About this Event
Winner of 'Best Parent Activity' at the 'Bablands Awards', 'Bring Your Baby' Guided London Walks are sensitively devised to suit parents and carers of even the tiniest babies to enjoy London’s history. We can stop whenever you like to feed and change - without the stress of feeling you are holding up the group. Because every participant brings their baby, patience and baby’s needs are at the forefront of each walk.
You are welcome to bring friends and family who do not also have a baby.
Walk starts and ends: Hampstead tube station, Hampstead High Street, London NW3
Settle your nerves with a stop after about an hour at The Old White Bear pub for refreshment and/or lunch and baby change.
Walk description:
One of London’s most atmospheric and unspoilt villages, it has been the favoured haunt of dozens of writers, poets and artists - not to mention the ghosts.
Join Joanna on this seasonal tour, not just of hauntings, but of highwaymen, hangings, horrible history... and Dracula.
What you’ll see and hear about on this walk:
- Several pubs which play host to numerous entities from the other side - a former landlord, a wife who was bricked up in the cellar by her own husband, a phantom waitress, and a jazz musician who doesn’t seem to want to leave his piano...
- The ghosts of a young girl scared to death by own dentist, and a murderous maidservant who witnesses hear shuffling along the street behind them.
- The churchyard which inspired scenes from Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”.
- The former inn on the edge of Hampstead Heath which also featured in “Dracula”, once visited by Charles Dickens and which at once time displayed ‘artefacts' from the hangings of highwaymen and murderers at the nearby “Gibbet Elm Trees”.
- Tales of the many highwaymen who haunted the Heath in life… and in death. Some were celebrities in their own time, like Dick Turpin, still haunting the nearby Spaniards Inn (not on this walk due to road safety constraints) and the famously polite Claude Duval. Many were caught… and met their end hanging from the gibbet on the Heath.
- The original houses which were home to many writers associated with tales of the macabre or sinister: Daphne du Maurier (“The Birds” / “Rebecca”), H.G. Wells (“The Invisible Man’ / “War of the Worlds”) and Robert Louis Stevenson (“Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde”).
- The 17th century statesman who was arrested at his Hampstead home and beheaded at Tower Hill.
- And aptly, the gothic mansion belonging to Boy George.
If on the day of the walk we are forecast to have very bad weather, I may have to postpone the walk. If it's a bit of light rain we will cope!
Every walk follows the usual health and safety guidelines, such as crossing at traffic lights where possible and having hazards pointed out to you at the start and along the route.
There may be times we have to stand in direct sunlight (although I will always choose shade where possible). Please bring all the necessary sun protection for yourself and your child.
It is recommended you bring appropriate drinks and snacks for the duration of the walk, especially if the walk takes place at lunchtime.
I will contact you with booking confirmation after you book. I will supply my mobile number in case of emergencies or in case you are running late. I will also ask you to provide me with a mobile number so you can be contacted for the purposes of the walk, but this is *not for marketing purposes*. Please note that if you are more than a few minutes late I may ask you to catch up with us.
If you like the look of any of my walks, but would prefer to book me privately, please make enquiries at [email protected]. This may particularly be the case if you have people interested who do not have babies.
Important notes about booking:
- Please feel free to invite baby-free friends.
- Customer refunds must be requested at least 24 hours before an event starts. We cannot guarantee you can move your ticket to another date but you are welcome to enquire at [email protected]
- If for any reason Bring Your Baby Ltd are forced to cancel or postpone an event (for example in the case of illness or extreme weather conditions), you are within your rights to request a refund, though we will always suggest an alternative date for you to attend.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Hampstead Station Hampstead High St (Stop R), Hampstead Tube Station, London, United Kingdom
GBP 22.38