When I moved into my flat I was a delighted to discover that the BT Tower is visible from my bedroom window. It twinkles and winks at me at dusk and I say goodnight to it sometimes. The tower has personal significance as my Uncle Fred lived a stones throw from it and it could be seen, looming large through the kitchen window of my Aunty Lil’s flat in Camden. Whenever I see the London skyline I look for the tower and am reminded of my mothers family.
So, in my way of commemorating and marking things I planned a walk from the tower to my flat! Its 8 miles west from my bedroom window. My sister came with me and after a browse in Oxford Street’s John Lewis we began to walk. What fascinated me was that the route took us through places of family significance: past the hospital I was born in, the registry office where our parents married, me in mum’s belly. Past St Pancras station, my gateway to and from London when I lived in the East Midlands, through Angel, across Kingsland Road, near our Aunty Jessie’s much loved Dalston Market. Then into Hackney where we lived as tiny children, close to where my sister was born in Clapton. Then onwards to my present life and new start in Leytonstone - skirting the fenced off Olympic Park and through Leyton to ‘my’ Leytonstone High Road.
The last mile or so was boring and coincided with us getting drenched to our underwear! Still, I think this walk will become one I repeat over the years. I am blessed by the good fortune that has led me to a flat with a journey that links the past and the present.
The thing I’ve most wanted for a number of years - to settle and become a London resident has happened. My dream has become real.
As near as I could get
The tower is visible through the dip in the trees in the middle of the photo (you will have to imagine it!)
