Introduction:

I qualified as a London Blue Badge guide in April 2014 with the Best Coach Pano Award. I am originally from Newcastle on Tyne but have lived and worked in London for over 40 years. I was a secondary school history teacher in south-east London for 20 years, then retrained as a journalist and worked as a freelance on national magazines and newspapers. I am married, with three children and four grandchildren. My main interest for many years has been music, in particular folk and bluegrass. I have run two folk song clubs in south-east London and have performed as a solo singer/guitarist and in bands since the early '70s. I currently host a bluegrass session once a month in a pub near where I live in Forest Hill in south-east London.
Guiding specialities I offer include Beatles-themed walks and pano tours; World War II themed walks and pano tours; and crime & punishment-themed walks + more general walks in the City. In addition I offer tours of St Paul's, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, National Gallery, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, British Museum, Greenwich, Hampton Court and Windsor Castle as well as pano tours of central London, Wapping and Docklands & Kensington and Chelsea. Out of town tours include Oxford, Stratford upon Avon, Bath, Stonehenge, Salisbury and Canterbury.
I received the following commendation from a tour director for an American group I took on a tour of World War 2 related sites in London:
'Dave Marshall was an excellent tour guide today. He was informative, funny and rolled with punches. He also knew his way around the city and fielded a ton of questions from my clients. I highly recommend him in the future. If there is a central officer for Blue Badgers, please pass along my compliments on his professionalism.'