Walking the London Orbital Path – London Loop Section 5

Walking London Loop Section 5 from Coulsdon South to Hamsey Green in the London Borough of Croydon

I’m finally back on the London Loop for the first time since February 2020, picking up at Coulsdon South and walking Section 5 to Hamsey Green. The London Loop is a 150-mile orbital path around London divided into 24 sections. I started on Section 17 at Enfield back in January 2018 and have been walking the London Loop clockwise, in the opposite direction.

Section 5 is one of the must picturesque so far passing across a chain of Commons managed by the City of London – Farthing Downs, Coulsdon Common, Kenley Common, and Riddlesdown. We also pass through Devilsden Wood, Happy Valley, RAF Kenley, Riddlesdown Quarry, and Betts Mead.

The Ramblers are celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the London Loop in September 2021 with a Love your Loop event – more info here

The Pleasure of Discovery psychogeography podcast

Radio Wolfgang on Wanstead Flats

It was a great pleasure to work with Radio Wolfgang on the production of this podcast as part of their Good Nature series. We used the device of the algorithmic psychogeographic dérive to talk about how to unlock the ‘unknown facets of the known’ (in the words of Greil Marcus) and explore the world around you anew.

I first came across the idea of the algorithmic dérive via Wilfried Hou Je Bek some time around 2002 and it proved very useful in generating community participation in the Remapping High Wycombe project (2004-05). It was subsequently used in a psychogeographic intervention in artist Bob and Roberta Smith’s 2015 General Election campaign and became the subject of one of his paintings that ended up in a feature in Elle Decor.

You can download the podcast here