When Ian Fagelson made it into Trip Advisor’s top ten of London tour guides at the start of the year, business was booming for the North Londoner’s charitable enterprise, benefiting Norwood and World Jewish Relief.

But then the pandemic came and “everything stopped. I had spent years building my reputation and client base but was ready to give it all up. Then I had an idea. What if I could do a walking tour without any walking?”

Now he has launched a digital tour — London’s Jews: A Thousand Years of History in One Hour. It starts with the arrival of a small community from Normandy in 1066 and ends at the Kindertransport statue on the forecourt of Liverpool Street station.

The first virtual walk took place last week and the 68-year-old former lawyer was delighted when 133 people from nine countries joined him on his Zoom journey, donating £5,000 to his chosen charities.

For New Yorker Eugene Gershteyn, participating was some compensation for a cancelled family trip to England.

He explained that he had contacted Mr Fagelson after seeing a story about him on the JC website in February. “Together, we came up with a detailed itinerary, of which the highlight was to be his Jewish history tour.

“We were bitterly disappointed to have to cancel our vacation — and especially the walks. Ian let us know about the virtual tour and my wife and I thought we would give it a try.

“It absolutely blew me away. I learned so much about Jewish history and it was almost as good as being there in person. We loved it so much we’ve convinced the rest of our vacation group to sign up for the next one.”

They won’t have long to wait as the New North London Synagogue member’s next virtual adventure is on Sunday.

norwood.org.uk/historyvirtualtour