About Jack

I grew up in a terraced house on Calabria Road, Islington. My grandfather worked the docks at Wapping before they closed. My grandmother sold flowers at Columbia Road until her knees gave out. London isn't somewhere I moved to pursue a career in tourism. It's the only place I've ever called home.

I started giving tours almost by accident. A friend visiting from Canada asked me to show her around, and after three days she said I should charge for this. I laughed it off. Then another friend said the same thing. Then a colleague. Eventually I listened.

The truth is, I'd been giving unofficial tours my whole life. Showing mates' girlfriends the best Sunday roast spots. Taking visiting relatives to the pub where Orwell used to drink. Explaining to confused tourists why there are two cathedrals and which one is worth the entry fee. I just never thought of it as a skill.

I don't have a degree in history or art. What I have is forty-odd years of living here, a library card, and an embarrassing habit of reading every blue plaque I pass. I know which cafes have been open since the seventies and which ones opened last month pretending they've been here since the seventies. I know the cut-throughs that save twenty minutes and the viewpoints that nobody photographs.

Most tour guides are actors or students picking up extra work. They're perfectly nice people reading from scripts someone else wrote. I'm not an actor. I'm just a bloke who happens to know a lot about one particular city and genuinely enjoys sharing it.