Although you’ll have an expert guide with you, we do recommend night walk participants have some previous hiking experience - you may want to book onto one of our Guided Days before coming along. If you’re interested in taking this one, you can find the detailed route, map, photos, and video on my blog post about a Spitalfields walking tour. Since then the flâneur has, if anything, assumed an even greater importance as a cultural arbiter of urban experience, most recently in the 90s, when contemporary psychogeographers such as Iain Sinclair and Will Self explored even the most pedestrian-unfriendly city zones on foot. The city can become a character in itself, dramatising a protagonist’s sense of alienation, fear or paranoia Chris Yates, one of Britain’s most insightful and lyrical writers, raises his gaze from his beloved rivers and ponds and takes us on a mesmerizing tour of the British countryside.

A child explores her neighborhood on a late-night walk with her dad, finding delight and comfort in moments of quiet and the warm windows into other people’s lives. When a little girl can’t sleep one night, her dad asks if she’d like to go for a walk. They tiptoe through the silent house and step out into the dark. It’s strange and exciting to be out so late. Walking down the street, the girl can see inside the lit-up windows of apartment buildings and houses where people’s lives are unfolding. Kids are having a pillow fight in one house, while a family has gathered for a festive meal in another. She and her dad reach the still-busy shopping area, walking past restaurants and enticing store windows, then stop for a tranquil moment in the park before returning home. Sara O’Leary has captured a child’s nighttime wonder as she explores her neighborhood and comes to the comforting realization that she belongs. Ellie Arscott’s illustrations, luminous and rich in color, perfectly complement the story. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.6 Today I want to share my guide to the best London night walks with you. The UK capital is an exciting place to explore on foot after dark, and these self-guided evening walks in London will help you find the best places to discover. From areas with bright lights and great nightlife to riverside walks and cool neighborhoods, my free walks in London will help you see the best of the city at night. I’ve included a map, too. Richard of Devizes, a cleric and chronicler of the late 12th century, once cautioned readers about the dangers of the capital city. “You will come to London. Behold! I warn you, whatever of evil or of perversity there is in any, whatever in all parts of the world, you will find in that city alone.” There then follows a long list of the kind of insalubrious places and characters to avoid, such as “effeminate sodomites” and “lewd musical girls” – and among them are people who walk the streets at night. Whether you love buzzing market stalls or walking past hip restaurants, bars, and pubs (and stopping at one or two, of course), you’ll find a lot to love about doing this walk at night.

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Moving to a global scale, what would I pawn for sleep? Would I, given the choice, have peace for Palestine or twelve hours in bed? Clean water for the children of Africa or a week off motherhood? The advent of carbon-neutral industrial processes or a month's unbroken nights? It's a good thing Satan doesn't come and chat to the mothers of sleepless toddlers in the middle of the night." From Soho to Covent Garden, the South Bank to Shoreditch, my London night walks cover neighborhoods from north to south and east to west. I hope my list of evening walks has made you want to get outside and discover the best of London at night. Whether you’re alone, with a friend, or part of a group, these routes will help you explore some of my favorite places in the UK capital. Happy walking!

I loved the peaceful expressions on the faces of the characters. A happy family, safe in the night, on a journey together for a unified purpose. Their faces say it all. What a complete delight! The setting is an isolated island in the Hebrides. Anna Bennett, her two kids, and husband have moved here so that hubby can count the puffins. Anna, a historian, in unable to get any work done as she is sleep deprived, and has her hands full with motherly and wifely duties. One day while digging in the garden the bones of an infant are uncovered. Whose bones are these?We are immersed in Anna's world, juggling the needs of a toddler, an anxious seven-year old and a largely preoccupied and unhelpful husband as she discovers a buried baby skeleton in their yard, and takes on visitors in a refurbished rental unit nearby (a family bringing their own relational challenges to the mix). The story toggles between these characters and their "doings" and letters outlining historical events on the island, which adds to the mystery of the discovery. The reader is also treated to more academic sharing regarding child rearing and development practices, as Anna is researching and writing a paper on this topic for her work. The flow is a bit unusual but seems to work to expose and blend the nature of parenting, with all its uncertainties and pitfalls and winds together nicely by the end. Set on a tiny Hebridean island, Night Waking is the story of Anna, academic and mother of two small children, who is working on a book about childhood in the eighteenth century while her own children are driving her to distraction and her aristocratic husband studies puffins, oblivious to the demands of domestic life. The already precarious balance of their lives is disturbed still further by the discovery of the bones of an infant buried in their garden. But I'd be lying if I didn't say Moss still kept me going. Even though her writing 'style' wasn't really anything that wowed me in this, her ability to evoke setting is incredible. Colsay came alive for me and strangely enough I yearned to go there, despite all the flaws and the isolation depicted by the narrator Anna. Also, the dynamics with characters that were introduced later in the story were really fascinating (if infuriating for me), and I feel like they were the saving grace for the story, at least in terms of keeping my interest.