Walking Class Hero – Slowing Down London
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.
Slowing Down London (Thursday 30 April 2009)
Slow Down London is a new project to inspire Londoners to challenge the cult of speed and to appreciate the world around us. One of the things suggested is that we should ‘look up and around’ more. As their blurb says: ‘Rushing around the city we often forget to see what is around us’ – too true mate. All this made the Ramblers a perfect partner in the Slow Down London project and they led many walks during the couple of weeks it was up and running.
Beginning at Vauxhall (see past blog Up the Junction for a description of the area) this evening’s walk headed east along the south bank of the Thames. I was leading the walk and getting into the spirit of it quickly (or should that be slowly?) I got so slow I stopped. The 28 or so walkers in the group got used to this by the end of the evening as I often stop on the walks I lead and give a short commentary on sights.
Vauxhall to Borough is a route that features prominently in the Metropolitan Walkers’ programmes – it was either the 1st or 2nd evening stroll that was put on by the group and there’s been a couple of film location themed strolls as well. (Hmmm funnily enough I led all those too.) Soon we were stopping again – this time just before the underpass at Westminster Bridge to point out the space invader. This street art was new to me but is all over the world with quite a few examples here in London. By now it was just after 7.30 pm and although not quite sunset the next stretch of the south bank takes you past Waterloo Bridge and put me in mind of the Kinks’ song Waterloo Sunset. If you fancy doing this walk on your own or with friends it’s definitely worth a slight detour to look at the view from Waterloo Bridge and it’s even better at sunset.
Not much further on is the street skateboarding park situated beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall. At first sight this seems all frenetic motion accompanied by wooden clacks, raucous cheers and high fives. On closer examination however most of the participants are actually standing around admiring their companions’ ‘ollies’ or watching the commuters scurry past while they wait for their next skate. It’s a great part of London full of verve and life and owes everything to enthusiastic people and nothing to local government who keep trying to close it or strangle it with rules and regulations.
The walk continued, with plentiful stops, along the south bank to Borough Market. I’m told this is one of the largest food markets in the world. The wholesale part goes on between 2 am and 8 am when most normal people are asleep but it’s probably here that you see celebrity chefs buying their incredibly fresh produce for their latest culinary creations. We finished up in The George Inn which is tucked away on a cobbled courtyard just off Borough High Street. This is London’s only surviving galleried inn and I think it’s owned by the National Trust.
These short sedate London strolls are very popular and if they sound to your liking why not pop along to a Ramblers Get Walking Day Walk on Saturday 30 May. Indeed I’ll be leading a 7.5 km stroll one that goes from Tower Hill tube station to Greenwich. We start at 11 am and everybody is welcome. (I anticipate this walk will end by 2 pm at the latest. This’ll give you plenty of time to go shopping in the local market or join me in a pub to watch Chelsea beat Everton in the FA Cup Final.)
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
Useful links:
o The Ramblers http://www.ramblers.org.uk/
o Slow Down London http://slowdownlondon.co.uk/
o Get Walking Day http://www.ramblers.org.uk/campaigns/GWD.htm
o Metropolitan Walkers http://www.metropolitan-walkers.org.uk/
o Ordnance Survey http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/
o Skateboarding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skateboarding
o space invaders http://www.space-invaders.com/
o George Inn http://www.pubs.com/pub_details.cfm?ID=187
Listen to:
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Kinks/_/Waterloo+Sunset
- This entry was posted on: Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 10:06 am
- Filed under: Blogs
- Tags: football, Get Walking Day, music, Skate boarders, Slow Down London, Street art, Up the Junction, Walking Class Hero, Waterloo
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