08.29.03
Free London walks
Timing is all.
I made the brilliant decision last night to stop off on the way home to do a little shopping in the centre of London.
Three and a half hours later, I got home, having walked nearly all of the way from Bond Street station to East Dulwich. (I did managed to find space on a bus from Elephant and Castle to Camberwell Green because, well, if you can’t find a bus at the Infanta, you’re really not trying very hard.)
And you know what? Despite all the rain, the overcrammed buses whizzing past bus stops, the fights at said bus stops, the umbrellas in the eye, the general lack of information and the many pinstriped fools acting as though the sky had fallen in because they couldn’t find a taxi to hail, despite all that, it was rather enjoyable.
An unexpected opportunity for a long city walk, carving a route from North West to South East, having almost normal human contact with Londoners along the way.
It almost humanised the place, broke, for a while, its pretence of being an unnavigably complex automatised system.
The unexpected laughs, such as walking down the Strand past a hundred or so gridlocked black cabs in a row, didn’t hurt either.
Laura-Ann said,
August 30, 2003 at 7:31 pm
Not being a Londoner, I don’t really know what it has to offer, so, would you recommend a walk through various parts of London that are gridlocked, with people fighting for seats, poking each other with umbrellas etc…?
I’m going to London to meet with a friend in two weeks, and my first 45 minutes will be spent on the tube between Morden and King’s Cross, I’m sure walking is more enlightening. (At least you don’t need a permit to photograph on the street).
Jon said,
September 1, 2003 at 10:01 am
Under the circumstances, walking was by far the least offensive option, I assure you. Even in the bucketing rain.
As for walking in London, the big thing is to remember is that the tube map is a big fat lie. I’ve linked to it before, but this gives some idea. If you’ve got an hour to spare, the centre of town is very walkable (Tottenham Court Road station to Waterloo should take no more than 20 minutes), and the map disguises where stations on different lines pass close by one another.
Morden to Kings Cross, however, would take you all day. Learn to love the tube. It’s the only way.