The Original Soho Punk Tour
Description
British Punk was born in the Kings Road Chelsea but came of age in the clubs and dives of Soho and the surrounding area. Soho was a very different area in the mid seventies so join me as I bring it to life and introduce you to the groundbreaking punk characters and sites. The Clubs include The Marquee, Vortex, 100 Club, and Notre Dame Hall, a Strip club Pistols gig, Influential record stalls/record labels, The Sex Pistols' local pub, the site of the first Sex Pistols gig, their rehearsal room and The Jam having run ins with the law, this tour has it all!! About your guide Aidan McManus is an award-winning tour guide, historian, broadcaster, and curator of music-related film events. West London-born of Irish heritage, he was a teenage participant in the early punk scene and later its soul, 2-Tone and rave cultures.He is the host of Flipside London Radio, a fortnightly Portobello Radio programme focusing on books, music, history and youth culture.
Tour Options
Itinerary
See legendary sites where punk gestated and grew into the worldwide phenomenon it became
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(359)
Brilliant! We discovered more places to visit as a result of the tour and spent the entire day revisiting these areas. Aiden lived the punk life at the time it was all happening so you get a first hand account of the culture. He was also friendly, funny and very welcoming. Would highly recommend for anyone interested in rock music because even though it's specifically punk, it also touched on other bands of other genres who were big at the time. Very interesting. We'll be booking this again if we ever revisit London. Thank you for a great day!
Awesome tour! Definitely worth checking out.
We really enjoyed this walking tour with its emphasis on punk rock and especially the Sex Pistols. We'd already taken a rock-and-roll tour in the same neighborhood, but our guide had different punk-focused info, enhanced by photos shown on his Ipad. Aidan had been part of the punk scene and it was fun to hear from a local. He even offered us links to many resources. I gave the meet-up spot fewer stars because there are multiple entries to the tube station where we met and there was some confusion. We followed the punk vibes and it turned out ok.
Was an incredible tour. Aidan was a wonderful guide and was extremely knowledgeable about every inch of punk history across soho. If you have a free 2-2.5 hours in London I couldn’t recommend this tour more!
My daughter and I were looking forward to the tour but we didn't make it. The location on the "meeting spot" tab did not give a specific location nor was there a specific address listed on the ticket. We emailed the tour guide twice and called customer service serval times after we arrived but never reached anyone or a response from the tour guide - we hoped to get a response from the guide so we could catch up. We understand that the address is listed on the 'before you go" section (we saw that after the fact), so we will own that. But the lack of a response and lack of consistency on the instructions was rather poor.
The specific location was sent to you by viator, everybody else on the tour found me and we didn’t leave the meeting point until 11.45. You didn’t read the address of the meeting point and turned up late and you give me a bad review? Once a tour starts I switch off my phone and that’s why you couldn’t contact me. Your part of the deal is to turn up on time at the right place, this is beyond my control.
Absolutely brilliant experience. I went with my seventeen-year-old son who's getting into punk music, and we loved it. Aiden is a brilliant guide, as he's lived the London punk experience in real life and has some amazing stories to tell!
It is a lot of walking, but absolutely worth it! Tour guide is amazing a true punk. Learned so much about the history and my 16yr old nephew loved it as he is beginning his journey into punk!
I thought myself quite knowledgeable on the subject, so had been debating if I should bother. Today’s the day after; I’m still buzzing from the tour! Reliving the sights, the sites visited, the extremely informative, engaging and entertaining guide, Aidan. Yes, I am most definitely very pleased that I made the effort! Such that, the next time I’m due a trip to London, I may well see if I can coincide with a repeat of it!
A really great, interesting, and entertaining tour. Aidan was a fun guide who brought the early London punk scene to life through his own experiences, stories, and photos. Highly recommend it!
It was great to hear the stories about Aidan’s experiences growing up with the London punk scene. Aidan mentioned he does other music tours as well and we will look into that for next time.
