If you have an iPod or other MP3 player, there are now an increasing number of London walks you can download even before you leave home. The great advantage of downloading walks is that you can plan ahead. Book a London walk with a real live guide and you have to turn up at a particular and do the walk, whetever the weather. Either that or re-arrange for another day.
With a London walk on your iPod, you can do the walk any time you like. You can wait for sunny weather. If you have a late start one morning, you can do the walk in the afternoon. You can pause part-way through and go have a drink if you pass an interesting London pub, pop into the shops if you see a bargain or just take a bathroom break. Best of all, you get to keep the recording as a souvenir of your London walk, to play again when you get home.
Several companies now offer downloadable walks, and a new company, Soundmap, has launched three new London walks that are narrated by three well-known London celebrities. Robert Elms guides you round Camden Town and Camden Market; Irma Kurtz takes you round Soho, the London 'village' that she calls home; and Max Décharné walks the length of London's Kings Road.