3 Favorite London Walks Summary

My 3 favorite London Walks were: Central Parks, SoHo and Regents Parks. I really enjoyed each of these for different reasons and they each resonated with me and left an impact on me throughout my journey here in London.

First, the Central Parks walk was one of my favorites as it was my first walk here and it started things off right. I remember we did it right after the changing of the guards that Saturday in a fairly large group, but it was a great chance to get to know one another while walking and talking. And I remember it really set a good tone for the program and got me excited for the semester ahead. I really enjoyed walking through St James Park overlooking Buckingham and then onward to Green Park and Hyde Park. I loved this walk seeing how everything was inter-related and how connected we were at Palace Court to these other parks and places. I'm glad I did this walk as my first one, as now I run frequently in Hyde Park and over to St James and Buckingham, due to and because of this walk making me see how close we really were to it.

Second, my next favorite walk was the SoHo walk. I remember Ashley Jorgensen and I led this one together and it was just a really fun "hip" one. There were a lot of fun shops and restaurants to walk by. I remember loving and getting so excited for all the fun entertainment that existed on this posh walk. There were cool pubs, shows close by at Covent Gardens, Chinatown, as well as American brand name shops and unique restaurants. This walk opened my eyes to all the fun cool things London had to offer.

And last but certainly not least, my favorite walk was Regents Park. We did this walk on such a beautiful day out and the view up on Primrose Hill was amazing. It was such a great look-out point that I have since run up to by myself and I felt such a peace at top. I also loved the ponds, flowers and gardens on this walk. This walk was just left me with a great feeling inside afterwards. I think I saved the best for last by doing this walk at the end!

Regents Park

I led my last (but certainly not least) walk around regents park on this sunny day with liz bevan, Elise, carly & mike. I think this was probably one of my favorite walks and a place i definitely want to go back running at. I think one of the reasons I've loved these walks so much is because they have given me great ideas for places to run and helped me explore many different sites I maybe wouldn't have otherwise seen.

This regents park was so beautiful and we went on a great day for it. On primrose hill there was a beautiful view overlooking the city which I really enjoyed. And then walking along the outkskirts of the football playing fields, by the pond and seeing the gardens & flowers in full bloom were all just gorgeous! I really loved it and it got me excited for spring in london, just right around the corner. I am so glad we had this London walks class and for the opportunity it gave me to explore and discover important landmarks in London, as well as getting to know other people on this program better. It was a great experience! Thanks London walks..

Kew to Hammersmith

For my 2nd to last walk I did the nice long walk from Kew Gardens Station all the way to Hammersmith Station with Liz Bevan, Elise and Carly. Liz and Carly took turns being our leaders for our journey. At first I must admit I wasn't really looking forward to this walk as much just because I knew it was going to be a long one that took a good portion of time, but it turned out to be better than I had expected. It was actually kind of nice to get away from the central London city and into the suburbs where families really live, children go to school, play in parks, etc. The walk along the Thames River pathway was also refreshing to see teams out rowing and boating. The pic of us above is at the Chiswick House was built in the 1720s by the architect Lord Burlington as a place where he could display his art collection and entertain friends. The gardens (although not in full bloom yet) were also really nice and had a more natural classical antiquity approach from the 18th century. The little cottages and houses on this walk were really cute to walk by (would be such a fun place to live). I ended up enjoying this walk overall-even though it was quite a bit longer than the others, I had good company and we had a good time exploring and seeing the history together!

Westminster & St James

Liz bevan, carly Flamm & I led each other on a beautiful night walk taking us by big ben, house of parliament & right by buckingham palace. It was a great way to see the city all lit up at night with spectacular views. It kept hitting us on the walk just how lucky we are to be living in this city with all the history and culture present in buildings and monuments every where you look. The pic below is of us right in front of buckingham where the queen resides. The queen wasn't there when we walked by because the union flag wasn't flying. I really enjoyed this walk and seeing how everything was all connected. I have gone on some great runs thru st James park & by big ben but this was a nice opportunity for me to just walk around and actually learn about all the history that was present around those areas. Definitely a great walk to be done-night or day!

Fleet Street and St. Paul's

This city west walk was much different than the city east walk I went on earlier. This walk was known for London's printing, publishing and newspaper industries also including monasteries, cathedrals & churches. The picture below is of Elise (our group leader) & I outside St. Sepulchre. It was said to acquire this name from the Middle Ages when crusading knights headed off to the Holy Land to fight for the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. St. Sepulchre is the largest city church after St. Paul's Cathedral.

This second pic below was taken outside of Johnson's Court. In here was the house of Dr. Johnson where he worked on the great dictionary. I love the quote below by him that says, "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life" as I feel this to be true here in London with so much to see and explore. These walks make me realize this to be especially the case as you can't get tired of London when there are so many little & big places to discover!

Inns of Court

We went on a circular walk this afternoon from Temple station. It is called the Inns of Court because it has 4 ancient inns of courts where barristers first train and then practice. I was glad we got to do this walk on a weekday because we walked right through the London School of Economics and it was neat to see college students passing through between classes or studying at the library. After passing the school, we walked right by the Old Curiosity Shop, which is said to be the oldest shop in all of London and the original shop in Dicken's novel. Kaylee was the fabulous leader to me, Elise, Liz Bevans, Carly, Ramzi and Sharon and the picture below shows all of us outside The Curiosity Shop on the walk.



The other points that stood out for me were seeing the point where the city of London meets the city of Westminster. It said that there used to be a Temple Bar that stood here but was obstructed because of traffic. And last it was neat to see where Shakespeare's 12th Night was first performed at Middle Temple Hall in 1601. I enjoyed this walk and Kaylee was a great leader & efficient leader for our group.

Bankside & Southwark

We went on a nice historic and monumental walk covering the Tate Modern, the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe, a medieval palace and the Tower Bridge. We got lucky and did this walk on a nice sunny clear day right along the riverside. This made for great views of the city throughout the walk. I really enjoyed seeing Shakespeare's Globe, a modern reconstruction of the early 17th century theatre where Shakespeare plays once took place. I wish we were to see one of them but they only take place from May to September. The picture below is of Shelbi and I at the Southwark Cathedral. It was created in 1220 and has a very medieval look to it. It is full of historic monuments and tombs.

The other highlight of the walk for me was getting to see and walk across the London Bridge. In the book it said that the Tower Bridge was built to provide a central section that could be opened to let tall ships through and the overhead walkway was created to allow pedestrians to use even when the bridge was closed to road traffic. I really enjoyed getting to walk across the bridge and just the beautiful architecture to behold when walking across.I recommend all visiting London to do it.

Lambeth and the South Bank

I went on a beautiful walk from the Waterloo station today with Jaynann, Emily Layton and Brittani Coats as our guide. This walk is best known for its amazing views. We first saw Lambeth Palace in the background of Archbishop's Park. After crossing Lambeth Palace Road we saw a spectacular view of the House of Parliament and Big Ben. It is important to do this walk on a clear day (which we had) to see everything as we did below.

Our walk along the Thames River was interrupted by some police man telling us to turn around due to a "suspect." We walked back and went on the street road instead. We then made over to the London Eye which is built for the millennium and I didn't know it was meant to be temporary but after becoming one of London's most popular tourist attractions, it is now a permanent feature in the London skyline. Somerset House-another beautiful building across the bridge from Thames River-used to be primarily the Navy Office but is now home to the Courtauld Institute of Art, Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs and many other exhibition galleries. It was a great walk ending at Temple Station!

Notting Hill

For the Notting Hill walk we decided to do it as a group on a Saturday morning so we could have the Portobello market included in it. It was interesting to read in the book that Portobello Road was originally a farm track which was named in the 18th century in honor of the 1739 naval battle when the British defeated the Spanish in the Gulf of Mexico. Portobello road is certainly no farm track today, and was very busy and crowded with travelers and street marketers when we went today. Later on down the street we saw beautiful Victorian houses. Portobello Road was one of my favorite streets in London so far because it was so vibrant and there was so much energy that was contagious. I'm glad we had the opportunity to go on this walk and explore the area of Notting Hill and Portobello!

Bloomsburg

After touring the British Museum, we ventured off on our walk around the residential district laid out between the late 17th and early 19th centuries. The main highlights from this walk for me were St. George's Garden, the Great Ormond Street Hospital for sick children and the Charles Dickens Museum. First our picture below is taken at St. George's Garden. This was right past Handel Street where Handel gave performances of his Messiah to raise money for orphans, which I thought was pretty neat. St George's Garden was once the burial ground of St George's Church-it was a quaint little area with some cemeteries inside. The Great Ormond Street Hospital for sick children was a little sad to walk by, seeing sick kids walk inside, but it was neat to hear of the history and the founding of it. Seeing the Dickens Museum right where Charles Dickens lived in 1837 completing 3 novels here was really neat as well. Walking around the streets you could just imagine Dickens living there. It was really special to be on such a historic walk where you could imagine people living in the 17th and 18th century.

The City (East)

I went on a walk through the eastern half of the City which is the financial center and oldest centre of London. We got to walk and explore old and lots of money-making institutions such as the Royal Exchange, the Stock Exchange, the Bank of England, Mansion House and many beautiful old churches. It was neat to me to see how the old architecture was mixed with new wealth. The picture below is of the Stock Exchange building and to the right of it we saw Tower 42- the tallest building in central London.

This picture below is of Ashley and I at St Lawrence Jewry Church. This church now serves as the official church of the Corporation of London and was named in medieval times as it stood in the Jewish quarter of the City. I really enjoyed this walk because it was a very financial district with lots of new wealth. Not many people live in this area so it was nice to see what a typical work environment looks like. But along with the wealth, there is great history and culture still dating back to the 1600 & 1700's. My 2 favorite spots on this walk were the Monument-which was the city's memorial to the Great Fire of 1666 and walking through Leadenhall Market.

Central Parks

For my London Walks class I went on my 1st walk Saturday called "Central Parks." We have a great London book called "Walking London" that will serve as our guide in 12 walks we get to do throughout the semester. I'm really looking forward to these walks as it is a great way to see the area and orient ourselves to where we are. So after we did the changing of the guards and Buckingham Palace we first went across to St James Park-the oldest and most intimate garden of the royal parks in London. There was a beautiful lake around the park we took a big group picture right in front of. As we crossed over the bridge-there was a great front view of Buckingham Palace and then right when we went across we saw the Horse Guards coming just in time.

After heading out from St James Park we made our way into Green Park. Green Park was much plainer with no lake or flowers around. We saw the Wellington Arch as we made our way over to Hyde Park. Hyde Park is amazing and so much bigger than I expected. We went around the pond, saw people roller skiing and then made our way up to check out the Serpentine Gallery for our Fine Arts class. It was a beautiful walk (although quite cold) and a great way to see the parks London has to offer and how closely we are connected to Buckingham Palace.

Soho to Trafalgar Square

Ashley Jorgensen and I planned our next walk from Soho to Trafalgar Square. We got together and mapped our route going from the Northern line and getting off at Goodge station. We were the guides for Julie Nelson, Sara Turner, Laura Garding and Madeline Fitzgerald. It was nice to be the one in charge because I felt like I really had to pay attention to exactly where we were going and what we were seeing.

This picture above is Ashley and I at a replica pump where the breakout of cholera started in 1854 that killed over 10,000 people. Fortunately Dr. John snow realized that all victims of this disease were drawing water from the same street pump. When they removed this pump handle-the death rate fell. Snow's discovery-that cholera is water-borne was very important in medical history!

We went to SoHo square where the next photo of our whole group was taken. It was interesting to learn that SoHo square used to be a royal hunting ground and 'soho' was an old hunting cry, since now it is such a metropolitan shopping & dining area. There was a 17th century statue of Charles II in the middle of the square our photo is right in front of.

From SoHo we made our way through Chinatown and eventually over to Leicester Square-which is the entertainment and arts industry and Trafalgar Square-where the National Gallery is found. We saw the statue of Admiral Nelson in the center and the statue of King Charles I on horseback. It is neat to see Big Ben and the Eye in the background there too as you look out of the fountain the middle of the square. We made our way out and back home to the subway afterwards. It was a great walk and I really enjoyed leading it and guiding my group.