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• One Small Step creative writing walkshop
A creative writing walkshop for novice or experienced writers who want to learn more about ‘flash fiction’ an exciting short form of story telling which is growing in popularity. Led by Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone, an accomplished writer and acclaimed writing tutor, you will be invited to draw inspiration from the space race to walk on the moon, that was
• Between the Lines
Andrew Stuck has a fascination with writers who draw from place. It is probably something to do with the fact that as walkers, we are out carving our way through space and experiencing places, one step at a time. Andrew doesn’t count himself as a great writer so really appreciates those who can write a
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Footnotes with Peter Fiennes
Three online events from June and July 2020, in which author Peter Fiennes draws you into the world of famous writers who explored English city and countryside: A Footnote to Charles Dickens No author is as inextricably linked with London as Charles Dickens. The city and the times he lived through fed his imagination, and in
• One Small Step creative writing walkshop
A creative writing walkshop for novice or experienced writers who want to learn more about ‘flash fiction’ an exciting short form of story telling which is growing in popularity. Led by Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone, an accomplished writer and acclaimed writing tutor, you will be invited to draw inspiration from the space race to walk on the moon, that was
• Between the Lines
Andrew Stuck has a fascination with writers who draw from place. It is probably something to do with the fact that as walkers, we are out carving our way through space and experiencing places, one step at a time. Andrew doesn’t count himself as a great writer so really appreciates those who can write a
• Walking Writers’ Circle – Walking Together
An “Invitation Only” event for shortlisted authors in the Walking Together writing ocmpetition with VIP guests. VIP guests confirmed include Amelia Hodsdon, our current writer-in-residence, and Ann de Forest, author, poet and editor of “Ways of Walking”.
• Can poetry inspire people to discover their city on foot?
We think it can and want to make that happen – here in London and elsewhere in the world. With your help, we shall.
80,000 rest
In Paddington Street Gardens
As I walk to work
We are looking for your help in making this happen – we want you to write a haiku inspired by a city walk or somewhere special in your neighbourhood, and share your poem with residents and visitors alike.
Would you like to join a group to compose and recite haiku while discovering a neighbourhood? You have come to the right place – in 2024 we are working with Tim Ingram-Smith on his Park2Park walking project, seeing London from a different perspective.
A bit of history….
Back in October 2011 in Vancouver, Canada the Haiku encounter project (then called the Haiku walk project) was to be featured as part of an international Walk21 conference but we couldn’t raise the funds to travel get the Haiku walk project underway on the ground there – so we created an interactive map….
This site lay dormant, until 2016 we started running a series of Haiku walkshops on the First Thursday of each month from February to October 2016. Each was delivered in a different London neighbourhood and took place from 6.30pm-8.00pm, so some took place entirely in darkness, some entirely in daylight and some in twilight. Whether a novice or a haiku expert, this is a wonderful opportunity to join others having fun capturing London’s heritage in just 3 lines and 17 syllables.
- First Thursday each Month
- Walk, talk, recite, write haiku
- Foot powered poems
Why Thursday? so we could mark National Poetry Day which fell on Thursday 6th October in 2016, with a selection of haiku to celebrate life on foot and living in London.
What it entailed was a free form walk in which participants write and inspire others to write haiku – a short form 3-line poem that is a picture revealing the characteristics of a place. Haiku don’t have to be made up of 17 syllables (5 in the first and third lines, and 7 in the middle line), but we have found that that form is a great starting point to get one’s head around writing haiku. Haiku generated on the walkshops were printed and published in a zine – as an anthology from each walk.
Download First Thursday: Haiku on foot zines here – print on both sides of an A4 sheet the 2 page pdf:
- October’s haiku zine inspired by time travelling through Clerkenwell celebrating National Poetry Day Volume 1 of 2
- October’s haiku zine inspired by time travelling through Clerkenwell celebrating National Poetry Day Volume 2 of 2
- September’s haiku zine inspired by the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London – Monument
- August’s haiku zine created in the gardens of the Horniman Museum
- July’s haiku zine created in Deptford as part of NOW ‘Welcome Home” Festival
- June’s haiku zine created in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park to celebrate #LondonTreeWeek
- May’s haiku zine created from Kings Cross to Old St Pancras Churchyard
- April’s haiku zine created from Southwark Cathedral to the Globe – 2 volumes – Vol 1
- April’s haiku zine created from Southwark Cathedral to the Globe – 2 volumes – Vol 2
- March’s haiku zine created in the Barbican
- February’s haiku zine created in Greenwich
Other Haiku on foot walkshops have taken place since 2016:
The Urban Tree festival 2026 included tree-inspired haiku walkshops:
- Hidden Garden Haiku in Holland Park
- Hidden Garden Haiku – City of London – commissioned by the Corporation of London
- Hidden Garden Haiku – City East
- Hidden Garden Haiku – Lambeth
- Hidden Garden Haiku Holland Park
- Mayor of London – National Park City Week 2018
- In Search of Truth 2019
2017
- Haiku on the Rye
- Woodland Trust – London Tree Week
- Haiku Woods
- Mayor of London – London Tree Week
- Creative writing – haiku
- London Metropolitan Archives – Word on the Street Festival
- Little Italy and beyond
2016
- First Thursday: haiku on foot
- Including 2016 National Poetry Day
- London Neighbourhoods: Greenwich / The Barbican / Bankside / Kings Cross / Borough / Deptford / Forest Hill / Monument / Clerkenwell
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