SUITE 101
Download London Walks for iPod/MP3
Camden, Soho, Kings Road with Irma Kurtz, Robert Elms, Max Décharné

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Aug 21, 2007

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.

If you want to try before your buy, there are free samples from all three London walks on the Soundmap website, with a route map you can print off before you leave home. There's a track listing too, so you know the London landmarks being covered. There's also advice on whether any particular days are best for the walks, when markets are closed, and even where to have lunch.

London Walks: the Kings Road with Max Décharné

From London's Royal Court Theatre on Sloane Square right down to the site of Granny Takes a Trip at 488 Kings Road, this is where Swinging London really swung, where punk rock was born, where the Rolling Stones and the Beatles hung out, and where London's fashion, art, music and theatre scene all meet. Max Décharné knows his subject, as the author of Kings Road: the Rise and Fall of the Hippest Street in the World.

London Walks: Camden Town with Robert Elms

Alternative London still lives in Camden Town, especially in Camden Market. This walk with Robert Elms takes you right through Camden Market and Camden Lock, and visits a few famous Camden pubs on the way, like the Camden Eye and the Dublin Castle (a great London music venue).

London Walks: Soho with Irma Kurtz

London's Soho is like no other part of London. Long-renowned as the seedy, sleazy part of the capital, this is only a tiny part of its attraction. Soho is full of history too, the centre for London's bohemia, for jazz, for Chinatown and for the movie industry.

As well as their celebrity walking guides, Soundmap walks include music, sound effects and interviews with local people. Further details, prices and download information is available at the Soundmap website.

The copyright of the article Download London Walks for iPod/MP3 in England Travel is owned by Mike Gerrard. Permission to republish Download London Walks for iPod/MP3 must be granted by the author in writing. © Mike Gerrard