Jubilee Walkway

Jubilee Walkway

Distance: 10.3 miles
Ascent: 92 metres
Duration: 3 hours 15 minutes

It was Queenie's idea

Here's a walk twenty years in the waiting. I probably first noticed the steel markers embedded in the pavement near some of London's big tourist attractions when I went to college. But for some reason, twenty years later I'd still not "joined the dots" and followed the entire walk.

The single circuit of the Silver Jubilee Walkway as it was then has since been split into two circuits and supplemented by three additional loops. Starting at Trafalgar Square we walked the Eastern and Western loops, trying to recreate the original walk. We'll have to return for the City, Camden and Jubilee loops another time.

And what a walk! Following it religiously opened our eyes to parts of London we'd never seen before. One particular highlight was the narrow alley of Godwin Court hidden between Covent Garden and Leicester Square.

At times the route was overcrowded with tourists - for example at Parliament Square and along the Albert Embankment - but mostly it was a perfect, genteel walk with which to work off some Christmas excess.

We detoured just once, to climb The Monument - something I'd not done since childhood. Despite being recently overhauled I loved the fact that this attraction seemed to have changed little. There was no sign of overbearing security: just one man at a desk taking the admission fee before allowing visitors to climb the 311 steps to the viewing platform.

Everyone who can get to London should do this walk, no matter how well they think they know the city. We advise those who do to check directions in advance: although the pavement markers are on the whole excellent and easy to follow, a few were missing and a couple were pointing in the wrong direction.