Shopping

What a marked difference in human behaviour - yesterday morning, we were in the calm streets of Vienna, where only cafes were open, as shops close on Saturday afternoons around 2pm and do not reopen until Monday morning. We arrived at Heathrow, and came home via the Elizabeth Line to Canary Wharf with its underground shopping mall, rammed with shoppers. Our own neighbourhood shopping centre in Greenwich, was similarly packed with traffic backed up around the one way system, and people spilling in and out of shops.

Don't be fooled to think that the Viennese don't enjoy shopping too, however they have managed to keep it to less that six days of the week. In fact, Vienna offers more shops than London, even though it is one quarter of the population, with scores of independent stores offering all sorts of goods and services.

Back in 2012, London's Olympic year, we were asked to create a walk that showed London at work - beside a visit to the public galleries of the Old Bailey law court and the Houses of Parliament, there were jewellers in Hatton Garden and tailors in Saville Row whom we could observe, however, practically every other Londoner working we could observe was either in a shop, a hair salon, a restaurant or glued to a screen. Last week, I started devising a similar walk in Vienna, but I wouldn't have had to take people very far, for in one street alone, I found a tailor, a repair shop, a dental laboratory, a cosmetic surgeon, a dress maker, a carpet weaver, a stone mason, three hair salons, a homeopathic chemist who was delighted to show us their remedy-making, a vet, two pet grooming salons, six cafes, two ice cream vendors (one of which was vegan) and the kiosk featured in the image above. And I had walked less than 500 metres. Vienna also boasts several Saturday markets, as well as one of the world's largest flea markets, plus the City government has now managed to pedestrianise or create shared spaces in all the streets within the inner-ring plus several key shopping streets. Cars are present but they don't intrude, and there are chains (even Starbucks) but they don't predominate.

What does this mean for those of us on foot? I have already commented in an earlier newsletter about the affordable and efficient public transport (€365 for a annual season ticket to all train, U-bahn, tram and buses throughout Vienna's metropolitan region) and how it creates an almost seamless journey experience with only very short mode changes on foot, however, it is the Viennese street environment that is considerably calmer (especially on Sundays) that makes it such an enjoyable walking experience. Almost every cafe has an outside space created in the highway, occupying the equivalent of a couple of car parking spaces, and many squares have underground parking beneath them, and streets where cars are parked, are tree lined and the parking is broken up and not a continuous kerbside line.

So if city walking is your thing, then Vienna is a must, but just like London, from now to the end of September, many of the key historic streets will be mobbed with crowds of tourists - on Sundays however, they are not shopping.

When you are next out and about on foot in your neighbourhood look out for the street trees, as we celebrate them this month with the Urban Tree Festival, and we will be showcasing new writing about urban trees on Sunday 20 May.

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