Tourist Guiding
Tourist guiding in London
Whilst living in London for over a decade, Sally qualified as one of the British capital’s prestigious ‘Blue Badge’ tourist guides. Incorporating the most current academic research into presentations on the history, life, culture and heritage of this teeming world capital, the ‘Blue Badge’ methodology provides its graduates with the very best in historical storytelling and tour presentation skills. Aside from working as a general London guide, Sally also developed and operated themed literary walking tours such as Shakespeare’s and Dickens’ London.As a London guide, Sally was trained to present all the major historical sites, galleries and museums of the capital, and she developed a special interest and expertise in the British Museum. She was a founding member of the British Museum’s innovative in-house commercial tour programme. Developed jointly by a working group of ‘Blue Badge’ colleagues and in close association with the museum’s academic and curatorial staff, this programme initiated an innovative, in-depth multi-faceted and open approach to presenting the museum’s collections in new and vibrant ways.
A key component of this approach was to treat the tour presentation like a debate, thereby encouraging open discussion by members of the public participating in tours that related not only to the relevance and interpretation of the museum’s displays and collections, but also to important rising debates and controversies. These themes included discussions relating to the role of museums in the 21st century, but also to discuss key trending topics across the European cultural landscape in relation to the provenance, presentation and usage of collections in the new millennium.
More about the ‘Blue Badge’ qualification
Originating out of a collaboration between the key London tourist sites, such as Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral, and the London Tourist Board, which was responsible for the training of tourist guides, by the late 1980s, the ‘Blue Badge’ course had expanded into a very demanding, massively diverse and highly respected full time year-long cultural immersion course, with a rigorous selection process. Most importantly, the ‘Blue Badge’ approach deliberately sought to draw together cutting edge academic research on a very wide variety of topics, including a special focus on equipping guides to understand London’s great diversity of communities, religions, geographic origins of its inhabitants, and its complex identity. This approach ensured that the ‘Blue Badge’ corps of tourist guides was able to adopt an in-depth journalistic-type approach to discussing fascinating aspects of history, commerce, and society – whilst also ensuring that visitors had the best possible experience during their stay. This is the approach Sally applies to all tours that she conducts, wherever the locale.
Guiding in Johannesburg
In South Africa, Sally undertakes contract work advising on heritage development programmes, incorporating the ‘Blue Badge’ methodology. She also conducts tours for commercial clients on the social, political and cultural history of Johannesburg. In addition to the London ‘Blue Badge’ Sally holds formal South African tourist guiding qualifications for Gauteng and the Northern Cape provinces.Sample tour programme
- Tours looking at the tumultuous history of Gauteng, from the origins of Pretoria and the Transvaal Republic in the mid-19th century and the roots of apartheid, to Johannesburg’s rough beginnings as a wild gold-rush town to the role of Soweto as the late 20th century crucible of the anti-apartheid struggle
- Understanding apartheid in depth through a visit to Johannesburg’s Apartheid Museum, the only such institution devoted solely to presenting apartheid, through its various phases. Displays go deep into the origins and consequences of the system, covering the complicated and often overlooked transitional phase (some 4 years) that filled the years after Mandela’s release in 1990 to the installing of democracy signaled by the landmark 1994 election, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which formed a blueprint for other such processes in conflict zones elsewhere
- ‘A view of the city’ – a tour which looks at a variety of Johannesburg’s fascinating historic neighbourhoods through architecture and the city’s evolving identity and society and how people from all over Africa are making this city their home
- ‘Jewish Johannesburg’ – an examination of the massive and broad-based contribution made to the genesis and evolution of Johannesburg, with a focus on the major contribution made by the Jewish community to key aspects of the anti-apartheid struggle
- Exploring Pretoria’s many fascinating social, military and political history museums
Please use our contact form to contact Sally directly with enquiries, or email her on sallyr@global.co.za.
