So today Beth (CowHeartGirl) and
I went on a walk around central London. The main reason for this is as training
for the 26 mile Trekathon mum and me are undertaking in September. This
Trekathon will be in aid of the Children’s Society (here) and in memory of my
brother Kieran, who was tragically taken from us just under two years ago. As
many of you who know me will understand, I’m not one to go into my emotions in
public, and this is one of the few times I have/will openly talk about this.
Kieran was swimming (not really
the right word, as only waist deep), in the sea with my dad whilst they, mum
and sister were on holiday on the French Atlantic coast. They were about to
come back to shore, when Kieran was taken by a rip current, and despite the
best efforts of the French coastguard, police and lifeguards, he was only found
three days later. I was at home, as Beth
was undergoing heart surgery at the time, and all I remember is being torn in
two, needing and wanting to support Beth and be by her side, whilst also having
the natural urge to go to an airport and get on a plane.
We decided at the time of Kieran’s
funeral that the Children’s Society was the right charity for donations to go to
as it represented his values of Bravery, Ambition, Trust & Supportiveness.
Kieran always wanted to help others and we felt at the time, as we do now, that
this charity, which helps children, summed up his attitude towards life. Mum
and I have decided to do the London Trekathon this September to raise money for
this great charity. If you can, please donate here.
So essentially I realised that I needed to go from less
than a mile a day to 26 miles in a day in the space of 3 months. My training
started this week, with me getting off the Circle line a stop early on Tuesday
and walking from Mansion House to Southwark rather than just my usual walk
across Blackfriars Bridge. Wednesday saw me get off at Canon Street and then
also walk from Southwark back to Liverpool Street in the evening to avoid the
crowds caused by the Tube strike.
However I realised that the pace needed to be upped otherwise it’d take
me until next year to get up to the required level.
My inspiration came from a book a recently read by Mark
Mason, called Walking the Lines: The London Underground, Overground. Mark had
challenged himself to walk all of the London Underground lines, as the name
suggests, overground. Well Mark had started off at a much higher level of
physical fitness than myself and started with the Victoria line, but today Beth
and I got on the train and headed into town to walk the ‘runt of the litter’ the
Waterloo & City line.
This line was opened in 1898 enabling a connection from
the London & South Western Railway (now Southwest Trains) terminal at
Waterloo into the City of London. Operated from the outset by LSWR and its
successors it was transferred to London Underground in 1994, with the trains
remaining the in the blue and white
Network SouthEast livery until 2006.
So the plan today was to set off from Liverpool Street,
walk to Bank and then continue following the rough geographical location of the
line to Waterloo. This lead us down Old Broad Street and Threadneedle Street to
Bank, where there is a monument to James Henry Greathead, the Chief Engineer of
the City and South London Railway (now part of the Northern line) and the designer
of the Travelling Shield, forerunner to today’s Tunnel Boring Machines.
We continued down Queen Victoria Street past Mansion
House, the Millennium Bridge and Old Fish Street Hill (nothing of note, we just
liked the name), and turned left at Blackfriars to cross the river. This route
led us to the junction of Blackfriars Bridge Road and Stamford Street, at which
there is a building designed to look as though it is upside down. Continuing
down Stamford Street we passed the London Nautical School, established in 1915
as a consequence into the report into the loss of the Titanic. At the end of
Stamford Street we reached the Waterloo Imax and Waterloo Station, the end of
today’s ‘official’ walk.
We decided that as we were feeling okay, we’d carry on
back towards Southwark station to grab a bite to eat and then take the route I
had walked on Wednesday evening back to Liverpool Street. This route took us
past Borough Market, across the ‘third’ London Bridge (the replacement for the
one sold to American Robert McCulloch) and past the Monument (the point of
which, if lain down pointing east, would reach the site where the Great Fire of
London started in 1966.
Finally heading up Gracechurch Street and Bishopsgate,
we arrived at Liverpool Street station for the second time today, having walked
5.31 miles at an average speed of 3.15mph (excluding the lunch break but
including water breaks).
