Alternative London Tour

«If You Like The Tour, Your Guide’s Name is Doug. If You Don’t, It’s Ben. :)»
(The title of this review was the joke that our guide made at the end of the tour.) This was a great tour with a great guide. Doug had a wry sense of humor and was very knowledgeable. He led us around showing a great variety of different kinds of art on walls, on street posts, on fire hydrants, on street signs, even hanging under bridges. He explained the intimate history of the area, which we never would have known trying to figure this stuff out by ourselves. We got home and looked up some of the artists that he mentioned because we liked what we saw so much. He inspired us to try to make our own art in our own city. Definitely take this tour, even if it’s a little drizzly outside. Doug, I hope you made enough to pay your rent! If you ever come to America and go to Burning Man, please stay with us in Clevian Circularity Camp, Snowflake Village. We can tell you’re a Burner at heart. :)

The best!!! and only artist run tour in Shoreditch… All the other tours in the area are companies or followers just looking to capitalize on the art.
I have done tours with alternative for 3 years and always appreciate a unique tour, background stories and knowledge they have on the area, artists and culture.
Go nowhere else for tours!

¹⁰⁄₁₀ would recommend. This was a highlight of our recent trip to London. Tour guides were incredibly knowledgable and friendly. Got lots of terrific photos of street art and learned about the history of the area and the artists.

A brilliant way to spend a couple of hours in London wether your a tourist or not we had a very informative guide who is an artist himself and he had an answer for all questions. we payed at the end of the tour with a price that You believe is fair. Really enjoyed it.

Best walking tour ever! Our guide was lovely and fun and had so many interesting things to say about East London’s street art scene. You could tell he really had a passion for it and it made his stories all the more fun. This is an easy walk, although he did recommend people wear comfortable shoes.
East London is a really fun area to see and the street art keeps changing, so probably no tour is the same. You may have heard about some of the more famous artists like Stik or Invader (although he did tell us new things about them I didn’t know), but I feel lucky to also know about the artists he showed us, from ROA’s massive urban animals, to the one who works with explosives, to another who uses cold cans of spray paint for the gradient effect. There was even an artist who uses the medium of tiny bronze sculptures, which are beautiful. I really enjoyed learning about the history of the area as well, you really see East London differently after that and it makes it a richer experience every time you walk by. I particularly liked how one plate of worship had over time been in so many different religious hands; it said a lot about tolerance and different people getting along.
This was a pay what you like tour and afterwards I was so satisfied that I was happy to give. I highly recommend this tour!

The Alternative London street art tour in the East end was FANTASTIC! We very much enjoyed our tour with Doug. He was informative, passionate about his subject and thoroughly entertaining! I wont post pics as I don’t want to ruin the delightful surprises you will see virtually (possibly, literally) around every corner. Thanks for a wonderful afternoon…

This was great! My tour guide Josh Jeavons was extremely knowledgeable and clearly a fellow art enthusiast.
We got to see the latest creation by Ben Eines along with other fantastic places legendary in the street art scene.

My buddy, Deborah, & I took the tour in complete ignorance of the street art scene. Ben was a terrific educator — enthusiastic, incredibly knowledgeable and very tolerant of our ignorance. We saw some amazing pieces and I particularly remember the crowd in the shop window by Borondo, the man in the stetson by Mac and Ben’s own picture of Charlie Burns. We saw a part of London we’d never been and it was the best 2 hours I’ve ever spent in the city. In my all-​time top 3 things to in London. Don’t miss it!

Vraiment super!
Lily nous offre une ballade en français au coeur de l’East End à la découverte de spots de street art.
Je recommande vraiment de faire cette visite lors d’un passage à Londres.
Penser à réserver sur leur site et après c’est parti.
Je me suis régalée (et il faisait beau youhou).

I’ve done this tour twice and this is always amazing ! So many things to watch, so many hidden treasures, …
What is really cool is that the guides always talk about the historical background of the area and east london has a really rich history !
Do you want to know why Topshop has chosen this name of brand? Why bollards are all around London Pavement? Why a big Ibis has been painted on a huge wall? And what is the name of the guy who painted it ?
Follow the tour and you’ll have all the answer to those questions !
You also pay the guide what you want but I guarantee you that when you’ll do this tour, you won’t be tight of money with your guide as he opened your eyes to a wide new world !

POUR LES FRANÇAIS !
J’ai fais ce tour avec ma soeur (Chloé.D) habitant à Londres ! Super convivial, il existe deux possibilités, soit le tour en Français, ou le tour en Anglais.
On se donne rdv en plein coeur de la city, et Let’s go pour un super alternative tour avec une guide qui connait le street art, Londres et tout l’historique de Londres par rapport à l’art et l’histoire !
Enfin, vraiment super interessant, et nous étions déjà fan de street art mais d’avoir en face de nous quelqu’un de passionné et d’encré dans le milieu alternatif suicite un réel intéret !
Bön moyen de chiller, de passer du bon temps, de découvrir/​re-​découvrir la ville !
Pour moi c’était ma «première fois» à Londres, j’ai commencé en beauté !
La visite est basée sur le système du «don», on donne ce que l’on veut !
Super super cool à conseiller 10 000 000 fois !
ATTENTION: RÉSERVEZ BIEN VOS PLACES ET ARRIVEZ À L’HEURE !

Hands down the best money I spent in London! We went on the Pub Tour with Gary (I think? I’m so horrible with names) on Friday 18 Oct, and had a great time… learned SO MUCH about the east end! I booked online before my trip from LA. We met Gary outside a pub, and he picked us out of the crowd right away (not sure if that was a good thing or not!) We were scheduled with about 8 – 10 other people, and we merrily made our way around to 4 of Gary’s favorite watering holes for half’a’pint at each (Gary’s pick of beer too, and we were happy with them!). Since I had missed his street art walk earlier in the day, he was ever so kind to include some street art stops along the way to the pubs as well! It was FANTASTIC! Such a great evening!
If you’re planning a trip to London and want to check out something off the beaten path, I HIGHLY recommend the pub tour, or the walking tour (for earlier in the day). I will be back, and I will be taking one of his tours again! Thanks so much!!!

****BEST FREE THING IN LONDON***
Gary our tour guide gave us an amazing tour of east london’s street art.
You book by emailing him, meet round the corner from Liverpool Street and he takes you on a 2 hour tour around london’s east end for free (though, the tour is that good you will want to give him a heavy tip at the end)
Ive been round this area on many occasions but thing were pointed out and explained and without being too dramatic, completely changed how i look at the area.
We saw works by Banksy, Stiks, and T. wat and given a real sense of what the work meant. and what it was doing for society — Stiks has used street art to transform his life old life as someone who was homeless to someone who now holds exhibitions around the world. and others who have since set up charities. very compelling stuff.
Learning about the history area of Jewish /​bangladesh settlement, and the more current artist versus bankers territorial struggle was fantastic too.
SOOOOOO cant recommend this enough. made me proud to live in london.