Preserve our paths

Published: 29 October, 2010

LONDON, and the City of Westminster at its heart, is one of the world’s most historic cities.

The paths people use to go to the shops, school, to work or explore our great capital are under threat.

Across England and Wales, footpaths cannot easily be blocked or built upon because they are recorded on a “definitive map”. 

Inner-London, though, has no such legal protection. This means that many of the paths we use every day could be taken away from us, for example, by development or someone blocking the path illegally.

There is something special about wandering down London’s myriad of pathways and discovering new places to see and explore. The courts and alleys in and around the heart of the City of Westminster – here in Covent Garden and off the Strand where I was brought up and live – are no less needed or historic and well-loved as the buildings and streets that were threatened by the proposed comprehensive redevelopment of the 1970s. 

We have lost some of these alleys already, for a number of reasons, and I wouldn’t want, for example, for a part of Brydges Place, reputedly at 15 inches wide at one point the narrowest path in London, to be lost to us. 

See www.ramblers.org.uk/Campaigns+Policy/why+map+london for some details of this and other examples of paths affected.

Many people agree, including the writer and broadcaster Janet Street-Porter; artist Grayson Perry, and mayor Boris, who said that he “will encourage the inner-London boroughs to produce definitive maps of rights of way within their boundaries”.

I hope readers will join me and actively support the Ramblers’ new campaign “Putting London on the Map”. 

The objective of this is to keep open and visible footpaths across London through the creation of a definitive map. I hope they will also press councils to see sense and record our rights of way so that they can continue to be a part of London life for years to come.

DOMINIC PINTO
Bedfordbury, WC2