Fancy a River Fleet Walk (Sunday 6th March)?

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Open invitation, does anyone fancy an "architectural walking tour" (or more likely "psychogeographical walking tour") tracing the route of the most famous Lost River of London, the river of pestilence and madness?

Sunday afternoon, starting at the embankment, underneath the Blackfriars bridge and tracing the Fleet River's course north through Clerkenwell, Kings Cross, Camden, and maybe even as far as Hampstead depending on our stamina.

We will be taking pub breaks for refreshment, but it primarily a walk, rather than a pub crawl, so please wear sensible shoes and warm clothes. Feel free, in fact, you are *encouraged* to bring any kind of literary or historical references which you may care to share.

If you are interested, please note your interest here. I will email my mobile to anyone who wishes to join us, but obviously do not wish to post it here.

― Masonic Cathedral (kate), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 14:57 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and not related at all, but also of interest to the kinds of people who will be interested in this, Issue 5 of Smoke: A London Peculiar is now available at:

http://www.smokelondon.co.uk

― Masonic Cathedral (kate), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 15:00 (twenty years ago)

Geez, I knew I was unpopular, but not *this* unpopular. I might just beat my own record for most ill-attended "Fancy A..."

― Masonic Cathedral (kate), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

kate i think i am otherwise engaged on sun :(

it sounds a nice idea

our fap wz just three ppl, no? (as daveb insisted he was "not at it")

i prefer the word "select"

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 15:23 (twenty years ago)

i like doing things like this. i've got a much heavier than usual childminding load this week, though, so i'm not sure if i'll be free on sunday. do we have a few days before the offer closes?

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 15:26 (twenty years ago)

I'm not from London, otherwise I would have come to this.

Is Smoke worth getting, Kate?

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 15:26 (twenty years ago)

I would go on in this were it not for the being in another country thing. Also, I have work that day.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 15:34 (twenty years ago)

smoke is great.

this fleet street walk gets mentioned v favourably in Underground London by Stephen Smith, a quite good book on tunnels.

if i wasn't on holiday, i would go.

― Pete W (peterw), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 15:38 (twenty years ago)

I'm in. Kate, you've got mail...

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 15:50 (twenty years ago)

Again, I have other plans for Sunday...

― Lucretia My Reflection (Lucretia My Reflection), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 16:04 (twenty years ago)

Aw, I knew it'd be a Kate thread.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 17:35 (twenty years ago)

i want to come, but only if you don't mind me carrying a hipflask and drinking myself into a stupor through the journey?? It's just that I've decided I really want to be drunk this Sunday.

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 17:45 (twenty years ago)

And yeah! I totally knew it was kate before i scrolled down!

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

Ask me again later in the week. I think I'm free. Just looking at Subterranean city right now.

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 18:12 (twenty years ago)

I would swim across the ocean to join you, but I'm not terribly fit. If I get to London this summer,which is a distinct possibility, would you schedule another walk?

― aimurchie (aimurchie), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 18:25 (twenty years ago)

I'll let you know.

― Deerninja B4rim4, Plus-Tech Whizz Kid (Barima), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

I'd go on this if I lived in London! Maybe next time I come to London we can do it again.

It's funny the sudden interest in rivers... some of my walker friends have taken to scum-walking - following Dublin's rivers from the sea to their sources.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

There are other river walks in London, hidden and otherwise: Effra, Walbrooke, Lea or Lee, Westbourne, Wandle, Neckinger.

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 19:43 (twenty years ago)

Ken, you are welcome to bring a hip flask! I just didn't want it to be one of those walks where you have to stop every... five... minutes... coz someone wants to go to the pub.

If this goes well, I plan to follow up with an Effra Walk (we can conjoin with South London FAP) and a River Lee or Lea walk (obviously!) and when the weather is good, a Regents Canal walk! There will be more advance warning for those, I hope.

Sorry, I should have given more advance warning for this. (And made it not on Mother's Day which is what everyone is complaining.) But I was too busy looking for lost rivers in Paris.

Oh yes, and Smoke - well worth the price of admission!

― Masonic Cathedral (kate), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 10:07 (twenty years ago)

This is today. If any last minute folk feel like joining us, we will be meeting at 2pm on the Thames Embankment, underneath Blackfriars Bridge.

Please please please let the weather hold...

― Masonic Cathedral (kate), Sunday, 6 March 2005 12:35 (twenty years ago)

well wasn't it fun!!

thanks kate for the tour.

i have a bunch of pics.. will load them when i get home!

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 7 March 2005 10:42 (twenty years ago)

Can't wait to see the pics! Especially the Spiritual Ancestor of Ed's hair growing by St. Pancras churchyard...

Thanks to everybody that came along! It was indeed fun! More irreverant and irrelevant architectural walking tours are needed... play the Sacred Geometry of Spider Maps. (Ha ha! The 109 and the 118 follow the 19/38 archetype.) Simon ventured the "Pi" Bus Route - it never repeats!

What do you fancy next? The Effra (50 yards of which is actually above ground!) or the River Lee or Lea (all of which is above ground)?

― Masonic Cathedral (kate), Monday, 7 March 2005 13:05 (twenty years ago)

I'd have come along if it hadn't been a weekend I was away. I'd love to do the Lea one, but I think it might be worth waiting until it warms up a bit, and everywhere gets a bit greener, seeing as quite a lot of it is across hackney marshes (assuming we're going that far, or course!)

― Vicky (Vicky), Monday, 7 March 2005 13:10 (twenty years ago)

Hackney Marshes is lovely in the spring. I walked along there last spring.

We did get quite far - from Blackfriars up to Camden, so I don't think that Hackney Marshes would be over-ambitious.

― Masonic Cathedral (kate), Monday, 7 March 2005 13:13 (twenty years ago)

yeah, i was pretty much up for going all the way to hampstead had the sky stayed light for longer (which it will in spring)

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 7 March 2005 13:24 (twenty years ago)

last time i wz in hackney marshes wz w.the k-punk massive!!1

we must keep a look out for skinned bears obv (ie i am in providing i am in london)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 7 March 2005 13:24 (twenty years ago)

Damn! Missed this thread when wz away at the beginning of last week. But a quiet weekend was nice anyway. It sounds like it was great, and I want to join in the next one!

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Monday, 7 March 2005 13:38 (twenty years ago)

kate- where did those hand gestures for "Euston Square" "Kings Cross" and "Russell Square" come from????

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 7 March 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

I have no idea where they came from... I think it was added hand motion bonuses for drunken last train versions of Mornington Crescent...

― Masonic Cathedral (kate), Monday, 7 March 2005 16:33 (twenty years ago)

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