Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, I reviewed Christmas in Notting Hill, a fun holiday rom-com from Hallmark. Tina reviewed I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh set in Bristol England and coastal Wales.

I have been a fan of London Walks since I took their Lure of the Underground tour in 2014. It’s still going!

This month, I’m enjoying some fantasy travel by looking at London Walks’ offerings each day. I’ve imagined myself taking the Cat Tails – A Feline Take on London History tour in honor of my mother who loved cats. Inside Covent Garden Walking Tour seems like it will be especially festive during the Christmas shopping season.

Larry, Chief Mouser of the Cabinet Office, 10 Downing Street. Official portrait, 2016, by Her Majesty’s Government

London Walks puts on several London Christmas Walks And Activities that are specifically designed to celebrate the holiday season. Here are some of my favorites:

• The Christmas Tree(s) Walk
• Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol & Seasonal Traditions
• Christmas Lights Photography Tour

 

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A post shared by Trafalgar Tree (@trafalgartree)

During the pandemic, London Walks started offering “virtual tours.” A few of the guides are still doing them, especially in the winter months. The big advantage, of course, is that we can join in, anywhere in the world. I wanted to try one so that I could report to you what the experience was like. I registered for Christmas with Jane Austen Virtual London Tour just a couple of hours before it began. The cost was £10. I used a credit card and was charged $12.81.

Jane Austen’s Christmas by Maria Hubert. A resource for this topic.

We met on Zoom for two full hours, plus a little. Our guide, Kevin Flude, warned us that he had too much material, but that we would hit the Christmas highlights first so that we got what we came for. Kevin had a long career in museums before becoming a guide and lecturer for both Road Scholar and London Walks.

He used maps to orient us so that it felt a little like taking an actual walk, starting at the Green Park tube station. We got to study old pictures more thoroughly than would be possible on a walk.

Illustrations of holiday meals, for example, showed us what Jane Austen might have eaten during the holiday season — nuts, beef, and plum pudding. On the eve of Epiphany, Georgians ate Twelfth Night Cake.

We also saw pictures of decorations. There were no Christmas trees at that time in England, but lots of greenery including rosemary, holly, and mistletoe (for people who could get themselves past the pagan associations and who weren’t prudish about the kissing tradition).

We “walked” through Mayfair and along Bond Street and Picadilly with numerous shops, then and now. We took particular notice of buildings that would have been there during Jane Austen’s time and learned about the types of shops that would have been in the area.

Apsley House was occupied by the Wellesley family during Jane Austen’s time. The most famous member was the Duke of Wellington. This building now houses the Wellington Museum. By Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, 1829, Public Domain, Link

The Christmas with Jane Austen Virtual London Tour was a fun romp through a Georgian Christmas and the area of London where Jane Austen spent time.

Kevin promised another virtual tour in January that will be more focused on the places that Jane Austen visited and on important settings for characters in her novels.

He is also hosting more holiday-themed virtual tours in the next few weeks:

• A Charles Dickens Christmas Virtual Tour – his life, his work & his London
• The London Winter Solstice Virtual Tour
• Ring in the New Year Virtual Tour

The virtual tours generally start at 7pm or 7:30pm, which is 1pm or 1:30pm where I live in the Central Time zone of the US.

This was a fun way to give my fantasy travels a touch more reality. What do you think? Would you consider a virtual tour to brighten your holiday season or deepen your understanding of London and its history?

Oh. I have another question. Monday, December 16, is Jane Austen’s 249th birthday. Which means that next year will be her 250th anniversary. Do you know of any 2025 celebrations — either in person or on-line?