I'm a big fan of free walking tours whenever I travel, and Strawberry Tours was a great find. I did…read morethe East tour and the West tour, both with Adam. He was so knowledgeable about the city, both in its history and culture! I especially loved his quirky stories, like about the executions that happened at the Tower of London and the dog buried by some politician and why. Now that I'm reading the reviews, I'm seeing a lot more options than were originally advertised in the brochure I got from my hostel, and I wish I'd known about them, as they all sound interesting and thorough! However, I do think the East and West tours are a great starting point and foundation into learning about the city if you're new to it.
Look up their offerings on their website! The East tour I did covered St. Paul's Cathedral, Tower of London, The Monument, Leadenhall Market, Bank of England, Lloyd Building, Royal Courts of Justice, and Temple Church. The West tour covered Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace (from far away), St. James' Palace, Leicester Square (meeting point), 10 Downing Street, and the Horse Guards Parade. We were supposed to walk by the Churchill War Rooms, Trafalgar Square, and the National Gallery, but those were missed. And FYI, Big Ben is covered with scaffolding for the next year and a half for renovations, so you won't be seeing that, which was a bummer.
The people on the tours themselves seemed to keep to themselves, so they weren't very social, probably because they're just quick day happenings. Regardless, look up Strawberry Tours when in London if you have a couple hours and are up to to walk around.
