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Free Week? Walk the 78 Mile Capital Ring

By on March 30, 2012 in Free Weekend?, UK Travel, Walks

Can anywhere become interesting if the right mindset is applied? When I glimpsed a leaflet in Springfield Park, Clapton, giving details of London’s ‘Capital Ring,’ walking route, I was curious. Inside, a map outlined the 78-mile circular route through Woolwich, Crystal Palace, Wimbledon, Richmond, Harrow-on-the-Hill, Stoke Newington, Highgate and Hackney Wick. We formed a plan: [...]

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Free Weekend? Explore King’s Cross (no, really).

By on February 3, 2012 in Free Weekend?, UK Travel, Walks

There’s no better candidate for a Free Weekend than the ever-changing King’s Cross, one of our absolute favourite parts of London (lest we forget, history fans, Kentish Town was, for many years, in the borough of St Pancras). And it’s so near to the manor. Our preferred route is a stroll along the canal from [...]

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Free Weekend? Walk Around The Circle Line

By on January 20, 2012 in Free Weekend?, Walks

The 19th century philosopher Xavier De Maistre, in his insightful ‘Journey Around My Bedroom,’ suggests we should try to notice afresh what we have already seen. And so for the second in our ‘Free Weekend?’ series, why not test his idea by walking round the Circle Line? Not only does the enigmatically slow 14-mile circuit [...]

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Call yourself a Kentishtowner? Then walk the Borough Boundary…

By on April 21, 2011 in Camden, Community, Health & Exercise, Hidden Gem, Kentish Town, Walks

A couple of years ago I had a short-lived monthly series in Time Out on walking the borough boundaries in London. It was axed when the magazine decided to, um, reinvent itself. But here, from the archives, is an epic 16 mile hike around the borough of Camden – which – if you have nothing [...]

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Local Hero?

By on March 2, 2011 in Bench Tales, Film, Film &Theatre, Random, Walks

Gospel Oak boy Benjamin Garfield dropped us a line the other day about ‘Benches’, a three minute flick he’s entered into this year’s Reed Short Film competition. Rather wisely, it’s inspired by a 2006 feature yours truly wrote for the Times Magazine. Flattery will, of course, get you everywhere. ‘I was thinking about jobs that [...]

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Why move Peter Stevens’ bench?

By on January 25, 2011 in Community, News, Primrose Hill, Random, Walks

A few years ago I used to write a blog and Time Out column on the stories behind London’s memorial benches. Of the dozens covered, none was more touching than that of Peter Stevens, a young man who died at just 26, and is remembered by a bench at the summit of Primrose Hill, bearing [...]

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Quadrant Grove: the link between Marx and Bananarama?

By on December 3, 2010 in History, Walks

At first glance, you’d never think this tiny tree-lined street – all white picket fences, rose gardens, and immaculately-turned out children – bears much cultural weight. But we at the Kentishtowner have made an astonishing discovery: that it connects everyone’s favourite socialist Karl Marx with the people’s girl band, Bananarama. Stay with us here: in [...]

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Queen’s Crescent Market

By on November 26, 2010 in Art, Chalk Farm, Coffee, Culture, Food, Gospel Oak, History, Kentishtowner Recommends, Queen's Crescent, Walks, West Kentish Town

There’s nowhere else in the area like it. Some say it’s rundown and depressing, others that it’s unpretentious and one of the last pockets of real London. Go decide for yourself tomorrow (or every Thursday/Saturday), when the street market (one of the oldest in the capital) runs from 9am -3pm. If you arrive from Chalk [...]

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Kelly Street

By on November 16, 2010 in Health & Exercise, History, Kentish Town, Walks

Kelly Street is one of the jewels in the Kentish Crown (the others being Quadrant Grove and Little Green Street). It’s a perfect curve of mid-19th century Grade II-listed pastel terraces, all worth far too much money to be called ‘bohemian’ but swooningly lovely nonetheless. You might need a restorative gin or two at The [...]

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Little Green Street

By on November 11, 2010 in Health & Exercise, Hidden Gem, History, Kentishtowner Recommends, Walks

OK, so if there’s a hierarchy of cute NW5 streets, then this one sits fatly at the summit (and isn’t the sky blue?) It’s just about the oldest byway in the area, too (most of the other 18th century buildings were torn down in the industrial revolution, history fans). And, if you like a period [...]

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