And the view’s so nice (Tuesdays 18 & 25 August 2009)

Right boys and girls open up your copies of walk britain – Great Views at page 46. You should be looking at walk 04 – Fleet on Foot – Parliament Hill. Come on be quick about it we haven’t got all day you know.  Being 13 km (or just over 8 of your English miles) I decided to divide the walk into 2 halves and lead them successive Tuesday evenings in August for the Metropolitan Walkers as part of their evening strolls programme. Seemed like a popular choice ‘cos over 70 walkers turned up on each walk.

The Great Views book does far more justice to the complete walk than I’m capable of so these are just a very few highlights. I had to alter the walk (slightly) to accommodate the halfway break and the fact that almost the day after the book was published them London Underground people went and closed Blackfriars station for an extended period. So we kicked off at Temple tube station and managed to get all mixed up with some fee paying historic pub walk. (We had more punters though – 1-0 to the Met Walkers.) First stop was Inner and Middle Temple (along with Lincolns & Grays Inns they form the 4 Inns of Court) – crazy but very interesting places. L.P Hartley’s opening lines of the Go-Between: “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there” seems particularly apt here. The actual Temple, made famous lately by Dan Brown and his Da Vinci Code Templar rubbish, is a non-royal peculiar (it’s complicated so it’d be easier if you look it up). The 4 Inns of Court are all ‘Liberties of London’. (And you all thought the recent Madness album The Liberty of Norton Folgate was about some bloke with a funny name.) It all seemed much more real when we crossed Fleet Street and looked at a statue of a cat. It’s a very fine statue of a ‘very fine cat’ though.

Near the end of this evening’s stroll we walked the gauntlet of the Somers Town crew (well 6 or 7 of them). Finding themselves vastly outnumbered (and maybe outgunned) by over 70 mostly middle-class walkers invading their ‘hood, they could only muster a muttered “f***in’ foreigners” insult as we wandered by. Strictly speaking this was true because none of us (as far as I knew) lived in Somers Town but come on you kids of today you can do better than that surely. We finished up in the appropriately named Crescent in Mornington Crescent. (I’d’ve preferred the Anchor in Hope but it just ain’t big enough for a crowd this size.)

It all started again a week later just outside the tube station. We re-traced our steps a little way and heading for Regents Canal we passed through St Pancras Old Church. This is one of my favourite places in London as well as being a paradise for goths. (Is that an oxymoron?). Once upon a time found nestling on the banks of the Fleet it is reputed to be the oldest church in Britain if not the oldest of all Christian churches. That’s not why I like it – oh no. These days it’s right next to the railway and close to a bust road. It’s all its literary, musical and historic connections that does it for me. That and the fact that this corner of London seems to be able to withstand, evolve and survive everything life throws at it. From religious massacre to concreting over the Fleet or the Georgian canal builders and Victorian railway developers to Luftwaffe bombers. There’s the Shelleys (and Mary’s mum Mary Wollstonecraft) right through to a Hey Jude Beatles photo-shoot – there are just too many interesting facts to start listing here.  Oh yeah it’s also got one of Baroness Burdett-Coutts’ obelisks. (This one’s got a sun dial as well.)

We joined the Regents Canal and ambled our way through Camden Market up to Primrose Hill. We hear a lot about re-generation and the gentrifying nowadays but boy has this part of London changed in my lifetime. It’s home to the current Foreign Secretary as well as various rock and film stars. (Remember that next time Noel Gallagher is being all street and reminding us about cockneys trying to hail cabs in Moss Side.) ‘And the view’s so nice’. In case you don’t notice because you’re marvelling at how many £millions Chris something and Gwyneth thingy have paid for their house some local’s helpfully painted the very same Blur lyric on one of the paths leading to the summit.

Departing in the gathering gloom I kept furtively looking round to make sure Jude Law and his Primrose Hill posse weren’t challenging us for trespassing on their turf. They were a total no-show. It was lucky we took the time to look at London’s sights ‘cos it was so dark when we got to Hampstead Heath we decided to give Parliament Hill a miss a head straight for the Flask. It’s important though that we don’t dismiss the Heath so quickly. Much as it pains me, a south-east London boy, to say it but Hampstead Heath is probably London’s favourite patch of open green space. It didn’t come easily and conservation success was mainly down to one of the founders of the Ramblers – Sir Lawrence Chubb. Along with Arthur Crosfield he formed the Kenwood Preservation Council back in the early 20th century and continually thwarted the grasping hordes of developers eager to get their greedy little hands on the plentiful open spaces. He tirelessly lobbied politicians as well as purchasing strategic pockets of the heath. It gladdens your heart to see what you can achieve with innovative and persistent campaigning. (Aah those were the days!) I raised a glass to Sir Lawrence and all the other environmental campaigners past and present while standing outside the Flask in the warm summer evening.

The next evening stroll I’ll be leading is in October – part of the Films on Foot programme. It starts at Vauxhall tube station at 7pm on Wednesday 14 October. Everybody’s welcome.

More information
OS Map used – 173 London North
Pay less when you order this map here: http://www.ramblers.org.uk/fundraising/shop/anquet-map.htm

Walk Britain – Great Views http://www.ramblers.org.uk/walkbritain/
Receive a copy FREE http://www.ramblers.org.uk/membership/about/joinand-share-the-joy.htm

To view the route:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_route?r=512125183856714958

Useful links:
o The Ramblers    http://www.ramblers.org.uk/
o Ordnance Survey   http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/
o Metropolitan Walkers   http://www.metropolitan-walkers.org.uk/
o Pub walks    http://www.discovery-walks.com/
o Inns of Court    http://www.barcouncil.org.uk/about/innsofcourt/
o Non-royal peculiar   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Peculiar
o Liberties    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_(division)
o Hodge     http://www.moggies.co.uk/stories/finecat.html
o The Crescent    http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/show.shtml/26/
o Hope & Anchor   http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub3009.html
o St Pancras Old Church
http://www.londontown.com/LondonInformation/Worship/St._Pancras_Old_Church/509f/
o Baroness Burdett-Coutts  http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/EDburdett.htm
o Regents Canal   http://www.waterscape.com/canals-and-rivers/regents-canal
o Primrose Hill    http://www.primrosehillvillage.com/
o Hampstead Heath   http://hampsteadheath.net/
o Parliament Hill    http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/sevenwonders/london/parliament_hill/
o The Flask    http://www.theflaskhampstead.co.uk/
o Fleet River    http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/Fleet/

Listen to:

Blur – For Tomorrow (Visit To Primrose Hill Extended)

The Go-Betweens – Streets of Your Town

Movie Sounds Unlimited – Chevaliers De Sangreal (From The Da Vinci Code)

Madness – We Are London

Billy Bragg – Upfield – Demo

Madness – We Are London

Saint Etienne – Parliament Hill
Sandie Shaw – Those Were The Days