FragmentsLondonWalking
By Mike Newman
This is odd. I remember this walk well - even now, in 2026. It was a beautiful sunny day. Unexpected for February. I'd had nothing particularly planned, but had decided that a walk in from Kent was always a winning option. Having tackled the A2 and Watling Street, the A20 beckoned: the long curve in from Sidcup and Bexley - the certified commuter belt. They existed only as stations and punchlines to bad 1970s sitcom jokes. A southern Neasden if you like. Then the urban trawl through Lewisham and Greenwich, shadowing the River Quaggy - before finally arriving in the city via Bermondsey and Tower Bridge. Of course I didn't dream back then that one day, that would be the view from my office window - or that I'd regard this part of Southwark as essentially an extension of my day-to-day working life when in the capital.
But none of this walk was written down. If it wasn't for a trail of pictures and a recovered GPS route, it would never have existed. The walk coincided with an incredibly difficult period in my old job - one that made escape not just necessary but mandatory. There were rumours abroad of an infection spreading. It wouldn't come here. They never did. I was distracted by a chilly but bright morning arrival in Swanley which seemed incongruous with the association with murder: of Stephen Cameron nearby, by the almost caricatured Kent gangster Kenneth Noye, and of local Harry Potter actor Rob Knox in a Sidcup street. The unexpected sight of a shire horse being led along the verge of the dual carriageway as I passed the "Kent, Garden of England" sign added to the sense of unreality which always came with entering Greater London at its fringe.
But none of this walk was written down. If it wasn't for a trail of pictures and a recovered GPS route, it would never have existed. The walk coincided with an incredibly difficult period in my old job - one that made escape not just necessary but mandatory. There were rumours abroad of an infection spreading. It wouldn't come here. They never did. I was distracted by a chilly but bright morning arrival in Swanley which seemed incongruous with the association with murder: of Stephen Cameron nearby, by the almost caricatured Kent gangster Kenneth Noye, and of local Harry Potter actor Rob Knox in a Sidcup street. The unexpected sight of a shire horse being led along the verge of the dual carriageway as I passed the "Kent, Garden of England" sign added to the sense of unreality which always came with entering Greater London at its fringe.
I recall the slog through the streets of Bermondsey, navigating under railway arches and trying to establish a route which would get me to a river crossing, and eventually arriving at London Bridge via Bermondsey Street - the station's refurbished brick flank gleaming with new restaurants and confusing possibilities of entrance from the street. I was yards away from my future destiny, but couldn't even imagine it. The future was stalled - in the hands of Ofsted inspectors and over-extended management, a long way from any sense of freedom or value for my skills. Time was about to reverse too, but we didn't know it then. It seemed impossibly unlikely.
So this is barely even a fragment. It's a memory - a strange imposition in the current flow of things. But it's important that it is recovered and recorded. For me at least.
As I crossed the river via Tower Bridge - a route I rarely used because of the inevitable snarl of tourists - The sun caught the towers of the city and sent a spark of light across the pale blue sky, reflecting across the hidden slopes of Ludgate Hill. I thought of Ronald Reagan's image of the shining city on the hill, and considering it afresh now, it seems to apply even more perfectly:
And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the Pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.President Ronald Reagan, Farewell address , 11th January 1989
Route map26.7 km · 19,522 GPX points
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