Length: 6.8 km (4.3 mi)

Net Walking Time: 1 ½ - 2 hours

Meet: St’ James’s Park Station at 18.45 hours (Broadway exit, at street level). St. James’s Park Station is a stop on the District and Circle Lines.

Finish: Embankment Station, a stop on the District and Circle Lines as well as the Northern (Charing Cross Branch) and Bakerloo Lines and very close to Charing Cross Mainline Station.

Both stations as well as the wh ole route are within Zone 1.

The blurb for the full route, split over two Thursdays:

“In 1807, London was the first city in the world to light its streets by gas, which was much cheaper and produced brighter lights than the previously used candles or oil lamps. More than 200 years later, there are still about 1,300 gas-fuelled street lights left, bathing their surroundings in a markedly warmer, yellower glow than electric lights. About 270 of those are in the City of Westminster, preserved after a campaign to stop the Council from replacing them all on cost grounds.

This meandering route through the Royal Parks of the West End, St. James’s, Westminster, Whitehall, Covent Garden, St. Giles and the Embankment passes a fair few of those gaslights, while leading through parks, squares and courtyards and along alleyways, secret passages, lanes, paths and (mainly) residential streets, while also passing numerous well-known and not so well-known sites of historical, architectural or political interest, many of which will be new even to born Londoners.

The route is rewarding in light as well as in darkness, as some of the parks and alleyways are closed at night, while some of the gaslights in those areas are on even during the day.”

Net Walking Time: 1 ½ - 2 hours

Meet: Lancaster Gate Station at 18.45 hours (at street level). Lancaster Gate is on the Central Line and a short walk from Paddington Station.

Finish: St. James’s Park Station, a stop on the District and Circle Lines.

Both stations as well as the wh ole route are within Zone 1.

The blurb for the full route, split over two Thursdays:

“In 1807, London was the first city in the world to light its streets by gas, which was much cheaper and produced brighter lights than the previously used candles or oil lamps. More than 200 years later, there are still about 1,300 gas-fuelled street lights left, bathing their surroundings in a markedly warmer, yellower glow than electric lights. About 270 of those are in the City of Westminster, preserved after a campaign to stop the Council from replacing them all on cost grounds.

This meandering route through the Royal Parks of the West End, St. James’s, Westminster, Whitehall, Covent Garden, St. Giles and the Embankment passes a fair few of those gaslights, while leading through parks, squares and courtyards and along alleyways, secret passages, lanes, paths and (mainly) residential streets, while also passing numerous well-known and not so well-known sites of historical, architectural or political interest, many of which will be new even to born Londoners.

The route is rewarding in light as well as in darkness, as some of the parks and alleyways are closed at night, while some of the gaslights in those areas are on even during the day.”