Karl Marx - his life and ideas

The Karl Marx Walking Tour features in this work by Gilbert and George from their New Normal Exhibition held at the White Cube Gallery, London

Karl Marx in London

Bringing Marx to life since 2012

Every Sunday 11am - 1.30pm (approx)

We meet in front of the Criterion Theatre/Eros statue, Piccadilly Circus.

Standard tickets for the Sunday tour cost £15 (+ eventbrite booking fee) a limited number of concessionary price tickets are available at £10 for those on a low income.

Buy Tickets Karl Marx Walking Tour

Cash is welcome - email or text to reserve your place.

email admin@marxwalks.com or call 07722 523629

Running late? The first stop is the Be At One bar 20 Great Windmill St London W1D 7LA - until about 11.30

The Karl Marx walking tour

Karl Marx was the most influential thinker of modern times. His epic life story combines comedy and tragedy, love and hate, hope and despair. This set the backdrop to an intellectual expedition that sought to unravel the mysteries of history, politics, economics and philosophy.

Lea Ypi and her Master's students from the London School of Economics on the Marx Walking Tour

Marx's work inspired protests and strikes, rebellions and revolutions, terrorism and war, struggles for freedom, democracy and liberty, as well as regimes of tyrannical repression.

We walk you through the story of his life in London and explain his ideas and their influence on human destiny. We take you to the places in and around Soho where Marx lived and worked, show you traces of the London he knew, and tell the extraordinary tale of this man who would change the world.

Our guides are experts in the field and have spent decades studying and unravelling the complexities of the life and ideas of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and their followers. On the walking tour we combine this knowledge with the didactic and entertaining style of a storyteller. We explain the intellectual influences of the time and delve into the secrets of Karl Marx's ideas.

We explain the significance of the 1848 revolutions, and the dramatic and bloody events of the 1871 Paris Commune. We describe the life of struggle and hardship of an extraordinary community of European revolutionaries who made Victorian London their home. This circle of refugees developed ideas, organisations and political movements which would shape world politics in the twentieth century.

This walking tour will help you understand how the modern world and its economic, social and political conflicts came into being. The tour does not assume any previous knowledge and it is pitched at a level that will leave everyone from the complete novice to the seasoned expert satisfied. We welcome schools and universities, and provide specialist tours for visiting scholars, media outlets and embassies, etc.

Join us as we walk you through the life, times and ideas of Karl Marx.

The meeting Point- 11am Sundays in front of Criterion Theatre, Piccadilly Circus

A Journey Through London's Revolutionary History

The Karl Marx Walking Tour appeals to a broad audience, from tourists curious about London's history to Marx experts.

Our guests come from all backgrounds, countries, and ages, and we aim to offer perspectives on both Marx the man and his ideas that everyone will find fascinating and surprising.

For Karl Marx fans, the tour is a kind of pilgrimage-a chance to engage with London's rich Marx-related history and to meet people with similar interests from around the world.

We also run private tours for schools, colleges, universities, and even corporations (several of the world's largest banks have taken the tour!), as well as trade unions, journalists, embassies, and individuals.
Just send us an email or give us a call to arrange a private tour at dates and times that suit you.

email admin@marxwalks.com or call 07722 523629

Our Guides

Heiko Khoo

Heiko Khoo has studied Marxist ideas for 33 years and completed his PhD in 2018. It examines China's social system and political economy using Marxist theory. You can download it here.

Heiko is a well-known orator at London's Speakers' Corner and he produces the weekly Speakers' Corner radio show for Resonance FM.

He previously ran walking tours in Berlin specializing in the rise and fall of East Germany and has a detailed knowledge of East European and Soviet jokes, which he uses to enhance the Karl Marx story and to help explain the fate of Communist states.

Heiko helped the German Historical Museum in Berlin to prepare a major exhibition "Karl Marx and Capitalism" in the spring of 2022.

Heiko was the lead author and researcher for the guidebook "Karl Marx in London" published in 2018 by the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx's birth.

Mark Bygrave

Mark left school at 15 to work in the construction industry. He discovered Marx's ideas when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, riots shook London and the Cold War was still hot.

Mark led tenants' campaigns, threw himself into solidarity work in the 1984-5 miners strike and stood on the front line of the Poll Tax protests that brought down the Iron Lady.

Mark was mentored by possibly the greatest contemporary Marxist economist Michael Roberts.

Mark's experience of the life and struggles of the working class in Britain and internationally will remind you why Marx said that the workers are the agents of revolution.