I spent Friday walking around three different parts of London as I risk assessed routes for four haiku walkshops that I’ll be leading for the Urban Tree Festival that started this weekend.

The neighbourhoods I chose are ones in which I have led walkshops before, but not for at least five years, and some, longer.  Friday was a warm spring day in central London, almost muggy at times, so residents and tourists were out enjoying the sunshine, sitting outside cafés, bars and pubs, as well as stretching out in the parks. London is a really enjoyable city to walk through, as it is made up of a conglomerate of green spaces and one-time villages, so each neighbourhood often offers a central area full of variety and diversity.

I started at St Paul’s Cathedral, in the churchyard in the northeast corner, beside a mulberry tree, and walked a circular route via the appropriately named Wood Street, Gresham Street, returning to St Paul’s via Foster Lane. There, I encountered a long line of people outside St Vedast alias Foster Church.  I learned from a man at the front of the queue, that this was a line for Friday prayers, and that the Muslim community have been welcomed by this Christian church to use their premises for that purpose. 

Next, I took the Central Line tube to Holland Park tube station, walking from there to the Kyoto Japanese Garden within Holland Park, along a route I devised for a previous Urban Tree Festival. Little has changed over the previous five years. The Japanese garden looks magnificent with azaleas in full flower. Just beyond the garden, there is the Belvedere restaurant and Orangery, where Mel and I were married in June 1999 – happy memories.

I retraced my steps and took the Central Line back to the City, beyond St Paul’s to Bank Station. From there I walked to the Monument that acknowledges the 1666 Great Fire of London. Within a few minutes’ walk there are a number of churches whose churchyards are bursting with Spring flowers. The route of the walkshop will end at the Tower of London.  I had an errand to run in Bermondsey, so it was a simple walk across Tower Bridge.  For the first time in my life, I actually witnessed the Bridge opening!

My final destination was in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park that surrounds the Imperial War Museum, once the Bethlem Hospital for the insane, whose in-patients included William Blake – possibly one of the earliest walking artists.  There’s an Ice Age Tree trail planted there, with the 34 tree species that colonised Britain since the Ice Age – known as Britain’s Native trees.

Within the gardens, there’s an area laid out as a Tibetan Peace Garden.  It is a beautiful meditative spot, full of flowering roses, that in the evening fill the air with scent. I am always amused when I go there, as the Dalai Lama opened the garden on the 13th May 1999. That date happens to be my birthday, and as you now know, 1999 is the year in which I got married. What you may not know, that I once met the Dalai Lama, not on that day, but some 10 years earlier – that’s another story, for another time.

I want to leave you with a quote by the Dalai Lama that is etched into a stone pillar that marks the entrance to the Peace garden:

“We human beings are passing through a crucial period in our development. Conflict and mistrust have plagued the past century which has brought immeasurable human suffering and environmental destruction. It is in the interests of all of us on this planet that we make a joint effort to turn the next century into an era of peace and harmony. May this Peace Garden become a monument to the courage of the Tibetan people and their commitment to Peace. May it remain as a symbol to remind us that human survival depends on living in harmony and on always choosing the path of non-violence in resolving our differences.”

Happy Walking, and should you be in London next week, do come and join a Hidden Garden Haiku Walkshop.

Do not miss this!

Free for supporting members, open to everyone

Latest podcast episodes

Upcoming events

From our network

Stuff we found

Follow us on social media