I visited some of the locations where I wrote the stories in my new collection
This summer I went back to some special places in London – some of the locations where I sat and wrote my short stories, in some cases, years ago. Here’s how it went. Scroll down for more pictures.
I sat planning the route with London Journey Planner website open on my tablet and a notebook on my knee, and worked out the times in every which way. There were various permutations, but I couldn’t visit every story location in London in one day. Those of you who live in or who’ve been to London will know that it takes a long time to get from one place to another, and that whoever designed the tube seems to take delight in sending you up and the down random sets of stairs, and round the most meandering route possible, unless you’re changing onto the Northern, Victoria or Bakerloo lines at certain stations when they trick you into making the change so mindbogglingly easy that you end up walking up and down the stairs several times anyway.
I made these journeys to celebrate the launch of the paperback and the ebook of Unusual Places.
In the end, I picked my venues based on how nostalgic I felt about them / how close they were to a tube or bus route. I started from Waterloo, got the bus from York Road to Lambeth Palace. The Garden Museum is right next door. By the way, if you want a fun way to i) have a nice meal ii) get a view of the Houses of Parliament while missing the crowds – do this route. Boy has the Garden Museum changed in the last fifteen years! I wrote part of the story called ‘The Smallest House in London’ there. I remember a cheerful café where you could get sandwiches and tea and cake and the like. I also remember being able to wander around the garden. Nowadays a large part of the garden has (rather ironically) been taken over by a new restaurant, and to my surprise when I was presented with a menu, the cheapest thing on there was the tagliatelle at £13 (and very nice it was too). All around me, other people were receiving the menu and also plumping for the tagliatelle.
So, it’s a lovely place to eat, but not what I remembered. The museum is more of a garden art or garden design museum than a garden museum, but it is interesting to wander around. What’s left of the garden has deckchairs and a bench, so does provide you with a stopping off point in the centre of London, for a bit of a breather and some contemplation of nature. The Garden Museum was the first place I abandoned a book – I still haven’t heard if anyone found it. Hope so.
After the Garden Museum, I got back on the bus, and went over the bridge to Abingdon Street and walked down Great College Street, behind Westminster College, to Dean’s Yard. This is also part of the route Virginia Woolf imagined Mrs Dalloway walking at the start of the novel of the same name, so I have taken students this way several times. From Dean’s Yard, I asked the security guys if I could go into College Garden – which is in the Westminster Abbey Complex. This was the first place were I wrote a story ‘on location’ years ago, and the first time I had been back, so is very close to my heart. College Garden is another oasis in the centre of London, where you can sit and draw breath and get some rest and look at nature. It’s also where the monks used to grow their herbs. I wrote a story called ‘The Climb’ here which is called ‘The College Garden’ in the book.
I made these journeys to celebrate the launch of the paperback and the ebook of Unusual Places.
I didn’t want to leave The College Garden, but it was time to move on, so I abandoned a book there. I was very pleased when this was the first book to be discovered and tweeted, by a Special Needs Teacher, because I used to do that same job, many years ago, I loved the synchronicity of this. I walked back the way I had come, and then past the Palace of Westminster and Big Ben (all wrapped up for its make over) and down to the Westminster pier, where I bought a ticket for a trip along the Thames. I got on the boat and went past the London Eye to the Tate Modern.
I went up to the members’ room where I wrote some of a story that is called ‘The Roman Amphitheatre’ in the book, and (after coffee and cake) tried to abandon a book there, but it was too crowded to do it unnoticed, especially as I was sharing a table. So I went to my favourite room in the Tate: The Rothko Room. This is another good place in central London (totally free, too) were you can have a sit down, and get some serious contemplation in. It was the end of summer, and the art lovers were out in force, so it took me a while to abandon the book but I managed it in the end. It was found by someone who was about to fly back to Spain, who tweeted me to say it would be good reading material for the journey. So a good result.
After the Tate, I got back on the boat, and headed to Greenwich, and the Cutty Sark. I love how when you leave the boat you can see the Cutty Sark right in front of you – quite a sight. I’ve done this route several times and we tend to walk up to Greenwich Park and the Royal Observatory – where you can stand astride the Greenwich Meridian and go and see talks on the planets and stars, but I was there for the tunnel.
The foot tunnel takes you under the Thames – in my opinion, worth it just for that reason, but also over to the Isle of Dogs. (For those of you who watch the soap opera Eastenders, I’m talking about the bendy bit of the river in the credits.) I was near Mudchute City Farm when I wrote the story about Greenwich Tunnel – so a little bit further inland from where I made the video of me reading ‘Fragments’ on the bank of the Thames. After the foot tunnel I went via Island Gardens DLR (beautiful name for an inner city train station) back into central London to listen to a talk about crime writing called “Crime Fact v Crime Fiction” – about time I got to put my feet up.
Here’s a map of the foot tunnel. You can take a look at other maps of my journey via this page.
Watch a video of me reading ‘Fragments’.
Take a look at more maps of my journey on this page.
Read about the second part of my journey here.
You can take more of a look behind the scenes of Unusual Places here.
I made these journeys to celebrate the launch of the paperback and the ebook of Unusual Places.