My Morning Walks in London

Kevin here.

A few of you know this already, but I purposed before leaving on our trip that I would get up most mornings -- before Kelly and the kids were up -- to explore London on foot.

And that I did.  There is really nothing like learning a place by getting out and about for an hour or two when possible.  You learn things that you can't really learn otherwise.  You learn the rhythms of the people that live there, the people that open and close their stores, when the trash gets picked up, what a place looks like before tourists arrive, etc.  It's interesting stuff, I think.  In fact,  I had hoped to post a blog entry with pictures for every walk.  But that turned out to be way too much work.  So I'll take some time to hit some of the highlights of my morning walks here in London.

During the first few days of London, we were put up temporarily in a different flat than the one we expected.  We were a bit disappointed at first since we were ready to get settled after spending 10 days on the road in Scotland.  Nevertheless, being in this other area -- Chelsea and Kensington -- afforded a couple of great morning walks.  One of my favorite places I visited during these first few days was an old, old graveyard off Old Brompton Road.  Spooky and atmospheric, it felt like something out of a Jack-the-Ripper movie. The picture doesn't do it justice.  Further research tells me that it's been used as a set in several of the more recent Sherlock Holmes movies.  And that Beatrix Potter once trolled the headstones of this cemetery for ideas for character names.

Brompton Cemetery

Apparently, something called "anti-climb" paint is popular in London as a way to prevent people from climbing over gates and fences.  I felt it.  It feels like regular paint, nothing slippery about it.  Does it really work?  Dunno.  Regardless, I saw signs like the below often in London.

Does this work? I would just stick with the metal spikes.

Once we moved into our more "permanent" digs in the Fitzrovia area, I decided to go in a different direction most every day.  On some days, that turned out to be a poor choice: not much to see but miles of stores.  Some places in London look no different than your average American Mall.

But other sections look like this, a beautiful old building along Russell Square, near the British Museum:

Along Russell Square, near the British Museum

I spent quite a bit of time over here.  It's a beautiful area -- called Bloomsbury -- and a bit more residential.  The centerpiece of the area (aside from the British Museum) is a lovely little park called Russell Square.  Embarrassingly, I can't seem to find my pictures of Russell Square.  Disappointing.  Nevertheless, it was a great spot to sit, watch the fountain, journal, reflect.

Bloomsbury also has a great history of literature and arts, in the sense that many great writers and artists once lived and worked in this area.  Several of the flats around Russell Square were marked as such:

The flat in Bloomsbury where Virginia Wolf once lived.

The artist Randolph Caldecott's old flat.

I saw a similar sign for George Orwell out in Notting Hill.

Closer to our flat in Fitzrovia, there was this spooky "close" or alley that I enjoyed taking when going anywhere eastward.  Once in here, you would think you were back in the 1600's.  I loved taking this route.

Newman Close off Newman Road.

One of my chief disappointments in the UK is to find that many of the local pubs do not allow children in.  Apparently there is a special license they have to have to let kids in when alcohol is served on the premises, and many pubs just don't bother.  The closest pub in fact -- a popular one called The One Tun -- wouldn't let us in when we had the kids with us (which was almost all of the time).  However, there was one just down the street -- the Fitzrovia -- that was licensed.  So, we ate here a couple of times.  Good folks, at the Fitzrovia:

Our pub, the Fitzrovia.

Most of my walks were close to our flat.  But a couple of times I took the Underground to get a bit farther from home.  One day included a pretty cool walk over Tower Bridge:

Tower Bridge.  Lots of car traffic on Tower Bridge in the morning.

Another day I took off (on foot, about a 25 minute walk) down to the Thames.  That included going through Trafalgar Square and seeing Nelson's Column.  Cool stuff.


These morning walks were one of my favorite things to do.  And I can't wait to repeat this in Paris.  We'll be there soon for the month of May.  I hear it's an even better place to explore on foot.  Expect a gratuitous amount of pictures.