Final Summary

Done! I've now finished all ten walks of London. It was a fun way to get to know the city, and to see some really cool side streets and hidden gems of London. In this post, I'm going to list my top three- the three walks I love the most and why.
1. Lambeth and South Bank- I love walking the streets of the city and the little backways, but nothing can beat walking along the Thames and seeing the sun set hazily behind Big Ben. The walk was the great end to a London day.
2. Bankside and Southwark- This was a fun walk as well. It had some of my favorite sights in it- Tower of London, which I love, Globe Theatre, the Thames, of course, and the Borough Market, my favorite of the markets I visited. There wasn't any part of this one that I didn't like!
3. Westminster- This was another great walk with amazing sites- Westminster, Buckingham, and Parliament. I'm glad I did it early, so I could get to know this amazing area right off the bat here in London. I loved seeing Big Ben lit up at night, too- an iconic image.

Soho to Tragalgar

Date: June 9, 2011
Group Members: None
After being warned that this walk was packed with sex stores and scary places, I was pleasantly surprised. The walk was packed with cool theatres, swanky boutiques, and fun chinatown restaurants. It started out with Pollock's Toy Museum, this fun shop with all of these cool toys in it. This walk was really varied, not having one personality but leading through several parts of the city. It led through Soho, the theatre district, Chinatown, and finally into Trafalgar. My favorite part would either be Trafalgar Square, which was just humming with school groups and tourists, or the plaque that marked the birthplace of Blake, which was unexpected and really exciting.

The City (East)

Date: June 8, 2011
Group Members: None
This walk was really nice. I'm glad I left at the time I did, because I walked by all of the bars and restaurants right after work got out for most of the companies and their workers flocked to the bars. I was surprised by how many people in suits had clearly come right after work to get a beer with their coworkers- it must be a good chance to make connections or even deals for them. The second part of the walk it started to rain, so I went through it a little bit faster, but it was still really interesting and full of little cobblestone alleys that were cool. A few of the alleys were really small and hidden, which I love- it gives the area so much more personality. The standout for me on this walk were definitely the churches- we had some Wren thrown in, and just beautiful churches all around. It was a short walk, but actually a really nice one for a Wednesday afternoon.

Inns of Court

Date: Saturday, June 4th
Group Members: None
This walk was my least favorite so far- definitely the most frustrating. The inns wouldn't let people through, so I had to go around most of them and I missed a lot of the cool things that were in the book. I did find some cool places, though- Lincoln fields was really gorgeous, and the Court of Justice (this picture is in front of it, though you can't see it as well) looked like a castle. The buildings in that part of town really were beautiful, though, and the gates were gorgeously done. I would recommend not doing this one in the evening after things have closed, or maybe on the weekend, because it was really frustrating trying to find my way.

Bloomsbury

Date: Saturday, May 7th? (It's been awhile)
Group Members: Tara Pearch and Shelisa Parkin
This was an ok walk. It passed through some pretty parks, but it wasn't very exciting. We were eager to find the house where the Bloomsbury group met, but we accidentally took a picture in front of the wrong building, and felt pretty silly! The coolest part of the walk by far was Dicken's house, where he wrote The Pickwick Papers and Nicolas Nickleby. It's interesting imagining what London must have been like in his day, to picture all of the poverty and injustice that plays such a large part in his stories. This walk also included the British Museum and the Hospital for Sick Children (as opposed to the one for healthy children!).

Bankside and Southwark

Date: May 20
Group Members: Sarah Smith, Jason Hamilton
This was my favorite walk yet! The walk led through Borrough Markets, past a pirate ship(Sir Francis Drake's), past the Globe, along the bank of the Thames, across Tower Bridge, and around the Tower of London. My favorite part was walking by the tower of London (I'm a big fantasy fan, and get a strange thrill out of crennelation. I was also fun walking across Tower Bridge since it's such an iconic London landmark, and I loved the hot carmelized peanuts I bought at the end of the bridge! Every part of this walk was beautiful and exciting, and I really loved it!

Lambeth and the South Bank

Date: May 6th
Group Members: Jason Hamilton, Molly Clemens
This walk started out in kind of a ghetto part of town, but quickly became one of the most beautiful walks we've done. Archbishop's Park was lovely, and Lambeth Palace was really cool, small and hidden away right by the river. And, of course, the walk by the river was amazing- we did it just as the sun set over the Thames behind Big Ben. The riverside was full of life today- there was a festival going on at the royal festival hall (though maybe that happens all the time, considering its name...) There was even a little man-made beach overlooking the river, so people can pretend they're on a real beach somewhere! It also goes by the National Theatre, which isn't the prettiest building but it is an important feature of London. This is a picture of our group in Archbishop's Park next to some awesome shrubbery.

St. Paul's and Fleet Street

Date: May 3
Group Members: None (I walked this one by myself)
I actually really loved this walk, and I'm kind of glad I chose to do it by myself, because I was able to just relax and enjoy the atmosphere of that part of the city. Fleet Street is where all of the newspapers used to be, but that wasn't quite as exciting for me- I liked the churches that I passed, and of course, St. Paul's. I also thought that the Arms College was pretty cool. It was fun to do this just before our tour of St. Paul's- what an awesome building! This picture is me in front of St. Paul's.

Westminster

Date: May 2nd
Group Members: Emily King, Corey Jensen, and Kelsey Thompson
I knew this was going to be a great walk when I got out of Westminster Station and saw Big Ben towering above me. It was absolutely breathtaking. I loved this walk- it led us by Buckingham Palace, Parliament (and Big Ben, of course) and Westminster Abbey, which I actually hadn't seen yet. This whole area is so beautiful, from the solidness of the white stone to the graceful swoops of Westminster's flying buttresses. I loved that we finished just after it got dark, too, so we ended with Big Ben lit up beautifully. This is a picture of me in front of Big Ben at night. A really great walk

Central Parks

Date: May 1st
Group Members: Haley Hill, Jason Hamilton, Laura Hilton
We finished this walk on our way to church on Sunday morning, with Laura leading. It was a beautiful walk, with beautiful weather for us as well. My favorite part of this walk was probably the big arches we passed under, especially the Wellington arch. It was built to celebrate British victories in the Napoleonic Wars, and it was really cool. It wasn't very big, but it was really different from the kinds of landmarks we have in America. I also really like the lane we walked down that had gorgeous trees that went right into Buckingham Palace. It was just a really pretty walk, especially for a Sunday morning!

Regent's Park

Date: April 30th
Group Members: Molly Clemens and Alison Roybal
This walk was just the three of us, and we worked as a team to organize and direct it, so we considered ourselves all group leaders. I was also the navigator for it (which wasn't a very good idea- we ended up doing some backtracking in the park). I thought this was a good walk, but wish we hadn't done it right after the Regent's Canal walk we took as a group; by the end I was ready to be done. The walk was nice, though- my favorite part of this one is the view from Primrose Hill. You can see such a beautiful skyline from there! I like that Duncan's book talks about the things that you pass- for example, before entering Regent's Park it talks about the plans that the architect had for that area- to make terraces and houses that looked like mansions but were really separate houses. This picture was taken in front of the Friedrich Engels home, the house of a man who was good friends with Karl Marx. It only has me and Alison in it because Molly was taking the picture.