I finally got round to walking this walk yesterday. It was a beautiful day and London is obviously less crowded than usual at the moment so actually a really good time to do it (with lots of hand sanitiser in my pocket). As well as being a great way to appreciate some of Neil and Chris's music and lyrics, I also think it's a fabulous way to see London, from the residential King's Road and the commercial West End, to Soho and the political areas of Trafalgar Square and Westminster. With a few stops it took me about 3 hours.
If anyone else is interested in doing it, I created this playlist then edited it for time as I went. If you walk at an average pace, it should hit all the right songs in all the right places. Obviously there are some additional tracks in there to fill the walking time and you could change these if you wanted to. I tried to choose those that were in some way related to London, and to have a mix across all the albums.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4yZin ... unWxkNQDXQ
You can see a map of the key points and the route I took here:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid= ... sp=sharing
My updated instructions are below as well (added in a couple of other stops since my previous post).
I hope someone else enjoys it too!
Stage 1: Kings Road to The Serpentine
- Start on King’s Road where Neil and Chris met
- Walk East along Kings Road towards Sloane Square, looking south down Flood Street (
The ghost of myself)
- At Sloane Square turn left onto Sloane Street and follow north for a while, crossing Knightsbridge and through the modern alleyway into Hyde Park and to the Serpentine (
That’s my impression)
Stage 2: The Serpentine to Trafalgar Square
- Head out of Hyde Park, crossing Park Lane by the underpass and moving east onto Aldford Street, through the park up to Mount Street and enter Berkeley Square (
Bright young things)
- Cross Berkeley Square and exit on the east side along Bruton Street, then right onto New Bond Street and left onto Burlington Gardens which turns into Vigo Street. Cross Regent Street onto Brewer Street, entering Soho
- Towards the other end, divert briefly up Walkers Court onto Berwick Street, site of the record shop that stocked West End Girls on import (now Reign vintage)
- Back to Brewer Street and at the end turn right onto Wardour Street then left along Gerrard Street where the “Dive Bar” from West End Girls was located (
West End girls)
- Follow along Newport Place to the south east and before you get into Leicester Square, turn right onto Lisle Street
- Turn left into Leicester Place, passing the Leicester Square Theatre, where Muzik was staged (
Ich Bin Muzik)
- As you come into Leicester Square, turn left and exit left onto Charing Cross Road before turning right onto Great Newport Street where Closer to Heaven was staged at the Arts Theatre (
My night)
- Turn right onto St.Martin’s Lane and follow south until you reach Trafalgar Square (
Up against it), the site of the outdoor Battleship Potemkin performance (
No time for tears)
Stage 3: Trafalgar Square to Embankment Gardens
- Cross the roundabout and exit along Whitehall until you reach the Houses of Parliament (
Shopping)
- Turn left towards the river but turn left again before the bridge and along the riverfront until you reach the Hungerford / Golden Jubilee Bridges
- Cross the bridge on one side and back on the other, then walk through Embankment tube station and go immediately right into Embankment Gardens (
The Survivors)
Stage 4: Embankment Gardens to Savoy Theatre
- Exit Embankment Gardens past Gordon's Wine Bar and walk right up Villiers Street, past the arches of Heaven nightclub where Was It Worth It was filmed (
Was It Worth It?)
- Continue up to The Strand and turn right (
The Theatre)
- Turn left on Southampton Street up to Covent Garden and walk round past the Royal Opera House where the Inner Sanctum tour was performed (
The Pop Kids)
- Walk back down to the Strand and past the Savoy Theatre, home of the Somewhere Tour residency (
Somewhere)
Stage 5: Savoy Theatre to Blackfriars Bridge / Kings Cross
- Walk east along the Strand to the start of Waterloo Bridge where Chris sang the tune of
I made my excuses and left and cross the river (
Hoping for a miracle)
- Walk east along the Southbank to Blackfriars Bridge and cross there (
The Resurrectionist)
- Catch a Thameslink train from Blackfriars to Kings Cross (
Kings Cross)
