London Walking - A Handbook for Survival (Paperback)

'Generally, roads are where things that are bigger than you travel faster than you. Therefore road junctions have the potential to bring together extremes: hard and soft; fast and slow; the quick-witted and the stupid. I'm taking it for granted that you know where you fit in to this scheme.'

Whatever the intention of architect or planner, whether plotting schemes of monumental constraint or modular flexibility, whether dissolving the city walls into air or bits, inhabitants of the city have to learn to live with the consequences.

London Walking is an expression of this human process, as both document and utility. It is a handbook for survival. It explores the city from groundlevel, relates it to lived experience, and is both a practical guide and a spur for dreams and new possibilities. Once on foot, at street level, and with appropriate strategies and techniques, it is possible to experience the city at its haptic, hectic best.

The book hinges on local knowledge and street-smarts which span such subjects as crossing the road, playing street-games and 'how to build your own portable stile'. Even techniques learned in rural or suburban environments become invaluable when applied in urban situations. How far can you walk in a day, following the sun? Can you cross town using only Australian aboriginal navigation methods?

London Walking explores the many liminal zones of the city, where the city contests its own existence: at the borders with its suburbs, in districts defined by residents rather than by property developers. It engages with the continual slippage of rich into poor, natural resource into capital, leisure into work and all the things in between that make Londonmetropolitan rather than merely urban.