Where I started walking around London.

This is Newman Passage, the alleyway that links Rathbone Street with Newman Street in London’s Fitzrovia.

It dates back to 1746. In the late 19th Century it housed a co-operative kitchen for communist refugees. I knew it from the late 20th Century where it featured in the title sequence of ‘Minder’ where Arthur and Terry are seen holding up a bent lamppost.

I got to know Newman Passage twenty seven years ago. In 1989 I was on work experience as a ‘runner’ at a film & TV production company, Holmes Associates right across the street at 10–16 Rathbone Street. In 1990 I joined Holmes Associates as a full-time member of staff, going on to work on a number of television series. But first I paid my dues as a runner, ferrying video tapes and packages around Soho and Fitzrovia. Newman Passage provided a favourite shortcut to destinations such as BBC Broadcasting House and ITN (when it was based on Wells Street). The alleyway also divided two lunch destinations: Yum Yums sandwich shop to the left (‘Anyfink else??’ they used to sing out from behind the counter) and The Newman Arms on the right, home to a great pie restaurant upstairs and a decent pub downstairs.

And this is me in Newman Passage in 2016, looking up at the building on Rathbone Street where I started my career. All these years after taking tapes around these streets, I now take clients on my ‘Fuel Safari’ walk-and-talk coaching sessions here, helping people make changes in their work lives, getting back in touch with ‘the real them’, finding their fuel…

There are no pies, but we do stop for a decent coffee.

Find out more here http://iansanders.com/coaching