Elliot tells me about the London Circle walk, a route picked to adhere as closely as possible to a perfect geometry, difficult to achieve, bound by the availability of Roads, and Bridges. It seems to me quite Quixotic. He meant to resemble it to mine, a spiral walk, also bound by bridges, also limited to a route, and a direction. However I’m not sticking to the prescribed path, it’s a small matter to me to wander off – to detour – especially where the scenery warrants.
There is an ideal path, a dotted line across the landscape, that tramps unconstrained across enclosed fields, set aside space and private yards, then there is the realisable path, which sometimes, often in fact, coincides with the ideal path, but may be obliged to switch angularly back and forth; lastly there is the chosen route, the actual journey trodden, which may, like Canary Wharf, be an entire detour, not on the spiral at all, or, like Mile End Park, a diversion, a more enjoyable walking experience than trudging past housing estates and main roads, or a jaunt off to the side, a meander, like Mill Hill with its schools and research labs and religious control towers.
Reclaimed park by Silver Street station
London Spiral Walk 