Summary
An unusual urban walk to finish the series: Clare Balding is in London on the Isle of Dogs for a ramble along the banks of the River Thames. It's not a true island, rather it's enclosed on three sides by the river, and has a rich and fascinating history.
Clare is joined by Sarah Wynne, her sister and a friend. Sarah moved to the Isle of Dogs when she was six and grew up there. People are intrigued when she tells them this, they want to know what her childhood entailed: did she ever play outside, or go to the countryside, how did she get to school?
For Sarah, walking gives her a breathing space in fast-paced London life. She often walks with only a vague idea of where she is going, and likes to see where she'll end up. She finds it empowering to simply follow her instincts about which direction to take.
Producer: Karen Gregor.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a BBC Radio 4 download. You're listening to me. Claire Balding with another edition of Ramblings. |
| 0:10.8 | Now usually on Ramblings, we are far away from the madding crowd in the middle of a field with nobody around us or up a mountain where all we can see are lakes. |
| 0:19.7 | And today it's very very different because |
| 0:22.4 | I've come to east London and I'm standing here on the edge of of a dock area of the river |
| 0:28.2 | Thames looking at Canary Wharf blinking at us in the distance a plane taking off overhead |
| 0:33.0 | the church spire and above us the Docklands Light Railway line so we're going to hear trains whizzing by every so often and this is the happy hunting ground of Sarah Wynne her sister Emily and her friend Grace Carrington and Sarah you got in touch because you're a keen listen to the programme which is lovely thank you and also to I guess, you can walk in the middle of London. |
| 0:55.6 | Yeah, definitely. |
| 0:56.3 | I think it's one of the best ways to see the city. |
| 0:58.7 | And often you're just on the tube or the train on the bus |
| 1:01.0 | and actually walking is a great way to see it. |
| 1:03.6 | And actually, just where we're starting, |
| 1:04.8 | it's not a dock area at all. |
| 1:05.8 | I don't know why I said that. |
| 1:06.6 | It's a marina. |
| 1:07.6 | Yeah. And the gulls are swirling overhead and six runners are jogging past us and another DLR train |
| 1:13.1 | coming into Limehouse Station. |
| 1:15.1 | So Sarah, where are we going to walk to? |
| 1:17.2 | So we're going to follow the Thames path along. |
| 1:19.2 | So we'll be starting here at Limehouse, following it along past Canary Wharf, Millwall, |
| 1:23.9 | and then all the way down to Island Gardens Park at the very bottom which overlooks Greenwich. |
| 1:30.1 | So how old are you, Sarah? |
| 1:31.7 | I'm 26. |
... |
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