Anthony Davis

Anthony specialises in walking tours for people with special interest in books and history, and, naturally, book history – his walks cover literary and bibliophile themes, focusing on the writers, book collectors, and libraries of London from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. 

Anthony has lived in London all his life and has always taken a keen interest in its buildings and history and in showing visitors around. He practised for 35 years as a solicitor (attorney) in the City of London, with two periods as a senior Civil Servant based in Westminster. He is a distinguished bibliophile and scholar and has written and edited books and articles on book collecting themes since the 1970’s. He has degrees from Oxford and London Universities and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, which is the oldest learned society in the UK dedicated to the study of the past, serving on the Society’s Council.  He is also a member of the City of Westminster Guide Lecturers Association.

You can find out more about Anthony and his walks at his website, www.booksteps.co.uk.  As well as leading walks at regular events, such as Open Squares Weekend and London Local Guiding Day, Anthony gives tours for organisations connected with the literary world, including recently the Friends of the Globe Theatre, the Grolier Club of New York and patrons organisations in the UK and USA.  Current walks include

A Book Maniac’s Jaunt, which  takes us back to the 1700’s, to the front doors of some of the greatest bibliomaniacs of all time.  Their stories and the stories of their libraries are extraordinary for their extravagance and scholarship. 

From the Devil’s Acre to St Peter’s Gates, a walk of contrasts, looking at two of London’s most beautiful Georgian squares and the site of London’s worst slum, written about movingly by Charles Dickens.  This walk focuses on the Victorian and twentieth century writers and reformers who lived in the area and influenced its reform and reconstruction.

 

Walks currently on Footprints of London:

Anthony Davis (guide details)

No walks available for this guide at the moment

Back to Top