Winston Churchill's Life in London: A Self-Guided Tour

(1 review)

London audio tour: Winston Churchill's Life in London: A Self-Guided Tour

This is a 2.9mi walking tour.

It takes an average of 120 mins to complete.

London

The United Kingdom

$14.99

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About the Tour

London shaped Winston Churchill as much as he shaped it. On this walking tour through Mayfair and St James's, you'll trace the personal life and political career of Britain's most celebrated wartime leader, from his aristocratic origins to his finest hour. You'll also discover the tailors, perfumers, barbers, hatters, and wine merchants who helped him forge one of history's most recognisable public personas.

The tour starts at Green Park, near the Ritz Hotel, where Churchill held secret wartime meetings with Charles de Gaulle and Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Marie Antoinette Suite. You'll walk past his first London home on Bolton Street, where he moved with his new wife Clementine after their 1908 wedding, and along the gentlemen's streets of St James's, where Churchill spent lavishly on the accessories of power. Along the way, you'll learn how his father Randolph's philosophy of Tory Democracy shaped Churchill's politics, and why switching parties twice made him both enemies and allies.

You'll visit Spencer House, built by Churchill's ancestors, and the Carlton Club, the Conservative Party's spiritual home. Passing the Royal Academy, you'll hear how Churchill became an accomplished painter after the catastrophic Gallipoli campaign nearly ended his career. The tour ends at Charing Cross Station, from where Churchill's London continues into Whitehall and the Strand in a companion tour.

On this 90-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

Step inside Floris perfumers on Jermyn Street, where Churchill's 1934 receipt still hangs in the back room
Visit Lock & Co., the world's oldest hat shop, and learn how Churchill used headwear as deliberate political messaging
Hear how Churchill accrued a £197 debt to Savile Row tailor Henry Poole & Co. – and refused to pay it
Discover the extraordinary wartime correspondence between Churchill and Roosevelt, which began within days of Britain entering the war
See the statue of Churchill and Roosevelt on New Bond Street, cast to celebrate 50 years since the war's end
Learn why Berry Bros. & Rudd placed a black border on their Pol Roger Champagne label when Churchill died

This tour brings one of history's most complex and compelling figures vividly to life on the streets he called home.

Tour Producer

Sam Brearley

2 tours

I have been a VoiceMap guide for almost a decade, while working as the head of a history department in north London. As someone who loves researching, planning, writing and communicating, I get a real kick out of creating immersive, in-depth walks that bring listeners as close to that spine tingling sense of time travel as possible.

I have lived and worked in different parts of London for well over thirty years, and explored the city extensively on foot and in writing. I also have masters degrees in both Art History and History, and many years worth of experience leading student tours around the city, all of which give me the tools and experise necessary to write tours that are rich, accessible, wide ranging and often surprising.

I mix grand narrative with amusing annecdote and memorable trivia, much of which you won't find anywhere else. My hope is that all my listeners finish each tour having had a thrilling encounter with some of London's incredible history and taking with them a deeper underdstanding of the forces that shaped it.

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Preview Location

Location 56

View of Buckingham Palace

Walk until you are standing between the two black lamp posts ahead of you, then turn right, to look down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace. You might need to move around a little until you get an unobstructed view.

::

I want you to imagine standing on this spot on the ... Walk until you are standing between the two black lamp posts ahead of you, then turn right, to look down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace. You might need to move around a little until you get an unobstructed view.

::

I want you to imagine standing on this spot on the afternoon of 8th May, 1945. Over one million people have poured onto the streets of London to celebrate the surrender of the German Army, and the end of the war in Europe. The largest crowds gather here, on The Mall. Newspapers describe The Mall not as a road, but a solid mass of humanity. One witness later suggested that the crowds were so dense that if you lifted your feet, the crowd would have held you up. Many people have climbed onto the Victoria Memorial ahead of you, and climb lamp posts, like those nearby.

For the first time in nearly six years, the "blackout" has been lifted. As night falls, the floodlights illuminate Buckingham Palace and "V" for Victory signs, a sight that reduces many bystanders to tears. At 4:30pm, Churchill joins the Chiefs of Staff and the War Cabinet at Buckingham Palace, then steps onto the balcony, with the King and his family. The cheering all the way along the Mall is so deafening it can be heard miles away.

To all the witnesses who had gathered on The Mall that day, the scars of war would have been inescapable. Buckingham Palace was struck by bombs nine times during the war. Across St James’ Park, a little to your left, is the Royal Military Chapel, which serves the seven regiments that guard the Monarch. On 18th June 1944, it was hit by a V-1, rocket, and 121 people were killed. When Churchill visited the site soon afterwards, he stood on the rubble, weeping. Churchill had known at least two of those who died, and he had a deep emotional connectin to the traditions of the British army. Despite his egotism, his thick skin and his capacity for ruthlessness, he was a man who had a great depth of feeling for others, and felt the loss of those who died keenly, something which could not be said for either Hitler, or Stalin.

::

Let's keep moving.

Turn to face away from Buckingham palace, and walk up The Mall, with the road to your right.

::

Perhaps because of his class background, education, and experience in the army at a young age, perhaps because of the political education he received from his father, perhaps because of his long and proud family history, Churchill was, throughout his long life, a passionate and dedicated royalist. When he learned of Queen Victoria’s death in 1901, as a young cavalry officer, he wrote movingly about how much she had meant to him. Her son, Edward VII, his mother’s some-time lover, believed Churchill to be a brilliant but wild young man, and helped launch his writing career, praising his first book. “The Story of the Malakand Field Force.” Edward VII’s son, King George V had a less favourable view of Churchill. Valuing stability and duty, he saw Churchill as a turncoat for defecting from the Tories to the Liberal party and disapproved of his support for radical Liberal reforms, which increased taxes on the wealthy. Despite their differences, when the King fell ill in 1928, Churchill wrote deeply emotional letters to the Queen, showing a reverence for the institution that eventually won the King's grudging respect.

When George’s son, Edward VIII inherited the throne, Churchill wrote him a sycophantic letter, packed with exaggerations and superlatives. Sadly, Edward was undeserving of the praise Churchill lavished on him. After Churchill’s loyal, but mis-judged attempt to help him marry Wallace Simpson and remain king, Edward gave up the throne and became persona non grata, first to his family, and then, having flirted with the Nazis before the war, to the nation. The only official public engagement Edward and his wife, then titled the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, attended together after the abdication, was the unveiling of a plaque dedicated to his mother, Queen Mary, at Marlborough House, 100 metres to your left, and which we saw earlier, in 1967.

::

Keep going.

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Major Landmarks

The Ritz London
Buckingham Palace
St. James's Palace
Burlington Arcade
Fortnum & Mason
Savile Row
Royal Academy of Arts
The Royal Society
The Athenaeum Club
Admiralty Arch

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Getting There

Route Overview

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a set starting point. It’s how we give turn-by-turn directions and tell a story greater than the sum of its parts.

Start location
78-77 Piccadilly, London W1J 9DZ, UK
Total distance

5km
Final location
Strand, London WC2N 5HF, UK
Distance back to start location

1km

Directions to Starting Point

The tour begins just outside Green Park Station's Picadilly Exit (Northside). Green Park Station is on the Jubilee, Victoria and Picadilly lines, and the starting location is also easy to reach by bus or cab.

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Tips

Places to stop along the way

Food and drink: Fortnum and Masons, one of the stops in the walk, is an excellent place to treat yourself to an expensive but memorable tea. The cafe in the Royal Academy of Art is a more budget friendly option that still feels very special. For something stronger, consider visiting The Red Lion Pub in Crown Passage, a time capsule of a pub, within a time capsule of an alleyway.

Shops: The Burlington Arcade, visited in the walk, has many excellent shops, primarily focusing on fashion items and accessories. Geo F. Trumper, a barber visited in the walk, sells wonderful grooming products that make memorable souvenirs or gifts. Floris, on Jermyn Street, another stop, sells Churchill's own preferred, perfume, as well as many other excellent fragrances, some of which boasting impressive histories of their own. Turnbull and Asser sell clothing and accessories, including the Winston Navy and White Spot Silk Bow Tie, inspired by Churchill. James J. Fox, Churchill's preferred cigar merchant, continues to sell cigars on its premises on St James' Street.

Best time of day

You can do this tour all year around.

Precautions

There will be many London roads to cross, and these can sometimes be busy.

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App Store Review

“Great app. walk around at your own pace, stop where you want, move on or speed up when you want. Read the script before you go or during the commentary, speed it up or replay it. Repeat the tour whenever you like.”

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Last Updated

21 Aug 2026

Questions and Reviews

5 / 5

1 Ratings

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Winston Churchill's Life in London: A Self-Guided Tour

About the Tour

Tour Producer

Sam Brearley

Save with London audio tour passes

Preview Location

Location 56

View of Buckingham Palace

How VoiceMap Works

Major Landmarks

The Ritz London

Buckingham Palace

St. James's Palace

Burlington Arcade

Fortnum & Mason

Savile Row

Royal Academy of Arts

The Royal Society

The Athenaeum Club

Admiralty Arch

Getting There

Route Overview

Directions to Starting Point

Tips

Places to stop along the way

Best time of day

Precautions

Get The App

Last Updated

Questions and Reviews