Located in the heart of the St. James' Gate Brewery, the Guinness Storehouse has been home to the black stuff since 1759.
We were eager to learn a bit more about the thoughts, ideas and work life of a Guinness Storehouse Tour Guide so we caught up with Christopher, who told us everything we wanted to find out...
What do you love most about your work?
Well interacting with people mainly; you get to see a good few people everyday and just generally talking to them is great fun. A lot of people would be here for the first time and it’s great to get chatting to them. Or even people who have been here before but who don’t remember everything – it’s great to bring them on the tour and to tell them the stories of Guinness.
What is the most exciting thing to ever happen to you in work?
I’ve had a few exciting moments! I suppose the Queen coming to visit would be top of the list. Now, I didn’t get to deal with her directly myself but I was involved in the preparation for the visit and other than that I guess the day we had Mark Zuckerberg in was very exciting also. We brought him around and he got his pint!
Have you always been interested in working in this type of role?
Yeah, I have actually. I studied tourism in college so it’s the area I wanted to end up in and working here in the Guinness Storehouse is ideal.
If Hollywood made a movie about your life, who would you like to see play the lead role?
Em, it’s hard to say, well actually no it’s not that hard really! I suppose I’m a big, loud guy so somebody like Jack Black or Jason Segel.
What’s the strangest thing that has ever happened to you in work?
I had a customer who came in, and I was doing a tour for the group. The customer came up to me at the end of the tour and said “I think I know you”. It turned out she’d actually gone to school with my mother…small world.
What cheers you up when you are having a tough day in work?
It’s great when someone comes up to you and says they had a lovely tour and they really enjoyed their day. Or just a generally thank you is great to hear when you’re having a tough day and it really cheers you up.
When you were a child did you always dream of being a Tour Guide?
No, I won’t lie; I wanted to be Batman like every other child! But as I got older and started working in bars and nightclubs I became very interested in the whole hospitality and tourism sector. Hence, I went off to study tourism in college.
If you weren’t a Tour Guide what would you be?
I don’t know, I suppose I’d do a lot of travelling. Possibly something like my role now, but with more focus on travel. That would be really exciting aswell!