London Corpse Walks

I'm pleased to announce first London Corpse Walk, beginning in Canary Wharf. It will finish six to eight miles from there, but at the moment the end-point is a closely guarded secret. The walk will start at 10.30pm on 8 March. We'll be meeting just outside of Canary Wharf Tube station. You're free to come along, just give me a heads up if you'll be joining us.

But "corpse walk?" you ask. "What kind of a creepy enterprise is this?"

Allow me to explain.

As most readers of this blog probably know, I like a good walk. Over the last few years some friends and I have walked the London Loop and the Capital Ring. I may have missed a few stages, but we've basically walked around London twice over a period of several years.

Last month, we walked the last stage of the Capital Ring. At that point, we had a few options. We could stop going on semi-regular Sunday walks. We could make our way through one of the many books of London walks. Or we could create our own walks. We decided that creating our own would be the best option.

Prior to finishing the Capital Ring, I was talking to Dave Letorey, who mentioned that when he was living in Sheffied, he and his friends created their own walks. The only rule was that each walk had to begin where the previous walk ended.

This sounded like a great idea. Starting where the last walk finished would mean that we'd be more likely to explore new areas of London. I proposed to the idea to the Capital Ring walkers, who also liked the idea. We came up with a few additional rules and dubbed the walks "corpse walks," after the surrealist game exquisite corpse.

After several months of discussion and planning, I've finally bought a domain and put up a website, where we'll be announcing and recording all of the London Corpse Walks. Drop by have and have a look around. The site is still a work in progress, so if there's anything you think we should add to it, just let me know.