Many thanks for the shout out John. Part of Crystal Palace park has been earmarked for houses in order to pay for redevelopment of the park. If I find out more I’ll let you know.
I'm a believer that a walk should not really be over a predetermined amount of miles. A walk for me is about appreciating the buildings, people, instances and anything else you stumble across (I recently came across a crisp packet from the 60's that fascinated me for instance ha). I've found covering as many miles as possible often detracts from just spending time experiencing the walk itself.
love you John as always just to let you know that I am awaiting some more surgery and i have been going through some health checkups hence why I have not been able to catch you. Anyway I am still keeping up with my magestic bike rides all inspired through you and your incredible walks.
My favorite London pub is the Old Bell Tavern in Fleet Street built by Christopher Wren for the workers rebuilding St Paul's Cathedral. Went to a book launch of my friend Deryn Lake who writes novels set in Georgian London.
My wife and I were desperately trying to find something to watch tonight and we found your excellent Q & A video. And filmed on Wanstead Flats, just a stones through from where I grew up over 60 years ago. So much useful information. Already looking forward to part 2.
I'd recommend Waterlow Park (next to Highgate Cemetery) and The Hill (Hampstead West Heath). Both are near well-established attractions, but don't seem to be that well known to the public.
Glad to hear you're a Red John!!! Great channel mate,for me It's up there with Whitehouse and Mortimer go fishing for the most wholesome relaxing Sunday evening viewing. YNWA👍🏻
BTW- check out "Walking Home" pts 1&2 documentary on RU-vid, if you like hiking films. Great documentary on the Appalachian Trail. I think you'd enjoy that.
Love your videos. Whenever I've visited London I've wandered around looking for blue plaques, old notices on buildings etc as I am a history geek. Not such interesting buildings in West Virginia sadly.
Another great video from a fantastic location. Your friendly and welcoming way of presenting, like listening to a great friend, talking about an enjoyable pastime. Very enjoyable and entertaining. Nick.
Liverpool fan? I was at the St Etienne match in the first season of winning the European Cup....with a bird's eye view of Fairclough's goal. I can never get enough of watching the RU-vid clip of that game.....
Amazing video John - the pub info alone is priceless. Hope you get that daytime TV slot. You might enjoy Cruising Alba; another nice youtube narrowboat channel. Keep walking.
Thanks John looking forward to the next Q&A. I would really like see a video of a walk around Valentines Park which has some very interesting features. Spent a lot of time there as a child. I was always intrigued by the mansion which in those days wasn't open to the public. Perhaps you could add it to your to do list.
I love Valentines Park Sandra - it features in a couple of videos (nearly 10 years apart) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tpYAaa9g2AU.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WHIBAmO0oHY.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-50NO01T9O0k.html
haha! that is a great way to end any video - being summoned to a pub! i'm glad that you are going to contnue this time, as i love these Q and A sessions, john 😊 hm, last time, i asked where you'd most like to walk in middle-earth. this time, if you'd like to answer, which of your favourite authors, alive or deceased, would you like to go for a walk?
Lovely stuff, John! I really like your engagement with your audience. A couple of questions from me: Do you ever get people reacting to this funny bearded bloke walking along and talking to himself? What is/was your professional background before fronting the camera? Kind Regards from DownUnder. 😉
I really enjoyed this question and answer session . Thanks for your reply to my question John and you are right loads of books on lost rivers so River Walks like my favourite Lea Navigation would be good . The original 1940s book by John Rogers must be a good sign you should do it . 😊👍
Hi John, many thanks for your Q&A video. I’ve really been inspired by your walks and how you’ve documented them on RU-vid over the last couple of years, particularly as I live in east London not too far from West Ham park and Wanstead flats. As a consequence I have walked some of your local walks over the last 18 months, which has provided a much needed physical outlet and revealed a lot about my local area I was previously unaware of. The local histories are fascinating and I’m loving the edgelands! I walked the Wandle Trail with an old friend at the weekend and (although not exactly local) we thoroughly enjoyed our walk together. I’m now considering doing the London loop and wondered if you or anyone else had a guide you might recommend (other than the TfL map/website). There’s a guide by Davis Sharp, but I believe that’s now out of print. Are there any more up to date guides out there? Many thanks. Mark
Chas & Dave from the Lea edgelands - early songs about Edmonton Green and Ponders End Allotments... recommend the BBC doc on them from a few years ago. Thanks for the videos John, always a pleasure to watch
I love London. I got to spend sometime there in 2017, 2018 and 2019 whilst my daughter and son-in-law lived there. We're all Aussies. Thank you for your channel 😊
Your Lea Valley walks do illuminate a unique and idyllic place. Even from afar I get a feeling for the calmative nature of that river. I also understand why music would be a distraction during a walk. It would dilute the immersiveness of the experience. Have a great week.
Fantastic John! So much effort gone into the itemised Q&A. Cheeky suggestion for the next one?! Ask a significant other eg Dad, Wife, Sister, Son, Iain Sinclair to ask the question and you answer but you are both looking at the camera instead of eachother. Both sat on a picnic rug or fold out chairs?
I was just going out for a walk in the New Forest but I was enjoying this so much and then following on to your other great videos I don't think I will get out today I love your channel
I grew up in flacwell heath and Lived in Ponde Cottage on Straight Bit in fact . . . ( before a couple of years of down in Wooburn free and the moving out to Portsmouth ) it was said the cottage and its neighbouring cottage where a few hundred years old, now around 250 years and the cottage named because they whee next to one of the a village ponde's . . .
A great Q&A John. I would love to see that video you filmed of north Devon. It's a breath-takingly beautiful part of the country, but as a Devonian myself I guess I'm biased! 😬
I'll have to make a proper video down there one day Tony - there's a short video on here of a walk on the beach at Instow I shot in 2015 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MARyMkcDVCI.html
Possible suggestion here, how about a series specifically dedicated to shorter walks in London for visitors? I travel to London a few times a year, it's my favourite city and I love walking around exploring but as you can imagine cannot easily commit a whole day to a walk especially if that walk is in a more "remote" location. Came to your channel after reading your book which I really enjoyed but have found it very hard to recreate those types of trips due to time constraints so I have had to make up my own walks with varying degrees of success! haha.
Lovely to see the Victuallers Chapel John. Great friends of mine got married there a couple of years ago. A stunning setting with great acoustics for live acoustic music. Highly recommended.
I know contracts,pay rates etc are a difficulty but I reckon you and Tony Robinson together would make a great tv show,daytime or other. That tv presenter would be the "star name" but I bet you would soon get a popular following too. He is interested in those things that you are. He got to present Time Team because he did a history course (in his private life) led by the late Mick Aston.
A very interesting insight to your making of your videos. Waiting in anticipation for your second book as I’m enjoying the first. There must be someone that could make a programme of you walks. Your narration is spot on and pleasing on the ear, it’s just like your talking to a friend. Hope you had a good pint with your wife and son. 👍
Much as I've tried for some reason I dislike Wanstead Flats enormously, perhaps I'm just not a foresty person, but love your urban stuff with a passion.
Thanks for the answer on Jane Austen. Since her ouvre is not to your taste, and most of it does happen outside London, I’ll guide you to the Lydia Bennett wedding section toward the end of P&P, in which London references are used to describe her disgraceful behavior. Not sure the wedding church gets named, but there are also references to Gracechurch Street. This came to mind while watching the episode on churches a few weeks ago.
@@JohnRogersWalks That's good...(I hope!)... I'll be interested in your Shoeburyness walk...just up the coast from me & the album photography was done there...
Thank you for the Q and A John. One question for the next session: What's your thoughts on Ian Nairn's psychogeographic material in relation to his relatively subjective stances.
Hi john you mention not many people go to the parks now, but I can remember going to Wanstead Park as a family i.e. Aunts, Uncles and their families and the park was always had lots of other group of families. At the end of the day we would walk back and always ended up at the North Star. Then in the mid 1960 early 70s the families started getting getting car's and going further a field.
Thanks for answering my Flackwell Heath question. I always look forward to your walks. We used to have a cherry orchard by our house before it became built up!
Thanks John. It was finding your channel and watching your videos that got me through the Covid problems and lockdowns. They made me walk the "edgelands" of the area of Gloucester that I live in.
Hi John great video mate, enjoyed the Q&A. A few days ago I took one of your routes through Wanstead park, the Grotto, The Temple, I set off at 7:am and got home at 12pm, enjoyed it.
Hi, never been to the flats looks lovely Definitely something for the future Question, John what is your favourite kind of walk? Do prefer carefree exploration or do you prefer following a thread with a story?
Wanstead Flats in my heart forever. I add my own question as a fellow Forest Gater: what are your impressions of Italy (city/countryside). It is heavily populated and built, that is my feeling living in Milan but I am very curious about yours.
HI JOHN THANK YOU FOR YOUR REPLY TO MY COMMENT JUST TO LET YOU KNOW ABOUT THE RIVER GADE WHICH STARTS AT THE CHILTERN HILLS FROM A CHALK SPRING STREAM IN DAGNELL THROUGH HEMEL HEMPSTEAD,KINGS LANGLEY AND ALSO WATFORD THEN INTO THE RIVER COLNE.
Thanks John! Interesting your comments about Highgate Cemetery /Swains Lane. I know it very well, the Lane at night with the high Cemetery wall and Waterlow Park boundary is a bit unnerving, especially the speeding cars- beware! In the Cemetery itself, I was always uncomfortable near the grave of the Rossetti family - Dante Gabriel's long - suffering wife, Lizzie Siddal was exhumed, so Dante could retrieve a book of Poems he had buried with her. (I know not why). I felt an angry presence and that I was being watched. I wondered if Lizzie was not at peace. I wasn't spooked by collapsed coffins in the crypts, or the "shelved" remains in the Catacombs. Generally, the occasional "odd" visitor, and disrespectful activities of the past ( when it was almost abandoned) spook me more than the dead! I don't appreciate those who make schlock videos there, there are still grieving relatives visiting, and Funerals taking place. It is a fascinating place nonetheless.
Interesting you are a Liverpool FC supporter. You should come to Liverpool and explore the area between reds and blues. A lot of peculiar places to see here, specially the industrial landscape
I thought maybe at the end of this video I would meet Mrs Rogers and Sons, I must remember to prepare a Question for next time.... been to the Cheddar Cheese which is supposed to be Haunted Downstairs....anyway, one afternoon I spent about 40 minutes downstairs, two pints of Guinness, waiting for a contact from the other side, anyway, nothing...incidentally there was only me and the barman who served me on the ground floor at the time....would have been a great moment for any self respecting Ghost to make its presence felt...
@@JohnRogersWalks same here with the coast path…all in one go. I’ve done sections but I’d love to sling everything in a pack and do the whole lot in one go
Is Catford called this because, it is the place where Dick Whittington's cat crossed the river? Did Dick Whittington's cat wear Wellington boots to cross the river, and so we have the story of Puss in Boots?
Hi John, thought I would ask you because I've not come up with an answer myself. I have been working on a mapping project and have been trying to get the districts of central London right for it. Whilst doing this I have been using google maps to determine some of the boundaries when I came to anomaly in their mapping. I was looking into Fitzrovia's boundaries and have found a patch which doesn't belong to there or to Soho its like an oblong shape between Oxford Street, Newman Street, Berners Street and Mortimer Street. Is this their bad mapping or is this literally a no-mans land that has just been forgotten about in history (I'm hoping it is rather than their bad mapping!)
Dowsing is complete nonsense! I have tried it and yes it really appears to work at first, but its all down to imperceptible movements of your hands the ideomotor phenomenon. If you say to cross the rods at a certain point they will. However if you don't already know the location or can work it out by looking at the landscape ,it suddenly stops working. If you do it blind folded it doesn't work for example, yet it should still work :)
