Have a go…

I’d love to say I’d been involved in scouting all my life, that I’d progressed through Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers etc. and I’d really love to say that I knew half as much about scouting as anyone else in our group, but sadly no, I’m a newbie. I got involved in scouting because my son graduated from Beavers to Cubs, then found out the group needed extra leaders to ensure the future of the Cub pack, in a lapse of concentration I stepped forward instead of backwards (Note to self: remember to stop doing that!) and so became an ACSL with the 10^th Birkenhead Cub Scouts.

Sitting in at one of my first training sessions, listening studious to a CSL trainer indoctrinating us newbie’s in the finer points of the P.O.R. and Programme Basics, my ears pricked up as he started talking about when he first became a CSL. “I asked where I could take my pack,” he said, “could I take them to London for instance.” Getting no negative response, off they went. He had used rail travel cards, which allowed him to take his Cubs for £1 each. They stayed at Baden Powel House and visited the Science Museum. “That sounds alright” I thought “I can do that”, so I did.

First, were there any objections from our GSL, Andy Wright? “No, not really, have a go.” he said. So far, so good.

How many Cubs and how many Leaders? Well, at the time we had twelve Cubs and, working on the premise that London, as always, is an extremely busy and bustling location, I decided a ratio of three Cubs to each Leader would allow adequate control of the little darlings. This meant four Leaders to cover and one to spare. Five Leaders, twelve Cubs. I’d have to persuade some of Scout Leaders to participate but no problem there.

Next… travel. Well I can beg with the best of them, so it was a quick email off to Virgin Trains, Britain’s best intercity rail service, and lo and behold, they gave us sponsored, and I mean FREE, rail travel to and from London; a huge BRAVO to Elsa Redpath of Virgin Trains, probably the best intercity rail service in the Europe. 

What a result, but wait, there was more; Virgin Trains, with regular, punctual intercity rail services throughout the UK, said they would supply a photographer to shoot the party with the train driver at one end of the journey. (Note to self: Get parental permission for photos and don’t forget to plug Virgin Trains, probably the best intercity rail service in the world, in the write up).

Now, a major problem, accommodation… a few nights on t’internet almost led me to scupper the trip. Baden Powell House, HMS Belfast, Docklands Scout Project; all great venues, but their costs would have pushed us well over our target price. “What about sleeping in a scout hut for a few quid?” someone commented. Back on t’internet to look through the London’s District web sites and, up pops the South London Scout Centre. £6.00 per head per night they said, that’ll do nicely I said. A very nice man, Mr. Gordon Carr, at the Scout Centre, was extremely helpful and we booked a couple of rooms over the phone.

Right, I was on a roll. What were we going to see? A quick list of famous places from the top of my head and it’s time to get the pencil sharpened once again, more begging emails. The Tower of London said they were sorry but, as they were a charity themselves, group rates would apply. The House of Parliament said sorry, no free tours for the dates we were looking for. The London Dungeon wanted to charge us £5.00 per head as a special price for scouts. Not bad but could I fit it in (and did I really need to). The nice people at the London Eye were very apologetic but said group rates apply.

Not much luck there then, it looked as though we would have to spend some money after all.

I scribbled down a quick itinerary…

Travel down Friday night, supper then bed.

Up early Saturday morning, kick the youngsters out of bed, hose them down, feed them then over to Victoria for a walk around the sights;

Buckingham Palace first then down Birdcage Walk to Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament.

Up Whitehall, past Downing Street and the Horse Guards with lunch in Trafalgar Square (or Charing Cross Station if it rained).

After lunch it would be off to the Science Museum until closing time then over to Oxford Circus for dinner at KFC.

An evening stroll down Regent Street past Hamleys, then through Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square to finish off the day before heading back to the Scout Centre for supper and bed.

Up early again Sunday morning, feed and water the youngsters, pack the backpacks and fumigate the rooms before saying our goodbyes and heading off to the Tower of London for a few hours before getting the train back home.

…sounded about right, and the costs, with food, weren’t looking too bad. I had to assume were going to be subject to “Stop, I want to take a photo...”, but generally the timings were based on a mixture of Internet timetables and my own experience of previous walks my son and I had made.

Flies in the ointment? None really, our food was to be sourced by the South London Scout Centre and would be there when we arrived, the baggage would be kept to a minimum and we were to utilise Day Savers around London for the Leaders with the Cubs travelling free and the Scouts costing £1.00 per day each. 

The size of the party increased slightly as the exercise wore on; as I said, we had twelve Cubs at the start of the exercise but, by the time I had everything sorted only five Cubs could go. Rather than waste the opportunity, I offered the remaining places to our Scout section, nine of whom showed an interest for the seven places available. Rather than disappoint, I approached Elsa Redpath again who was exceptional in increasing the ticket numbers to accommodate the additional Scouts. BRAVO. We had one ACSL working just outside London who would travel over to the Scout Centre by car for the weekend. 

Merseyrail provided sponsorship for our district line journeys to and from the mainline terminal.

No flies but one thing kept nagging me from the start. No, not the hazards and risks involved in taking fourteen sweet, innocent youngsters (I wish) into one of the busiest cities in the world, no, I had that covered with Risk Assessments, control measures and a supply of baby harnesses if necessary. Nor was there a chance of us getting lost, as a group I mean, the routes planned I had traveled many times previously over the years with my son. Nor was it the fact that to get back from the Tower of London to Euston Station, in time to catch our train home, we would have to negotiate a transport system that was subject to serious engineering works, which would potentially mean using London buses and walking between bus stops and Tube stations. No, that might make life interesting but it was not really going to be a problem, after all we are Scouts, so I’d print some maps off and give ourselves plenty of time.

No, what kept nagging me was this... what excuse, sorry, reason, did we have for going? How could I tie the trip into our balanced programme? I couldn’t very well say I was just taking the little mites out for the weekend, could I? Could I? No, there surely had to be a specific reason for the trip. Was there badge work we could tie into the trip?

I retrieved the “All you need to know about being a Cub Leader but were afraid to ask” manual from under the bed, and after dusting it down, I was disappointed to find there was no activity badge that the Cubs didn’t already have that I could tie into the trip. 

Stepping back and looking at what had been planned, a purpose for the visit jumped out at me; I had already incorporated a request in the covering letter for the parents/guardians to supply two disposable cameras for use during the trip, and the parents/guardians would sign the Parental Permission/Medical Form which had been suitably doctored to give us carte blanche to do whatever we wanted with any photographs taken. What if then, when we got back, we put together a display board or two using the best photographs taken by the Cubs and Scouts, together with a tempting description of the Group, it’s Sections and the meeting times, we could add some photographs of the summer camp, dress it up a bit and then ask our main Public Library to put the display up in their foyer, then, after a few weeks we could move the display around the local schools and hopefully drum up some new recruits for the Sections. That was it, a reason for going, a couple of weeks of the Cub programme sorted and, as for the Scouts who were going, there was always the Photographer Badge to work on.

I love it when a plan comes together, two nights in London, badge work, two weeks of programme sorted and the potential for more recruits, and all for the princely sum of £38 each.

Now, about next year… York, Edinburgh, Paris? Andy, would you have any objections if I....?

Click here to read what actually happened during our trip.

Return to Top of Page