The 1977 the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations prompted development of a walkway now highly popular with Londoners and visitors. In 1920-21 the pandemic has led both to an upsurge in walking and a re-evaluation of how to design streets and the public realm. We are re-learning how to make the most of our common spaces.
We now have the personal digital tools to explore and map our neighbourhoods, and to illustrate our own favourite walks with photos and videos. Creating walkways, highlighting favourite places and exploring together could be a creative, healthy and sociable way to lead us into 2022. If we wish, we could link that to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Here’s how, based initially on ideas for Clerkenwell and Farringdon. Click on the embedded items for more detail: the full collection is here.
Back in 1977 the Silver Jubilee Walkway was created by a Celebrations Committee linking some key London sites. In Clerkenwell the celebrations environment committee funded a Discovery heritage trail created by Mike Franks.
The Jubilee Walkway, and a 2012 Diamond Jubilee Greenway, were further developed to become popular routes for Londoners and visitors. That sparked some ideas for the Platinum Jubilee in 2022. More on that later.
Recreating a 1977 Clerkenwell trail and developing ideas for a Commons
David Wilcox, on secondment from the Evening Standard, worked for the environment committee in 1977 and helped secure funding for the Clerkenwell trail. Some 40 years later Mike and David met again, recreated the trail online, and linked it to Mike’s idea of a Clerkenwell Commons - an environment for conversation and collaboration.
David expanded the mapping to areas both north and south of Smithfield - and developed the Exploring EC1 project, with additional types of maps and ideas for trails.
Exploring EC1 is a project to prototype how maps, apps and stories can help residents, businesses and visitors explore and engage with the past, present and future of Farringdon and Clerkenwell.
The 2022 Jubilee could provide an opportunity - as it did in 1977 - to bring together a range of interests who want to celebrate Londoners and their communities, and look to the future.
Create some 2022 walkways in EC1, north and south from Farringdon Station. The opening of Crossrail will make this the most accessible place in London. These might be new walks, or a better collection and connection of existing walks.
The trails could lead people to shops, pubs and community projects as well as heritage sites In Clerkenwell and the City.
Ideally we could combine heritage walks, where possible, with those designed through quiet and healthy streets.
We could support people in creating their own trails, and mark trails with QR codes so people can easily access more information on their phones. More here about that.
By creating an events page for guided walks we could bring together official and informal ways for people to learn, share and chat.
We could also bring together information about events - online and in-person - that are currently on many different websites.
We could run some online talks and regular chat sessions, now people are so much more familiar with video calls.
Above all we could use both print and social media to celebrate how people, community groups and businesses in EC1 have proved resilient through the pandemic and are creating new opportunities.
Silver Jubilee 1977
Recreating a 1977 Clerkenwell trail and developing ideas for a Commons
Exploring EC1
Platinum Jubilee 2022