Well if you're reading this in late February, then you'll know I've cheated a little, but it's only to get a bit in front with the workload. I suddenly realised this morning that I hadn't updated this part of the site since November, something that irks me when I see it on other sites, so wearing the roughest of hair shirts, I'm updating it.

 

The year ended pretty smoothly as far as the tours went, with the newest, a walk around the area of Southwark having been launched to allow those spending time in London in December to take it. I had decided to have a rather quiet January spent researching, time well spent indoors while it's freezing cold outside. However, sadly my father passed away over the festive period following a short illness and all plans went by the wayside.

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By the end of January after the initial shock had lessoned I finally sat down at the computer to start work. However, priorities had changed. Over the past six months I had been working on a collaboration with my Dad for a new tour. He was an avid steam engine enthusiast, and although he didn't like to say it himself was a very knowledgably railway historian. We were co- authoring a tour on one of London's existing rail networks, the Mildmay Line, named after the Mildmay Hospital in Bethnal Green which was a pioneer in treating AIDS victims in the 1980s. A vast percentage of the line runs along the route of the old North London Railway. My Dad was providing the historic railway insights and I was doing my thing in providing context and social history for the areas the train travels through. Sadly we never got to finish it and so I've had to draft in a couple of his friends to help with the railway facts. The structure of the tour is already finished and so it won't be long until I'm ready to test it, once that's done it'll be published, hopefully around April.

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Waiting in the wings are two other tours, one now finished, the other in development. The finished one is a route along the Thames pathway that links Putney with Battersea which I'm really pleased with as it packed with great locations. The tour under development is loosely based around the song "Pop Goes The Weasel". I'll update you when it gets nearer to completion.