As a participant in a Look Up London walk, you get the chance to see London’s Skyline in close up.  Every participant gets their hands on a pair of binoculars and are offered the best vantage points to view the roof tops and building facades of London’s iconic built heritage. 

First trialled in the City in September 2011 by Andrew Stuck from Rethinking Cities, this summer brings new routes in London’s West End and led by charismatic Look Up London guide, nicknamed Soho Simon.

Soho Simon will lead walks from Leicester Square around St James’ and Soho.  In the inter-war years, St James’ was the centre of London’s Clubland, and many of the buildings in the area are still occupied by iconoclastic clubs.  Their building facades provide secret codes about the activities that take place within them.  The whole area is steeped in history and a touch of mythology as latter day journalists wrote about the antics of the celebrities of the time.

Soho hardly needs any introduction, but how often have you had the opportunity to spy on the upper-storey windows and who knows what you might find in modern day Soho. Join this walk for an eye opener or two!

The next Summer Season begins with Look Up London’s Clubland from 6.15pm on Thursday 17 May starting from Leicester Square.

For most of us, we have a pretty good idea of the neighbourhoods around where we live and work, but even then our tendency is to look at what’s merely in front or around us at eye level.  There’s a lot we miss by not looking up – weather vanes, building decorations, friezes and some intriguing roofs.  Yet there’s more still and on this Look Up Clubland Walk we guarantee you will see parts of London as you have never seen them before.

The walk lasts between 90 and 120 minutes and will include an unusual view of London, a flavour of London’s skyline, and some quirky things that are all too British, for most of the walk however, your feet will be firmly on the ground!  We will be handing out a field notebook and pencils and other resources, and we encourage you to bring your cameras.  We can lend you binoculars but if you have your own, please bring them.  There’s a charge for each Look Up London walk of £12 but you can qualify for a £2 discount if you introduce someone new to Look Up London Walks (they too get the benefit of the discount).