InPaddington - Aboout the walk guides

About The Paddington Walks Guides

Andrew Ashmore
After graduating in Law from Balliol College, Oxford and adding an M.Phil in Criminology from Cambridge, Andrew changed direction and became first an actor and then a live interpreter - supplying historical characters to museums, galleries and historic sites to enliven and interpret their collections. Andrew has been commissioned to devise and write pieces on a very wide range of subjects. He has performed in museums all over the UK and as far afield as Japan and has trained companies in the UK and USA. He was a founding Director of the International Museum Theatre Alliance - Europe - a body which seeks to establish best practice in live interpretation. He has worked for the British Museum, British Library, National Archives, National Maritime Museum, National Football Museum, Imperial War Museum and British Waterways, among others.

Elaine Beckett

Elaine is an honours graduate with a degree in history and work as a home tutor in addition to being a freelance tourist guide since 2001. She is a qualified City of London guide and one of her special interests is 'Shopping Through the Centuries', an important part of London's social history. Elaine now lives in Chelmsford but was born in Westminster and has very clear memories of shopping in Whiteley's when it was still a functioning department store. Since becoming a City of Westminster Guide, Elaine has mostly led walks around Little Venice, and developed a Literary Marylebone walk.

Moira Dearnley

Moira was born in London where she has lived all her life. She is a Speech and Language Therapist and a teacher of speech and drama, putting people and communication are at the heart of her work. Since 2000, she has developed her guiding experience by becoming a City of London, Clerkenwell and Islington, Westminster and more recently a Blue Badge tourist guide for London.

Caroline Dunmore

Dr. Caroline Dunmore is a born-and-bred north Londoner and lives in Islington. She has an MA in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art and a PhD in History of Mathematics from King's College London. She is a qualified Westminster Guide and is on course to qualify as a City Guide in June 2009. Caroline cares passionately about London's heritage and interpreting it in an engaging way, and her areas of special interest are the capital's architecture and public art and its museums, galleries and historic houses.

David Evans

David is a registered City of Westminster, City of London and Clerkenwell & Islington Guide as well as being a member of the City of Westminster and the City of London Guide Lecturers' Associations. In 2005, he was awarded a University of London Diploma in the History of London and is also a registered French-speaking guide. Since 2004, David has been a City University guest lecturer on its Certificate in City of London Guiding course and since 2007, a visiting lecturer on its Certificate in Clerkenwell & Islington Guiding course. Over the past few years, his Second World War-themed walks in the City of London, Westminster and Mayfair have proved very popular and in November 2008, David undertook the first of the "Westminster at War" walks in conjunction with the City of Westminster and the City of Westminster Archives Centre. David also specialises in talks about the period as well as London in the First World War.

John Finn

John was born and raised in London, having lived and worked in the city all of his life. Therefore, he is very knowledgeable about the area and has great pleasure in imparting this knowledge to visitors and other Londoners alike. He is especially interested in presenting the fast disappearing social history of the capital, life as it was lived by ordinary citizens as well as by the rich and famous. John trained as a City of London, City of Westminster and a Clerkenwell and Islington Guide, and was awarded Birkbeck College's Diploma in London History Studies with a distinction. He presents history-based walking tours for the Museum of London, and the London Metropolitan Archive, as well as tours of St. Pancras station for Network Rail, as well as having designed walking tours for Groundwork, London Borough of Camden and the University of London.

John is a member of the City Highlights guiding team and an Associate member of the Institute of Tourist Guiding.

Imelda Finnerty

Imelda was the first guide to do walks in Paddington Waterside back in 2004 and has been a firm favourite of participants ever since. She has lived in the Paddington area for over 30 years, having fallen in love with the area as soon as she walked out of Warwick Avenue tube station - she hasn't moved since! Being both a local resident and someone who is passionate about Paddington, Imelda has much knowledge of the area, both the old and new parts alike. In particular, she loves the canal and the station and is fascinated by the beautiful stucco terraces flanking the canal. She is delighted at how the new developments have injected new life in Paddington and made it more so, a wonderfully vibrant part of London.

Bryan Gorin

Bryan is a born and bred Londoner, proud to call London his home town. He has an intimate knowledge of England's Historic capital, her highways, byways and her moods. He is a qualified Blue Badge Guide, Driver Guide, City of London Guide, Freeman of the City and a licensed London Taxi Driver with almost twenty years experience.

Barbara Hargreaves

Barbara has worked in the NHS for over 30 years, with a professional background as a registered nurse and midwife. Latterly she has moved in to a non-clinical role, working as Head of Learning and Development at Barts and The London NHS Trust. With an academic interest in history, Barbara has a Masters degree in medieval history, specialising in the topic of health and hospitals in the middle ages. She has a passion for the history of medicine, deeming it to be a wonderful and fascinating area in which to guide as it is a subject which touches on so many others - science, society, religion - and to which we can all relate.

Lucy McMurdo
Lucy McMurdo is a native Londoner and historian. As a qualified London Blue Badge & City of Westminster guide, she spends much of her time leading walks in London's many different and diverse areas.

Apart from her work as a tour guide she also lectures at City University training students to become tour guides for the City of Westminster, and leads a series of themed walks in London for the Bishopsgate Institute.

Myra Morgan

Myra is a self-employed Education Consultant and Tourist Guide leading regular guided walks in the City of Westminster and historic Clerkenwell. She is also a Member of City of Westminster Guide Lecturers Association, an ITG Green Badge guide, member of Clerkenwell and Islington Guides Association and is soon to qualify as a City of London Guide. Myra speaks French and a little Spanish.

John Taplin

A local writer and journalist, John has lived less than a mile from Paddington Station for the past 27 years. He writes a monthly column for the The Hill magazine which covers the area around the adjacent Notting Hill. His columns are a mix of history and current affairs. He has worked on a former Paddington website, Newspad, and has long had a strong interest in the Paddington area. This will be his third year as a walks guide. His subjects includes the extraordinary literary history of the Paddington area whose station and strangeness has been an inspiration to writers, such as Thomas Hardy and Graham Greene. Also its relation to surrounding landmarks like Hyde Park and Tyburn in the old parish of Paddington. He worked for over twenty years as a producer and reporter on ITV's Channel Four News and hopes to bring his research, presentational skills and eye for a good story to the Paddington Walks programme. John looks forward to walking with you.