It isn’t every evening I head out on the Tube to meet Gordon Ramsay and King Charles but that’s exactly what I did the other night. Phones, cameras, a swarm of onlookers and no shortage of double takes met my arrival in Coventry Street. Not for me I should add, but for the ‘celebs’ who were already milling around soaking up the adulation.
Ed Sheeran was there, playing his guitar and singing ‘Shape of You’, Joanna Lumley was signing autographs, fans of Mr Bean were taking selfies with him, while David Beckham, dressed in his football kit and carrying a football, looked as if he should be somewhere else instead of standing in front of a red, white and blue open top double-decker bus. I suppose I should say that they were lookalikes, not the real deal. They did look very convincing though.
So, what was the occasion? It was the relaunch of The Original Tour. Formerly operating as Tootbus, the company behind the world’s first hop-on hop-off sightseeing tour has returned to London under its original name, celebrating 75 years of helping visitors discover the capital’s famous landmarks.
Originally launched by London Transport as part of the 1951 Festival of Britain celebrations, back then the sightseeing service invited passengers to spend two hours travelling ‘around the town for half a crown’. No one could have imagined that what started as a run-of-the-mill sightseeing tour would go on to create a tourism format used nowadays in cities worldwide.
Of course, in 1951 visitors would have seen a very different London to the one we know today. Still recovering from the devastation of the Second World War, bomb sites were scattered across the capital and many well-known landmarks familiar to us including Canary Wharf and The Shard hadn’t yet been built.
Fast forward to the present and after our bus set off with the lookalikes on board, the relaunch tour took us past Trafalgar Square, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, the London Eye and countless other iconic landmarks.
Terry Gabriel, The Original Tour General Manager commented later:
“As we celebrate 75 years since our first tour, this event brought together many of the things visitors love most about this country, from its famous faces to the unforgettable sights that make a trip to London so special. We’re incredibly proud to be writing the next chapter in The Original Tour’s story while continuing to welcome visitors from around the world.”
The Original Tour was the first in London to introduce open-top sightseeing buses, hop-on hop-off tours, multilingual audio commentary, 24-hour tickets which include a Thames River Cruise and multiple sightseeing routes. They have also introduced a fully electric open-top sightseeing bus. As The Original Tour enters its next chapter, the message continues to be that discovering London is about far more than simply seeing the sights. It is about experiencing the people, places and stories that reflect the spirit of one of the world’s most iconic cities.
Jez York, a long-serving driver with the company, reflected on how no two tours are the same, saying:
“I’ve been sharing London’s stories with visitors for more than 15 years. Seeing guests laughing, taking photos with the lookalikes today and discovering the stories behind London’s landmarks is a wonderful reminder that sightseeing is about creating memories that people take home with them.”
Do you know, I couldn’t put it better myself.
For more information on The Original Tour, please visit: www.theoriginaltour.com.
Author Bio:
Gilly Pickup is an award winning journalist and author of 13 traditionally published books.
Photographs courtesy of The Original Tour and by Mike Pickup
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