WALKING WITH NICHOLSONS

 As I walk through the world I like to think I appreciate the built environment as much as 

the natural environment.  If I had to choose one or other I’d probably go for the former 

but fortunately I don’t have to choose.

 

And I’m always particularly taken by the way the built environment and the natural world come together, even if in some ways they’re in conflict.  Sometimes these may be highly organized and sophisticated and ways but I prefer something a bit more ad hoc – an overgrown house for instance.

 

But the form I like best like is where a single manmade upright, say a telephone pole, a lamppost or a street sign, becomes a support for a creeper or a climber, more often that not ivy.

 

This one’s in Stroud:

This one’s in Dovercourt:

 

This one’s under the pedestrian bridge by the station in Colchester:

 

This one’s in the Hollywood Hills:

And here’s an odd one in Holland Park:

 

In this case the upright is supporting a security camera and although I can understand why the powers that be would want something to grow up it and look ‘natural,’ – I have a suspicion that the ‘ivy’ growing here may be fake. Given the security camera I thought it best not to walk across the grass and investigate.  But it obviously belongs to the same breed.

 

As far as I’m aware there’s no name for this phenomenon and so, unless somebody knows the ‘proper’ term, I’m going to claim this as ‘The Nicholson.’  

Now all I need is for the rest of the world to accept it.  

THE SIDEWALK WALK

“We are bored in the city, we really have to strain to still discover mysteries on the sidewalk.” – Ivan Chtcheglov.

A couple of sources have directed me to a rather good piece on Londonist.com, under the headline: How Far Can You Walk From Trafalgar Square Without Crossing A Road?  With the subheading Extreme walker Victor Keegan reckons you can journey over 17 miles without setting foot on the bitumen.

Keegan sets off from Trafalgar Square, and by using bridges, underpasses, and the banks of the Thames, manages to avoid crossing roads, and he ends up 17 miles away “somewhere in the Lea Valley.”

Of course at times he’s often walking on pavements (that’s sidewalks for my American readers) that are very adjacent to bitumen, but it’s a great expedition, and we all know the attractions of the “constrained” walk.

Here’s Keegan’s map:

And here’s a link to the piece:

http://londonist.com/2012/01/how-far-can-you-walk-from-traflagar-square-without-crossing-a-road 

I have nothing but respect for the man, but I fret about that term “extreme walker.”  I think, and hope, it’s the Londonist’s term rather than his own.  It seems to be asking for trouble, like that band called Extreme Noise Terror.  You listen to them and think, “I’ve heard more extreme, more terrifying noise than this.” And so with walking. However extreme your walking, you can be damn sure that somebody somewhere is doing something far more extreme.

Keegan says, reasonably enough, that he doesn’t think his 17 mile constrained walk would be possible in any other city, and I imagine he’s right.  You could certainly clock a fair distance on the west side of Manhattan but I’m not arguing.

In LA I think you’d be lucky to do more than a few hundred yards before you were forced to “set foot on bitumen.” And here where I live on the lower slopes of the Hollywood Hills there are no sidewalks at all (that’s pavement for my English readers).   You step out the front gate and you’re immediately in the road.  The nearest sidewalk – I just measured it - is a little over half a mile away.  True, you don’t cross any roads for that distance but that’s because you’re in the middle of one.  If you had a mind to, you could cover a good few sidewalk-free miles around the area's tight corners and blind bends.

There are a lot of Victor Keegans on the internet but this seems to be the man:

http://www.londonmylondon.co.uk

I see he has a blog post titled, “Walking from Trafalgar Square to Margate – without crossing a road.”  That does sound fairly extreme.