Walk London - Our Led Walks

Here's some feedback from our last free led walking weekend. We would love to hear your expereince if you came: either add it to the Visitors' Book or email info@walklondon.org.uk.

On the 27 and 28 September 2008 Walk London, with funding from Transport for London, held the fourth in our series of free led walking weekends. Autumn Ambles included 40 free guided walks covering every section of the 360 mile Strategic Walk Network (SWN) in London and over 450 people turned out to enjoy a rare sunny weekend.

From 24 sections of the ‘M25 for walkers’ to choose from (the London LOOP), or 15 sections of the inner orbital Capital Ring, a ‘mega walk’ of 21 miles of the 40 mile South East Green Chain, or a stroll down the Lea Valley or along the Thames, to ‘more talk than walk’ on the Jubilee Walkway with City Guides, there was something for everyone.

Valerie Shawcross, GLA Member for Lambeth and Southwark and Chair of the London Assembly Transport Scrutiny Committee walked along the South Bank, part of both the Thames Path and Jubilee Walkway and said: “The sun shone, the guide was fascinating and the company very very good. I'd rather stroll the South Bank with Walk London than ride in a gold plated Rolls-Royce any day of the week. How lucky we are in London to have such a safe and beautiful cityscape to explore.”

Ruth Brown, Communications Director for Walk London did the South Bank Walk on Sunday 28 September, "Well, my morning didn’t start off too well as the train I was supposed to catch was cancelled, however, I still managed to get to the start of the walk with 5 mins to spare. I was met by glorious sunshine and the big smiles of the walk leaders so immediately I relaxed and put my travel stresses behind me and started to look forward to the walk. I was lucky enough to attend one of the ‘special’ walks with an expert guide whose knowledge of the architecture on South Bank was astounding.

We set off, and even though we didn’t have a huge number of walkers it was pleasantly energetic, with everyone joining into the discussion about certain landmarks and interesting buildings that we passed. We ended our walk outside City Hall, and our special guest, Valerie Shawcross (Chair of the London Assembly Transport Scrutiny Committee) kindly offered to take everyone on a tour of City Hall, which was a lovely surprise! Of course, everyone jumped at the chance!

I had a great time, met some really interesting people and we even started coming up with new ideas for the Winter Wanders walking weekend, that’s being held on Saturday 31 Jan and Sunday 1 Feb 2009! All in all a lovely Sunday morning."

Alexandra Rook, Project Director of Walk London, joined the London LOOP section 17 from Cockfosters to Enfield Lock on Saturday 27th September,"What a revelation these walks are! Meeting at the Listed building of Cockfosters tube station, we slipped down an inauspicious looking path at the side and into Trent Park, originally designed by Repton and still retaining some classic features of the landscaped park, such as the obelisk. The walk went on through fields and woodland all once part of the Enfield Chase royal hunting grounds, with hardly any road walking and few roads even to cross, until we got to the more urban area of Enfield Lock & the expanse of the Lea Valley which is another of the Strategic Walks. Susan was a terrific guide with just the right pace and balance of 'talk and walk'. We even managed time to gather 'food for free' from our Autumn Amble and checked out the last of the blackberries and the start of the hips and sloes.A nice pub materialised at just the right moment and we enjoyed the rare sunshine sitting outside getting to know each other. It felt more like a stroll with friends than total strangers and I'm looking forward already to the next ones in January."

Further information on Winter Wanders 2009 will be available shortly on our Forthcoming Events page.

If you would like to read more walkers comments or if you have comments to add then visit the ‘Walkers Comments’ page.

To see photos from the last 3 walking events visit the ‘Gallery’ page.

Previous Events

Autumn Ambles Sat 27 and Sun 28 September 2008