Walking Tour - The Rich and Poor of Marylebone

Marylebone is one of London's most fascinating areas. It's slick, confident and well-healed. It's home to some of London's best shops and restaurants as well as the finest boutique hotels and luxury apartments.

But like many parts of contemporary London in the past it was much more colourful.

Join me to take a trip back to its early years and look at how it developed to become home to those who had so much as well as those who had so little.

There will be the great homes of the aristocracy but also tales of the desperately poor. We'll meet real people who were stranger than fiction. There will be tales of debauchery and excess but also stories of great people trying to change things for the better.

Join me on my new walk exploring one of the best areas of town.

Reviews of some of Michael's walks:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g186338-d3742632-Reviews-Footprints_of_London-London_England.html

I will take more walking tours with Footprints of London

Mar 2026 • Solo

I took the Marylebone walking tour with Michael Duncan and throughly enjoyed it. Well informed, discovered many things about the history of the neighbourhood

Stories of nasty toffs in early Marylebone

Oct 2025 • Solo

I enjoyed Michael Duncan's tour "The Rich and Poor of Marylebone" especially when he shared stories illustrating how very nasty some of those rich toffs were!

These provided interesting context for my own family history research so far, and confirmed that old song lyric "it's the rich what gets the pleasure, it's the poor what gets the blame".

The tour lasted 1.5 hours on a Saturday morning which was perfect timing.

Enjoyable and knowledgeable

Michael was really excellent…knew lots of additional facts and information that really bright the tour to life! A really enjoyable way to learn more about London.

Written 2 September 2024

Saville Row walking tour

May 2024 • FamilyWe had a personalised tour with Michael Duncan around Saville row, it was amazing, reasonably priced and very enjoyable. Not many people do walking tours of this area but we were able to go into the shops and see so many interesting things, well worth it!

Great walk around Marylebone

Apr 2024 • Friends We had a great walk with Michael around Marylebone. He was instructive and interesting and we leanred about the area as well as giving us stories about some individual houses

.Architecture and stories of unusual characters

Apr 2024 • Friends Excellent talk from Michael learning about the 'haves and have-nots of Marylebone' which including some interesting characters I've never heard of before and lots of unusual stories. The architectural details were really good.

Had a great time on the James Bond and the Spies of Mayfair with Michael as our guide. The weather wasn't great (classic london rain) but Michael did a great job keeping us engaged despite the weather. I've lived in london for 4 years and I learned a lot of things I didn't know on this tour! Highly recommend this tour if you're interested in learning some unique history!

Written 22 July 2023

I recently had the opportunity to take a walking tour of London with Michael, a friendly and knowledgeable guide who led us through the city's most interesting sites related to Ian Fleming, James Bond, and real-life spies.

Michael was welcoming and engaging, and his passion for the subject matter was evident throughout the tour. The tour covered a variety of locations related to the history and culture of espionage in London, and Michael's expertise on the topic was impressive. He was able to bring the stories to life in a way that made the experience both informative and entertaining.

Date of experience: March 2023

"A fascinating walk , led by a very well-informed and most engaging guide, Michael Duncan. If you love learning about scandals, sexual and financial, and see where they happened, this is absolutely the walk for you! Brilliant, shocking and entertaining stuff!"

"Michael Duncan’s knowledge and expertise made for a very enjoyable 90 minute walk. It was engaging and entertaining. Michael introduced us to the area’s hidden gems and whetted our appetite for finding out more."

Date of experience June 2022

Michael is really charming and his tours are super interesting. Highly recommend his tours in Soho and St James's

Date of experience: March 2022

"Michael Duncan's Spies of Mayfair walk on Saturday was superb: intelligently conceived, well researched and genuinely fascinating. It's a must for all Cold War fiends Footprints of London are such a great organisation, offering something different at an excellent price. We've done two of their walks now and are looking forward to trying more."

"I loved this walk and the information provided. I have lived and worked in London all of my working life and had no idea I had walked in the footprints of some of England's most notorious spies. Highly recommended in this mixture of very busy and very quiet streets."

PRE-BOOKINGS ONLY.

The walk starts at Pret a Manger, CAVENDISH SQUARE (the one behind John Lewis on Oxford Street, nearest tube Oxford Circus). It finishes in Portman Square. Please check travel arrangements on the day at Transport for London's Journey Planner site.

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Host or Publisher Michael Duncan, Footprints of London