Hello Internet! I’m excited to introduce myself to you as one of the newly hatched Blue Badge Tourist Guides! While I’d already been guiding for a number of years, it was only in 2020 that I finally qualified as a Blue Badge Tourist Guide…

…And then a global pandemic hit. Safe to say, this year hasn’t been quite as busy as I imagined! Like many in the guiding community, I have adapted. I started virtual tours, which I have found to be an entertaining and satisfying challenge, and I’ve also got creative! Joining my 2020 guiding cohort is my cartoon creation: Millie the Blue Badger! While I can’t get out and guide as I might wish to, Millie has been out and about in London on my behalf, sharing the streets, sites, and stories of London.

Below are just a couple of the comic strips that I’ve shared on Instagram and my website since April – the Lewis Chessmen at the British Museum and London Bridge.

Millie the Blue Badger – Lewis Chessmen Cartoon. Photo Credit: © Amber Tallon.

The Lewis Chessmen

You’ll find these fabulously decorated and wonderfully charismatic treasures in the British Museum.

They were created around the end of the 12th/beginning of the 13th century, so they are in wonderful condition for being about 800 years old!

Many people associate them with the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. You might remember Harry and Ron enjoying a game of wizard’s chess in the Great Hall just before Christmas – well, those pieces were replicas of these ancient marvels.

Millie the Blue Badger – London Bridge Cartoon. Photo Credit: © Amber Tallon.

London Bridge

London has a lot of bridges, as many as 35 depending on where you’re counting the boundaries from, but for centuries there was only one! Congestion got so bad that in the 1740s, that a three-hour traffic jam was reported on London Bridge (and we think it’s bad in London nowadays…).

The current London Bridge (opened 1973) has been the general site of a bridge across the Thames for the last 2,000 years, going right back to when London was the Roman Londinium. The bridge then would have been made of wood.

As well as museums and bridges, Millie has visited the Tower of London, the Monument, Westminster Abbey and more! If you’re interested, you can find the rest of her adventures on my website, where I’ll be posting my future comic strips as well. It’s also on my website that you can find information about my upcoming tours.