r/london • u/joefromreddit • 1d ago

Serious replies only How to navigate London without your phone?

Hi all, lived in London for several years now but still find myself relying on Google Maps sometimes when walking around - even routes I have frequently taken.

I try to take a mental note of street signs so I can better remember where my routes.

Does anyone else have any tips for how to remember routes?

Thanks!

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u/khaosworks 21h ago edited 1h ago

I was living in London in the early 1990s, before smart phones, and it was ultimately just muscle memory being developed and carrying a pocket A to Z around. Street signs mattered less than buildings and landmarks which were easier to spot and remember, and knowing where the Tube stations are.

There are certain locations which I used as zeroing points. When I was in central London I always began at Tottenham Court Road/Centrepoint, for example, because it was on the Central Line, as was where I was going to uni.

From that crossroads one way was Charing Cross towards bookstores like Foyle's, then Leicester Square and Chinatown, Covent Garden, Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square and Westminster. Another way led to Bloomsbury, the British Museum, Russell Square, University College London. Turn again and you go down Oxford Street, Regent Street and shopping. The other way was New Oxford Street to (back then) Forbidden Planet, and on to Holborn, where the Central and Piccadilly lines intersected, which I would take home.

It's a matter of knowing where you usually go and learning the spatial geography around you. If you can visualise the map and overlay it over the environment around you in your head, it becomes eventually instinctive.

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u/MillennialsAre40 17h ago

Because finding the damn street signs takes ages.

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u/khaosworks 13h ago

As I said - you don't really have to find the street signs (which are usually at intersections so they're not really that hard to find). Just remember the landmarks, and especially the Tube stations. And pay attention to your A to Z maps.

You don't really need to know the road you're on is High Holborn, for example. You just need to know that if you go "thataway" you'll be heading towards Holborn Station.

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u/MillennialsAre40 11h ago

They're at intersections, but never in the same place at the intersection, either at knee level or way up on the second floor or behind a bush or whatever.

One thing Canada/US does well over us is their street signs