'Worried about the congestion charge?  Take to the streets [14 Feb 2003]

THE RAMBLERS' Association (RA) is advocating taking to your feet to avoid the costs of the congestion charge and improve your health at the same time. Most of central London is easily and quickly navigated on foot, and walking just one day per week will save £260 per year.

As well as saving £5 per day, walking will give an added boost before and after work. Walking regularly has been proven to improve people's health and fitness. As little as a brisk 30-minute walk, five days a week, is enough exercise to be of real benefit and walking to and from work can be easily fitted into your everyday routine.

Des de Moor, Walking Promotion Officer at the RA, said: "Some people will be concerned that their travel time will increase dramatically if they walk part or all of their journey to work, but walking around central London is much quicker than most people think. Walking from Waterloo Station to Liverpool St. Station, across the centre of the charging zone, would only take around 30 minutes at an average pace, and that is true for many other popular destinations in and around the City*."

Walking can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease (currently the nation's biggest killer); lower blood pressure; reduce body fat and help control weight; increase bone density and help prevent osteoporosis; as well as helping to reduce stress and enhance mental well-being.

London is a great city to go walking in. You can walk along the Thames Path by the river or navigate your way through royal parks, while the City of London has fascinating mediaeval streets and alleyways that beg to be explored on foot. With a little planning a really interesting and invigorating walk to work can be devised. The RA's website (www.ramblers.org.uk) has a regional guide dedicated to walking in and around London.

Walking already accounts for 45% of all journeys made in central London, most of 500 metres or less. Many of these journeys could be lengthened to be of real benefit for people's health and fitness; while many people who don't walk part of their journey to work could try it as an alternative, benefiting their health and wealth at the same time.

Some suggested walking routes:

Waterloo - Bank
Approx 2 miles, walking time 40 mins
Very attractive and simple walk with very few road crossings. Leave Waterloo heading for the South Bank, follow the Thames Path National Trail along the riverside downstream to Bankside, cross the Millennium Bridge ("wobbly" bridge), head up to St Paul's Cathedral then along Watling Street and Queen Victoria Street.

Waterloo - Holborn
Approx 1.5 miles, walking time 30 mins
To the South Bank and across the upstream side of the new Hungerford Bridge, up the now-widened pavement of Northumberland Avenue, across Trafalgar Square (currently construction works for the World Squares project are causing diversions but there will soon be excellent pedestrian routes across the Square), up Whitcomb Street to Leicester Square, then you can follow the Jubilee Walkway pavement plaques through the Covent Garden area, and east along Long Acre and Great Queen Street to Kingsway and on to Holborn tube. From here the Walkway continues via Bloomsbury to Euston: for more details see www.jubileewalkway.com

Angel - Bank
Approx 1.75 miles, walking time 35 mins
Head south down St John Street and Rosebery Avenue, soon leaving the congestion of Angel (on the charge zone boundary) behind, passing the New River Head with its little park and heading through fascinating back streets towards Clerkenwell Green. Follow Turnmill Street and Cowcross Street past Farringdon station, cross Smithfield and follow Little Britain past St Bart's hospital, then King Edward Street past the Postal Museum to Cheapside. Along Cheapside you're soon at Bank.

Paddington - Westminster
Approx 2.25 miles, walking time 45 minutes
A magnificent parkland walk in central London. Head South from Paddington to Lancaster Gate, crossing Bayswater Road into Hyde Park. Cross the park heading southeast to Queen Elizabeth Gate, go through the subways at Hyde Park Corner into Green Park, and continue east into St James's Park. Cross the bridge in the middle of the lake and head for the southeast corner of the Park. A short walk down Great George Street and you're into Parliament Square (due to be improved as a World Square later this decade). 

These routes should be read in conjunction with an A-Z or streetmap. For practical information on walking see the information section on this website.  

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