Historian, author and popular prize-winning Blue Badge Guide, Rachel Kolsky has one of the widest range of walking tours and visits in London. BOOK YOUR OWN PRIVATE GROUP TOUR for as many people as you want or BOOK INDIVIDUAL TICKETS for the pre-arranged PUBLIC TOURS.
Hello to my Walkers and anyone else who might have found this site
I hope you have all had a super sunny summer filled with only fun things and good health.
The two months of no Rachel Tours are speeding by – one month down and I have been running around the UK by train (hurrah for our train network which gets a bad press but gosh, when it is running it is just beyond fabulous) and finally getting on my beloved Eurostar again for a day trip to Paris. Booking an international journey myself and getting stamps in my passport has signalled that I am now officially ‘unlocked’ and very shortly I will be back in Paris to consolidate my new status!! So, where have I been? Lots of places for the first time – Sherborne and Queen Camel (home to an excellent brownie from the cafe in the old school) and where I ate my first wild strawberry and ‘met’ Alan Turingat Sherborne School. Also Great Malvern and Worcester for the first time too where I did a lot of plaque spotting, walking and cake research with the church cafe coming out tops this time – The Lyttelton Well – but walking on the Malvern Hills walked off the calories. Elgar cropped up everywhere in both towns … even in a telephone box!! Then came Paris for a day where I was a flaneur with two friends who were in town at the same time and yes while it was important for me to see Giacometti’s studio, the cake research was in depth as they introduced me to the most wonderful fruit tarts and Polish pastries at Le Loir dans la Théièreand Sacha Finkelsztajn. I will return to both later this month. Then it was off oop north for a few days in Sunderland where I had not been since 2019. It was great to be back – new places like Morpeth where I ‘met’ Emily Davison, the suffragette who died following the Derby in 1913 and old favouries like Tommy andLickety Splitat Seaham and the beyond fabulousBeamish. I also visited Seven Stories inNewcastle which celebrates children’s books, particularly the illustrations so of course, I met Judith Kerr’s Tiger.
There are also lots of things to see and do in London and I have done them!! Highlights include seeing Sickert at Tate Britain, the Tiffany bling at Saatchi, gorgeous things made by the Royal School of Needlework at the FTM, a walk in Abbebville village down south in Clapham and the cart marking ceremony at Guildhall organised by the WC of Carmen.
(The photos are my favourite cart – the mini carousel made in 1910 – at the cart marking ceremony and me with thedragon heads at Wallington. The heads were saved by the Calverley Blackett family from the Bishopsgate gate when it was demolished in 1760)
WALKING WITH RACHEL … walking wise, the Waterloo tours and some private walks remind me that work does continue and they have kept me on my toes ready for the new term of Rachel Tours which begins in September.
ZOOMING WITH RACHEL
My Zoom Room is now closed! THANK YOU all so much for the support and for Zooming from around the globe over the past few years. Private Zooms are still being requested so if anyone is running a Zoom programme for their social or cultural group, do get in touch.
‘Your zooms are BEST ones I have seen in Lockdown’
‘Your zest for life just fizzled across the Zoom’
‘They have been one of the positives of this lockdown’
‘…thank you to Rachel she was terrific and I was enthralled!’
‘Rachel Kolsky never disappoints’ Informative and fun’ ‘Fantastic’
‘Rachel was a pleasure to listen to’ ‘The Highlight of my Day’ ‘A goldmine of fun’
‘Infectious enthusiasm’
THE BIG PHOTOS HAVE TO BE … me enjoying an ice-cream at Lickety Split at Seaham which is a tiny seaside town oop north but with soooo much to enjoy and discover. Not only ice-cream but Tommy, the WWI soldier, a rather curious wooden sculpture of Byron and his wife Arabella who were married in the town, stories of the Vane-Tempest colliery and lovely sea front walks. The other photo is of me enjoying fresh air on the Malvern Hills. Oh, the glory of our English countryside. But my trips around the UK were filled with wonderful places and plaques and cake and chocolate and above all nattering and relaxing. The simple things in life eh?
Could Fortnum & Mason have named a chocolate bar any better for me? Thank you Fortnum’s and thank you Deborah for finding it. I love the way it uses an * in M*lk as it is a vegan version so not really milk!! I am going to use that as my tagline from now on – IN HER FOOTSTEPS WE FOLLOW
I was in the BFI SOUTHBANK brochure for September 2021!!
The BFI selected my suggestion for Member Picks in September 2021. Check out the brochure and website where you will see my name alongside the listing for Moonstruck being screened on Friday 24th September … yes, I cannot go!! Here is what I said about the film which convinced them to screen it for me: ‘One of the few films I can watch over and over and love more each time … from the anticipation of the emotion (the smiles and the tears) to the sheer magnetism of the leads.’
(PS Yes, I know this is nearly a year old but I was so thrilled to be in the BFI – NFT to me – programme I do not want to delete this from my website!!)
HEARING JANE HORROCKS TALK ABOUT HER TEENAGE DIARY
What a super day this was … off to Bethnal Green to be in the audience for a recording of the BBC programme, Teenage Diary. Jane Horrocks was so amusing talking with Rufus Hound about her teenage holiday in Sorrento back in 1980. The other Teenage Diary was by a young man who used an on-line version of a diary … likely one of the first to do so. Does anyone write a diary anymore I wonder. If you missed the programme on BBC 4 on 18th August at 6.30pm you can find it on Catch Up via BBC Sounds.
Here is one of my Clapham groups exploring the Shaftesbury Estate and standing below the street sign, Eversleigh Road. I lived in Eversleigh Road for over ten years but my Eversleigh was in Finchley N3 not Battersea aka Clapham SW11.
Louis and I kept busy during Lock-Down preparing our new LONDON GUIDE BOOK. But very frustratingly the publication date has been put on hold – indefinitely – but that will not stop us trying to make it happen – we just do not know when it will be in bookshops. It is called London Stations: Tours Behind the Termini. I met so many of you on my Behind the Termini tours when I first devised them ten years ago and now, just like my Jewish-themed and Women-themed walks, they were to be put into print. My co-author is photographer Louis Berk whom you know through our series of Whitechapel books. Look out for more news as and when we have it.
A HIGHLIGHT FROM THE ZOOMING! Check out these yellow arrows! One points to Sidney Ruback as an 18 year old watching the Beatles last live concert on the top of the Apple offices on the 30th January 1969 and the other points to the Zooming version of Sidney as he told his story to everyone at Beatles’ London on 21st May 2020. Thank you so much for coming along Sidney. BEATLES’S LONDON was the Zoom presented most often … both for my public Zooms and also for private groups too.
Women’s London has been selling well – thank you so much! The new re-print is now in the shops which is great news. If you would like a signed copy, please email me.
Many of you have written to me saying how much you are enjoying reading this book. Thank you … and if you can find a moment or two do please pop a review on Amazon. It really does help spread the word.
There were wonderful Meet the Author events linked to Women’s London. You came and heard me speak several times for International Women’s Day / Month soon after the launch at the LSE. Since then events have been held by Camden Historical Society, Guildhall Library, Jewish Book Week, In Conversation with Inspirational Women, Limmud After Dark and even on Cunard’s Queen Victoria! Book themed tours include – Suffragette City Routemaster Bus Tour, Women of Worth, Hampstead Ladies, Westminster Women, Hackney Heroines … and MORE!!!
Jewish London, my first book, continues to sell and is now in its Third Edition! It has proved a real success for the publisher so thank you everyone for continuing to buy copies. It is available in all good bookshops … and in the libraries on all the Cunard Queens too, QM2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth! Click on the book cover left for reviews and book events.
In association with Network Rail
Wonderful Waterloo
2nd August, 20th August
18th September, 29th September
Radicals to Rinkoffs
5th September
Smithfield – Lizzie Line
9th September
Flower Power
14th September
Leytonstone
15th September
Canary Wharf – Lizzie Line
16th September
Woolwich – Lizzie Line
23rd September
Paddington – Lizzie Line
30th September
Flower Power
6th October
Baffling Barbican
7th October
Bagels to Bhajis – The Classic JEE tour
9th October
Stamford Hill
13th October
Hilly Highgate
14th October
and many more too …
Contact Rachel to
BOOK or join the Mailing List
Rachel is a prize winning Blue Badge Guide who worked for over 25 years in the financial services industry as a professional researcher.
Her inquisitive nature soon led her to explore London north, south, east and west, always on the look-out for those buildings and stories that would otherwise remain undiscovered.
Rachel has been a guest lecturer on cruises since 2009 and is a regular speaker for many different organisations. She has also appeared several times on the radio and has been spotted on TV too. She is also now a published author, with two books, ‘Jewish London’ (2012) and ‘Whitechapel in 50 Buildings’ (2016). She is currently writing ‘Women’s London’ and ‘Secret Whitechapel’ both due out in 2017.
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF TOURS
I continue my attempt to embrace the modern world with my Go London Tours FACEBOOK page. I am going to use this to keep everyone up to date with NEW tours, SOLD OUT tours, FAVOURITE EXHIBITIONS you should not miss, my chocolate brownie research and super photos of where Rachel and Tulip have been visiting. The important thing is to LIKE the page and then you will be alerted of updates.
Click HERE and click LIKE and FOLLOW. Thank you!!!
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I am looking forward to seeing you soon.