So what's this all about then?
Well, back in February 2001 there was a discussion on (void) about walking around London, in which we talked about viewpoints, Suicide Bridge, and London Walking, a book by Simon Pope. One chapter of this is what he called a 'constrained walk', where he walked along a single row of the London A-Z from dawn until dusk.
Some people on (void) and London.pm thought this was a good idea, so we walked for 20 miles through the city. It was tiring, but sort of fun.
Within a couple of months there was talk of doing another walk, so I set up a mailing list (rather than involving a list or two in discussions they'd not be caring about). In my usual punning way, we called it crisps.
What walks have you done?
So far, we've done a few:
- 2001-03-18: Constrained Walk North-South
- From Muswell Hill to Croydon
- 2001-05-28: Circle Line
- King's Cross to King's Cross clockwise
- 2001-07-08: Regent's Canal
- Warwick Avenue to Limehouse
- 2001-10-27: London Wall mini-cheddar
- London Bridge to Blackfriars Bridge
- 2002-03-17: Constrained Walk East-West
- Mile End to North Acton
- 2002-04-21: Hawksmoor mini-cheddar
- Holborn to Limehouse via Hawksmoor's churches
- 2002-06-17: London Derive
- Around Russell Square
- 2002-09-21: Open House
- City / Southwark / Rotherhithe
- 2002-10-20: Suffragette City
- Albert Hall to Houses of Parliament
- 2002-11-10: Highwalks and Parks
- The Barbican to Lloyds of London
Um, what's a mini-cheddar?
A mini-cheddar is a shorter walk than the original all-day walks. The idea came about during the east-west walk, which had a much smaller turnout than the much shorter London Wall walk which preceeded it, as I realised that more short walks would probably encourage people to come along.
Since then we've done one shorter walk, touring some of Hawksmoor's churches, and we plan to do more.
What's next?
London Open House 2004 is on the weekend of 18-19 September, and there may be walkers around it.
Any other plans coming up?
There's been talk of a Bloomsbury academic walk, one following blue plaques and another looking at statues. Feel free to join the mailing list and contribute ideas and organisation.
You mentioned something about a mailing list...
Oh yes, there's one of those. Visit the Mailman subscription options page to subscribe or change your options.
There are also now list archives from May 2001, when crisps really got started, to September 2004, when it was belatedly resurrected after a server move.
Anything else?
Well, if you have any further unanswered questions join the list and I'll see what I can do.