John and Connie Dales #WalkOut for National Walking Month

As this was my fourteenth long walk to work, and since I spend a large part of my life walking along urban streets with my eyes open for interesting or inspiring or (more often) infuriating features, I started out expecting ‘the usual’. The main new thing I was looking forward to was Connie’s company.  

I went in with reasonably low expectations – I’m a bit of a yes man so to say there was a huge amount of reasoning behind my agreeing to the walk would be an overstatement. I walk a lot in the city (including my daily commute - 3.5km each way) so I thought it would be an interesting way of seeing different parts of the city but didn’t think I’d find the distance too challenging. Immediately before the walk (5am start after a bank holiday weekend also spent with my family) I expected to spend lots of it annoyed by my father for no reason.

This and that. It was great to have someone with me to point things out to, to have things pointed out by, and to talk about things having nothing specific to do with where we were walking. That’s one of the great things about walking – talking side-by-side is often much freer, random and natural than conversations face-to-face.

Earlier in the walk – further out east – we talked a lot about the bits that surprised us, and the architecture too. As we approached Stratford we were plunged from reasonably scruffy, un-leafy roads into a pocket of huge houses and quiet streets. The architecture of the houses themselves was quite unique yet uniform in the area, and I enjoyed sharing my reviews of how I thought each owner had chosen to maintain their garden / façade, and also speculating how much we thought they’d cost to buy.

Later in the walk – Stratford and into Hackney – we were reliving my recent experience running the Hackney Half Marathon. Many of the streets I knew I’d run down, but couldn’t recognise them. It’s interesting how a big event like that can change your perception of the streets, i.e. crowds block lots of the shops, doorways signs, that would subconsciously assist my wayfinding usually. The route of the half marathon is discombobulating anyway as you go back on yourself and turn at random points, so it was nice covering the ground more logically and better understanding how the different areas stitch together.

A frank exchange of views about my stopping frequently to take photos and then post them, with brief commentary, on BlueSky. I had assumed that Connie’s experience of numerous family holidays would have prepared her for how slow Dad can be when ‘noticing things’ in city streets. But I had failed to brief her as to the specifics of how my long walks to work work (the live social media commentary has always been integral).

It was good to talk, though, and the remainder of the walk was entirely harmonious. What we bought at Greggs and at a coffee shop shortly afterwards almost certainly helped!

Some stern words exchanged at Stratford Greggs about how much Dad was on his phone (although he did come away with better notes and photos than I did…).

I’m hopeless at answering ‘best of’ questions, as I seem wired to derive real joy and interest from many things. Although I’m therefore great with walking solo, it was a treat to have Connie’s company. As for other things, it was lovely to have such warm, sunny weather. It was, apparently, the hottest May day in London on record, but I don’t mind dry heat.

Then there was a small, low block of flats alongside the River Lea Navigation between Stratford and Hackney Wick where one of the occupants had hung six or more flower baskets outside a window, and these were like magnets for the local House Martins, which swooped in and out, perching a while before heading off again. This brought me special joy.

It was a lovely sunny day – the hottest day of the year so on the warm side, but this didn’t feel too disruptive and would be preferable to a grey, rainy day.

I enjoy any routes that interact with nature, so the stretches of canal and parks and greenery were my favourites.

I also like asking Dad about certain developments or street design elements, as I just assume he’ll probably know. And when he doesn’t know, we can speculate together. Either way I’m learning something. There was a lot of that on this walk.

I have this strange thing where I feel that I am a friend of streets, and that streets are my friends in return, and for this reason I don’t feel unsafe walking in cities, almost whatever the circumstances. What I tend to find ‘worst’ are those places where, through planned acts of destruction or casual lack of care, the walking environment has been degraded, and I’m afraid I saw far too many of these. 

The stand-out was Winston Way, the so-called ‘relief road’ that runs south of Ilford High Road/town centre. Built in the early 1980s, it severed or destroyed nine separate residential streets that ran north-south into the centre, and badly damaged two others. In addition to the sheer loss of homes within an easy walking distance of the shops and services, these simple, walkable connections were replaced by four subways, three of which are as miserable as you’re probably imagining. Signalised surface crossings, unnecessarily staggered, were later installed above two of the subways, but this doesn’t come close to making good. So, yeah, that.

We didn’t start in an area that felt particularly welcoming (it was 6:30am to be fair Seven Kings/Ilford) and wouldn’t have felt safe to me under other circumstances. Having spent my whole life in London, I probably take it for granted that areas either are or feel familiar, which makes me feel much more secure.

Small things that help an area feel softer, safer – like trees or any planting, well maintained footways or crossings – were lacking here.

Weirdly, the first greenery we came across was a footpath with a school on one side and the backs of a row of houses on the other. Its geography and lack of natural surveillance would, on paper, make it somewhere I might feel less safe as a woman, but the grass and trees actually made me feel safer than I had before.

Since the basic purpose of the walk I planned was to have the opportunity to experience a variety of different walking environments, I wouldn’t change the route. But in terms of what I encountered, I think the main physical things I would want to see changed were the many occasions (though concentrated in the earlier stages of the walk) where the continuity and quality of the footway had been unnecessarily diminished through provision for a tiny number of vehicles to cross and gain access to small parking or service areas.

Even the bits I enjoyed less I still found to be interesting and worthwhile, so I wouldn’t change that. Food/coffee options felt lacking pre-Stratford, so I’d change that. Just one spot early doors that would’ve done me a pastry and a decent black coffee (I’m a bit picky) would’ve been lush. After all, what’s the point of being out and about if you can’t have a little coffee in hand?

I would have stopped more often, taken more photos, and posted more commentary, and therefore taken way longer. But I was happy to trade that for the company.

I would not have started so early in a place I don’t know. I would have instinctively stuck to more main roads even though they weren’t necessarily more pleasant than the nearby residential streets.

I did feel a bit guilty that the route took us through a few unpleasant locations, though that was part of its purpose. If I needed to walk from Seven Kings to EC1 again, as a matter of getting from A to B rather than as a study trip, I would make the route more direct.

However, I’d still probably walk some stretches on quiet streets parallel to the main ones, just to have a bit of variety and stretches of greater tranquility. The opportunity to experience urban variety is, for me, one of the great joys of walking. 

I like to think I’m quite a hardy walker, and could’ve hacked this in the rain or the dark if I were with Dad. Although I really wouldn’t have felt great doing the first stretch in those conditions. And probably wouldn’t have said yes in the first place – it’s much more appealing to get up early in the summer than winter or autumn.

Since I choose my annual long walk to work routes to experience different things, I don’t plan to do this particular walk again. That said, it could be interesting to repeat it in a few years, perhaps at a different time of year or day. A night walk would be fascinating in its own right. And I’m also intrigued by how streets change over time, so let’s say I wouldn’t rule it out!

Not this specific route. Much of the route covers areas I would spend time in frequently anyway. The walk did serve as a reminder to make better use of the Olympic Park, so the summer ahead might feature some walks, picnics, cultural trips around there.

I do hope so. Connie’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, and it would be a real blow to think we won’t go walking together again someday. Soon.

Jury’s out. But I really get on with his wife and kids so I’ll probably see him again for the sake of hanging out with them.