{"id":7346,"date":"2020-04-24T14:29:56","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T13:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/footprintsoflondon.com\/?p=7346"},"modified":"2020-04-24T14:29:56","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T13:29:56","slug":"our-top-ten-lockdown-walking-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/footprintsoflondon.com\/live\/2020\/04\/our-top-ten-lockdown-walking-spots\/","title":{"rendered":"Our top ten lockdown walking spots"},"content":{"rendered":"

So how’s your lockdown going? If you’re anything like us, you’re on the lookout for some variety as to how and where to take your government-sanctioned exercise, so we turned to our team of talented guides and asked for some suggestions from their own local areas accompanied with a few historical pearls to help you enjoy these places a little more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s our 10 favourites, enjoy your walks – always remembering social distancing, of course! <\/span><\/p>\n

Kennington Park by Michael Duncan<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Kennington<\/a>Kennington Park makes up a part of what was once Kennington Common. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was the South London equivalent of Tyburn.\u00a0More than one hundred people were executed on the site of what is now St Mark’s Church.\u00a0 Kicking off with the burning at the stake of a woman who murdered her husband, locals in search of entertainment later gathered to watch highwaymen and Jacobite rebels hang.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now crowds go to The Oval nearby to watch cricket but it was on the Common itself that one of the earliest first class matches was played in 1724.<\/span><\/p>\n

But crowds were not always welcome. In 1848 the Chartists held a rally to demand working class male suffrage.\u00a0 The organisers claimed there were half a million there, their detractors a mere twelve-thousand.\u00a0 Either way, the vicar of St Mark’s took a dim view and led a campaign to convert the Common into a park.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Common was enclosed in 1852.\u00a0 The plane trees you see today were planted and a couple of cottages known as the Prince Consort Lodge was dismantled and moved from the Crystal Palace Exhibition.\u00a0 These then revolutionary cottages featured flushing water closets and three bedrooms. But future versions, built in cities as far away as St Petersburg and Helsinki did not feature the money saving hollow bricks that were used for the prototypes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Near the Lodge,\u00a0part of the 1965 thriller The Ipcress File<\/em>, featuring local boy Michael Caine, was filmed.\u00a0 Another local boy, Charlie Chaplin, took his first girlfriend on a date here.\u00a0 Today locals work out, run and stroll, most of them unaware of its rich history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Walpole Park by Alan Fortune<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Walpole<\/a>Walpole Park was opened to the public in 1901, two years after Ealing Council had bought it, along with Pitzhanger Manor, for \u00a340,000 from Sir Spencer Walpole. The council surveyor, Charles Jones, the architect of Ealing\u2019s Gothic revivalist town hall, designed the park\u2019s tree-lined avenues, paths and flower beds.<\/span><\/p>\n

The back of the beautifully refurbished Pitzhanger Manor is visible on my lockdown walk through this lovely park.\u00a0 I often pause beside the ornate Grade II listed rustic bridge which has been there since before renowned architect Sir John Soane, the owner of the manor from 1801 to 1810, embellished it with carved faces and classical urns. From there I have an excellent view of the manor house and the park\u2019s elegant landscaping. Soane used to fish in the nearby lake with his great friend, the renowned painter J.M.W.Turner. In those days the area was principally rural; the lake acted as a ha-ha to prevent sheep straying on to Soane\u2019s property.<\/span><\/p>\n

A recent lottery fund grant has enabled the recreation of many of the original features not only of Jones\u2019 design for Walpole Park but of the area in Soane\u2019s time. Breeding wildfowl have returned, new Regency-style flowerbeds have been planted, and the walled herb garden where Soane grew vegetables and herbs for his kitchen has been recreated.\u00a0 There is also a children\u2019s education centre which houses a small apiary with an observation hive.<\/span><\/p>\n

This all makes the park an extremely attractive place to visit, never more so than in July every year when marquees are erected for the Ealing Beer, Blues, Comedy and Jazz Festivals.<\/span><\/p>\n

N.B. Walpole Park and Pitzhanger Manor feature in Alan\u2019s walk entitled \u2018Ealing: Queen of the Suburbs\u2019, which he intends to resume when lockdown is over.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hampstead Cemetery by Rhona Levene<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Alan<\/a>My \u201cspecial Covid place\u201d is Grade II listed Hampstead Cemetery in West Hampstead.\u00a0 With over 60,000 graves, it\u2019s a fascinating place to wander through.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike Highgate this cemetery is free. One path leads you to an art deco monument to a young opera singer who died in childbirth in 1936. Her husband Cesare was Head Chef at the Cafe Royal but as an Italian national he was arrested and ended up as one of the survivors of the German U-Boat attack on the SS Arandora Star in July 1940.\u00a0 He was then taken to the Isle of Man until 1942 when he managed to get a job at Smithfield Market. He lost his life in a V2 rocket attack in March 1945.<\/span><\/p>\n

Former Punch editor Alan Coren is buried there too – with a witty epitaph referencing his former residence in Cricklewood, the fictional home of The Goodies – Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor.\u00a0 Sadly, the latter recently died from COVID-19.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a teaser to encourage you to explore this open space – see if you can find the graves of the following people when you visit.<\/span><\/p>\n