Cycle tour: Spitalfields to London Fields

A cultural and architectural medley

Saturday 6 March, 10.00 start, finishing lunchtime

What? From Spitalfields, through the City, to Hoxton, Shoreditch, Dalston, London Fields and Broadway Market. The architecture reflects social and technological development and the changing fortunes of London’s multicultural populations.

Cruise through the City and London’s East End, stopping en route to admire and be told about the newest City of London skyscrapers, charming churches, industrial buildings, Shakespeare in London, trendy galleries, museums and music halls, Huguenot houses, Victorian villas, social housing from 17th C almshouses to 20th C tower blocks and leafy parks.

Grade: easy (maximum of 6 miles) – suitable for beginners or experienced cyclists, taking mainly cycle paths, side streets, green spaces and a short section of canal path.

Booking essential as numbers limited for safety: , or call or text 07961 359358, www.marksman.co.uk
Start: Exact meeting point at Spitalfields to be confirmed on booking.
Finish: London Fields (Main Line service to/from Liverpool Street Station) and 1.3 miles from Whitechapel tube station (District and Hammersmith and City lines)
Who: Tour guided by experienced professional Tourist Guide Anne Mark. There will be a 2nd person cycling at the back of the group at all times.
£10 Adults, £8 Concs.

Getting to the Starting Point Using Public Transport: On Saturdays you are permitted to take bikes on the following tube lines which pass close to the starting point for the ride and will be running on the day of the tour: District Line (alight at Monument Station); Hammersmith & City Line (alight at Liverpool Street Station)

Note that on 6th March The Circle Line will NOT be running at all and The London Overground (formerly North London Lines) will NOT be running in the area of the tour

More information about taking your bike on the Tube
More details and a map of line closures (you need to choose your travel date)

If you would like to hire a bike, try City Bike Service or The London Bicycle Tour Company.

Walking tour: The 2012 Walk

Saturday 6 March, Sunday 7 March, 11.00

A 90-minute walking tour led by Blue Badge tourist guides through the Lower Lea Valley focussing on why the 2012 Olympics are coming to East London. This walk celebrates the Lea's huge Victorian industrial past, while highlighting Seb Coe's dream of inspiring young people into a life of effort through sport. Ends at a vantage point overlooking Europe's largest construction site - the 2012 Olympic Park, site of the world's first sustainable green Olympic Games.

Departure point Bromley-By-Bow tube station. Check TfL website for line closures and allow extra time to get to the start point.
Booking essential: Call Tour Guides Ltd 020 7495 5505, more information: www.olympictourguides2012.com/tours.php
£8 Adults, £5 Concs.

Walking tour: 21st Century Architecture, Art & the Money

Saturday 6 March, Sunday 7 March, 14.15 both days

A contemporary walk of the most spectacular part of Docklands. Discover how Canary Wharf began as a development with significant investment in design and public spaces. It is still going on. Historical remains from the days of the empire nestle between state of the art architecture, 21st century art and huge water filled docks. The facts, figures, bankruptcies and background to what was for many years Europe's largest building site and a huge commercial risk. An architectural exploration with the latest update on current plans including Cross Rail, Europe's largest engineering project!

Departure point Heron Quays DLR station
Booking by email recommended but not essential: , Tel: 07801 240616
Guide Ingrid Wallenborg
£9 Adults, £6 Concs., Children under 15 free

Walking tour: Relishing The Royals

Saturday 6 March, 14.30

A two hour stroll around East London's vast Royal Docks. Still Europe's largest man-made area of enclosed water, the Royals ruled between the wars when Cunard liners jostled with merchant ships laden with frozen lamb from the colonies. Since the rise of containerisation and the move of the London docks to Tilbury, the Royals have reinvented themselves as the home of ExCel and London City Airport. Come and view the Thames as you have never seen it before, see the Thames Barrier and the site of the disastrous Silvertown Explosion where, in the 1917, 50 tons of TNT bound for the Western Front, ignited causing an explosion that was heard in Southampton.

Departure point outside ExCel (Custom House DLR)
Places are limited so booking is essential: www.silvercanetours.com, Tel: 07720 715295
Guide Simon Rodway
£8 Adults, £5 Concs.

Walking tour: Lost East London Found!

...introduces the new Leamouth in an approximately one and a half-hour walk.

Sunday 7 March, Monday 8 March, 10.00 both days

Where the River Lea meets the Thames, we see a slice of East London undergoing complete revitalisation thanks to Docklands’ and 2012 Olympics’ regeneration planning.

In the shadow of the O2, the docks are long gone. Blue Badge Guide Caroline Dale leads a tour to discover how a combination of residential, ecological, transportation and art/business projects have integrated this once hectic, but isolated, neighbourhood back into East London proper.

We see Faraday's lighthouse legacy, a new village built of ships' containers, the point where the first settlers left London for America, a dock basin transformed into an ecology park. Here the Leamouth thrived, declined and is being restored to new found glory.

Departure point East India DLR Station - on ground level; walk ends 11:45 at East India Station
Booking recommended but not essential: www.realondon.net, Tel: 020 7704 6271, 07932 060 470
Guide Caroline Dale
£8 Adults, £7 Concs.