Join us on a 75-90 minute circular walking route from Hay’s Galleria via the Low Line to the riverside beneath London’s Tower Bridge.  We will share nuggets of history and give you prompts to compose poems and story fragments, inspired by what we will encounter.

We will encourage you to read your compositions aloud and learn how to record them on your smartphone, to share them through the project’s web-based Shoreline’s facility.  We will also encourage you to record ambient sounds that you encounter.  These recordings may be used as part of a collaborative sound walk we are hoping to create for the Low Line area.

Team London Bridge, Museum of Walking and walk . listen . create have teamed up to deliver these events as part of Totally Thames Festival and Sound Walk September.

What you need to bring:

An open mind, a pen and paper, a smartphone and little else. To contribute to the project you will need to register on walk . listen . create – it is free – register here

What will take place:

Tips on creative writing for prose and poetry, sound walk composition, the score and framework of a sound walk (similar to a story arc), from where to record and where to geo-locate or design for people to hear their recorded piece, drawing on examples from the WalkListenCreate archive of 250+ sound walks and soundscapes.

Audience 16+

The background:

We value places as much by their location, the amenities around them, the comfort they bring, and their seasonal nature, as we do the narratives that are associated with them. Can you help us to create those narratives, that capture the essence of a place? 

The Thames has been a thoroughfare for goods for a couple of thousand years, the railway for a couple of hundred, while London Bridge was for centuries the only road crossing.  As an area, the southern riverside between London Bridge and Tower Bridge, has been the focus for goods travel and food production, as well as for theatre and leisure.  These days it’s a lot more cleaner and a little quieter, but just as popular.

Whether you are in London or not, you can join this exciting sound walk project to create poems and stories inspired by layers of history, and share your writing with hundreds of others.  We invite you to a creative writing and sound walk walkshop from the riverside shoreline of the Thames to the Low Line that runs adjacent to the railway to the south. You will discover the Low Line and Shoreline and will be encouraged to write poems and stories, and to create audio recordings to be geo-located on a sound walk through the area.

Booking is free but capacity is limited to 15, so it is essential to book.  Booking is on Eventbrite managed by Team London Bridge from here