Your Guide
Background details of Anthony Davis MA (Oxon), MA (London), FSA, CTA (Fellow)
Anthony Davis was educated at Eton College, along with several well-known politicians and the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is a graduate of Worcester College, Oxford University, where he took a BA honours degree and subsequently an MA in English Literature, and of Birkbeck College, London University, where he obtained a Master’s Degree in Medieval Studies.
Anthony has lived in London all his life and has always taken a keen interest in its buildings and history and in showing visitors around. He practised for 35 years as a solicitor (attorney) in the City of London, with two periods as a senior Civil Servant based in Westminster.
At the suggestion of a German friend whom Anthony had guided along the Thames Path, since retiring from legal practice Anthony has been following a second career as a tour guide and lecturer. He has a Special Diploma in Tour Guiding (with distinction) from the University of Westminster and is a badge-holding member of the City of Westminster Guide Lecturers Association and (from July 2017) the Camden Tour Guides Association..
Anthony is a distinguished bibliophile and scholar and has written and edited books and articles since the 1970’s. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, which is the oldest learned society in the UK dedicated to the study of the past, and also a member of its Council. He is a member of several other organisations relating to books and book history, including the Bibliographical Society (of which he is also a Council member), the Grolier Club of New York and the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie.
Anthony takes groups of visitors with special interests in books and history, and (naturally) book history, around areas of London. His bibliophile tours are especially enjoyed, and he regularly takes tours around the Society of Antiquaries’ premises in Burlington House, Piccadilly. In December 2014, Anthony appeared on the BBC1 TV programme 'Oxford Street Revealed'. In 2015, he led very popular walks for Open Squares Weekend, London Local Guiding Day and devised a walk for the Friends of the Globe Theatre as well as some of the regular walks you can read about on this website and tours of the Society of Antiquaries premises in Burlington House. In 2016 and 2017 Anthony led walks for cultural bodies including members of the London Library, the London Appreciation Society, Friends of the Royal Academy and the Grolier Club of New York, among others.
Languages: French (fluent), German, Italian
