Welcome to London !

I’m a Londoner and a native speaker of English. Having raised my family in Flanders, I also speak Dutch fluently. I taught English at the Centre for Living Languages, University of Leuven and practised as a solicitor in London. Some of my favourite tours include the Fleet Street area where we visit Dr Johnson’s House to see where he laboured on his ‘Dictionary of the English Language’ or walks through Westminster to see some of London’s landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament. Other favourites ? Well that’s walking along the banks of the Thames to relive the start of the Mayflower's voyage to the New World and to see Brunel's famous tunnel. Then there's London's Street Art and exploring where Banksy and other street artists have kept us so thoughtfully amused.

I feel so lucky to be doing a job I love. Every group, every individual, every day is different. Here are some walks and sites I guide:-

London in Quotations - Westminster Walk; Street Art of the East End; In the footsteps of Dr Samuel Johnson; Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs; Royal Greenwich; City of London - Roman frontier post to 21st century financial centre; Legal London; Marylebone Village; ‘Albertopolis’ - South Kensington Walk; St Paul’s Cathedral (with special focus on the life of Sir Christopher Wren); British Museum; National Gallery; Victoria and Albert Museum; Tower of London; Westminster Abbey (‘Four Great Projects’); Banqueting House (focus on Peter Paul Rubens); Greenwich Maritime Museum; Museum of London Docklands; Rotherhithe's secret tunnel and famous sea captains.

Out of London, I guide in the cobbled streets of Canterbury, with its world-famous Cathedral and excellent farmers’ market and in Windsor, my childhood home, with its fabulous castle and majestic Long Walk.

Enough about me, where do your interests lie ? A firm believer in selected and focussed tours rather than overviews, I specialise in bespoke walks and bespoke site visits. So let me create a tour wherever you choose and just for you !

Recent reactions:

On behalf of our family I want to sincerely thank you for making our recent trip to London such a special time. You were the perfect tour guide. We all loved seeing London and the special care you took with us was greatly appreciated.. We were fortunate to have two other exceptional tour guides when we got to Paris but our family voted you our trip's BEST tour guide. Thank you for making our trip an unforgettable experience.

.. this walk was over-the-top wonderful.  Our guide, Jackie, was exceptional.  She is incredibly knowledgeable about street art, filling us in with information about the artists and their various styles and techniques, and her enthusiasm for her subject is delightful.  Subsequent to the walk, I did some research to learn a little more about some of the work, and I came away feeling that we had gotten an extremely thorough tour of the street art scene in the East End plus tips on other places to look for interesting work. ... We would definitely do it again next year.

The tourists wrote us that they LOVED the London tours (thank you so much :)

I am writing to thank Jackie for her fascinating tour last Friday of Canada Water/ Rotherhithe. She was warm and welcoming and her knowledge of this wonderful area of London was prodigious. I look forward to booking future tours !

We would like to thank you for the very interesting guided walk through the unknown part of London last week.

We have such good memories of your guiding tour in London!

The best London walk I've been on in ages !

Your extra information and ideas like Wallace Collection, Westminster Abbey – Evensong… were perfect. Your tour ‘London in Quotations’ including Banqueting House was top and the way you guided us was really impressive!

In summary, the whole group gives you the greatest distinction!

They loved it. Thank you.