The following seemed too good not to share, so I am:
Forget Jack the Ripper and the London Dungeons, we show you the murky side of the capital's more recent past.
Occupy London Tours is a free tour company, run by (very well informed!) volunteers, who want to throw open the secretive world of finance and politics for all to see.
We run three regular, free, tours:
The Canary Wharf Tour
12th September. 7pm. Approx. 1.5 hours. Meet Canary Wharf tube, main exit (Banker's Plaza').
Most people have never been to this revamped dockland in East London, yet the home of the financial services industry touches our lives everyday. In this tour we narrate the financial crisis of 2007/8 through the banks, ratings agencies and regulators clustered around Canada Square and discuss what - if anything - has changed since. Help us try to set up an offshore bank account Barclays, make your very own ‘credit default swap' and visit the last resting place of the infamous Lehman Bros.
The City of London Tour
21st September. 2pm. Approx. 2 hours. Meet at St Paul's Cathedral steps. Ends opposite Liverpool St Station.
We tell the story of the UK's smallest city (really!), the history of money in the heart of London and the Square mile's role in the financial crisis of 2007/8. Find out just what the Corporation of London actually is, why the Queen has to ask permission to enter the City and why the ‘Black-Scholes equation' matters to you!
The Mayfair Tour:
28th September. 2pm. Approx 2 hours. Meet Green Park tube.
London's third, and covert, financial centre. Home to the ‘hedge fund', commodity traders, private equity firms and the boutiques and private clubs of the super-rich, Mayfair deserves a tour all of its own. We'll peel back the grand veneer of its squares and terraces to reveal and explain some of the most exotic and least understood parts of the financial system. Get your head round ‘short-selling', discover one of the world's most expensive cocktails and pay a visit to the latest owners of British blood...
The tours are designed to be informative, entertaining and - most importantly - accessible. Our aim to is to enable people from London, the UK and all over the world to engage with the financial system and its impact on their lives. We de-mystify this secretive and badly understood world through colourful stories, exciting histories, rock-solid facts and figures, pavement art - and even our very own collateralised-debt-obligation rap (!). The tours offer a critique of the status quo without being politically affiliated.
Attendees often join us in the pub afterwards to carry on the conversation.
Enquiries & to reserve places for tours: occupylondontours@
@occupytours
Press enquiries: 07749552063/07745706480
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Might take my son on one of those tours in the near future. He’s nearly 13 so maybe a bit young (despite having had a few years of hearing me fuming about banksters!). They definitely won’t get taught all that at school -the fraudulent and rapacious world of big finance should be definitely on the curriculum -can’t see Gove fighting for that though!
If I was in town I’d bring mine along too….
Fantastic! I’m tempted too..