Your guide

Rick Jones lives in Catford, South East London, near where he was born. He is a trout who has returned to his spawning ground after years of globe-trotting. He has a degree in Modern Languages and Music from the University of East Anglia. He subsequently trained in voice and lute at the Royal College of Music and sang for many years with the Southwark Cathedral Choir, London's south bank Anglican cathedral which has strong Shakespeare connections.
Rick became a Blue Badge guide in 2018 and has a growing client base for his London walking tours. He devotes some time to performing, listening to and writing about music for the BBC Music Magazine and maintains a position in journalism as Secretary of the Critics’ Circle.
As a Blue Badge Guide, Rick Jones devises themed tours. His speciality is William Shakespeare and during the pandemic, he revisited the annual Shakespeare Birthday Lectures which he gave with comedian Arthur Smith between 2000 and 2019 and delivered them as virtual tours. Each was re-written in blank verse and accompanied by detailed visual images.
In 2016, on the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, Rick danced in Tudor costume 108 miles from London to Norwich as Shakespeare's clown Will Kemp had done in 1600. The route of the dance makes a splendid coach tour which Rick is keen to lead. Rick is a musician and many of his tours contain a musical element. He is a performer on Shakespeare's instrument the lute and Haydn's instrument the piano. His Jack the Ripper Piano Tour, which he has so far not mentioned, finishes at an East London pub where Rick plays the upright in the bar.