Most Londoners will likely be fairly familiar with the (perhaps slightly irrational) feeling of outrage and betrayal that occurs upon reaching a tube station platform to be met with anything longer than a two-minute wait. And I’m sure that even more of us are probably a little too familiar with the armpits of the fellow folk that we commute alongside. So, as much as I adore our trusty transport network, sometimes it is actually worth keeping your Oyster Card firmly in your wallets, and taking to the streets of the city instead.
Transport for London has kindly published a rather handy map that details how long it takes to walk between each station. And some of the strolls actually work out to be faster than taking the tube (once you take into account the time it takes to reach the platform and board a train). Some of the journeys are pretty darn obvious to us seasoned Londoners (yes, we’re looking at you Convent Garden and Leicester Square), but some of them are slightly more surprising – and rather useful to know about.
The quickest on-foot journey comes in the form of Canary Wharf to Heron Quays. This journey will set you back a measly 2 minutes on foot. Charing Cross to Embankment and Covent Garden to Leicester Square are two more no-brainers, taking just 3 and 4 minutes respectively to walk.
Mansion House to Cannon Street will also take you just 4 minutes to walk, and then continuing on to Monument would only add another 5 minutes of walking. Moorgate to Liverpool Street will take you just 6 minutes to walk, as will Embankment to Waterloo. And Marylebone to Baker Street is another stint that’ll only set you back 6 minutes on-foot.
Now, TfL’s map only details the time that it takes to walk between stations on the same line. But this isn’t our first rodeo, folks. So, we’re also going to let you in on some journeys between stations on separate lines that’ll save you a whole lot of time (and money) if you walk them.
It takes just 2 minutes to walk between Great Portland Street and Regent’s Park. If you were to make the same journey underground, however, you’d be using 15 minutes of your precious time navigating the 2 separate lines that you’d require to do so. In a similar vein, the journey between Bayswater and Queensway takes just 3 minutes on foot and a whole lot of chopping and changing underground. Walking between Bank and Cannon Street would set you back just 4 minutes, whilst the tube journey would be around 15 minutes. And the journey between Great Portland Street and Warren Street also takes just 5 minutes on foot, as opposed to using 2 tubes lines and tap of the Oyster card underground. I certainly know which option I’d go for.
As always, you can head to Transport for London’s website if you need to plan a journey, because as much as I like to consider myself as the queen of the London Underground, they really do know best.
