This year for the third year running myself and  fellow City of Westminster Guide (and Taxi Tour Guide) Ray Coggin will again be leading a Christmas Lights walk for charity.

This year we have chosen to support the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans. This is quite a small charity but one that makes a big impact on the people they help.

The London Taxi Benevolent Association For War Disabled as it was known until 2016 was formed in 1948. In that first year 25 taxi drivers volunteered their taxis and their time to take disabled veterans to Worthing and Brighton.

Sixty nine years later in 2017 90 licensed taxi drivers volunteered their time and taxis and took180 military war veterans on a day to remember in Worthing.  You can see from these photos what a great day everyone had.

It’s not just about trips to the seaside though – the charity organises many other events for veterans including trips to the battlefields.  This amazing video of their trip to the Normandy Beaches in June of this year gives an idea of what trips like these mean to these veterans. 90 taxis took 250 veterans back to Normandy. This will be the last trip of this size as the youngest veteran is aged 90 and many of them are becoming too frail to make such a trip. Scrolling through the pages of the Taxi Charity’s website and listening to some of their radio interviews on YouTube you can begin to see what this charity does for these veterans.

On Saturday 9th December at 5pm we will be leading a special Christmas Lights walk around the streets of the West End. All the money raised will be donated to the Taxi Charity. We are collecting the money via BT Donate. 

As at 4th December we have raised £134 and have 14 people booked on our Christmas Lights walk. We would love to raise a bit more money and in exchange show you the Christmas delights of the West End mostly off the beaten track and away from the hordes. The walk includes hidden passages, superbly decorated posh shops and lots of historical snippets. The Christmas theme continues throughout and there will be a mince pie or two to help us on our way. All we are asking is a minimum donation of £8 per person. Please donate here and then email me – joanna@westminsterwalks.london to let me know how many people are coming. Thank you in advance.

The author of this blog (Joanna Moncrieff) leads walks in the West End, Islington and further afield. Details of all walks bookable by groups are listed here