Despite the dreadful weather, more than 20 people joined Martin Fidler, creator of the Ruskin Walk, to step out in John Ruskin’s shoes to discover Camberwell, where he lived for more than 40 years. Each participant was given a hand assembled visual journal, in which prompts had been inserted, all of which were derived from techniques that John Ruskin, author, art citic, artist and social reformer, himself had used in his critical studies of housing and neighbourhoods.
Rethinking Cities had earlier commissioned Martin Fidler, to undertake a Ruskin Walk with delegates at a Talk the Walk event on ‘making neighbourhoods more neighbourly’ at the South London Gallery back in April. Martin was invited back to undertake this Ruskin Walk as part of the popular Wednesday After Work Walks that Rethinking Cities is producing in July.
Participants are invited to draw, sketch and record their findings in their visual journals, and despite the rain, also enjoyed a bit of “scoping” of the site on which Henry Bessemer’s observatory once stood. Once completed, the visual journals, can be disassembled as a panoramic narrative, and plans are afoot to exhibit some of these at local galleries.
Rethinking Cities and Martin Fidler have been awarded a seed grant to cover the cost of 60 visual journals by the Curry Fund at the Geologists’ Association, to develop four further Ruskin Walks focused on building stone and local geology, which are planned to take place in September and October.
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Celebr8 Ruskin walks in Shoreditch
To mark the anniversary of John Ruskin’s birthday, Martin Fidler and Andrew Stuck invite you to a Ruskin Walk in Shoreditch on Saturday 8 February 2014. It also marks the launch Celeb8Feb a 5 year campaign of Ruskin Walks building to 200th anniversary of Ruskin’s birth in 1819. The community of people living and working in Shoreditch have a rich heritage of culture, craft and small scale industry.
• Ruskin Walks
John Ruskin was a Victorian polymath, with interests in botany, natural history, art, architecture, and social reform. Perhaps more famously known as William Turner’s promoter, he was a distinguished artist in his own right, and played a pivotal role in bringing the pre-Raphaelites to fame and fortune. Martin Fidler created a Ruskin Walk for the Camberwell Arts
• Tree or False?
Devised by Andrew Stuck of the Museum of London, this walkshop became a regular event as part of the Mayor of London’s London Tree Week, and subsequent Urban Tree Festivals. Everyone has heard ‘an old wives’ tale’ about a certain tree species, some of which have a layer of truth within them, others are downright
• Map Ramble
Map Rambles were created in March 2007 by Andrew Stuck and Tim Waterman, who had an inspiration prompted by visits to the London: A Life in Maps exhibition at the British Library. Map Rambles are self-guided walks that incorporate themes inspired by events and exhibitions, in which participants explore areas and come together to discuss and
• Drawn to the Skyline
Conceived by Andrew Stuck from the Museum of Walking, in collaboration with walking artist, Ruth Broadbent, Drawn to the Skyline was first run in the Winter of 2017 and on subsequent occasions thereafter, including a commission from Team London Bridge for the London Festival of Architecture in June 2019. We all know how easy it
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Produced in two parts 14 days apart, this online event attracted more than 70 people who ‘walked’ the route with Tor, with the aid of Google Streetview. Between the Fens to the west and the clay soils of eastern Norfolk, Breckland is a distinctive area of sandy soils that have undergone an intriguing history. Once
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