American Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac, visited London in April 1957 while on a big trip just before the publication of his most celebrated book, On the Road. He recorded his trip in his book, Lonesome Traveler. This video follows the walk he took when he arrived by train at Victoria Station and walked past Buckingham Palace, up the Strand to Fleet Street to St Paul’s Cathedral. He then went to the King Lud pub for a ‘sixpenny Welsh rarebit and a stout’, before taking the bus back to Buckingham Gate. In Lonesome Traveler Kerouac wrote, ‘Paris is a woman but London is an independent man puffing his pipe in a pub’.
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Debussy_ Suite Bergamasque, CD 82_ III. Clair de lune – Mira Ma
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J. S. Bach_ Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007_ V. Menuets I & II – Eric Jacobsen
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Jack Kerouac by photographer Tom Palumbo. circa 1956
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Cracking as ever John. I lived as a youngster for 6 years just behind Westminster Cathedral so know your route quite well. Back then tho I much preferred Caramac.😋
Great video John. I haven’t early editions of ‘Lonesome Traveller’ and ‘On the Road’ on my shelves, bought in the late 60s. Kerouac would have travelled from Dieppe to Newhaven. There was a boat train from Paris, and in those days it ran to the dockside right in the centre of Dieppe.
Great video john,i loved the background music ,gave that 50s London jazzy feel.you looked very pleased with youselfat the end made me laugh!.
Printed ephemera make the best bookmarks. You chance upon a bus ticket or whatever years later and memories come flooding back.
Nice one John, wonderful trip…
Turns out I was born the day Kerouac died, interesting.
Absolutely fascinating video, John. I accidentally came across your channel after watching a video on some history about London a few weeks ago and now you have become a firm favourite in our household. My partner will often say: “Shall we watch our mate?” Your walks in and around London have inspired us to get our walking boots on and explore our home turf (Wolverhampton) too, as there is plenty history within these lands!
Just to reiterate again, what another fascinating video and your knowledge is astounding. I am interested to learn if there are any plans to walk with Iain Sinclair this year?
See you on your next walk 😊 “Wherever that may be!” ❤
These walks are my favorites. While I do enjoy walks in the countryside, I particularly appreciate those that are intermingled with popular culture, and perhaps even urban legend.
I was born in Stockwell in 1950 but my family moved out to Hertford in 1953, perhaps due to the winter smog laden air and my father wanting a better place to raise a family. I still spend a lot of time exploring London, no longer by bicycle but the overground and underground. My older brother spent his young years driving buses overland to Kathmandu but my mission in 1970 was to explore Ireland by bicycle. I still have not read Kerouac preferring W H Davies, The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp (pub. 1908). Make sure you get the full novel, not the shortened version in The Essential W H Davies. How about it John? I enjoyed meeting you in Hertford in 2023..
The original manuscript of On The Road – a 120ft long typewritten scroll made from tracing paper taped together by Kerouac – was on display at the British Library in 2012. It's an incredible artefact although an impractical read. 🙂
I remember how in the early 60s people wanted a complete break with the past. Victorian buildings were demolished and no value was placed on the past. Fashions changed, architecture changed, music changed, social norms changed drastically. It was an era of great optimism.
Golly, haven't been in that area for a lot of years. Thanks for that John.
Kerouac´s On the Road was a great reading experience for me as a young man, and I was born the year before he went to London. Thank´s for this video, a pleasure to watch.
Jack said that 'Beatnic' was a term of abuse because 'Sputnic' had just been launched and transmitting. 'Refusenic' etc also common parlance. Hope this helps
'Jonesonianally' = To have a strong desire or craving for something. Jonesing for an ice cream or solitude ?
Thanks again John in Chicago. I have done that walk
wait The Bldg. carried on until 1963 1964?
Unforgivingly enjoyed the view of Buckingham Palace at 5:16. Obscurity peaks my interest.
January 1957 was my first year at Barnsbury Girls N.1, with bomb sights in most of the streets around that area. We still had coal fires to heat us but had to mux the coal with coke nuggates and even though rationing ended many things were scarce, such as clothes and certain foods. We were happy and everyone helped everyone else in those days. Fog was the norm and sleet too. Thank you John, nice vlog 💕🇦🇺
More than likely Dieppe to Newhaven and sight of the stunning white cliffs of the Seven Sisters between Seaford and Eastbourne.
18:37
Born in the Scoatish borders in 1953 arrived in London in 1969 as a homeless street urchin…soon found the warmth in the needle … I cashed my scipt in every day at Boots 24hr pharmacy in Piccadilly Circus for the then legal Diamorphine Sulphate…saw Burroughs in the 3am queue once and exchanged unpleasantries…I had no idea who he was…just some old yank with ideas above his station…months later I was "Alex the droog" getting ECT in the Government "experimental" psychiatric Borstal at Feltham with all the other runaway kids with mental health issues from growing up in a home of psycotic "domestic violence"….the staff were brutal ex-army thugs…the drugs were untested on the public,,,,all records are "lost" according to the Home Office …It was scary shit and I may be the last survivor of something rather sinister…..oops rambling….came here through my love of the Beats and Alan Moore…loved the walk and splother…One Love
Kerouac’s journey, your journey, overlaps with a commute I used to take. I shared a room with five others in Paddington but worked at Bush House. Every morning, I would take the tube in, but on the way home, I would run; Aldwych, The Strand, Trafalgar Square, The Mall, St James Park, Green Park, HydePark, Paddington. The big challenge was navigating Trafalgar Square without stopping. There was a lot of running on the spot, even in 1985, when there was a significant amount of traffic and pedestrians. However, once I traversed Trafalgar Square, I felt a great sense of liberation, freedom, and space as I entered the Mall. I was free of work and people, and I was no longer in danger of being run over. I remember once being stopped by an incredulous Scandinavian tourist demanding to know if THIS was really Buckingham Palace? He was viewing it from the good side.
Great video John. I was 10 years old in 1957, I remember the beat generation especially Dave Brubeck but sadly not Kerouac
Great video John. Read 'On the Road ' some years ago, just ordered a copy of 'Lonesome Traveller ' after watching this. Thanks.
If he has come from Dieppe he will have landed at Newhaven. The cliffs will be the 7 sisters and beachhead I expect on the south down. That would also tie in coming in to Victoria.
From Dieppe the ferry would have docked in Newhaven. Lots of routes lost due to the Chunnel.
It's 35 years since I left London to go back north after despatch riding for 3 years, I still miss the place and all it's nooks and crannies I frequented back then,. Thanks for the memories John.
In the early '70's London went quiet around midnight. Now it's bumper to bumper 24 hrs a day. Now, a very different place to what it was then. Ruined in my opinion. Too many cars, too many people, too many tourists and too many immigrants.
I like the concept of this video and the Kerouac theme. Have you read Bohemia in London by Arthur Randsome? Would be interesting to see you follow some of the jaunts mentioned in that book.
Love the Sydney bus ticket John. Same as the ones I used when I arrived here from London in ‘98. Such tangible tokens are lost nowadays, same as concert tickets and airline boarding passes. What will future generations use as memorabilia or bookmarks? 😂
it's Dieppe to Newhaven, isn't it?
Thank you for that wonderful evocative walk!
💛
Hi John, thanks for another great video. I discovered the beat generation authors when I was an impressionable teenager and fell in love with it all. Many years later I was driving out of London one afternoon on the A40 and coming towards me on the other carriageway was Ken Kesey's pranksters bus. I was so shocked I don't know how I kept my driving together. Turned out the bus was in London for some sort of promotion event. I was also fortunate to spend time in the company of Neal's wife Carolyn, an amazing lady and herself a Londoner for many years. Hope to cross paths with you someday.
Lucky you,to get to converse with David Icke,there's a man who doesnt need to go to Specsavers. There is a true ( I'm sure) portrait of St Paul's area immediately post WW2 in The World My Wilderness,a novel by Rose Macauley. Good twist at the end too.
Fab,.
When did your ancestors get married?