed by the end of April this year.

London attractions' pulling power undimmed

Figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) show the continued pulling power of London's visitor attractions. Attractions in the British capital occupied all of the top ten places, in terms of visitor numbers, for 2008.

The British Museum stands top of the podium with nearly six million visitors in 2008, an increase of 9.5 % on the previous year. The Tate Modern bagged second spot with 4,862,581 visitors last year and the National Gallery took bronze with 4,382,614 visitors. Admission to the permanent exhibitions at all three visitor attractions is free.

Visitors to London can enjoy a flexible audio downloadable of tour that features all three of the 'Big Three' thanks to Walk Talk Tours. Enjoy a walk from the National Gallery to the British Museum, which takes in other must see parts of the capital such as Leicester Square and Covent Garden. To hear an audio sample from The Museums, Galleries & Performing Arts, London travel guide please click here.

Each Walk Talk Tour London audio tour is composed of commentary points. Listeners hear about the personalities and history associated with a particular attraction. Listeners then receive directions which guide them to their next commentary point. In addition each podcast guided tour comes complete with a free downloadable map to help listeners get from A to B. Unlike a conventional guided tour, listeners to a Walk Talk Tour London audio guide can stop, start and replay again any part of the commentary. If there's an attraction you want to visit, you can go and explore it and then resume your tour when you're done.

The Tower of London, in sixth place, was the highest placed fee paying visitor attraction in the survey with 2,161,095 customers. Independent minded travellers can hear about the Tower's rich heritage with The City & The Tower London iPod travel guide and The City & South Bank Circular podcast guided tour.

Each Walk Talk Tour London city walking tour represent excellent value at just £5.95 a piece. What's more, if you purchase two tours simultaneously you will receive a twenty per cent discount.

All of the Walk Talk Tour London city guides are available in English, French, German and Spanish. All of the tours - with the exception of the longer City & South Bank Circular mp3 guided tour - can be completed in two hours, though listeners can take as long or as little as they wish to explore the sights en route.

The photograph above shows the entrance to The British Museum. The picture was taken when an exhibition entitled The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army was attracting huge numbers of visitors to the Museum. The exhibiton finished in April 2008.

Three Cheers for the British Museum

Today, marks the 250th birthday of the British Museum.

Established by Act of Parliament in 1753, the Museum’s initial exhibits consisted of three private collections. The most significant of these had belonged to the physician and collector of antiquities, Sir Hans Sloane. Sadly, Sloane died that year. He left his vast collection of almost 80,000 items - excluding his personal library - to the nation and Montagu House, in Great Russell Street was earmarked to house it. The British Museum funded by public lottery opened 250 years ago.

The opening of the British Museum (and of Kew Gardens in the same year) are both examples of great civic collections that pride themselves on allowing access for all.

Karl Marx, Virginia Wolf and Thomas Carlyle are among the famous scholars to have studied in the Museum's magnificent Reading Room. The Reading Room was renovated in the final years of the twentieth century and Sir Norman Foster designed the magnificent Great Court (pictured above), which now encases it. The Great Court opened in 2000.

Independent minded travellers can hear about the rich history of the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, Leicester Square, Covent Garden, the British Museum and much more with London Tour 4: The Museums, Galleries & Performing Arts, Walk Talk Tour, London travel guide.

Hear about some of the movies which have been partly filmed in the British Museum, hear about Covent Garden's chequered past, find out who the Blind Beak was and much, much more. To hear an audio sample from the Museums, Galleries & Performing Arts mp3 guided tour please click here.

Entry to the British Museum is free - though visitors may have to pay and book in advance for some temporary exhibitions. For more information about the admission charges and opening times of key attractions along the route of the tour please click here.

Each of the five Walk Talk Tour, London audio downloadable guides costs just £5.95. Purchase two mp3 guided tours simultaneously and receive a twenty per cent discount. Buy three at the same time and get thirty per cent off.

Don't let a tour guide spoil your break. Listeners with a Walk Talk Tour can go at their own pace, stopping, starting and listening again to their commentary as they wish - not as someone else dictates.

Big Ben celebrates 150 years

The world's most famous timepiece, Big Ben, celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. Big Ben is the name given to the bell which is housed in St Stephen's Tower. The bell weighs a whopping 13.5 tonnes (30,000lbs). Big Ben first chimed the hour in July 1859.

St Stephen's Tower was part of the new Palace of Westminster designed by Charles Barry, after the majority of the Houses of Parliament's earlier buildings were destroyed by a fire in 1834.

An amateur horologist, Edmund Beckett Denison, devised a way of separating the pendulum from the movement of the clock's hands, thus preventing it from being adversely affected by the weather.

Life has not always been plain sailing for the celebrated timepiece. When the original bell, which is called Big Ben, was cast it cracked - and had to be replaced.

Independent travellers can hear about the history of the Houses of Parliament and some of the great politicians who have graced its two chambers, the Lower House (the House of Commons) and the Upper House (House of Lords) with the Palace Trail, London travel guide.

The familiar sound of Big Ben striking the hour was first aired on the BBC on December 31, 1923.

The clock is still wound by hand three times a week.

Legend has it that Big Ben was named after Sir Benjamin Hall (later Lord Llanover), who was the commissioner for works when the clock was installed in the nineteenth century. Another theory, is that the bell was named Big Ben after a popular heavyweight boxer called Benjamin Caunt, who died in 1861.

To hear a short audio sample from the Palace Trail mp3 guided tour please click here. The Palace Trail London audio guide is available - like the other Walk Talk Tour London travel guides - in English, French, German and Spanish.

There are five Walk Talk Tour London city walking tours in all. Each Walk Talk Tour London audio guide costs just £5.95 each. Customers purchasing two tours simultaneously will receive a twenty per cent discount. Buy three at the same time and get thirty per cent off. You can now purchase any of our Walk Talk Tour travel guides on CD (in MP3 format) or on a preloaded MP3 player. For more information please click here.

The Palace Trail, London audio guide follows the Coronation Procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey, in reverse. Hear how Downing Street got its name, see Mounting the Guard at Horse Guards (if you get your timing right), discover where the 'true' centre of London is located, see where London's former smallest police station is situated and more...

All of the Walk Talk Tour London iPod travel guides - with the exception of the longer City & South Bank Circular podcast guided tour - can be completed in two hours. With a Walk Talk Tour London walking tour, you're in charge. No need to struggle to hear the tour guide with the umbrella or feel conspicuous with a guidebook in your hands.

Listeners to a Walk Talk Tour audio guide can stop, start and listen again to any part of their commentary as they wish - or as their interest or the weather dictates. Each professionally researched and produced Walk Talk Tour London travel guide is narrated by Jonathan Keeble and comes complete with a downloadable map - for listeners to print off.

For a great selection of places to stay with discount prices visit London Hotels for more information.

Two designs go forward for new bus for London

Two entrants have been selected from a field of more than 700 to go forward as designs for a new Routemaster for London. The two winning bids will share the competition first prize of £25,000.

Aston Martin teamed up with awarding winning architects Foster and Partners to produce a design (pictured below) which included solar panels built into the roof, wooden floors, 'warm lighting' and full accessibility.

A Wiltshire based design company, Capoco Design, tendered the other winning bid (pictured above) with a design that combined the best of the traditional design with innovative new features.

The winning designs will be presented to bus manufacturers, with the intention of developing a final proposed design.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London said: "We now have, in our joint winners, two stunning stunning designs that allow us to go forward and produce a truly iconic bus."

The original Routemaster bus proved massively popular with Londoners and visitors alike.

Routemasters still run along Heritage Route 15. Independent minded travellers can hear about the history of the Routemaster with The Ride & Stride London city walking tour.

When, in 1954 the prototype Routemaster first made its appearance it was hailed “the most modern double deck bus in the world”. Large numbers of Routemasters first entered service on London's streets five years later.

Design consultant, Douglas Scott, was engaged in the design of the Routemaster. He had made his reputation styling the Aga cooking stove and the traditional British phone box.

Safety and access concerns over the open rear platform meant that time was called on the icon in 2005.

Passengers undertaking the Ride & Stride podcast guided tour alight at St Paul's Cathedral. Listeners to The Ride & Stride mp3 guided tour hear about Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece, before crossing over to the South Bank of the Thames via the Millennium Bridge. To hear an audio sample from The Ride & Stride mp3 guided tour please click here.

See the Tate Modern. Discover some of the ways in which Shakespearean Theatre differed to theatre today. Hear about the origins of terms such as Winchester geese and in the clink, before crossing back over the Thames, via London's most photographed bridge, Tower Bridge. The Ride & Stride London travel guide concludes outside the once notorious Tower of London.

There are five Walk Talk Tour London travel guides. In addition, each Walk Talk Tour London audio walking tour is available in English, French, German and Spanish.

Unlike with a conventional guided tour, listeners to a Walk Talk Tour London city walking tour are free to stop, start and listen again to any part of their professionally produced commentary as they wish, or as their interest or the weather dictates.

Each Walk Talk Tour London iPod travel guide costs just £5.95. Buy two tours simultaneously and get twenty per cent off. Purchase three at the same time and get a thirty per cent discount. All of the Walk Talk Tour London audio guides - with the exception of the longer City & South Bank Circular mp3 guided tour - can be completed in two hours.

Buckingham Palace Footman wrestles for fun

David Hintz, a 23 year old Footman at Buckingham Palace, wrestles on the Capital British Wrestling circuit. He is known on the circuit as David Deville.

This Saturday his bout against Danny Garnell is being shown on Sky Sports. David can earn up to £200 a fight. He manages to juggle his wrestling commitments with his £15,000 a year post at the Palace. David told The Sun that: “Most fights are at the weekend, and I’m also able to use my holiday quite flexibly.”

During Royal mealtimes, David is on hand to offer the Queen assistance should she require it.

Independent travellers can hear about the history of the Queen's official bodyguard with the Walk Talk Tour, Palace Trail, London travel guide. The Palace Trail mp3 guided tour explores royal and monumental London.

The Palace Trail London audio guide follows the Coronation Procession (from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey), in reverse.

Hear about Westminster Abbey's royal connections, find out about the history of the new Palace of Westminster (including Big Ben) and hear about famous statesmen (past and present) commemorated in Parliament Square. To hear a short audio sample from the Palace Trail London iPod travel guide please click here.

Walk on, at your leisure, to the Cenotaph - the national focus for remembrance on the Sunday nearest to the Armistice at the end of World War One, which came into effect on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. Walk on to Downing Street, home of Britain's most famous front door.

Admire the Queen’s Life Guard which is responsible for protecting the monarch when she is in London at Horse Guards. Then walk onto Trafalgar Square via Charing Cross.

The Palace Trail podcast guided tour concludes with a walk along the Mall - the ceremonial entrance to Buckingham Palace - and into St James's Park, before finishing in front of Buckingham Palace.

There are five Walk Talk Tour London audio walking tours. All of the Walk Talk Tour London city walking tours are available in English, French, German and Spanish.

Each Walk Talk Tour London city guide costs just £5.95. Customers who purchase two tours at the same time will receive a twenty per cent discount. Buy three at the same time and get thirty per cent off.

With a Walk Talk Tour London travel guide you're in charge. No need to struggle to hear the tour guide with the umbrella. With a Walk Talk Tour you can simply stop, start and replay your commentary as you see fit - or as your interest, the weather or the other half dictates!

A Walk Talk Tour audio guide makes a great Christmas present. Customers can now purchase their chosen tour(s) in download format, on CD (in MP3 format) or on a preloaded MP3 player. For more information about our great gift ideas please click here.

Mousetrap still drawing 'em in

The world's longest continuous theatre production celebrates fifty-six years since its first showing today. The Mousetrap was first performed on Tuesday, November 25, 1952, at the Ambassadors Theatre in London. The Ambassadors Theatre was the venue for The Mousetrap for the final time on 23rd March, 1974. The following day, Agatha Christie's Whodunit transferred next door to St Martin's Theatre, where it has been performed ever since.

The Mousetrap has passed numerous milestones, including its 25th anniversary in 1977 and its 20,000th performance in 2000.

Winston Churchill was Prime Minister when The Mousetrap was first shown. Gordon Brown is the twelfth occupant of Ten Downing Street during the production's record breaking run. The production has not even reached retirement age yet (60 for women and 65 years of age for men in Britain) and there is no sign that the record breaking is set to stop.

Independent travellers can hear more about St Martin's Theatre with the Museums, Galleries & Performing Arts, London travel guide.

The Museums, Galleries & Performing Arts mp3 guided tour starts outside the National Gallery. Listeners are then guided via the National Portrait Gallery to Leicester Square. See a statue of the bard and an Englishman who made it big on the other side of the pond. To hear a short audio extract from the podcast guided tour please click here.

Listeners then walk onto St Martin's Theatre. Other highlights on the tour include London's centre of street theatre, Covent Garden, the Royal Opera House and Bow Street. The Museums, Galleries & Performing Arts London city guide concludes in front of the British Museum.

There are five Walk Talk Tour London audio walking tours, which are all available in English, French, German and Spanish.

Each Walk Talk Tour London mp3 guided tour - with the exception of the longer City & South Bank Circular, London podcast guided tour - can be completed in two hours. With a Walk Talk Tour London city walking tour you're in charge. No need to struggle to keep up with - let alone hear - the tour guide with the umbrella.

Each Walk Talk Tour London travel guide represents excellent value at just £5.95 a piece. Customers who buy two tours simultaneously will get a twenty per cent discount. Buy three at the same time and get thirty per cent off.

Each tour comes with a free downloadable map - for listeners to print off - and easy to follow instructions so you won't miss a thing!

Globe Theatre serves up Tales for Winter

Some of Europe's top storytellers will be demonstrating their craft at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre over the next four Saturday evenings, beginning November 22.

A young Irish storyteller, Clare Muireann Murphy, will be treading the boards on Saturday, November 22. All of the performances are scheduled to begin at 20:00 and end at 22:30.

Some of the content discussed in the Tales for Winter is not suitable for young children. The material is suitable for youngsters aged twelve years plus and adults.

Today’s new Globe Theatre is a replica of the original Globe built by Cuthbert and Richard Burbage in 1599, and stands a short distance away from the original Globe Theatre in Southwark.

Independent travellers can hear why the Burbage brothers' Globe Theatre ended up in Southwark with the Ride & Stride, Walk Talk Tour London audio guide.

William Shakespeare was a shareholder in the venue. Compared with today, theatre going was a very different experience in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as listeners to the Ride & Stride mp3 guided tour or the City & South Bank Circular, London travel guide will discover. To hear a short audio sample from the Ride & Stride London city walking tour please click here.

Today's Globe Theatre owes much to the determination, vision and tenacity of one man, Sam Wanamaker. The American actor was visiting London when he discovered that the only memorial to Shakespeare's Globe was a plaque on a now closed brewery. He resolved to act. In 1970 he established the Shakespeare Globe Trust. The new Globe Theatre was constructed using Elizabethan building techniques. Sadly, Wanamaker died in December 1993. The new Globe Theatre opened in 1997.

There are five Walk Talk Tour London travel guides all of which are available in English, French, German and Spanish. All of the Walk Talk Tour London audio guides - with the exception of the longer City & South Bank Circular mp3 guided tour - can be completed in two hours. Listeners to a Walk Talk Tour London audio walking tour can stop, start and listen again to any part of the commentary - as the mood takes them or the weather dictates.

Each Walk Talk Tour London iPod travel guide costs just £5.95. Customers purchasing two tours simultaneously will receive a twenty per cent discount. Buy three simultaneously and get thirty per cent off.

Covent Garden set for Christmas Delight

Shoppers, sightseers and passers by will be in for a treat when Covent Garden's Christmas lights are switched on, on November 17. The display promises to be no ordinary Christmas light up with almost 600, 2m tubes (each packed with 80 LEDs) suspended four metres above ground level.

Each tube will be linked into a computer, which will create vivid, complex patterns that will filter across the grid.

The installation has been created by London company called United Visual Artists. UVA made its reputation by providing eye catching visuals for Massive Attacks world tour five years ago. UVA's co-founder Matt Clark told The Daily Telegraph that: "We wanted to avoid all the cliches and iconography that come with Christmas and create something more contemporary..."

Covent Garden is London's mecca of street theatre. Shoppers can immerse themselves in a wide selection of stalls and emporiums. Tire easily of shopping, then why not explore Covent Garden and the surrounding area?

Independent minded visitors to London can hear about Covent Garden's rich and varied history with The Museums, Galleries & Performing Arts, Walk Talk Tour, London audio guide.

After the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the early fifth century it was thought that their city of Londinium had been abandoned. Recent excavations under the London Transport Museum suggest that the area now called Covent Garden was the hub of a thriving Saxon settlement called Lundenwic, with its own port on the nearby Thames.

Listeners to the Museums, Galleries & Performing Arts mp3 guided tour can hear where the name 'Covent Garden' comes from. Covent Garden began to take on its present day appearance in the seventeenth century when Indigo Jones, one of the finest architects of his day, was commissioned to design a great Piazza. To hear an audio sample from the Museums, Galleries & Performing Arts, London iPod travel guide please click here.

There are five Walk Talk Tour London travel guides. Each Walk Talk Tour London audio guide costs just £5.95. Customers purchasing two tours simultaneously will receive a twenty per cent discount. All of the Walk Talk Tour London city walking tours are available in English, French, German and Spanish.

Customers are free to stop, start and listen again to any part of their Walk Talk Tour mp3 guided tour - as they see fit or as the other half or the weather dictates. No need to struggle to hear the guide with the umbrella. With a Walk Talk Tour London city guide you're in charge. In addition, to easy to follow instructions each Walk Talk Tour London travel guide comes complete with a free downloadable map - for you to print off - so you won't miss a thing.