Step into the walk The London Walker newsletter is here!
Welcome to The London Walker Community
Dear subscribers, walkers, explorers, participants, friends, Romans, countrymen, flâneurs and history nerds lend me your ears!
Welcome to The London Walker Spring March newsletter. I’m thrilled to have you step along with me as we explore the best of London’s streets, parks and unexpected nooks and cranny’s. And the weather is mostly delightful! So never a better time to lace up your walking shoes and head out on to the street.
New Walks: THIS SATURDAY a walk exploring Rebels and Radicals.
Starting this Saturday 22 March 10.30am, and running through on dates till May, join me with an explore of Clerkenwell and Smithfield, seemingly a magical conduit for all sorts of revolutionaries, alternative thinkers and dissidents, Rebels and Radicals and a brief history of English activism.
We’ll be exploring two key areas in the history of social reform: the site of the climactic final day of the Peasants’ Revolt, and the Green where some of the first mass demonstrations of working people were held. Along the way, we’ll encounter an array of wonderful local rebels and radicals.
Please come along it would be great to see you, t-shirt weather not necessarily guaranteed!
More walks soon to be released so keep an eye on the walks page which has had a refresh and looks rather lovely.
Articles and Blogs: I’m starting to do some extensive and rather pleasant research into the London Cafe. The mighty greasy spoon, the king Cafe of Cafes. Not a quaint little country place selling scones with a view of some lost castle, no we are talking of the bacon and eggs, sticky floor, plastic chair variety which you can find in most towns and cities on this fair Isle’s.
The cafe is a unique British institution. This is the place where you eat alongside every possible element of society, a plasterer or builder, a lawyer, teacher, off duty policeman, a gang of spotty students: all, once they have passed through the door and the misty condensation of the heavy windows, are at once viewed as equals. Venerable followers of the greasy spoon.
In a country stacked with class and endless issues of identity, the cafe is a hallowed zone of neutrality. Nothing matters. Everyone is equal. The only thing of importance is brown or tomato sauce, coffee or tea (with tea bag left in the mug obviously) and a stack of tottering heavily buttered toast. Its where you must come to get a sense of a place and its community. Long live the cafe.
In the coming weeks, I will explore some very quintessential cafes of London and report back on what I find.
Video homepage on YouTube: More videos this month. I’ve finally sucked in my chest, manned up, and stepped in front of the camera to present short stories of places and their history. I put them up on instagram and they went a little mad there. Which is great news. More coming soon. Here’s the first two below, a short intro and the East End and the other a look at one of the oldest things in the city. I do hope you enoy them.
Happy walking,
The London Walker
The London Walker 
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