Take a map of your area... by shady grey
June 6th, 2010 12:41 PM / Location: 51.554981,-0.102610Today I was in Stoke Newington for an event that was part of the Stoke Newington Literary Festival, and instead of taking the 393 back to Holloway, as per usual, I planned a walk, which turned out to be a walk that wasn't very far at all. In fact, it's comparable to walks I take regularly from my current place of employment. I didn't realise I was walking distance to Stokey, but now that I do, I think I may walk more often as opposed to taking the bus.
From Stoke Newington Church Street, I walked across Green Lanes and entered into the area I hadn't walked through before, which was primarily a residential area. I went through Kelross Passage, where I passed a man who was just standing in the passage, staring off into the distance towards the direction I was walking to. He seemed to be waiting on someone, as if waiting for someone to turn the corner into the passage, but there was no one there.
Mysterious.
Anyway, most of the scene was dominated by houses. Things didn't get interesting until I walked down a street I thought would take me to Drayton Park, but actually, I went left a bit early, and got to a dead end. Upon not seeing a way to cut through, I started my way back up to where I came. That's when I saw the little bricked footpath that took me behind some buildings, and then through a building until I emerged the next street over. Which was cool.
I was nearing the area near Arsenal Football Club, an area I was actually familiar with from being lost near there before. As I walked along this semi-known area, I spotted a cafe/bar that advertised pizza. Since I was a little hungry I popped in and had an excellent pizza--possibly the best I've had in London. Really. Quite a good surprise.
Well, then I walked on back towards Holloway Road and the known areas of the map. I should really do this more often, especially if it involves stumbling upon nice places to eat.
areas i know, map
Note the legend at the bottom. Yes, I have quite a lot to familiarise myself with, but I've also been familiarising myself with other areas of this big, big city.
Stoke Newington Church St to Holloway Rd
Sort of the path I took, except there was this wee walkway I found down Panmure Close that led me into the next street, Hamilton Park.
looking back towards stokey
The journey begins with a quick look back towards the known before proceeding towards the unknown.
green building
So cool.
barred passageway, highbury
The road I walked down, thinking later it was a dead end, but I wound up walking through a little footpath through...
the building with the passageway
...an apartment building. These may have been council flats, I'm not sure, but the whole experience was kind of secret and nice, and I saw a fluffy black cat in front of one of the flats as well.
pizza!
From a place discovered on a street I thought I sort of knew.
to holloway road
Back to the known.
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I printed the map out and coloured it in, taking note of the street names I was going down as I walked it.
Yeah, the PDF kind of does that... I think I can take that out...
:) All better.
So, did Scuffles stay home? He doesn't seem very adventuresome. (The recurring praxis component is awesome, I must say. Like Pixie and her dresses, or Lincoln and his need to do weird stuff.)
Actually, he helped work on a praxis I have half-done, but for this journey, since it involved walking, he stayed at home and watched Mad Men on my computer. He does need to get involved more, though.
Aside from a few formatting issues (you've got some meta-text appearing after the first few paragraphs) this looks like it was quite the trip. Did you make a map as you were walking, or just print the google map after and color it in from memory? Also, the house with the plants growing out of it is pretty epic.