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Walk Elephant is a community initiative to improve walking routes across the Elephant and Castle. Working in partnership with Southwark Living Streets and the Walworth Society, this initiative seeks to build on the success of the East Walworth green links project which has created a high quality route from Victory Park through to Burgess Park.
Many think of the Elephant and Castle as a busy traffic junction but it is so much more. There are so many hidden gems and oases in the Elephant and Castle, and this project seeks to link them all together, to create safe and enjoyable walking routes which people can ramble through on their way to work, the shops or home.
Map
The first step in the project has been to create a map of all possible walking routes which connect across the Elephant and Castle as far as Kennington, Bankside, London Bridge and Burgess Park. Local resident and architect Tom Coward from practice AOC has drawn up a map which highlights where improvements and new green linkages can be made to improve the quality of the routes. The draft map can be downloaded from our website . You can write to us using the contact details below or you can add your comments to this online mapping tool called Commonplace .
Improvements might include new crossings, landscaping, tree planting or planters. We will learn the lessons from East Walworth to make the projects happen, and local residents and tenant organisations will be supported to seek funding from a variety of sources including the council’s cleaner greener safer programme, developer contributions and crowdfunding.
Why not join us to find out more?
We would like to hear your views about the draft map of walking routes, and your ideas for how we can improve walking routes across the Elephant and Castle over the coming years. We want to have fun in the process and have designed a series of events in early 2017 for you to come and discuss your ideas, and walk some of the local routes. We have selected a variety of dates and times before and after work and at the weekends and we hope one of these will work for you.
Event one : Wednesday 3 May 0800-1000
Walk: East Walworth Green Links
Meet: BMX track, Burgess Park
Community partners: Southwark Living Streets, Walworth Society, Friends of Nursery Row Park, Friends of Surrey Square, Friends of Victory Park, Grow Elephant, Carnaval Del Pueblo
Special highlight: Carnaval Del Pueblo Latin Hub
Drink after: The Tropics, Grow Elephant
Event two: Wednesday 10 May 1730-1930
Walk: Walworth Ladders
Meet: Pasley Park entrance at Manor Place
Community partners: Southwark Living Streets, Walworth Society, Hotel Elephant, Walworth Garden Farm
Special highlight: Walworth Garden
Drink after: Sidecar café, Hotel Elephant
Event three: Wednesday 17 May 0800-1000
Walk: Brook Drive to Bankside
Meet: Outside Castle Centre at 0800
Community partners: Better Bankside, Southwark Living Streets, Walworth Society, Friends of West Square, Lamlash Gardens, Peabody Blackfriars Estate, Bankside Open Spaces Trust, Lamlash Gardens
Special highlight: Lamlash Gardens
Drink after: Union Theatre Café
Event four: Wednesday 24 May 1730-1930
Walk: Bermondsey Street to Newington Causeway
Meet: Tanner Street Park on Bermondsey Street
Community partners: Team London Bridge, Southwark Living Streets, Walworth Society, Leathermarket JMB, Mercato Metropolitano
Special highlight: Symington House garden
Coffee after: Mercato Metropolitano
If you would like to come to any of these events please contact me using the details below and we will book you in. If you can’t make any of these events but would like to arrange a special site visit with your community group please get in touch with us. After these events the map will be updated but it is intended to be a tool which can easily be updated overtime and will not be set in stone. If you would like any more information about the imitative please get in touch
This is a partnership project which is being coordinated by the Walworth Society, Southwark Living Streets, local tenant organisations and the various council departments. The developers of all new projects in the town centre will also be consulted to make sure the walking routes connect seamlessly with their developments.