Aug 7: The Peace Trail

My first walk with company, in this case the excellent company of my good friend Richard Challoner. As usual whenever we walk together, we managed to digress all over the place, and clocked up 6 miles over a 4-mile trail.

The London Peace Trail links many sites with associated with the Peace Movement and other worthy causes, and seemed a fitting way to commemorate the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing (on the previous day).

The Trail begins at the Friends’ House in Euston Road. The park in nearby Tavistock Square contains monuments to Gandhi, the victims of Hiroshima and the conscientious objectors who have refused to shed blood. These lie across the road from another poignant scene of recent bloodshed – the site of the London bus bombing, which took place exactly one month before our walk.

The Peace Trail continues to Red Lion Square, with its monuments to Bertrand Russell, philosopher, peace campaigner and Nobel Laureate, and the conscientious objector and politician Fenner Brockway. The Trail moves on to Trafalgar Square, passing the statue of Edith Cavell and the church of St Martin in the Fields, where peace campaigner Dick Shepherd served as rector for many decades.

The Trail passes Westminster Central Hall, famous for its political rallies and for hosting the first meeting of the United Nations in 1946, and the Sylvia Pankhurst Memorial and Moore’s “Burgers of Calais” in Victoria Tower Gardens.

After crossing the Thames, the Peace Trail ends at the Tibetan Peace Garden in Harmsworth Park, opposite the huge naval guns of the Imperial War Museum.

Today: 6 miles (4 on the trail)
Overall total: 57 miles