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London Walks
for the whole family
London walks are fun to experience while wandering around the city. The very best way to explore London is to get off the beaten track and discover places like the Roman Wall which was built over 2000 years ago, and experience other nooks and crannies of medieval London.
London walks allow you to see, for free, museums, galleries, music, comedy and film. Also, on the south bank you'll see the British Airways London Eye and Tate Modern Gallery, which is just a two minute walk to Westminster Bridge
where you will see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.
Westminster is also quite residential. Surprisingly enough, it isn't as expensive as surrounding areas such as Knightsbridge, Pimlico and Chelsea.
Westminster is an area of London and
is the location of the Houses of Parliament, the headquarters of the British overnment, along with numerous government offices. Its name means 'West Monastry Church' - which is the Abbey itself, another famous landmark.
You can really get to know a city through your eyes and feet by walking the capital, and at the end of the day our city walks in London parks offer fantastic rewards to the serious walker.
As you stroll these streets you'll feel associated with some of the most distinguished walkers, like Daniel Defoe, Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, John Gay, Thomas Carlyle, and Sir Anthony Hopkins. All these men made walking these streets of London part of their everyday life's work. So as you can see, you will be in very good company.
London walking tours are listed in the
Times newspaper and in the weekly Time Out magazine and include such topics as: The City, The Great Fire of London and Plague, The London of the Romans, Victorians, Shakespeare, and Dickens.
It is now possible to start your London walk from the Thames Flood Barrier all the way back to the river's source in the
Cotswolds. Incidentally, this is a very, very long walk and will take a few days, so you should go prepared before starting this adventure. You can pick up a leaflet called the Thames Path at the main tourist information centre to help with your London walks.
Picturesque walks are really just outside of London and are about an hour or so from the capital by train, allowing you to take a london day trip into the country. For example, the Thames Towpath, Richmond Park, The Grand Union Canal.
If you particularly want to stay in the capital, do what I do which is just enjoy
walking along the Thames Embankment around the West End and Hyde Park enroute to the Knightsbridge areas.
Visitors worry that London is an expensive city. As I said above, London has lots of free things to offer including museums and galleries, parks, and historical landmarks as well as comedy and film, and you'll have lots of enjoyment taking those self guided city tours.
Cycling in London is the Mayor’s vision to make London a city where people of all ages, abilities and cultures have the incentive, confidence and facilities to cycle whenever it suits them. Apart from walking in the city,
cycling is integral to the Mayor’s vision to develop London as a commendable sustainable world class city.
Travellers who prefer to explore an area by bike have an easier way to find a rental shop. I recommend this website which matches bikers with stores in 144 cities. The site lets you choose your preferred dates and location, as well as bike type, size and accesories. The list of options includes rates per length of rental. From there, you can reserve and pay. Just be aware that the site charges a small convenience fee per bike rental.
A London walks in the park is the most relaxing way to spend an early morning or late afternoon in the capital. London is a green city, a metropolis of parks and squares and tranquil open spaces and gardens that contrast with the complex motorways and transportation system that surround it.
If you're determined to take advantage a London walk from Kensington Palace to Parliament Square at Westminster, you'll be able to get there almost entirely having the feeling of walking rural England, passing lakes and hollows, bridle parths, wildlife refuges, rolling lawns and formal gardens. It is a journey which goes through four royal parks - Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park and St Jame's Park.
The oldest and prettiest, St Jame's, is also the most royal, its palaces and royal residences gazing out on the tall plane trees of The Mall. It is a park which changes dramatically with each season. The creation of this peaceful sanctuary in this bustling city has been achieved over many centries. When we talk about the parks of London, we must include its historic heritage too.
A few outlying estates have become twentieth-century parks, and the heaths have been protected by law; but in inner suburbs the farms and grass meadows of Islington or Lambeth were sacrificed for homes for London's fast-growing population. But, in leaving behind crowded tenements and smoky rookeries, the city dweller yearned for small reminders of the London walks in rural pastures that had once been there, and had a small garden behind his new house.
These are now the thousand upon thousands of tiny gardens that lie hidden behind endless ranks of terraced houses all over London. Often beautifully, and certainly lovingly, cultivated, they are a lasting proof of the Englishman's passion for gardens and, like the great parks, they are London's pride. My parents lived in one these houses in East London where I grew up.
The Deer nursery that Henry VIII established in the grounds of the old leper hospital of St Jame's has long since gone, and the crocodiles and menagerie kept James I went to the royal zoo at the Tower, though his aviary is remembered by Birdcage Walk. But the descendants of the ducks and strange birds given to Charles II remain.
The restored King replaced trees that were cut down for firewood during the Civil War. Louis XIV's gardener Le Notre at Versailles had a brilliant idea, he had the park laid with walks and flower beds, and little pools linked to form the Long Canal. It is said, the King liked to stroll in the park with his dogs, feeding the ducks and all the different exotic birds, like the pelicans given to him by the Russian ambassador. Thirty ostriches presented by a Moroccan diplomat apparently caused much royal amusement.
In Queen Anne's reign, as many as three hundred and fifty lime trees were planted in St Jame's Park; and in the nineteenth century great changes were made in the design of the landscaping of the park when John Nash, at the prompting of George IV, turned the Long Canal into the gently curving tranquil waterway that now runs between Buckingham Palace and Duck Island.
As you can see, history is embeded even in the London walks. The outer eccentric circle of Henry VIII's hunting ground he edged with palatial terraces, and country houses and villas loosely scattered on the inner ring road were screened by small plantations. A canal, planned to cut across Regent's Park was diverted round the perimeter, so the story goes, lest the delicate ears of affluent residents be offended by the barge men's language.
I can only guess that the language was worse than cockney. Twenty-two acres were excavated for the artificial boating lake and other land leased to the London Zoological Society and the Royal Botanical Society. The royal menagerie at the Tower was transferred to the former gardens, the site of the spectacular summer shows until this century, were renamed Queen Mary's Gardens after George V's wife who took a keen interest in their future.
The Physic Garden, the Arboretum and the first great glasshouse were among Augusta's improvements and she also accepted the gift of a rare collection of shrubs and trees from Whitton Park and Twickenham after the Dubke of Argyll's death. Amazingly, some of these old trees still stand in the Royal Botanic Gardens.
If you're interested in the history of London walks, and you would like to contribute some interesting detail I may have missed, please feel free to use the form below, I'm sure others would like to contribute to this facinating subject too.
To leave London Walks click to return to London Day Trips
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