How much I walked in London
(Visited 5525 times) Misc
Oct 112008
I walked around a lot. All over Clerkenwell (where my hotel was), doing a bit of a tour of locations from Oliver Twist. Over to Covent Garden the day of the unconference. Past the Barbican on the day of the SXSW party. And from Tower Hill to the South Bank and all the way across to Westminster Abbey, on the last day. Along the way I stopped in at The Tower of London, Southwark Cathedral, The Globe, and lots of other interesting locations. I have a kajillion photos, of course, but in the meantime, here’s a quick map of where I walked.
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6 Responses to “How much I walked in London”
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While you were walking past London Bridge (where the A3 tag is on the map) did you drop by “The Bridge” club? I hear there was a murder outside there on Sunday.
Richard
I thought the London Bridge fell down… 😉
I was just a kid when I was last in London, but I do remember the walking. I remember the pain!
I also remember getting lost downtown during a Jack the Ripper tour. We stopped at one of Jack’s ol’ haunts which was then and still is now an eatery. I wanted to get another bag of chips before continuing on the tour, so I did. When I looked back, the tour group was gone. They left me! Along with my dad and his coworker at the time! Poor me…
There I was, all alone in downtown London, just a kid. Most likely not even in my teens yet. I stepped out of the building, looked around, and the tour group was nowhere in sight. I ran down one street and back again. I stopped and asked the women on the street corner (who I later realized were working girls, which is why they were dressed so colorfully) if they had seen a tour group. They pointed in one direction, but that way lie a freakishly long crosswalk and lots of traffic.
And then they pointed in every other direction… So, I ran the direction that was opposite their first suggestion, and encountered a Londoner in a black suede or leather jacket. Initially, I didn’t want to ask him for help because, in California, a man of his image and style was likely to be the WRONG person, if you catch my drift.
Since at that point I had tears in my eyes, and I rationalized that Londoners are amazingly friendly — in a previous experience, I was bilked out of several pounds by a 16-year-old who politely asked for money to catch the bus and thanked me — I figured what the heck. The guy turned out to be quite heroic in his attitude toward the situation and walked with me back to the eatery. I could tell he really wanted to return this lost Yank to his father. (He might have been a pimp, too, so he might have just not wanted a little kid bringing the cops around…)
I then saw my dad and his coworker, and the tour group, returning from the other side of the freakishly long crosswalk. When they arrived at my position, my dad was oblivious. He asked, “How did you like the tour?” *sigh* I told him that I was left behind. “Oh, sorry about that, kiddo!” *sigh again*
I never thanked the man in black. I regret not doing so though. He left as soon as he saw he was successful.
Anyway, yeah, London and walking…
I remember a couple of long walks in London as well. One of my favourites probably is from the Camden Lock along the canal to Primrose Hill, enjoy the view and maybe a picnic. Then on to either Kilburn (where I used to live) or heading south through Regents Park and Marylebone Road.
Although most of the time it was by bike that I was trying to discover London – where you can cover more ground in the same time (Hampstead Heath is great with a mountain bike).
Over at my project (Tagcrumbs) we’re trying to build an app that’ll let you remember great places and share them (and stories similar to Richard’s or Morgan’s) with others. Photos are great (looking forward to seeing some of those) but I believe that people would love to share a story to a place.
Hey, you could have dropped by for lunch!! (we had roast lamb)
Right by St Pauls.
Massively just had a headline that was the title of a Concrete Blonde song and you were so close to having another. My mind would have been blown.
Conversely, if you start walking places in this neck of the Texan woods, you tend to get stopped by cops: partly because you often have to find ways to navigate long stretches without sidewalk, but also just because some places seem to consider their sidewalks ornamental.
In terms of your walk, it sounds like a veritable map of my last few jobs before I left England — the Guardian, Granada TV, news int, etc.
But I have to say, my favorite city for walking is still Amsterdam. It has a density and a bumpkin like me can understand and almost everywhere you turn there is a truly fine-dining restaurant experience to be had.