Paddington Station is one of London’s major railway terminals. Located in the heart of West London, it’s not only a major transport hub but also a landmark with a rich history and cultural significance. The station was designed by the famous Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel to serve as the London terminus for the Great Western Railway (GWR). Brunel’s vision was to create a grand gateway to the capital for passengers arriving from the west of England and Wales. The original station building features a neoclassical façade with a striking wrought-iron and glass train shed, a hallmark of Brunel’s engineering genius. It was also on the route of the first London Underground line (then known as the Metropolitan Railway) which was inaugurated in 1863 and ran between Paddington and Farringdon.
The station is forever linked to Paddington Bear, the beloved children’s literary character created by Michael Bond. In the stories, Paddington Bear arrives in London from Peru at Paddington Station, where he is found by the Brown family. A statue of Paddington Bear now sits on Platform 1, and there’s even a Paddington Bear shop in the station.
Now known simply as “the Tube”, the London Underground started life as the Metropolitan Railway, the world’s first underground railway system, which opened in 1863. This trailblazing transport system has a long and fascinating history, and our private walking tour takes you on a journey through some of the oldest and most intriguing stations, where your knowledgeable local guide can share a wealth of stories from the steam-powered trains of the past and the sleek modern additions, giving us a glimpse of the future.
On your private walking tour, you will:
Beneath the streets of one of the world's great cities, an extraordinary story has been unfolding for more than 160 years. It began with steam, sulphur and a good deal of optimism in January 1863, when the first passengers climbed aboard gas-lit wooden carriages at Paddington and travelled into the unknown, quite literally into a tunnel under the ground, in a contraption that many observers had confidently predicted would either collapse, asphyxiate its passengers, or both. They were wrong, as it turned out. What those early travellers had just boarded was the future. This private walking tour tells the story of the London Underground from that remarkable beginning to the present day, visiting a hand-picked selection of the network's most famous, most beautiful, most peculiar and most historically significant stations along the way. It is a tour for the genuinely curious, for people who want to understand not just what they are looking at, but how the Tube came to be, who built it, and what it has meant to the city above it.
Your guide is a Londoner with a deep, infectious knowledge of the Tube, in all its complexity and character. The exact itinerary flexes to suit the day, the state of the network and your own interests. From engineering history to wartime drama, architectural beauty to urban folklore, there is no shortage of directions to take the story. It begins at Paddington, where the Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground passenger railway, opened its doors to a bewildered and slightly apprehensive Victorian public, and where your guide will set the scene for everything that follows. You'll hear about the engineers and visionaries who conceived and built the early network, often under conditions of staggering difficulty, and get a feel for what it was actually like to be among those first passengers: breathing in the steam and smoke that railway officials cheerfully insisted was good for the lungs, travelling through tunnels lit only by gas lamps, and emerging on the other side of the journey having experienced something that had never been done before anywhere in the world.
From Paddington, the tour moves through a carefully chosen sequence of stations, each selected for what it reveals about a different chapter of the Underground's story. You might find yourself on the platforms of one of the deepest stations on the network, descending by escalator into the kind of subterranean depths that feel genuinely otherworldly. You might linger at one of the most architecturally celebrated stations, where the design is as worthy of attention as anything above ground. You might pass through a station with a wartime secret, or one with a structural peculiarity that has baffled engineers for decades, or one that sits just a short distance from a "ghost station", one of the forty-odd disused, closed or abandoned stations that haunt the network, sealed off from the travelling public but largely intact beneath the city streets.
No tour of the Tube would be complete without a pause to contemplate Harry Beck's iconic map, the elegant, colour-coded diagram that replaced geographic accuracy with visual clarity in 1933 and, in doing so, invented a design language that every transit system in the world now speaks. Beck was an engineering draughtsman who submitted the idea unofficially and was paid a handful of guineas for one of the most influential graphic designs of the twentieth century. Your guide will walk you through its genius, its compromises and its curious afterlife as a piece of art, a souvenir and a symbol of London itself.
At a point along the route, you will do what every visitor to London should do at least once, with full awareness of what they are experiencing: descend to a platform, board a train, and travel a short stretch of the Underground as a Londoner does. It is a deliberately brief journey, but taken in the right frame of mind. Knowing what you now know about the history beneath your feet, the clay that has been storing heat since Victorian times, the mice that have evolved into their own distinct subspecies, it is anything but ordinary.
The tour ends at Westminster station, one of the engineering masterpieces of the modern network, where the raw, exposed structure of the Jubilee Line extension does not attempt to hide what it is. Standing on that platform, surrounded by concrete and steel that seems almost geological in its scale, with the Houses of Parliament directly above your head, is a fittingly dramatic way to close your time spent underground. It is a reminder that the story of the Tube is not a historical curiosity; it is still being written, station by station, line by line, beneath one of the world's most layered and inexhaustible cities.
The British monarchy is perhaps the most famous family in the world. They have majestic palaces, castles and stately homes all over the United Kingdom, but it is said the favourite residence of the House of Windsor, is the medieval Windsor Castle itself. It is also where the late Queen and Prince Philip stayed during the Covid pandemic (known as HMS Bubble), and nearby Eton College is where Princes William and Harry went to school.
On your private full-day tour of Windsor and Eton, you will:
After a scenic train ride from London to Windsor, your day begins with a guided walking tour through the pretty and historic royal town of Windsor towards the castle. You'll learn about the 1000-year history of the town and its royal connections over the centuries.
Windsor Castle dates back to the 11th century when it was first built by William the Conqueror, and is the oldest and largest inhabited, working castle in the world. It is said to be the late Queen's favourite residence, and it is where she and Prince Philip isolated during the pandemic. It was expertly and carefully restored after a mighty fire in 1992.
Upon entering the castle walls, first enjoy a tour of St. George's Chapel, a 15th-century church that has played host to numerous royal weddings including those of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle. It is also a place of royal burial: monarchs both famous and infamous are buried there including Henry VIII (with all the wives), Charles I (who was beheaded) and most recently her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II alongside her beloved husband Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh.
After a guided tour around the exquisite castle grounds and gardens, you will explore the majestic State Apartments with an audio guide. (Tour guides are not permitted to tour inside, the audioguide is included).
Stand in St. George’s Hall, where royal and state banquets are held. Learn about the various ceremonies that take place here like the procession of the Order of the Garter. Admire the intricately decorated staterooms, polished suits of armour and weaponry, famous portraits and medieval heraldry. Learn the many stories and legends associated with the castle over the last thousand years.
After you tour the castle, have your lunch break in Windsor before crossing the bridge for a guided stroll around the quaint town of Eton. See the exterior of Eton College (not open to the public), and walk in the footsteps of more than twenty of the country’s prime ministers, Oscar winners such as Eddie Redmayne, writers such as Ian Fleming, and Princes William and Harry.
Pop into one of the country's most famous tailors, where the college's uniforms are made, and perhaps learn to tie to the illustrious 'Windsor knot'.
Return to London Waterloo with your guide, or opt to stay and explore more of Eton and Windsor and the Great Park at your leisure.
Please note:
- As Windsor Castle is a working royal palace, sometimes the entire Castle or the State Apartments within the Castle need to be closed at short notice. We will endeavour to be in touch with you as soon as we have this information.
- The Tailor shop will only be visited on tours running on weekdays (not on weekends or bank holidays) as the shops are closed.
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