Pete, Brick Lane Tour Guide

A Very Interesting Question about Homelessness With Very Interesting Answers

Having been a tour guide with Unseen Tours for 7 years I get asked a lot of questions by my guests. Some of which are strange and some are poignant.  When I meet my guests, I ask them to save their questions until the end for a reason that you will find later in this […]

Read more

IT’S CHRISTMAS (Quiz Time)! As Noddy Holder famously screamed… (Well, almost!)

Of course, the last 18 months have been some of the strangest experienced outside of the war years. We couldn’t run our walking tours for much of 2020, so we unleashed on the world our now somewhat famous “NOT-IN-A-PUB” quizzes. I’m thrilled to announce that the Zoom-based quizzes are making a well-deserved comeback this Christmas! […]

Read more

World Homeless Day

“World Homeless Day” seems like a weird title, but I truly believe that there is a huge need for such an event. Unseen Tours’ core mission is to start conversations about homelessness issues. We believe that the “ripple-effect” from these conversations can change perceptions and bring answers to the questions and challenges raised. People often […]

Read more

(vo)ULEZ vous!

Despite the rather flippant title of this month’s blog, this is one of the hardest pieces I’ve had to write.  I’m afraid that this will turn into a rant, so please accept my apologies in advance.  You may have noticed fewer cars in your city on 21st September 2021… no? Hmm… it was National Car-Free […]

Read more

Unseen Tours Blog default image

And the Award Goes to…

Unseen Tours, being a Social Enterprise that gives back to the homeless community, has been recognised for its achievements in many ways and by many organisations.  From media outlets to governmental and non-governmental organisations, Unseen Tours has gained recognition for the wonderful work we do and the input of many inspirational volunteers. These volunteers give […]

Read more

Graffiti Artist Stik

How London Street Artist Stik Crashed Pete’s Tour

If you’ve been on my tour, or if you plan to, you will quickly find out one of my trademarks. After I finish my introduction to the tour I always say “If you have any questions please save them until the end of the tour. I think you will find that I’ve answered most of […]

Read more

Shoreditch Secrets: Arnold Circus

“Here Comes Summer! (sung in my best Cliff Richard karaoke voice)” Summer is on it’s way (apparently) and the Met Office assures me that we’re expecting another scorcher this week. That got me thinking about what lies ahead in the next few months, and about why people visit London for weekend breaks and such. The […]

Read more

Local Stories: How a Haircut Changed a Homeless Man’s Life

I watched a lot of videos to combat boredom during lockdown and I came across this amazing video of a homeless man having his hair cut.  Now, you’re probably thinking “What’s so amazing about that?” Well, as the man is having a haircut and shave, captions tell the story of how he gave a passer-by […]

Read more

homeless tour guide london, Pete

Pete on Life as an Unseen Tours Guide

I am often asked about how I first became involved with Unseen Tours and my answer is pretty peculiar. While I was homeless and squatting around the Brick Lane area, I had a job selling hats every weekend on Brick Lane market. All the time there would be groups of people going up and down […]

Read more

See you later, (Not) in a pub

Soooooo we are over a year in lockdown! I hope everyone’s coped well. Me? Coping mechanisms? Well, let’s say issues like self-isolation and boredom have been dealt with (see my previous blogs).  Of course, being a tourism organisation, we couldn’t carry on with our tours when Coronavirus hit (my last tour before lockdown 1.0 was on 3rd […]

Read more