london history trip header nst

London History School Trips & Tours - British History

With the curriculum placing greater emphasis on the history of Britain and its place in global history, London provides an ideal location for a history school trip.

Covering a large range of themes, the huge numbers of educational visits, museums, galleries and collections have tailor-made programmes required to suit the new curriculum. With our relationships with so many of these education departments, we can help you to maximise the educational benefit of your London study tour.

We’ll book educational visits that enhance your pupils’ learning, as well as group friendly accommodation, your leisure activities and even your meals – all at our great school group prices.

We can tailor-make any itinerary to support the latest history GCSE modules, including Crime and Punishment, Medicine and Surgery, Migration and historic environment themes.

 

Prices start from£169pp

Price Shown includes

  • 1 night’s B&B accommodation
  • Executive coach transport from and to school and throughout your stay
  • Group travel insurance
  • 1 in 8 free place ratio

Price shown is based on 40 paying passengers departing from selected departure points and is subject to availability.


On-tour support

On-tour support available...

  • Pre-booked meals at great group prices
  • Pre-booked and pre-paid London Underground tickets
  • A choice of packed lunches for your group throughout your stay
  • Services of a Local Guide

Accommodation

Popular options in London


Top Visits

Imperial War Museum

After a major redevelopment, the museum features groundbreaking WWI Galleries which will present the story - how it started, why it continued and its global impact - through the lives of those who experienced it on both the front line and the home front. The Witness to War atrium displays iconic larger objects including a Harrier, Spitfire and V2 rocket suspended from above.

Churchill War Rooms

Visit the Churchill War Rooms which Winston Churchill and the War Cabinet used during air raids. Explore the historic rooms to experience secret history and discover the stories of those who worked underground as London was bombed above them.

‘A Cathedral at War’ Workshop at St Paul’s Cathedral

A 60 minute workshop exploring how the cathedral survived the Blitz and still serves the city as a venue for remembrance and reconciliation. Students will be taught the Fire Watchers drill by a volunteer fire watcher and are taken on a journey around the Cathedral, being shown where bombs fell and demonstrated how to deal with the dreaded Incendiary bomb and gas mask.

HMS Belfast

Discover the stories behind this warship from WWII and beyond. Imagine sleeping in one of the tightly packed hammocks during duties in Arctic waters, or being stationed deep in the bowels of the ship when she opened fire in support of Allied troops on D-Day.

The Royal Courts of Justice - Court in the Past

This two hour session takes place in a working court room and around the courts. Students will be introduced to the Royal Courts of Justice and prepare and enact a trial based on a real historical case. They will then discuss and debate real historical sentencing options and compare these to sentencing options in the present day. Trials include a conscientious objector during WWI, a trial deciding whether forcing slaves to leave the country should be made illegal or a suffragette arrested for malicious damage.

The Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret

Understand the nature of surgery before the barriers of infection and pain had been overcome with the reconstruction of an early 19th century operation. Also covers the role, status and training of surgeons before the advances in surgery and medical training in the later 19th century.

The Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum

St Mary’s Hospital is home to the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum. As well as seeing Fleming’s laboratory, restored to its 1928 condition, students can explore the story of Fleming and debate his precise role in the development of penicillin.

The Florence Nightingale Museum

Helping students to examine the role of Nightingale in the development of training for nurses and standards of care in hospitals, groups can see how the status of nurses was transformed, as well as how Nightingale’s work showed a new approach to the day to day running of hospitals. Why not use our worksheets to focus your group in the museum? 

Old Bailey & Lincolns Inn Visit, Talk & Court Sessions

During your visit you will be given a short talk outside the Royal Courts of Justice before listening to a court hearing in a criminal appeal. Your group will then be taken to Lincolns Inn, where many of the country’s top barristers have their chambers. The tour finishes at the Old Bailey where your group will be given a talk about the history of the court.

The Clink Prison Museum

During an educational tour of this unique and medieval prison, your group will have the opportunity to handle original historical torture artefacts relating to crime and punishment used in the prison, witness the terrible conditions of the time, and learn of the prison’s involvement in many major events through audio and visual presentations and the colourful narrative provided by your guide. Self-guided visits are also available.

Tower of London

Develop an understanding on the nature of authority and attitudes to crime and punishment in the early modern period with our school trips to the Tower of London. An ideal opportunity for a more in-depth study of Guy Fawkes and his attempt to destroy the Houses of Parliament in 1605.

The Royal Courts of Justice - Court In Session

Suitable for KS3-5, this exciting visit to the historic Royal Courts of Justice will have your group talking for weeks! You can choose from a wide range of quality learning experiences. 

This two-hour session takes place in a working court room and around the courts. 

Students will:

  • Be introduced to the Royal Courts of Justice and what happens there
  • Prepare and enact a trial based on an ex-offender’s experiences
  • Explore roles in a court room and meet a legal professional where possible
  • Discuss and debate real sentencing options

The Royal Courts of Justice - Motion To Appeal

Suitable for KS3-5, this exciting visit to the historic Royal Courts of Justice will have your group talking for weeks! You can choose from a wide range of quality learning experiences. 

This two-hour session takes place in a working court room and around the courts.

Students will:

  • Be introduced to the Royal Courts of Justice and what happens there
  • Prepare for and debate an appeal case which has been heard at the Royal
  • Courts of Justice (this can be a broader debate or one that focuses on a particular point of law)
  • Explore roles in a court room and meet a legal professional, where possible

Imperial War Museum - The Holocaust Exhibition

A rich learning resource for students in Years 9-13, visits include an orientation session to help prepare and focus students, a visit to the galleries and a feedback session to help students reflect on what they have learned.

National Archives Holocaust Workshops

This fascinating session begins with a look at the events happening in Nazi-occupied Europe leading up to the outbreak of World War II. Your students will study telegrams, radio intercepts and reports received by the Foreign Office between 1938 and 1944 and will learn about how the events in Nazi-occupied territories unfolded.

Wiener Library

The Wiener Library is one of the world’s leading and most extensive archives on the Holocaust and Nazi era. Formed in 1933, the Library’s unique collection of over a million items includes published and unpublished works, press cuttings, photographs and eyewitness testimony. Workshops include The Nazi Games (looking at propaganda and the 1936 Olympics) and Rescues of the Holocaust (looking at individuals who saved lives under Nazi rule).

Suffragette Walking Tour

Your expert guide will meet you close to where the headquarters of the Women’s Social & Political Union once was, and the tour ends at Emmeline Pankhurst’s statue. 

Along the route, which takes in some of the best-known sights of London, you will learn about major events in which the heroes were Emmeline, Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst, Kier Hardie, the ill-fated Emily Davison and others. The inspiring story continues through the First World War to the Suffragettes’ final victory. 

Karl Marx Walking Tour

Take a two-hour walk through the life, times and ideas of Karl Marx. Visit the places in and around Soho where Marx lived and worked, and hear the extraordinary tale of this man who would change the world.

The tour gives a full biography of Karl Marx and his family from his early years, his studies, his revolutionary journalism, his hopes, dreams, ailments and tragedies, as well as reviewing his political and intellectual influence. 

London, Sugar and Slavery Exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands

Visit this permanent exhibition that examines London’s involvement in transatlantic slavery. In the setting of this historic sugar warehouse, challenge long-held beliefs that abolition was initiated by politicians and be touched by the real objects, personal stories and vibrant art and music that have left their legacy on the capital today.

City of London Police Museum

The City of London Police Museum takes visitors on a unique journey, which includes the last hours of Catherine Eddowes, one of Jack the Ripper’s victims; bomb damage during the Blitz; being at the forefront of technology to counter terrorism and the current work against economic crime and cybercrime.

The National Army Museum

Visit the National Army Museum and find out how Britain’s past has helped to shape our present and future. Discover the impact our Army has had on the story of Britain, Europe and the world, and see how the actions of a few can affect the futures of many.

Crime in Whitechapel – The National Archives Education Session

Why was 19th century Whitechapel so difficult to police?  Using original documents from our collection, students will explore the key features of Whitechapel in the 19th century to uncover why this area was such a challenge for the Metropolitan Police. Students will also discover how the police sought to overcome these challenges, from dressing as women to developing silent footwear, in their bid to rid Whitechapel of Jack the Ripper.

Whitechapel, Crime and Policing Tour

Exclusive to NST - this new guided walking tour in London is ideal for students studying Crime and Punishment in Britain or Whitechapel, c1870–c1900: crime, policing and the inner city options for their History GCSE. Led by a guide with examining experience, your group will discover the area of Whitechapel and learn about:

•    The environment of Whitechapel of the time
•    The role of the police
•    Reasons for Jack the Ripper's escape
•    View contemporary sources for the period

The View from The Shard

The View from The Shard offers a unique education experience – it is the only place where students can see the entire city at once; both old and new! Two high speed kaleidoscopic lifts will transport your group to the viewing platforms on Level 69 and Level 72 where you can encourage your student’s fascination with the history of London and enjoy the unparalleled 360 degree views.

Educational visits can support learning across both the National and London Curriculum, including History, English, Maths, Geography, and Art and Design.

Old Bailey Insight Tour

A morning talk at the Viaduct Tavern opposite the Old Bailey, which includes a hot drink and a croissant. Hear about the fascinating history of the Old Bailey, and the places of interest around it, such as the pub where wealthy people rented rooms to get the best view of the public executions and an exclusive view of the old Newgate Prison gaol cells. Afterward, we can direct you straight to the most interesting cases on at the Old Bailey that day. For schools, colleges and universities, a special teachers’ information pack is available which includes a history of the Old Bailey and an Old Bailey timeline. 

Shakespeare's Globe - AQA History Tour & Interactive Lecture

For groups studying the ‘Elizabethan England, c1568–1603: The Globe Theatre’ site for their AQA specified historic sites GCSE History, we can arrange a interactive, enriching school trip to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to help your students gain a deeper understanding of the site’s history. A 90 minute specific lecture session to correspond to the AQA History syllabus comprises of a tour and an interactive lecture.

Victorian Surgery Brought to Life workshop - The Old Operating Theatre Museum

This session is held in Europe’s oldest surviving operating theatre, where hundreds of surgeons would have once gathered and learnt their trade by watching the various surgical procedures that took place. Your group will experience the atmosphere of this uniquely evocative space, as museum staff reconstruct an operation before the arrival of anaesthesia and antiseptics. 

This stimulating session allows active exploration of curriculum subjects in relation to real historic artifacts. It specifically designed for KS4/5 students studying GCSE History, covering Edexcel: Medicine through time, c12 50-present. AQA: Health and the People.

London Medical Walking Tour

Take a walking tour of London to discover medical issues and advances over the years.  Tours can be tailored to cover themes such as Public Health, Plagues or Cholera.

Black History Guided Walking Tours

Choose from two Black History guided walking tours in the city led by Anne-Marie Walker, a qualified Blue Badge Guide:

Gold, ivory and slaves - the commodities on which the City of London was built - starting at St Paul’s Cathedral and ending at Bank Station, this walking tour includes the history of black people in England from Roman times; members of the Royal family who were involved in the slave trade; the famous Trial of the Zong at Guildhall;  Livery companies; Shakespeare and Black activists and the powerhouses - Bank of England, Royal Exchange and Mansion House. 

The Hidden Black History of the City of Westminster - based on Black people who were involved behind the scenes in many historic events and institutions, thisguided walking tour covers the Black sailors at the Battle of Trafalgar; Mary Seacole and the Crimean War; the Metropolitan Police - Leroy Logan; the Life Guards and the Queen’s Black Equerry and Buckingham Palace and the Black Queens.  This tour starts at Trafalgar Square and ends at Buckingham Palace.  

Both walking tours last approximately 1.5 - 2 hours.

Anne-Marie Walker lives in London with her family who had emigrated from the West Indies.  She has worked in the tourism industry in Spain and Europe for over 20 years and is a qualified College Lecturer teaching A-Level Business Studies and BTEC Travel and Tourism courses.  

Migration Museum

The Migration Museum explores how the movement of people to and from Britain across the ages has made us who we are today, both as individuals and as a nation. Migration is a pressing contemporary issue and is at the centre of polarised political and online debate. But there’s an underlying story of comings and goings stretching back many centuries. And this story goes to the heart of who we are today. Britain has thousands of museums, but none comprehensively focused on this important theme that connects us all.

The Migration Museum also offers educational workshops and tours of their exhibitions in their current home in the heart of Lewisham Shopping Centre. 

Educational Workshops at Black Cultural Archives

Black Cultural Archives is the only national heritage centre dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain.

The archives offer a range of educational workshops including:

Windrush Journeys - KS3 +
Students will engage with material from our archive to generate discussion and guided discovery of some of the lesser-known realities of post-war migration.

Uprisings 1981 - KS4 English Language
Participants will develop knowledge of a significant local and national event, and its effect upon the arts, women’s rights, racial equality, and social justice. They will listen to, read, and discuss key sources from influential change-makers around the time of the 1980s uprisings, including the BLK Art Group, the Institute of Race Relations, and the Black Audio Film Collective.

Uprisings 1981 - KS4 History of Art
The BLK Art Group was a radical art movement inspired by anti-racist discourse and feminist critique. Founded in 1982, it engaged with the social, cultural, political, and aesthetic issues of the time, highlighting race, gender, and representation. Their art challenged the invisibility of British African, Caribbean, and Asian artists by the art world.  Participants will learn about the style, techniques, and motivations of the BLK Art Group and be encouraged to find imaginative ways of exploring social and political history through art.

Notting Hill 1948–70 Guided Walking Tour

This guided walking tour, led by qualified Blue Badge Guide Anne-Marie Walker, is ideal for students studying the Historic Environment element of the Edexcel 'Migrants in Britain' option for their GCSE History. Your expert guide will take you around the well-known area of Notting Hill - along the route, you will learn about the reasons for Caribbean migration to Notting Hill, the influence of Caribbean cultures on the area, the Notting Hill Riots (1958), Black activism and the development of the Notting Hill Carnival.   

The walking tour last approximately 1.5 - 2 hours.

Anne-Marie Walker lives in London with her family who had emigrated from the West Indies.  She has worked in the tourism industry in Spain and Europe for over 20 years and is a qualified College Lecturer teaching A-Level Business Studies and BTEC Travel and Tourism courses.  

Spitalfields & East London Migration Guided Walking Tour

Exclusive to NST

Perfect for GCSE and A level history groups wishing to support their study of migration and / or linked historic environment topics,  NST offer an exclusive guided walking tour of Spitalfields, East London with our own NST educationalist guide. This interactive tour can also be tailored to introduce younger pupils to these themes.  


The walking tour will allow students to trace the development of the Spitalfields area as Huguenot, Irish, Jewish, Bangladeshi and Somali communities have, at different times, made this area their home. Groups will be able to visit around 20 sites which tell the story of migration to the area during the past 500 years including the Sandy Row Synagogue, the Jewish Soup Kitchen,  and a short distance away, the Cable Street Mural. 
Students will also use residential, recreational, retail, industrial and religious buildings in the area to help them build their knowledge of life for migrants in the area. 

The famous Brick Lane, lined with long established curry houses and bagel bakeries, provide the opportunity for food tastings and relaxation as the tour reaches its conclusion.  

 

 

Hidden London Walking Tour

There’s persecution, hanging, drawing and quartering, burnings at the stake, grave robbing, the horror of the Great Fire, an infamous prison and its gallows, a scary ghost, traitors’ heads on gates, bear baiting, prostitution, a debtors’ prison, riots and other general unpleasantness.


Themed London Itineraries

Crime & Punishment in Britain - Two Day Itinerary

Day 1 - Morning departure - visit The Royal Courts of Justice for a two-hour session to experience debating real cases. Check into accommodation. Whitechapel Crime, Policing & the Inner City walking tour in the evening.

Day 2 - Morning visit to the Clink Prison Museum before departing for your return journey to school.

Prices for this itinerary start from £179pp

Medicine & Surgery - Two Day Itinerary

Day 1 - Morning departure – visit the Florence Nightingale Museum to learn about Nightingale’s approach to healthcare. Check into accommodation. Jack the Ripper walking tour in the evening.

Day 2 - The Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum. Visit The Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret. 
Depart for return journey to school.

The Tudor Period - Two Day Itinerary

Day 1 - Morning departure – visit Henry VIII’s favourite palace Hampton Court Palace and take part in a hands-on learning session. Enjoy an evening performance at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

Day 2 - Learning more about Tudor London at the Museum of London’s permanent exhibition on Medieval London. Visit the Tower of London where Anne Boleyn was taken through traitors’ gate and executed. 
Depart for return journey to school.

Additional day:
Visit to Greenwich, a popular destination with the Tudor Royal family. Visit the Old Royal Naval College where the Palace of Placentia once stood. Thames river cruise in the evening.

London & The Blitz - Three Day Itinerary

Day 1 - Morning departure – visit the RAF Museum to cover introduction to planes and bombs used during WWII. Check into accommodation. West End show in the evening.

Day 2 - Visit The Battle of Britain Bunker for overview of the Battle of Britain. Take a walking tour of London Bomb Sites - walk from Tower of London to St Paul’s Cathedral to see bomb sites and damage. Views from Stone Gallery of St Pauls Cathedral to compare and contrast rebuilt areas of the city. Evening leisure activity.

Day 3 - Visit the Imperial War Museum - explore key moments of the WW2 through people’s lives and the objects on display. Depart for return journey to school.

Second World War & The Holocaust - Two Day Itinerary

Day 1 – Morning departure – Visit the Second World War and The Holocaust Galleries at IWM London which tells the global story of this devastating conflict and the individual stories of those murdered in the Holocaust. Evening showing of the play Leopoldstadt - a story of a Jewish family in Vienna across six decades.

Day 2 - Visit the Churchill War Rooms to walk the labyrinth of rooms and corridors that stretch below Westminster and hear stories of conflict. Depart London and en-route back to school visit Bletchley Park - the historic site where secret British code breaking activities took place during WWII.

Other visits options:

  • Jewish Museum Workshop
  • The Wiener Holocaust Library 
  • HMS Belfast 
  • The National Army Museum 

Migration - Two Day Itinerary

Day 1 - Morning departure from school.  Meet guide for a tour of Notting Hill to learn about the reasons for Caribbean migration to this area and the influence of the community; the groups will also learn about the riots and activism originating in the area.  Meal and West End Show (Hamilton or Six are great options for history groups!) in the evening

Day 2 - Morning - take an exclusive guided walking tour of Spitalfields, East London. This will allow students to trace the stories of the Huguenot, Jewish and Bangladeshi communities in particular who at different times made this area their home. Groups will be able to see the Bevis Marks Synogogue - the oldest in Europe, the Jewish Soup Kitchen and a short distance away, the Cable Street Mural. Students will also use residential, recreational, industrial and religious buildings in the area to help them build their knowledge of life for migrants in the area.  The famous Brick Lane, lined with long established curry houses and bagel bakeries, provide the opportunity for food tastings and relaxation as the tour reaches its conclusion.

Afternoon: Possible visits include an interactive workshop at the Migration Museum or an exploration of the galleries at the Museum of London, Docklands, where students will be helped to uncover the stories of the migrant communities who settled around the port here. Groups may wish to end the day with a visit to the nearby 2012 Olympic Park in Stratford, with a chance to tour the stadium, or ride the slide at ArcelorMittal Orbit!

Other visit options include:

  • Workshop at Black Cultural Archives
  • Museum of London
  • Sandy Row synagogue 


Evening activites

  • London Eye
  • Thames River Cruise
  • West End Show
  • Jack the Ripper Tour
  • Bowling
  • IMAX Cinema
  • A quiz or disco at your hotel (many hotels can provide a room for groups to use in the evenings)

Study themes

Edexcel GCSE

"Crime and Punishment in Britain" - Whitechappel, c1870-c1900

"Warfare and British Society" - London and the Second World War, 1939-1945

"Migrants in Britain" - Notting Hill, c1948-c1970

 

AQA GCSE

"Britain: Migration, empires and the people, c790 - present"

"Britain: Health and the people, c1000 - present"

 

OCR GCSE History A

"War and British Society, c790-2010"

"Migration to Britain, c1250 - present"

 

OCR GCSE History B

"Britain in Peace and War, 1900-1918"

"Migrans to Britain, c1250 - present"

 

EDUCAS (WJEC) GCSE History

"Austerity, Affluence and Discontent: Britain, 1951-1979"


Study levels

A Level

AS Level

GCSE

KS3


Transport

Available from any location in the UK, our executive coaches are fitted with seatbelts, toilet facilities, air conditioning, DVD and reclining seats.

Coach

Rail is a convenient travel option for small groups, ideal for connections to Eurostar, major airports and travel to many city destinations.

Train

We can arrange for your group to fly from a range of UK airports and we’ll work with you to plan your route at the best value possible.

Flight


Giving you full support throughout

Before your tour

  • Your own dedicated NST contact
  • Bespoke tour itineraries
  • Unrivalled local knowledge & expertise
  • Curriculum linked visit programmes
  • Great value for money - no hidden costs
  • Free group leader inspection visits
  • Risk assessment guidance
  • Safety assured, transport, accommodation and visits

Whilst you're away

  • Free educational resources
  • Group-friendly accommodation
  • Exceptional standards of coaching
  • On-tour support from our reps on the ground
  • Support & assistance from our specialists throughout your tour
  • 24/7 support just a call away
  • Extensive group travel insurance

On your return

  • Priority rebooking services
  • Rewarding your loyalty with our reward scheme
  • You say, we listen - we're committed to continuously improving our tours
  • School travel company of choice since 1967