Walking with Jonnie Fielding, tour guide
The founder of Bowl of Chalk walking tours on why London is a bottomless pit of intrigue
“I really disliked both London and history, so applying to become a tour guide seemed an obvious next step. The more I learned about London, the more I enjoyed living here.”
Hello walkers and writers 👋
Long time readers might know that I enjoy going on walking tours and have met some incredible guides in London and learned lots of interesting facts along the way.
One of them is Jonnie Fielding who runs Bowl of Chalk – one of the best London Walking Tours according to Time Out London (and me). I first did a tour with Jonnie in 2024 when he ran a weekend of walks to raise money for London’s Air Ambulance Charity. He led our group around St Paul’s, sharing fun facts and introducing me to what is now my favourite tree in London: the Cheapside plane, which casts its branches over a shop on the corner of Wood Street.
I also discovered that Jonnie’s quite the writer, having written for TV, film and theatre, as well as writing articles for the Londonist and London Calling. Another walking writer?That was something I had to investigate. So I joined him for another walk, this time around Spitalfields and Shoreditch, and asked him if he’d do an interview with me for The Writer’s Walk.
We chatted about exploring London to fall in love with it, growing a business purely through word of mouth, why having no shame is the key to discovering new stuff, and the launch of his new book, Why is Downing Street Painted Black? (and 364 other fun London facts) which comes out on 25 September. We hope you enjoy it.
Hey Jonnie, please introduce yourself
My name is Jonnie Fielding, I’m originally from the Midlands but have lived in London for 25 years, currently residing in south east London with my girlfriend, step daughter and two cats.
I started doing walking tours about 16 years ago after I was asked to leave a job due to a ‘lack of interest and enthusiasm’. I really disliked both London and history, so applying to become a tour guide seemed an obvious next step. I had to learn a lot of info myself and absolutely loved exploring and the more I learned about London, the more I enjoyed living here.
If I have to study something or do something in an official capacity, I have little or no interest in it, but if I can do it on my own terms, then brilliant. I would call myself a ‘curistorian’ (which doesn’t exist as a word …yet) rather than a historian. The tour company I worked for folded after a year or so, so I started my own walking tours. My very first walkees (for the want of a better word) had seen a poster I put up in the window of a bike shop in Old Street. For the first 10 years, it was completely word-of-mouth.
The name of your walking tours is interesting. What gave you the idea?
A lot of walking tour companies in London have the words ‘London’ and ‘Walking Tour’ in them, so I wanted to do something a bit different. Although obviously not a Londoner (or Cockney) I turned to Cockney Rhyming Slang. With a lot of rhyming slang words, there are variations. The most widely known or oldest one for ‘walk’ is ‘Ball of Chalk’. There’s also ‘Bowl of Chalk’ and I think ‘Penneforth of Chalk’. I preferred ‘Bowl of Chalk’ so went with that and have had Cockneys writing to me ever since to tell me it should be ‘Ball of Chalk’.
“I would call myself a ‘curistorian’ (which doesn’t exist as a word …yet) rather than a historian.”
You share lots of unexpected and fun facts on your tours. How do you dig up all this good stuff?
The first is to be curious. If you’re curious and ask questions you find stuff out. The second is exploring. If you explore and are also curious then you find even more stuff out. If you are curious, explore, ask questions and have no shame, then you find even more stuff out, so on this basis I’d walk in to buildings, shops, knock on doors and ask people ‘What’s that thing on your wall?’ etc. Quite often people don’t know themselves, so it’s added to the list to find out, or sometimes, you get a great nugget of information.
Clearly, books are a great source of information. I have a huge amount of books. Amazingly, many of my books have come from people (who I didn’t know) who are aware of my interest in London and have known someone who has died, and had a similar interest in London, and also had many books that needed a new home. Therefore, I’ve been bequeathed books.
The internet is clearly a great place to find things out, but there’s also much misinformation. However, I have on occasion used Google street view to find little details on buildings or walls from the comfort of my own home.
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about London from walking it?
Perhaps not surprising, but it’s a multi-layered, bottomless pit of intrigue.
“If you’re curious and ask questions you find stuff out. If you explore and are also curious then you find even more stuff out. If you are curious, explore, ask questions and have no shame, then you find even more stuff out.”
I see loads of walking tours around London and sometimes see people stop to listen in on them. Do you ever end up with more people at the end of a walking tour than you started with? If so, do you have a bit of a story to share here?
Very rarely. It’s happened a couple of times, but I usually tell them it’s not very good and should probably do something else. On weekends I do ‘group’ walks which can sometimes have quite a few people, but during the week I do private tours for families, couples and sometimes individuals so to the untrained eye it doesn’t look like a tour, but just a few people wandering around together, which means you don’t get people trying to join.
You like to go on walking tours when you visit other places. Talk about a busman’s holiday! What’s the best walking tour you’ve ever been on as a tourist?
A number of years ago, me and my dad went to Rome for a few days and I found a wonderful guide called Silvia who runs A Friend in Rome and gave us a brilliant tour. As a ‘one man band’ it’s really nice to meet other guides in other places that I can recommend (and vice versa). Another is Mark who runs That Dam Guide in Amsterdam and next month I’m going to Germany to meet Jonny Whitlam who runs tours in Berlin. We’ve actually collaborated on a video that included both London and Berlin but have never met in real life.
“A lot of walking tour companies in London have the words ‘London’ and ‘Walking Tour’ in them, so I turned to Cockney Rhyming Slang. The most widely known one for ‘walk’ is ‘Ball of Chalk’ so I went with that and have had Cockneys writing to me ever since to tell me it should be ‘Ball of Chalk’.”
Two facts I loved from your tour around St Paul’s relate to plane trees. The first is on Wood Street on the site of a medieval church, St Peter Cheap, which burned down during the Great Fire of London in 1666. Wordsworth wrote about that tree in a poem and I love how it stands out among all the tall buildings. The second is down the road on the site of an even older church, St Mary Staining, which also burned down in the Great Fire of London. It’s been there 100 years, survived WWII and is considered so important that when a new office was being built next to it a condition of the planning permission was that the tree must be given enough room and light to continue growing, so the architects designed a building that curves away from the tree. Anyway, this is a long backstory to give our readers context to my question: If you could protect one natural thing in London to prevent it from being moved, cut back or destroyed, what would it be, and why?
Ooohhhh …good question. I would feel inclined to say The Thames, but as it’s more likely to destroy us, I won’t. In London, we’re incredibly lucky with the amount of green space we have …our parks, gardens, woodlands and of course Hampstead Heath. Compared to other capitals, we’re positively spoiled for green spaces, quite a number of which started out as hunting grounds. One of my own local parks was saved from development by Octavia Hill, who became one of the founders of the National Trust in 1895, and is a wonderful resource for locals …so it’d be those green spaces.
You’ve brought loads of London facts together in your new book Why is Downing Street Painted Black? (and 364 other fun London facts). Please can you give our readers a sneak preview of one of the facts?
Well, if your readers fancy a bit of a walk, then a couple of weeks ago I teamed up with artist Ben Wilson, who features in the book. For over twenty years he’s painted tiny pictures on to bits of chewing gum that people have spat on the floor. That’s the fun fact. Ben has a website and posts pictures of his masticated art on Instagram. One of his favourite spots is the Millennium Bridge and there are so many, my step daughter calls it ’the chewing gum bridge’.
Anyway …Ben and I did a treasure hunt around London, whereby Ben painted on to gum, 5 facts (on 5 bits of gum) that relate to 5 facts from the book. I’m giving away a copy of the book to the first 10 people that can find all five. The clues to find them are on my website.
At the time of writing, 6 people have completed it. Here’s one of them, to give your readers a bit of an idea of what they look like. They’re incredibly detailed and having spent a bit of time with Ben doing this, I think one of my favourite things about it, is the sheer joy it brings to people when they discover what he’s doing. It’s an incredible gift.
“Having spent a bit of time with Ben doing this, I think one of my favourite things about it, is the sheer joy it brings to people when they discover what he’s doing. It’s an incredible gift.”
What’s your walking style?
Happy Hiker
Reluctant Rambler
Sunday Stroller
Wild Weekender
I guess I need two. As a tour guide I’m leading groups, so therefore I’d be more of an Affable Ambler, but if I’m actually on a walk, then maybe Sunday Stroller would do the trick.
Headphones or head in the clouds?
It’d be neither I’m afraid …It’d be more ‘eyes fixed on the pavement’ or ‘looking up at the tops of buildings’. No headphones.
“In London, we’re incredibly lucky with the amount of green space we have …our parks, gardens, woodlands and of course Hampstead Heath.”
What’s the most memorable walk you’ve ever done?
Ten years ago I walked the length of the river Thames from the north sea to its source, which took me about 3 weeks. I did it on my own, and absolutely loved it. The Thames flows through 9 counties and is officially 215 miles long, although, as I picked my way through Essex (not a designated route) at the start it was far, far longer. Anyway …I wrote about that, not that anyone has read it, but not only did I learn a great deal enroute about the places I passed through, but it was great for clearing the head and knowing each day that you’ve got to get up and just walk. I could have happily just carried on.
If you could take a walk with anyone, real or fictional, alive or gone, who would it be? And why?
What a great question. I reckon, Beckie, my childhood dog. That’d be pretty cool.
One word round
One thing you always take with you on a walk?
Phone (unfortunately) so if it’s not a phone, it’d be a chicken breast (wrapped in foil)One word to describe London?
BigOne word to describe how you feel about leading walking tours?
Nervous
Last question: please can you share a London-inspired writing prompt for our readers?
You’re in central London in anytime period, past, present or future. Choose your favourite …could be Roman, Elizabethan, Georgian, 1940s. Step out of the door. What can you smell? What can you hear? What can see?
“I walked the length of the river Thames from the north sea to its source, which took me about 3 weeks. I did it on my own, and absolutely loved it. Not only did I learn a great deal enroute about the places I passed through, but it was great for clearing the head and knowing each day that you’ve got to get up and just walk. I could have happily just carried on.”
Blimey, those are fab answers! Thanks for chatting with me, Jonnie.
If you want to find out more about Jonnie Fielding, you can find his walks on his website, Bowl of Chalk, discover the London facts he shares by following him on Instagram and TikTok or buy his book. And there’s still time to get involved in his treasure hunt for a chance to win a copy of the book by following the clues he and Ben Wilson have popped around London.
Thanks for reading – I’m off now to drop ‘curistorian’ into as many conversations as I can. Happy walking and writing until next time.
Sarah
More from The Writer’s Walk
If you enjoyed this interview, try the edition on Walking with a tour guide.
