APTG’S FIRST VIRTUAL MOM For the first time ever APTG held a Members Open Meeting over the internet APTG Chair Danny Parlour Secretary Alex Hetherington Pepe Martinez described progress led the meeting from home took minutes of the meeting on the marketing of virtual tours On Tuesday 19 May APTG held its first All guides had the opportunity to speak and Members’ Open Meeting via the medium of express their views. Pepe Martinez informed Zoom. Over seventy guides logged in to share those present of progress on virtual tours: there their views on whether or not to freeze fees for are promising signs that blue badge tourist the first time. The membership have the guides will be able to market their skills on the chance to vote on this matter and the result will internet while obliged to work from home. be announced in the next issue of Guidelines. APTG has now entered the digital age. BANKSY’S NEW PAINTING The paintings of the Bristol-based graffiti Called Game Changer, it shows a boy artist Banksy usually appear unannounced holding the figure of a flying nurse while on the streets and some can be seen in famous superheroes such as Batman and London’s East End. His latest artwork, Spiderman lie in a waste basket nearby. It is however, was donated to Southampton in black and white, the only colour being a General Hospital and has been put on red cross on the nurse’s uniform. The display in a corridor there with the full co- painting will be auctioned in the autumn to operation of the hosptial authorities. raise funds for the NHS. Thanks to Southampton General Hospital for permission to reproduce the painting BRANCH COUNCIL Also in this issue: Chair - Danny Parlour Aaron Hunter - CPD CHAIR’S LETTER - PAGE 2 Secretary - Alex Hetherington Craig Kao - Technology LOCKDOWN LEARNING - PAGE 3 Alfie Talman - Treasurer Edwin Lerner - Guidelines HISTORY OF GUIDING - PAGES 4 & 5 Tricia Ellis - Site Liaison Nan Mousley - Membership DARK CHELSEA - PAGE 6 Maria Gartner - CPD Nick Salmond - Facebook SURPRISING SUBURBIA - PAGE 8 Victoria Herriott - PR Amy Wang - Mandarin issues ASSOCIATION OFASSOCIATION PROFESSIONAL OF PROFESSIONALTOURIST GUIDES TOURIST GUIDES www.guidelondon.org.ukwww.guidelondon.org.uk September 2019 June 2020 Union news LETTER FROM THE CHAIR I hope you are all keeping well in these difficult times for our profession. Nick Salmond, Pepe Martinez and our Secretary Alex Hetherington have all done a great job in presenting the skills and knowledge of London Blue Badge Tourist Guides via the GuideLondon live broadcasts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I have thoroughly enjoyed these talks and urge you to check them out if you have not done so already. They are live at 4pm each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thank you to all those who have got involved with them too. Your efforts are very much appreciated. Everyone has done a fantastic job: all very professional, imparting fascinating stories and at the same time in a fun and exciting way! Please continue to share any blog posts or actual videos regarding the GuideLondon Live broadcasts, especially if you have featured in them. It is a great way for us to engage clients, sites that we work with and partnership organisations such as London & Partners (who love to share new and high quality content such as this). LinkedIn is a particularly good platform to share this type of content on too. Kindly give GuideLondon a follow on LinkedIn (and myself - hehe!). Another great success is the Joint Lockdown Learning CPD Programme run by Aaron Hunter and Sue Hyde. For those who wish to add to their knowledge while waiting to get back to work, these lectures on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10am and 2pm are a great resource. There is still time to purchase a subscription (from £30) and binge watch all previous lectures and join in with live ones until the end of June 2020. This is when the project finishes and the content will be removed, although the Joint CPD programme may be extended, so watch this space. A massive thank you also to Nick Salmond for joining APTG Branch Council and taking over Marketing from Alex Hetherington. We are very pleased to have you on the team and look forward to working with you. That’s all from me. I wish you all good health, stay safe. Kind regards, Danny Parlour. WEBSITE TRAFFIC SOCIAL MEDIA BROADCASTS The website traffic for April is down due to The social media broadcasts are really COVID-19 but we had 20,8835 unique helping to keep the brand alive! As of early visitors, a nineteenth consecutive month May, along with the introduction video, there with over 20,000 - not bad, as most travel have been fourteen broadcasts which websites are experiencing a 25% to 90%+ reached 126,674 people and resulted in drop in traffic. Year to date, our traffic is down 62,295 views. They have received 1,717 10%, the drop-off starting in March from key sections of the likes/reactions, 984 comments and 394 shares. It is website including Find A Guide, GuideMatch, Guides important to know that we have had involvement from thirty (individual profiles) and Tours. five different blue badge tourist guides in this project. Thanks to all of those who have helped with it, especially: WEBSITE BLOG POSTS: Nick Salmond, Alex Hetherington, Fiona Lukas. Five new blog posts were added to the website: Afternoon Tea in London by Emily Baker MULTI-LANGUAGE PROJECT The View from my Window: A Third Eye Opens After review of the changes made by our development The View from my Window: Source of Memories & Dreams agency Pedalo, I have requested clarification and a few The View from my Window: Good News from Victoria Park tweaks before we migrate to the live website, hopefully The View from my Window: Our Three Local Heroes sometime in May, by the time you read this. The View from my Window posts are by Steve Fallon. Ursula Petula Barzey 2 Union news Guides showcase their skills and knowledge virtually via: LETTER - HISTORY OF GUIDING Wow! A real blast from the past with very LOCKDOWN LEARNING familiar names such as Majorie Crapnell, Elsa Behrens, Major Battcock, Rod Lovell- It all began when Heart of England guide Sam Loveday took us to the Pank and meetings at Caxton Hall when I plague village of Eyam, after which Pepe Martinez led us around the was on the Guild EC. East End. Since then we have found out about the lives of Mary Anning, Agatha Christie and Nancy Astor, heard tips on how to One of twenty eight Festival of Britain manage money and deal with teenagers, been introduced to the qualified guides of 1951, Jane Paterson wonders of medieval stained glass and walked over London Bridge (wife of commander Patterson) introduced me to guiding as I was a dancer with her withPhoto Richard Paul IngMetcalfe and down Fleet Street with Sophie Campbell. daughter Jennifer, who had also qualified These are just a sample of the CPDs offered by the joint APTG/Guild for her Blue Badge. Lockdown Learning programme. Four times a week talks are streamed to guides who can see and hear their colleagues explore Jane had one of the original maroon the wonders of our profession. There is no need to worry if you miss badges and recommended that I wore a hat a broadcast, as those who pay the minimum of thirty (maximum one and gloves for my interview at the London hundred) pounds can gain access to recordings and view them Tourist Board, with Major Battcock as one whenever they like. Please note that the last live online CPD will be of the four interviewers. It was still a very on 16 June and the recordings will only be available until 30 June. seasonal job and I was asked how I would cope with not working for six months in the The presenters are paid the proper freelance rate for their work and winter, which was normal for resting any left-over funds will go to charities such as the Guides’ Benevolent theatricals anyway. Fund, Go Make It Happen and Project 2020 for the Guild. The half day fee was £7 and full day £15. It is still not too late to sign up! Aaron Hunter and Sue Hyde have The cost of the course in 1972 was £150. been working hard to put together this programme and there are still Rodney Scrace, Chairman of the London some more great lectures lined up. If you wish to join go to: Tourist Board, also did the course with me tickets.britainsbestguides.org/event/lockdown-learning- in 1972 and passed! extraordinary-cpd-programme/ The advertisement during the Festival of Britain was for ‘suitable ladies to sign up for the BTHA course’. It was published in the GUIDE LONDON BROADCASTS Telegraph as far as I can remember. My We are continuing the live broadcasts on Guide London's Social memory of what Oswald Clark always said Media feeds, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter on Mondays, that we needed as guides was ‘enthusiasm’ Wednesdays and Fridays at 4pm. The aim is to keep the Guide for which he enunciated every syllable. London brand in people’s minds in the hope they will use the site I am delighted that you have published this. when they finally are able to plan their London trip. So far we have It should get the attention of members since featured talks on Westminster Abbey, the Tower and Windsor Castle, we do not have work to distract us.