Urban Walks Series 2024

Urban Walks 2024

The UCL Urban Laboratory will host a new series of urban walks for 2024. Each walk will take place in London exploring and engaging with urban life and issues. Walk leaders will lead discussions on a variety of topics, from the housing crisis and river pollution, to night-time safety and gentrification. All walks will be free and open to the public.

The programme will cover parts of the capital packed with history, culture and controversy, and will explore often overlooked spaces in the city. 

Numbers are limited and free tickets will be made available on Eventbrite. Please do only book a ticket if you are committed to joining. Each walk will go ahead regardless of all but the most severe weather conditions. 

Sunday 4 Feb 2024 | 13:00-15:00 | Dr Sabina Andron | Start: Leake Street Tunnel

Living Walls in London’s Largest Graffiti Tunnel

This walk is now sold out, please do join the waiting list 

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The Leake Street Tunnel is one of London’s most iconic graffiti locations, with a history of free painting that started with Banksy in 2007. Since then, Leake Street has changed management multiple times, prompting questions about who owns the graffitied walls, and the cultural capital they generate. Join Dr Sabina Andron on this walk to take a close look at the thickly-layered surfaces of Leake Street, and discuss the role of graffiti in neoliberal urban development.

The walk will not cover a large distance but participants will be standing for the duration of the walk. Most of the walk is sheltered in case of rain but participants are advised to wear warm, weather-proof clothing and comfortable shoes. Photography is permitted and encouraged. 

Dr Sabina Andron is a Postdoc Fellow in Cities and Urbanism at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Cities. She works on urban visual culture, graffiti and signage, to examine the role of public images in urban citizenship and governance. She previously taught at The Bartlett School of Architecture, where she received her Architectural History and Theory PhD in 2018.

Saturday 15 June 2024 | 10:00-12:00 | Ruth Glass' London Route in 2024 | Start: Hyde Park Corner Station Entrance

Ruth Glass' London Route in 2024 

Start: Hyde Park Corner Station Entrance

End: Kings Cross Station 

‘From Kensington to King’s Cross early on a June morning the sights and sounds of London just awakening have a novel clarity’, wrote Ruth Glass of a route through London 60 years ago in the opening to London: Aspects of Change (1964). To mark the 60 year anniversary of the publication of London: Aspects of Change, Urban Laboratory are organising an urban walk on a June morning in 2024 following Ruth Glass’ route through the streets of the city that she walked in 1963. The walk will provide a chance to reflect on Ruth Glass’ writing in the introduction to the book as particpants walk and muse on a London that she described as showing ’the juxtaposition of new and old, both in the fabric and in the structure of society’.

London: Aspects of Change was published with the Center for Urban Studies at UCL, a predecessor of the Urban Laboratory, where Ruth Glass also coined the term ‘gentrification’. The urban walk will be hosted by Postgrad Urbanists: Sidra Ahmed (PhD, UCL Geography) and Yichang Sun (PhD, The Bartlett School of Architecture).

A short reading will be shared with attendees upon registering. Please familiarise yourself with the reading and we look forward to walking with you! 

The walk will cover a reasonable distance and participants will be standing for the duration of the walk. We advise comfortable shoes and to bring water with you. Photography is permitted and encouraged. 

More Information:

• Ruth Glass Scholarship

Image: Urban Walks Poster 2024