Walk With Jane

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) was an urbanist and activist whose writings championed a community-based approach to city building. She had no formal training as a planner, and yet her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961 introduced ground-breaking ideas about how cities function, evolve and fail, that should be common sense to architects, planners, and politicians but is it?

"Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody." Jane Jacobs

and us listen to House sparrows

Kingston town centre- my home town of more than 40 years; who does it belong to?

Who decides if it should be a 'concretopia'?

Certain species reach a tipping point where they can no longer subsist;

How can we ensure that valuable natural assets will be retained in major new developments?

The last 27 years; this district has been my home but now it is fast becoming a dormitory

Towards the end of the 1960's the council decided to remove 100's of people from their homes - using 'Compulsory Purchase Orders' to create 'The Cambridge Road Estate'. Roads such as Burrit, Piper and Washington- were severed- Cambridge Grove Road used to connect to Cambridge Road, as can be seen from this street plan. Pubs such as The Feathers, which sold beer from Hodgsons, a Kingston Brewery were also lost.

Businesses, including two scrap metal merchants, as well as the 'rag and bone man'-the recyclers in any community were demolished. A church on the corner of Hampden and Vincent road where resdients were baptised or married - gone. A tree separated the churchyard from the Old Windsor Laundry, probably the oak which is still hanging on, the only remnant of former days.

One of my neighbours went to the infant school next to Bonner Hill Girls school, where both his sisters as well as children of local residents attended. His Grandad lived two doors from their home on one side and next door to an aunt. He used to run erands for the family to the local shops.

A favourite was a visit to the Kingstonian Ice cream parlour; not a shop but two serving hatches. There was a barbers near the Cambridge Arms for haircuts and a bakers down Gladstone Road from where the smell of rising bread permeated the homes of rising residents.
Jane's message as echoed by Robert Elms Cities need slums

I was Fine Foods

I was your laundry

I was the Peel Pub

Listen again House sparrows

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The Black Path (AKA Porter's or Templars' Path).

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Soundwalk

This year we repeated the Soundwalk that we undertook last year and highlighted the changes. Well for a start there was no Lucy , although we were able to play recordings of her reading her poetry, secondly we were limited to six participants. Here is an account of last years walk. Soundwalk on the Cambridge Road Estate by Alison Whybrow 2019 I love the walks that Alison organises, I discover so much about the place I live. This one didn’t disappoint. About 20 of us assembled outside the cemetery gates wrapped up and ready to go, some from across London, mostly local. It was going to be a chilly evening. We took time to listen to the birds, Jackdaws, making a racket in a tree next to us, and notice the connections and avenues that the trees created both on and off the estate. The older the tree, the richer the biodiversity that it houses. Walking with Alison is a different way to experience place. A deeper more personal way, seeing things I wouldn’t see and sharing knowledge that goo

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Walk with John Clare

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On the importance of paths

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The Criminal Trespass Bill

Dear all, BREAKING NEWS: thanks to you, MPs will hold a debate in Parliament on 25th January into Government plans to criminalise trespass! Parliament's Petitions Committee has just scheduled the debate, after our petition - ' Don't criminalise trespass ' - got over 134,000 signatures, back in early September. Massive thanks to all of you who signed and promoted the petition! But now we really need your help to contact MPs and get them to say the right things at the debate. We've written a template email, below, which you can adapt and send to your MP. When MPs hear about issues from their constituents, they're so much more likely to take action - and even if they disagree with you, they have to take your views into consideration. You can look up your MP and their email address on the Parliament website here . Remember to include your postcode when you send your email, to show you're a constituent, otherwise they won't have to respond. If you get

The Journey

On Wimbledon Common or pounding streets We spent time in Nature enjoying this land. We would CAVAT trees at Cambridge Road or Waterloo Coin Street I held the DBH tape while you tested its accuracy with your hand span. Armed with suitable detection equipment We would listen to bats at Kensington Gardens or the Canons. Embarking on a survey of a large poplar, you swore, A LOT, As it had already been felled ANON. On looking for brackets : - "Resinaceum has increased in Richmond Park," you say We debate a Podocypher rosette , or was it old cabbage fungus Let's put in on the checklist for next year's Foray. Taking home made wreaths to Jubilee Gardens on the first of the Summer's Saturdays In memory of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War and to Highgate, red roses for Marx on his Anniversaries. You said, "This will be a good RESISTOR", On handing an Indica chestnut to me. The resulting tree has reached your 'lofty' height as, fo

Walk with Richard Jefferies

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Walk with Jane

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