urban meanders through the unsung quarters of Europe’s most incorrigible city; because when a man is tired of London, he’s probably just never spent an afternoon in Penge

“Or a woman, Samuel, or a woman – women get tired of things too, you know. Many, many things.”

[Mrs Johnson]

UNCHARTERED STREETS is a series of book-length walks around some of London’s less celebrated neighbourhoods – though I’m hoping there’s enough in the text and photos for you to be able to enjoy them from the comfort of an armchair as much as from a rainy pavement. The plan is for roughly three books a year, though only one, the Leyton one, has been published so far; book number two, Deptford, should have been out last year, but I ended up moving house instead which, along with various health-related bouts of non-activity, slightly complicated things. It’s all written, though, and will be available in the New Year. Vauxhall and Brentford are also in the pipeline, and if you’d like to make sure they emerge – and get them at a special discounted price – our shop page has subscription deals. If you’re not feeling that flush or trusting, a single book will set you back a tenner, or less than the price of two pints of beer. Or twelve pints of milk, if you buy them in single-pint cartons. Or six large bulbs of fennel.

Each book contains 92 colour pages with plenty of photos and maps. The walks themselves are roughly six miles long, so a couple of hours plus stops for beer and buns and pointing excitedly at things. They’re also circular, so you can join at any point, with no annoying step-retracing. And directions are always on the same page as the relevant map, so your non-book-holding hand is left free for your umbrella. For a peek inside the Leyton book, click here and then on the magnifying glass and left-right arrows.

DECEMBER 2023

Please note: the books aren’t available from Amazon for the same reason that you shouldn’t buy books from Amazon.