Walking is a popular recreational activity in London, despite traffic congestion. There are many streets that provide interesting walks, especially within historic central London. In addition there are attractive commons, parks, canals, and disused railway tracks that provide space for walks. This includes Wimbledon Common, Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath, and the eight Royal Parks: Hyde Park, Regent's Park, Richmond Park, etc. In recent years access to canals and rivers, including the Regent's Canal, and the River Thames has been greatly improved, and as well a number of long-distance walking routes have been created that link green spaces.
Streets
Literary walkers There have been a number of writers who have written about their experiences of walking the streets of London, including Charles Dickens, in his essay "Night Walks", Henry James, in "London", and Virginia Woolf in "Street Haunting: A London Adventure" (1930).
E. M. Forster wrote about walking in London in his essay "London is a Muddle", commenting that he "used to loathe London when I was young". However, according to Anthony Lake, by 1937, when he wrote this essay, "he had found a way of liking it, and he had done that by walking around it". It was "idyllic corners of parks and spots of green within the metropolis" that were important for him, where "the rural world has re-asserted itself".
John Gay's 1716 satirical poem "Trivia, or The Art of Walking the Streets of London" describes the perils of walking London's streets at that time. It takes its name from the "Goddess of crossroads", Diana Trivia.
Living Streets
Living Streets is a charity "dedicated to making London one of the world's best cities for walking and enjoying streets and public spaces – a city that is genuinely inclusive of all its residents, workers and visitors and not just designed for car users". It has created Footways, a network of streets for walking in central London.
Guided walks
Several companies provide guided walking tours around parts of London. These walks are aimed primarily at tourists and the guide will often be an expert in a particular area. Such walks are often themed, such as 'Haunted London' or 'London of Jack the Ripper'. In addition to traditional tours, some operators focus on the city's social history and lesser-known landmarks. It is also possible to download a tourist guide of London onto an MP3 player or use phone-based services.
A number of organisations also offer self-guided walks, including the London Gardens Trust's "A walk through the City of London", and a variety listed by the Ramblers' Inner London Group.
Jubilee Walkway
Jubilee Walkway is a way marked route through the streets of central London. Originally called the Silver Jubilee Walkway, and laid down in 1977 as part of the celebrations of the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, the route takes in many of London's major attractions, including the Houses of Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral, Tate Modern and the Tower of London.
Rights of way Definitive maps of public rights of way have been compiled for all of England and Wales as a result of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, except the 12 Inner London boroughs, which, along with the City of London, were not covered by the Act.
To protect the existing rights of way in London the Ramblers launched their "Putting London on the Map" in 2010 with the aim of getting "the same legal protection for paths in the capital as already exists for footpaths elsewhere in England and Wales. Currently, legislation allows the Inner London boroughs to choose to produce definitive maps if they wish, but none do so".
The launch event of "Putting London on the Map" took place at the British Library, and since then 'the Inner London Area of the Ramblers has been working with Ramblers Central Office staff to try to persuade each of the Inner London boroughs on the desirability of producing definitive maps of rights of way".Inner London Ramblers.
In 2011 Lambeth Council passed a resolution to work towards creating a definitive map for the borough, but this does not yet exist. The City of London has produced a Public Access Map. Definitive maps exists for the Outer London boroughs.
Urban footpath: the alley
One of the most common rights of way in Inner London, and to a lesser extent in Outer London, is the alley. These urban footpaths generally have a long history. One example, in an old neighbourhood of the City of London, Exchange Alley or Change Alley' is a narrow alleyway connecting shops and coffeehouses. It served as a convenient shortcut from the Royal Exchange on Cornhill to the Post Office on Lombard Street and remains as one of a number of alleys linking the two streets. The coffeehousesJ. Pelzer and L. Pelzer, "Coffee Houses of Augustan London," History Today, (October, 1982), pp. 40–47. of Exchange Alley, especially Jonathan's and Garraway's, became an early venue for the lively trading of shares and commodities. These activities were the progenitor of the modern London Stock Exchange.
West of the City there are a number of alleys just north of Trafalgar Square, including Brydges Place, which is situated right next to the Coliseum Theatre and just 15 inches wide at its narrowest point, only one person can walk down it at a time. It is the narrowest alley in London and runs for , connecting St Martin's Lane with Bedfordbury in Covent Garden.
An alley in London can also be called a passage, court, place, lane, and less commonly path, arcade, walk, steps, yard, terrace, and close. While both a court and close are usually defined as blind alleys, or cul-de-sacs, several in London are throughways, for example Cavendish Court, a narrow passage leading from Houndsditch into Devonshire Square, and Angel Court, which links King Street and Pall Mall. Bartholomew Close is a narrow winding lane which can be called an alley by virtue of its narrowness, and because through-access requires the use of passages and courts between Little Britain, and Long Lane and Aldersgate Street. While both a court and close are usually defined as blind alleys, or cul-de-sacs, several in London are throughways, for example Cavendish Court, a narrow passage leading from Houndsditch into Devonshire Square, and Angel Court, which links King Street and Pall Mall. Bartholomew Close is a narrow winding lane which can be called an alley by virtue of its narrowness, and because through-access requires the use of passages and courts between Little Britain, and Long Lane and Aldersgate Street.
Waymarked routes Some designated way marked routes:
Capital Ring
A circular route with 15 sections and a radius of approximately from Charing Cross, that passes through green areas of urban and suburban London. The route forms a complete circuit, crossing the River Thames twice and with a notional starting point of Woolwich.
Green Chain
The South East London Green Chain, also known as the Green Chain Walk, is a linked system of open spaces between the River Thames and Crystal Palace Park. In 1977 four London Boroughs and the Greater London Council created this Green Chain of 300 open spaces to protect them from building activity. The four London boroughs are Bexley, Bromley, Lewisham and Greenwich. Many parts of the system are also part of the Capital Ring route. The system begins at three places on the River Thames: the Thames Barrier, Thamesmead, and the riverside at Erith. There are various circular walks along the route, with an offshoot from the main route to Chislehurst, and the final section reaches Crystal Palace via Bromley.
London Outer Orbital Path
A circular signed walk, in 24 sections, along public footpaths, and through parks, woods and fields around the edge of Outer London. The route does not form a complete circle because the Thames cannot be a crossed between Purfleet and Erith.
Dollis Valley Walk
The Dollis Valley Greenwalk (or Green Walk) is a footpath route in the London Borough of Barnet between Moat Mount Nature Reserve in Mill Hill and Hampstead Heath. The route links the Capital Ring and the London Loop, and the many green spaces and wildlife corridors along the way. It is approximately long. It mainly follows the Dollis Brook, and is one of many parks and open spaces in Barnet.
Lea Valley Walk
The Lea Valley Walk starts outside Greater London but has around within its boundary. The route follows the River Lea and the Lee Navigation for , from Leagrave, the source of the River Lea near Luton, to the Thames, at Limehouse Basin, Limehouse, east London.
The path runs through the Lee Valley Regional Park, a , long linear park, much of it green spaces, running through the northeast of Greater London, Essex and Hertfordshire from the River Thames to Ware, through areas such as Stratford, Hackney, Tottenham, Enfield, Walthamstow, Cheshunt, Broxbourne and Hoddesdon in an area generally known as the Lea Valley. Greater London's largest park, the Lee Valley Park is more than four times the size of Richmond Park.
Greenway footpath
A walking and cycle path has been created on the land above the eastern end of the Northern Outfall Sewer, from Hackney Wick to Beckton, Poplar, running some , with access points along its length. Walk 14 of the Capital Ring follows the Greenway for most of its distance.
Ridgeway
A walking and cycle path has been created on the land above the Southern Outfall Sewer, from Plumstead railway station to Crossness Sewage Treatment works and the River Thames path, running some 3.5 miles, with access points along its length.
Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk is a circular walking trail in London, England, dedicated to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales. It goes between Kensington Gardens, Green Park, Hyde Park and St James's Park in a figure-eight pattern, passing five sites that are associated with her life: Kensington Palace, Spencer House, Buckingham Palace, St. James's Palace, and Clarence House. It is marked with eighty-nine individual plaques and has been described as "one of the most magnificent urban parkland walks in the world."
Parkland Walk
The Parkland Walk is a linear green walkway in London which follows the course of the railway line that used to run between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace, through Stroud Green, Crouch End, Highgate and Muswell Hill, mostly in Haringey. Because it avoids the closed surface section of Highgate station and its adjoining tunnels, which are closed to walkers for safety reasons, there are in fact two separate sections to this walk. It is located near Hampstead Heath and is a local nature reserve. Between Finsbury Park and Highgate, the path forms part of the Capital Ring.
Waterside trails
Beverley Brook Walk
The Beverley Brook Walk is a walking route in the south-western suburbs of London, England. It is long, of which the last follows the lower reaches of the Beverley Brook, a tributary of the River Thames. It starts at New Malden railway station and ends to the north of the Putney Embankment at Barn Elms, having passed through the green spaces of Wimbledon Common, Richmond Park, Barnes Common and Putney Lower Common on its route.
Thames Path
The Thames Path is a National Trail that follows the length of the River Thames for , from its source near Kemble, Gloucestershire, to the Thames Barrier at Charlton, London. From Richmond to the Thames Barrier, some 28 mi or 45 km, it is within Greater London, passing Kew Gardens and the Wetlands Centre at Barnes and continuing through central London beside the river. Through most of the London section, the Thames Path is actually two paths, one on either side of the river downstream of Teddington lock. Many bridges link the banks, including the Millennium and the Golden Jubilee footbridges.
River Wandle Trail