#footpaths

A cloudy afternoon

The first day of our short break on the Somerset coast was overcast and gloomy. That's captured in these somewhat downbeat images shot in a park close to where we were staying.

Escadinhas Footpaths, Monte Xisto, Matosinhos Municipality, Portugal,

Lasting a year, the process brought together a multidisciplinary team of architects, local builders, artists and an extensive network of partners. In the first phase of the building work, the steps leading to Rua das Escadinhas, an unusual urban device connecting the upper and lower levels of the western hill of Monte Xisto, were rehabilitated. 

The steps and handrail were repaired and a new boundary between the public steps and the private land adjoining them was created in the form of benches, allowing the stairs to be used as a resting place.

Following the path that links the foot of the steps to the River Leça, an old ruin was rebuilt and transformed into a seating area surrounded by nature. Small-scale interventions restored the site’s original character, undoing the precarious interventions carried out over the years. 

The meticulous rehabilitation of the site, which included adding benches in every ‘room’ in the building, has encouraged people to spend time there and transformed it into a place for socialising.

I’ve been playing a lot of a game called Death Stranding recently, the brainchild of Hideo Kojima. For the uninitiated, the long and short of the game is that you are a mailman, and your job is to deliver packages from point “A” to point “B,” mostly on foot, and despite whatever obstacles may stand in your way. What I find fascinating about the game, however, has little to do with the packages, but more so what the player leaves behind.

One thing about Death Stranding is that it has online connectivity, which makes it so that whatever structures you build in order to make your trips easier, also have a chance of helping others on their journeys. However, some structures in the game are more unintentional. Wherever a player travels, their footsteps are recorded. If one route is followed enough times, either by one or multiple players, it starts to wear down the terrain, eventually becoming a footpath. These pathways make traversal easier, and can help to plot delivery routes or to find more efficient ways to get around.

Walking the River Wandle Part 5: Wandsworth

The final stages of the walk along the Wandle begin with a pleasant stroll through King George’s Park. Here, the river flows to one side of the path, though a barrier of tall hedges and trees prevents much of it from being seen. Indeed, it quickly seems to vanish altogether, as the greenery gives way to industrial estates and a car park, before at some unseen point the river disappears into a culvert under the Southside Wandsworth shopping centre.

Continuing through the park, the walker finds a long pond, perhaps a tribute, if not a tributary, to the Wandle. The river itself is now flowing underground some way to the East though, so on leaving the park the road must be followed in this direction, up toward Wandsworth High Street.

At a bridge, the Wandle emerges again. For many years, this stretch too could not be followed on foot, as the area was occupied by Young’s Ram Brewery from 1831 to 2006 - with breweries having been been there as far back as 1550.

The brewery has now been demolished and replaced with the Ram Quarter, a rather generic collection of eateries, businesses, and expensive flats. It does however come with a footpath, which allows the Wandle to be followed until it passes under another road. 

No one seems to have though about quick access to the road from the footpath, so the walker has to almost double back on themselves to find the river again – not particularly welcome at this late part of the journey!

Having got back to the river, and taking the road running alongside, the Wandle is soon seen to split into two, its western branch picking up the name of Bell Lane Creek. A little further onwards, under a railway bridge, and past yet more industrial estates, the two branches quickly converge again around a small, green patch of land – known as The Spit – jutting out into a river, a fitting call-back to the environments that followed the Wandle for much of its length.

Here, the Wandle quietly meets the Thames, its journey – and the walker’s – now at an end.

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