Taking Charing Cross as their centre point they will complete a clockwise turn starting from Tower Bridge. As you can see, it's not a perfect circle. Along the way there will be opportunities to try and make the route more geometric by various shortcuts, depending on the athleticism, wealth and/or bravado of the participants:
All involve a degree of daring and/or illegality. Hire a boat to take you across Battersea Park boating lake to avoid going around it. Bribe a security guard to let you out the fire exit at the back of the Natural History Museum. Bring a ladder to break into London Zoo. A team of parkour enthusiasts could knock miles off the total distance.
Constrained by the circle, some landmarks will be blithely ignored but contrasting neighborhoods will be ambled through, psychogeographic interventions and tall tales will be welcomed plus anyone who wants to document it and present it back to us next week (photos, video, collage, oil painting?) will be awarded some kind of homemade medal.
Of course, being cantankerous London obsessives, we'd argue that the compass point should sit at the scientifically proven centre of London so we asked Michael and Tim to come up with alternative circles, to satisfy our whim. Interestingly, they came up with two, one dinky and one mega.
1) Tower Bridge - Burgess Park - Camberwell - Stockwell - Chelsea Bridge - Hyde Park Corner - Oxford Circus - Russell Square - Clerkenwell - Moorgate
2) Rotherhithe Tunnel - Peckham - East Dulwich - Brixton - Clapham Common - Battersea Bridge - South Ken - Hyde Park - Marylebone - Regent's Park - Mornington Crescent - Islington Green - Shoreditch - Bethnal Green - Shadwell
This could be the start of something...
If you'd like to join this Sunday's Circle Walk - read this ace blogpost to know what you're getting yourself into and drop Michael a message to say you'll be there.
The London Circle Walk takes place on Sunday 12th June, starting at Tower Bridge at 10am.
You might also be interested in The Patterson Walk and Maggie's Night Hike.
