Walking Class Hero: Up the Junction

Welcome to Walking Class Hero a regular blog about walking and the walking environment. Whether you like walking on your own, with friends or in an organised group this blog will cover it. It’ll embrace walking in cities and towns and villages. Walking in the countryside and along the coast and up hills and down dales. Walking through parks and by rivers and across heath and down and moor. It’ll comment on public rights of way, access to open country, permissive paths, public urban space and countryside protection. Basically if you can walk there it’ll be in this blog.

Up the Junction (Tuesday 7 April 2009)

Londonwide (now when exactly did we start saying that?) people make 7 million journeys on foot every day. Walking is an important means of travel in its own right and accounts for about a quarter of all London’s journeys. Of course many of these walks are made to connect with other forms of transport like the bus or tube but nevertheless that’s a lot of walking. Many of these journeys, however, are made simply for pleasure.

Walking brings with it significant health benefits and more people walking more places makes for a better environment. Women make more trips than men (but I don’t know whether that means they walk further) and it is estimated that 20% of walking trips are made for leisure. Oh yes, and as well as it being fun, it’s free.

 This evening I’m standing at the top of the stairs of exit 2 from Vauxhall Underground station joining over 30 other people from the Metropolitan Walkers for a short stroll alongside the Thames to Clapham Junction. As Wikipedia says: “Vauxhall is an inner city area of south London in the London Borough of Lambeth”. Well you can say that again! It’s a major transport hub, famous (or infamous) these days for the modernist bus station and because of that, the tube and the mainline station for many Londoners it’s just a place of transit and an ugly one at that. The forbidding MI6 building looms large on the skyline and just across the river are the Houses of Parliament. Which means as well as spooks, Vauxhall is home (or second home) to many MPs and senior civil servants. The abundance of public transport means it provides a very convenient location to start a London stroll.

The Metropolitan Walkers (or Met Walkers as I like to call them) hold a London evening stroll each and every Tuesday beginning at 7 pm. They start and finish at places with public transport available and mostly end with a trip to a local pub. This evening’s leader, Clare, had the idea for these strolls about 4 years ago and still leads a couple on each programme. The Met Walkers was formed in 2001, is based in London, aimed at people in their 20s, 30s & early 40s and currently has over 1200 members. It offers at least 5 walks a week (many outside London) – from evening strolls to Ben Nevis the hard way and all possibilities in between.

From Vauxhall bus station the group head straight for the river. For the next half an hour or so the horizon is dominated by Battersea Power Station. Designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, he’s also responsible for red telephone boxes (younger readers might want to ask an adult what these were for and why we needed them), it was built in the 1930’s and is the largest brick building in Europe. Following its de-commission in the early 1980’s the site has become something of a London cultural icon, famous for being on the cover of Pink Floyd’s album Animals (younger readers might want to ask an adult who Pink Floyd were and why we needed them) and more recently promoting The Simpsons Movie.

Passing Battersea Dogs Home we enter Battersea Park. Still hugging the river we can see the Albert Bridge twinkling prettily in the distance. Someone tells me it featured prominently in Sliding Doors but I was busy trying to recall who recorded Misty Morning, Albert Bridge. (I checked later – the Pogues in 1989.) Once past Albert Bridge you can see the Chelsea Harbour development on the opposite bank.

Very soon (just before the heliport) we turn left away from the river and thread our way inland towards Clapham Junction station. Before the railways arrived in 1838 coaches on the way to Guilford stopped here but it was a largely rural area famous for growing lavender. Strictly speaking it’s situated in Battersea but, so the story goes, the railway companies keen to attract upper and middle class patrons opted to name the station after the more affluent area of Clapham about a mile away. It still has a rough around the edges feel to it and I’m reminded of some lyrics from Saint Etienne’s Finisterre:

“Around here It’s hoods up and heads down”.

We finish at the junction of St John’s and Lavender hills, about 100 metres from the station, for a drink at The Falcon. A pub has been on this site for at least a couple of centuries and its oak panelled and mirrored interior transports you back to a bygone age. I’m thankful I’m not one of those folk who get all misty-eyed at the mere mention of a steam train as I’m able to beat my way to the bar first and beat the rush.

This walk is about 4 miles long and took a leisurely couple of hours. If this sounds like your sort of thing give the Metropolitan Walkers a try. In fact why not come along to any of these walks I’ll be leading in the near future:

Thursday 30 April/Slow Down London – Vauxhall to Borough – 7 pm @ exit 1 Vauxhall Station
Tuesday 26 May/Doing the Lambeth Walk – Lambeth to Peckham – 7 pm @ Lambeth North Station
Saturday 30 May/Get Walking Day – Tower Hill to Greenwich – 11 am @ Tower Hill Station

More information:

OS Map used – Explorer 161 London South
Pay less when you order this map here: http://www.ramblers.org.uk/fundraising/shop/anquet-map.htm

See the route here: http://www.mapmyrun.com/walk/united-kingdom/battersea/417123979967939371

Useful links:
o The Ramblers     http://www.ramblers.org.uk/
o Metropolitan Walkers   http://www.metropolitan-walkers.org.uk/ 
o Get Walking Day   http://www.ramblers.org.uk/campaigns/GWD.htm
o Slow Down London    http://slowdownlondon.co.uk/
o Ordnance Survey   http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/
o Vauxhall on Wikipedia   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall
o Battersea Power Station   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battersea_Power_Station
o Albert Bridge on Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Bridge,_London
o Clapham Junction on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapham_Junction 
o The Falcon    http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/29/295/ 

Listen to:
http://www.last.fm/music/Squeeze/_/Up+the+Junction
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Pogues/_/Misty+Morning%2C+Albert+Bridge
http://www.last.fm/music/Saint+Etienne/_/Finisterre