Urban Rambles
Urban Rambles
20 Glorious Walks through English Cities
Nicholas Rudd-Jones
26th April 2018 | Frances Lincoln
£16.99 | Paperback
An illustrated city walking guide like no other. Whether you’re a city-dweller who wants to explore your home turf, or a keen country walker who likes the idea of trying something different, or a discerning weekend breaker who wants to get under the skin of a city in a day or two, Urban Rambles is the book to inspire you to get out and explore your nearest city on foot.
England’s cities have become much more walkable places in the last decade, with huge investments in green spaces, redevelopment of old industrial areas and a complete urban planning re-think in favour of pedestrians. Walking in a city is the healthy lifestyle choice, offering you the chance to exercise and the calming powers of green spaces. Choose from cathedral cities like York and Lincoln, seats of learning like Cambridge and Oxford, trading ports like Bristol and Liverpool, cities designed for pleasure like Brighton and Bath. Choose to visit Victorian industrial cities Manchester, Sheffield and Birmingham, and of course the nation’s capital, where a new 25-mile circular route takes you from urban regeneration through the Olympic Park and past rivers, parks and palaces.
Nicholas Rudd-Jones is the co-author of Pathways, a book on the origin of paths, published by Guardian Books in 2011. It was in the Top 10 Guardian bestseller’s list for several weeks and was referenced in Robert Macfarlane’s seminal work, The Old Ways. He is also the co-founder of www.walkingworld.com the UK’s largest online archive of walking routes, with over 7000 walks across the whole country. @urbanrambles www.urbanrambles.org
To order a copy from Amazon, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Urban-Rambles-Glorious-Through-English/dp/0711239746
26th February 2016 at 3:01 pm
Hello Nicholas. I was directed here from Walkingworld. I have just read the entry for Manchester and found it fascinating. I know Manchester a little as my son lives there. Next time I go we’ll have to try the walk. Looking forward to the walk in Newcastle.
BTW there seems to be some typos – it’s PONTE VECCHIO.
26th February 2016 at 3:06 pm
Nick, thanks for your positive comments; and the bridge has now been fixed!
26th February 2016 at 3:30 pm
Nicolas, what a great idea to encourage people to explore their own and other people’s cities! I’ve also got here from Walking World – you’ve done Leicester well: things I knew and things I didn’t. I’m looking forward to walking Peterborough, Lincoln and Nottingham – guess you’re based in the Midlands. Two Leicester typos: under BEST FOR – Jewry Hall for Jewry Wall; end paragraph ‘Incidentally, David Attenborough…’ yiu instead of you. When are you doing Bristol?
27th February 2016 at 11:06 am
Morning Andrew,
Typo spotting appreciated, thank you. yes, i live in stamford, hence plenty of Midlands towns – i thoroughly recommnend Birmingham too. Bristol is on its way – my son is at university there, so that helps! Might have to do more than one walk there though, so much to look at! kind regards, nick
14th January 2017 at 10:00 am
You’ll definitely have to do more than one walk here – lots more to see. Next one try to include the Arnos Vale Cemetry, a Victorian Cemetry being reclaimed by the community + v atmospheric. This is a great site I’ve stumbled on through Twitter. I enjoyed reading the Bristol walk – thanks.
15th January 2017 at 9:14 am
Great minds think alike – I am currently writing that one up – Bristol Temple Mead, Arnos Grove, Perretts Park, Vicotria Park, Queen Square, Old town, Castle park. Check back in a month. Nick.
30th January 2017 at 2:51 pm
Thought you might be interested to know our Arnos vale, victoria park and Old town walk is now online at http://www.urbanrambles.org
27th February 2016 at 11:55 am
Thank you for the Glasgow walk. We are planning to spend four days there in early June tracing family history. We will certainly be following this walk as we walk in the steps of ancestors.
27th February 2016 at 2:54 pm
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did! It’s a brilliant city (and I say this as someone who lives mostly in Edinburgh!)
27th February 2016 at 7:19 pm
Directed here from Walkingworld. What a great idea! I have looked at “Manchester” which we know quite well as our son spent six years at University there and at “Edinburgh” which we thought we knew quite well as he lives there now with his wife and two little girls. However, in both places there were parts we had not come across before – in fact, I am sending the link to Simon in Edinburgh. I hope you will be doing our city of Preston – a reasonably new city and it is quite often overlooked. That would be really interesting – see how much I have missed even though I have spent all my life here.
27th February 2016 at 10:40 pm
Hi Marian, Annabel here (author of the Scotland chapters) – I am a student at Edinburgh currently and I think I might know it better than any of my Scottish friends! It’s amazing how subjective one’s experience of a city can be. I hope Simon enjoys the chapter – do let us know what he thinks.
6th March 2018 at 8:46 am
Congratulations on this wonderful site! As a local-to-Stamford resident of 20 years (from London) I still have the smoke in my veins , so will definitely be sampling some of these walks.
Best wishes
6th March 2018 at 4:32 pm
Thanks for your kind words! I am also the editor of Stamford Living and do rural rambles!
3rd September 2018 at 3:48 pm
Hello. I have got your walk book and am very keen to start exploving. Could you kindly direct me to the mobile phone GPS enabled maps for the walks please. Many thanksin anticipation.
3rd September 2018 at 3:55 pm
Hi there,
Go onto the website at urbanrambles.org, go to right-hand column, double-click on the city you want to visit, the google map is at top of the page, with detailed step by step instructions – can use on iPad or phone.
Hope you enjoy.
17th February 2019 at 3:51 pm
Hi. Just bought your book which is really nice, but a little disappointed to find all the walks, the maps and more walks on this website. Not really sure why I bothered buying the book.
30th April 2019 at 9:08 pm
Hi. Books looks good but how do you find the gps maps. My iPhone says www. urbanrambles is not secure. There is no obvious link in the books. Are they on WW.
1st May 2019 at 4:16 pm
Ala,
thanks for your enquiry. you can find all the detailed maps at http://www.urbanrambles.org, I created the site and it is safe to enter. Hope that works, thanks for your kind comment.
nick
2nd July 2019 at 10:09 pm
My friend and I completed the London Ring Road stage one yesterday as part of our annual trip to London . It was a great walk taking in parts of London that we have never seen before and there were some amazing sights. Thank you so much for planning the route and taking us to some wonderful places. Maybe stage 2 next year!