London
Brick Lane, East End, London: Monica Ali
‘See what I can do! The Inspiration for this walk: ’Brick Lane’ I read this book when it first came out in paperback in 2004, I remember at the time that everyone was talking about it. And Brick Lane itself was starting to become a ‘go to’ street. Now some say the book has not […]
Highgate Cemetery – the creative choice for a burial
Behold, we know not anything; I can but trust that good shall fall At last — far off — at last, to all, And every winter change to spring Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ‘In Memoriam’, at the entrance to one of the tombs in the Circle of Lebanon ‘Better a spectacular failure, than a benign success’ […]
Hull, East Yorkshire: Philip Larkin
Hull, East Yorkshire: Philip Larkin ‘I like it because it’s so far from everywhere else. On the way to nowhere, as somebody put it. It’s in the middle of the lonely country, and beyond the lonely country there is only the sea. I like that.’ ‘A city that is in the world, yet sufficiently on […]
Westminster Bridge and Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, London
Westminster Bridge We start our walk on Westminster Bridge and pick an early Sunday morning to try and soak up the experience before the rush of the day. We lean over the parapet peering downstream and recite Wordsworth’s famous poem ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802.’ ‘Earth has not any thing to show more […]
Gough Square, London: Dr Johnson’s House
Gough Square, London: Dr Johnson’s House ‘Wherever I turned my view … there was perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated’ Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) Dr Johnson’s House is a charming 300-year-old townhouse, nestled amongst a maze of courts and alleys just north of Fleet Street. In 1746, Dr Samuel Johnson agreed to […]
Inspiring Places: London, Bloomsbury – Books, Books, Books
‘I love walking in London. Really, it’s better than walking in the country.’ Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf The books that inspired this walk…too many to mention I worked in Bloomsbury briefly as a summer intern with Evans Educational Publishers, under the tutelage of the engaging Warren Knock, who to make ends meet or maybe just […]
St Pancras Gardens, London: Thomas Hardy
‘The Levelled Churchyard’ “O passenger, pray list and catch Our sighs and piteous groans, Half stifled in this jumbled patch Of wrenched memorial stones! “We late-lamented, resting here, Are mixed to human jam, And each to each exclaims in fear, ‘I know not which I am!’ ‘The Levelled Churchyard’ (1880), an early poem by Thomas […]
Kilburn, London: Zadie Smith
‘Where else could a writer hope to meet the whole world within a one-mile radius?’ KEY DATA Terrain: Pavements, hills Starting point: Queen’s Park, NW6. The nearest tube is Queen’s Park Distance: 8.5 km (5.5 miles) Walking time: 2 hrs 30 mins OS Map: can be found online at https://osmaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/route/9936654/Kilburn-London-Zadie-Smith Facilities: Pubs, cafés ZADIE SMITH (1975- […]
Kensington Gardens, London: Peter Pan Statue
‘Well, Peter Pan got out by the window, which had no bars. Standing on the ledge he could see trees far away, which were doubtless the Kensington Gardens, and the moment he saw them he entirely forgot that he was now a little boy in a nightgown, and away he flew, right over the houses […]
© 2024 Literary Rambles
Recent Comments