A Day for the Blues - Observer

OUR MOTTO SHOULD BE "Blue Badge Guides do it backwards", says Jane Henson. As one of the UK's 1,700 Qualified tourist guides she is used to turning her back on the country's finest buildings and, like a television weather forecaster indicating distinguishing features that only her audience can see. Today, International Tourist Guide Day, Britain's eyes-in-the-back-of- the-head brigade will be out in force.
The Blue Badge Guides, foot soldiers on the front line of the country's tourist industry, are recruited from all walks of life. Actors and teachers are drawn to a career that combines education with entertainment, but so too are taxi drivers and art historians, who all bring to the rigorous 18-month training their own specialist knowledge. Jane Henson was a domestic science teacher before she met a Blue Badge Guide at a dinner party and realised that she had found a new vocation. Training in geology, geography natural history, politics, royalty and law, as well as in Britain's legacy of art, music and literature is only a foundation. Knowledge of individual sites and local heritage are also requirements as is an enquiring, insatiable mind. 'When we're between towns I talk about the subsidies on oil-seed rape, or why Friesians are crossed with Charolais', says Jane, displaying the same zeal for the EU's agricultural policy as she might for Turner's The Fighting Téméraire.
Voice training from an opera singer helps - to carry information across the din of metropolitan traffic - as does a pair of comfortable shoes, which are more useful than the trademark raised umbrella.
Some Blue Badges make a full-time living (earning £121 for a full day and £81 for a half day) accompanying groups around London on panoramic tours that start at the Tower of London and end at Harrods. But even the familiar parties of overseas visitors, battling to see the whole of the capital in a day, are only one aspect of the tour-guide business. Many guides accompany conference delegates on specific events such as a round of golf at Wentworth, an afternoon's horse riding, or a West End show.
A few guides will take on gruelling driving assignments. For £200 a day, travellers can hire a Blue Badge to chauffeur them around London: a prerequisite is negotiating some of the world's most hair-raising junctions while maintaining a steady flow of information. The benefit, apart for a more personal service, is access to obscure places: the Mayflower's departure point at Rotherhithe, her captain's tomb at Rotherhithe church; or Smithfield, hugely popular with cinema buffs because of its new film location status.
The Royal Academy's Monet Exhibition has brought new demand for tours of the impressionist's take on London, while Shakespeare in Love is expected to spark off renewed interest in places associated with the Bard. Gallery staff apart, Blue Badges are the only guides allowed to address groups inside the national art Collections. Many of the sights on the tourists' list are centuries old, but the guides pride themselves on putting a topical spin on their patch. "Every tour we take is different, depending on the time available, the profile of the group - and the weather. There's always a birthday or an anniversary onto which you can hand a story" says Jane. The job evolves as the capital evolves - the restored Albert Memorial and the recreated Shakespeare's Globe have recently entered the tourists' top 10. Tourists often come with a fixed idea of what they want to see. "We have to explain that this is not some sort of Disney Heritageland". We are showing them a real castle; it may need repair. And, yes, there is industry in our historic towns and cities. And there's a preconception about English weather. Sometimes people are disappointed because it isn't raining".