New Years Day. Evening home alone. Spontaneously absconded on the Overground to Crouch Hill. 25 minutes from the sofa to a new reality. Down Crouch Hill, Ally Pally glowing luminous green on the other side of the valley. The clock tower draws up the energy radiating from the ley line junction (according to legend) on Crouch End Broadway. Flashback Records. Late night newsagents with window full of drug paraphernalia. The Kings Head where I did stand-up (twice at least). Back up Crouch Hill to a decent pint in The Robin and back on the train to Leyton.
What an incredible year of walking 2024 was. From the ancient Black Path linking Walthamstow to Shoreditch to the various secrets of the City of London, the London Loop and the Capital Ring, the Suffolk and Sussex coasts, the Essex and Buckinghamshire countryside, the Eastern edge of London and the inner West at Paddington. I walked Roman Stane Street and Tudor London, lost rivers at Islington, Clerkenwell, Kensal Green to Chelsea and so much more. And we even went on a trip to Northampton to see the great Alan Moore with Iain Sinclair. Thank you so much for all your support throughout the year. Here’s to a great year of walks in 2025.
Some Talks and Events in 2024
John Rogers and Iain Sinclair at Hatchards PiccadillyPatreon Walk – February 2024What on Earth is Psychogeography at the Wanstead Tap Tell Tale Rooms with Andrew Kötting at UCA FarnhamLost Rivers of Waltham Forest talk at FillebrookPhoto by Mark RileyNation Park City talk – Fleet Street – photo by https://www.instagram.com/liams_artBrilliant artwork by Liam O’Farrell from the event Pariah Genius talk with Iain Sinclair at the Wanstead Tap – photo by https://www.instagram.com/tanianxtDalloway Day talk with Matthew Beaumont at Hatchards Bookshop PiccadillyPhilley Brook / Fillybrook Walk with Compiler for Beneath our FootstepsCranbrook Walk Valentines Park for Transition Ilford – watch video here Woodbridge Ambient Music Festival – Sebald Rings of Saturn talk Woodbridge Ambient Music Festival – Sebald Rings of Saturn talkThe Black Path launch at Broadway BookshopThe Black Path Talk Wanstead Tap.Lost World of the River Roding screening at A House for Artists, Barking In conversation with Iain Sinclair at Wanstead Fringe Festival
Two suggestions in a recent Q&A video led to great East London day out.
I started with a walk from the Gurney obelisk on Stratford Broadway to the Black Lion pub in Plaistow to meet Tweedy Pubs, an 18th century coaching inn. It is indeed a great pub, an authentic London boozer as had been suggested with excellent cask ale. After our pint we started our stroll and Tweedy pointed out a couple of lost pubs – The Coach and Horses, and The Greyhound. I’d passed another lost pub on the way to the Black Lion, The Railway Tavern opposite Plaistow tube station. Tweedy talked about Plaistow resident Luke Howard who came up with the naming convention for clouds, although in the comments people are very keen to point out that Howard is claimed by Tottenham with a blue plaque to seal the association.
We then walked through Plaistow Park and discussed some of the history of Plaistow from Thomas Burke’s enthusiastic description of Plastovians in the 1920s to the grand houses that once marked this marshy lowland including homes of the Earl of Essex and the Duke of Cumberland. Our meander took us to the site of a former tramway garage just off Tunmarsh Lane. Then we parted company on Barking Road where I signed copies of my new publication The Black Path at Newham Bookshop.
From the bookshop I walked through the backstreets of Plaistow to West Ham Park where I delved into the history of this fantastic London park which is celebrating its 150 year anniversary this year. Once the home of Dr Fothergill at Ham House, it was bought by the Gurney family from Norwich in the 18th Century and then eventually purchased by the Corporation of London in 1874 to be preserved as a public park. The park keeper’s whistle ended my autumn stroll around Plaistow and West Ham Park and I made my way over the railway tracks and up Odessa Road for a pint in Leytonstone to round off a fantastic day.
About twenty years ago I collected the whole set of free Capital Ring leaflets from Thornhill Square Library in Islington. We used to go there for the ‘Stay and Play’ sessions in the basement and to use the Children’s Library. But as these things often transpire I didn’t actually use the maps until early March 2020 when I walked from Richmond Bridge to Horsenden Hill (Walks 7, 8 and part of 9). It was a great walk. I didn’t go back onto the Capital Ring until February 2023 when I did the glorious stroll from Crystal Palace to Streatham Common (Walk 4). So the other Sunday, with a light rain moistening the golden leaf-fall, seemed like the perfect time to make a run to London’s inner orbital walking trail.
The Capital Ring is the kid sibling of the London Loop – 78 miles compared to the Loop’s 150 miles divided into 15 sections rather than 24. And a key point is that they’re much closer to Central London making each section much more accessible. The season seemed to beckon me back to Crystal Palace but to walk in the opposite direction towards Grove Park (Walk 3). With the leaflet as my guide I circuited Crystal Palace Park, paid homage to the dinosaurs before heading out along Penge High Street. I could barely have chosen a more perfect suburban autumn perambulation as the route drew me across Alexandra Park, down Old Farm Lane, traversing Cator Park where the Chaffinch Brook and the River Beck flow, before I ended my Capital Ring excursion on the heights of Beckenham Place Park with its grand manor house and views out over Kent and Surrey.
How long will it be before I return to the Capital Ring, I have no idea. I still have a short section of the London Loop to complete, but there’s no hurry. The Thornhill Square leaflets on top of my bookshelf aren’t going anywhere and will wait patiently till I’m stuck for an idea for a walk and remember they’re up there looking down at me.
It feels apt to be posting the blog on the day of the launch of my text, The Black Path, in the London Adventure series published by The Three Imposters. Walking the Philley Brook (Filly Brook, Fillebrook) with the brilliant Compilerzone in August that sound artist Brigitte Hart put me in touch with a friend who had pushed his cheese barrow along the length of the Black Path. What a great story. The conversation with Berto the Cheese Merchant turned to the matter of the Angel, and Berto mentioned Stephen Myers book, Walking on Water, which maps one source of the Walbrook rising in Islington and roughly following the course of City Road before making its confluence with the eastern branch of the Walbrook around Curtain Road. Berto placed the source outside the public toilets in White Conduit Street. Wow! This blog has its origins, twenty years ago, in that very terrain when I lived opposite the site of White Conduit House and became obsessed with the pleasure gardens of the area and their associated springs and wells. I had never come across any references to the Walbrook rising at the Angel, despite walking the City of London’s principal lost river twice. I had to explore further.
White Conduit House in 1820 from Old and New LondonWhite Conduit House in 1827Site of White Conduit House
This walk follows the first section of the walk in Chapter 1 of my book This Other London which starts at the majestic Gunnersbury Park in West London. The Park was originally the grounds of Gunnersbury House, a Georgian mansion built for King George III’s aunt Princess Amelia. Today it’s home to Gunnersbury Museum and the house is open to the public.
We then walk along the ‘Golden Mile’ – a strip of the A4 Great West Road running through Brentford that from the 1920’s became an industrial centre for a number of household names and famous for its Art Deco architecture. Some of the companies based there included Smiths Crisps, Gillette, Currys, Beachams, and Firestone Tyres.
Our walk ends at the Gillette Building on Gillette Corner.
