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Free booking and cancellationFree payment tour, no set price, booking and cancellation are free
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Accepts electronic paymentThis tour allows payment by electronic means or credit card
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Want something a little deeper than the London popular culture tours? I'm a former teacher, economist, analyst and a lover of history, books and ideas. If you just want to take photos to put on social media, have little interest in history and don’t really like walking, then PLEASE BOOK A DIFFERENT TOUR!!! If you are intellectually curious and like to think, then let me take you through the streets of London, from the City (the old Roman town of Londinium), to Southwark on the south bank of the River Thames and then to Covent Garden, Soho, Mayfair & St James’s (6 different walks in total). I'll explain how London came from being a European backwater in the 1500s to the largest city in the world in the 1800s. Today, London surpasses New York in diversity and has become a playground for the rich. From clean money to dirty money, I'll tell you the back story behind London's rise, not just the official version! The good, the bad and the ugly: you'll hear about it all.
Old Money, New Money, Dirty Money in Mayfair & St James Tour: London's Super Wealthy (Not Suitable for Children)
Welcome! I’m Justin. This one of the newest of the 6 tours I lead in London, which together have gathered around 1,500 reviews averaging 5 stars (the highest on GuruWalk).
The Mayfair & St James district of London boasts the highest concentration of billionaires in Europe. Some got their money honestly, some not!
Traditionally, this part of London was home to royals and aristocrats along with the nouveau riche of Empire (the sugar-and-slave plantation owners of the West Indies and senior East India Company employees, rich from looting India and China).
Today, the old British elites are being sidelined by a tsunami of new money arriving from all over the world as London becomes the second-home capital of the world's mega wealthy.
While Britain has lost an empire, it has instead found a new role as butler and fixer to anyone who will pay. In the process, dictators, tyrants, oligarchs, plutocrats and kleptocrats have been welcomed with open arms into the UK's capital city.
But some friendly advice! If you just want to just take pretty pictures to put on social media and have no interest in history (and don't really like walking much), I am the wrong tour guide for you! My tours attract people who like ideas, history and books. If that is not what interests you, book another tour :)
You do get a chance to take some great photos, but also I hope you get to "think" a little about what this area of London represents as well!
Also, this walking tour is not suitable for children unless they are older teens interested in history, politics, economics or international affairs.
Still reading? OK, this is the tour's heart.
I'll navigate you through the natural habitat of many of the richest people on the planet, centring on St James's and Mayfair.
You will get to see the traditional "old money" haunts, but I'll also point out the $200 million homes and $30k-a-month apartment complexes and private members clubs beloved by the "new money" (often dirty money). And you'll see the places this new global mega elite go to shop, eat and play.
You'll also learn how the web of hedge funds, private equity companies and family offices based in this area put both clean and dirty money to work around the world: tax free of course!
Highlights of the tour include:
The tour will end a short walk from Piccadilly Circus underground stations. Note I do have a card reader so can take tips by credit or debit card.
I will be outside the Veeraswamy Indian Restaurant (you can't miss the huge flag outside) at 99 Regent Street near the junction with Vigo Street, a five minute walk from Piccadilly Underground Station (Exit 2) on the Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines. I will be wearing a hat or cap and holding a yellow umbrella. Piccadilly Circus underground station is on the Piccadilly and Bakerloo underground lines.
Traditional meeting point of Londoners in the centre of the city.
Exclusive street of tailors, where the super wealthy buy their suits
Spectacular shopping arcade that dates back to 1819. The longest high-end traditional shopping arcade in London
Iconic shopping street famous for its upmarket brands
A beautiful arcade of shops fronted by fashion ico Iconic shopping street that hosts London's Ritz Hotel (famed for afternoon tea), Fortnum & Mason (food emporium) and London's oldest bookshop Hatchards
While the wealthy buy their suits in Saville Row, they then get their shirts on Jermyn Street. Also home of an iconic cheese shop
One of London's most exclusive squares: home to the East India Club, the members only London Library and one of the world's oldest think tanks Chatham House
A street full of old money private members club from the Athenaeum to the Oxford & Cambridge Club
HQ of the British Commonwealth: a club of Britain's ex and current colonies, the latter group of which (know as British Overseas Territories and British Dependent Territories) are now the epicentre of the world's dirty money laundering network
London's most exclusive and oldest wine merchant, which also hides one of London's oldest alleys and pocket square
One of the top three auction houses in this area along with Sotheby's and Phillips. Paintings here can sell for hundred's of millions
Home to old money, new money and dirty money members clubs, exclusive shops and a Russian oligarch building frozen by the British government after Putin's invasion of Ukraine
Beautiful Christopher Wren church with hidden garden and street food market in the front courtyard at lunchtime.
Free tours do not have a set price, instead, each person gives the guru at the end of the tour the amount that he or she considers appropriate (these usually range from €10 to $50 depending on satisfaction with the tour).