Sad news for the London Tourist scene, London Duck Tours are ending. You’ve undoubtedly seen their iconic yellow D-day landing craft flitting through the streets of London at some point. They’ve had issues in recent years but the final nail in the coffin appears to be an important infrastructure project.
From their website today:
We are sorry to advise that Thames Water has exercised its statutory rights and given notice to acquire our launch pad at Vauxhall. This means, regretfully, London Duck Tours’ current business of carrying fare paying passengers on the River Thames must cease from 09.00 on Monday 18th September 2017 to make way for the construction of the Thames Tideway Tunnel.
Managing Director of London Duck Tours, John Bigos said, “The 18th September will be a very sad day for the company, which was going from strength to strength, but it was vital not to delay construction of this much needed infrastructure project.”
“Tourists worldwide and Londoners will surely miss our iconic bright yellow DUKWs travelling around town. They have become a landmark in their own right. I would like to thank our staff many of whom have been with LDT from the start and the 1.8 million passengers that have travelled on a London Duck Tour”.
We will be operating tours up to and including Sunday 17th September and we very much hope you will be able to take a tour before then.
So, if you want to go on one of these tours, you need to do it before September 17th. I would urge you to book ahead. I’ve personally never taken one of these tours and now I’m a bit sad I’ve missed my chance.
Author: Jonathan Thomas
Jonathan is a consummate Anglophile who launched Anglotopia.net in 2007 to channel his passion for Britain. Londontopia is its sister publication dedicated to everything London.
We had a tragic accident here in Seattle, with loss of life and very serious injuries. It was determined that the cause was poor maintenance and training on the part of this tour company. You aren’t missing much.
very sad the duck tours have to end,they were fun….dawn
Been on Duck Tours a few times. The Ducks (WW2 amphibious vehicles) are fantastically maintained – the tour is driving around London while listening to a Tourguide telling you all the interesting points and then down the Thames and dunk into the River… into boat mode and sail down passed Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. A firm favorite with my kids whenever we are back in Blighty – going to be sadly missed!
They had a fire recently, but nothing too serious. The Tideway tunnel is a massive project but it’s a shame they cant find another launch slipway. We run the London Literary Pub Crawl and the more things happening in London the better, I say!