please empty your brain below
Quite an odyssey. Given your Croxley connection I'm slightly surprised at the number of non-yellow squares around the NW London/Herts border but that is only in relation to the rest of your coverage.

THC | 14.06.22 - 7:17 a.m. | #

When you say "visited by train" have you included portions of your journeys in tunnels, such as the ECML approaches to kings Cross, the covered bits of the Circle Line or the tunnel portions of the northern Line?

dg quotes: "squares I'd only ever been through by train"

strawbrick | 14.06.22 - 7:22 a.m. | #

That's impressive, I wonder what proportion of London's streets you have stepped foot on.

scumbleglaze | 14.06.22 - 7:26 a.m. | #

Amazing

Mu | 14.06.22 - 7:33 a.m. | #

When you get to do TQ4661, make sure you use the footpath going down the drive to Norsted Manor Farm for fantastic views of London to the north.

mushroomcounter | 14.06.22 - 8:13 a.m. | #

I am - once again - in awe. However ...

I have a friend who realised that he had been in something like 185 countries, so he decided to complete "the list", visiting South Sudan, Eritrea, ending with an obscure cruise that got him to his last Pacific island nations. His partner, through this, said, "I cannot wait for him to finish 'the list', so that we can visit places again that we actually care about."

I have other friends who believe in a "20-year rule": you may have been to a place, but if it was not in the last 20 years, it doesn't count. Partner of first friend was aghast at the idea that this might be mentioned.

I am one of your ultra-regular readers who really appreciates your highlighting of the (usually) obscure and overlooked.

MartinG | 14.06.22 - 8:15 a.m. | #

"Fun" fact:
2 of your unvisited squares can be seen in a 2017 Boots Christmas TV advert [other shops are available]
At 22 seconds, Capri is parked in TQ 5483
At 36 seconds, the mound behind their heads is in TQ5279

dg writes: I've been to both of those.

Fred | 14.06.22 - 8:21 a.m. | #

Good luck with finding something of interest in Monks Orchard - though if the square includes Bethlehem Hospital grounds then it’s one of the largest open spaces for miles around and well worth a visit. (There is also the museum in the hospital as well)

Brian | 14.06.22 - 8:21 a.m. | #

Sounds like another jamjar project!

Tim W. | 14.06.22 - 8:25 a.m. | #

Excellent idea, very impressive.

JJ | 14.06.22 - 8:32 a.m. | #

Very impressive. I imagine you may be one of very few people to have visited all of London - eventually.

And I too have visted TQ4790. The northern end of the footpath is little more than two miles from me and, out of curiosity, I walked it in 2019. I passed only one other person while there - a local dog-walker.

Alan S | 14.06.22 - 8:36 a.m. | #

MartinG - one could prioritise countries which didn't exist on the day you were born, such as Croatia in my case.

CG | 14.06.22 - 8:49 a.m. | #

I too am in awe .. of your ability to consider something massive like this at such a granular level, and process the information into a form that makes it accessible.

Frank F | 14.06.22 - 8:54 a.m. | #

There’s an app on the iPhone App Store called “Strut” that basically does the very same thing. It divides the world up into 0.02 square mile tiles, which you open when you go into them. I’m working my way through London too, I’d done the zone 1 area some time ago, and lockdown and a bike helped me get to visit almost all of East London within the north circular, from Newham up to Tottenham. Plenty more to go though! Enjoy the rest of your exploring.

Matt | Homepage | 14.06.22 - 8:55 a.m. | #

This is an astonishing achievement. Congratulations.

Also - not sure I’d seen a rotating gallery of images on here before (I’ve doubtless missed it in the past). Looks good

Lux | 14.06.22 - 9:07 a.m. | #

There's a website, www.geograph.org.uk , which is based on the 1km x 1km Ordnance Survey gridsquares. it has been running since around 2005. The idea is to upload photographs taken in different gridsquares (around the whole of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland), you get a personal point for each square you cover.

Be warned, it can be highly addictive!

dg writes: see numerous links in post.

Malc M | Homepage | 14.06.22 - 9:50 a.m. | #

Classic stuff.
You're coming my way for one of your Harrow "reds" possibly my street!
I am sure I'm not the only one who will be both impressed but perhaps a little sad when you have turned all the squares yellow!

MikeK | 14.06.22 - 10:11 a.m. | #

Wow!! My map would probably almost the exact opposite of yours - mostly red, some bleu/green and very little yellow!

Cornish Cockney | 14.06.22 - 10:34 a.m. | #

I reckon the proportion of Londoners who had been to every borough is tiny let alone what you have done. In fact I wonder how many people have completed this challenge.

I am very impressed.

David | 14.06.22 - 11:43 a.m. | #

Why do humans collect things, in your case its something that can't be restricted by rarity, like paintings or cars, in some cases the collecting benefits the scientific.

Is it our hunter/gatherer past.

Still Anon | 14.06.22 - 12:03 p.m. | #

I suspect that a hex-gridded map would slightly increase the area, because of less exclusion of the black rim (hexagons are the bestagons)

But I understand why you have used OS grid squares for the analysis, for reasons of cross referencing to available maps.

MilesT | 14.06.22 - 12:11 p.m. | #

I never thought to be ahead of DG in any respect.

But I have visited Mogden Sewage Works!

(Organised by the Institute of Physics, retired member)

Mike D | 14.06.22 - 12:16 p.m. | #

Congratulations so far and good luck with completing the gaps. Your ride on the R10 many years ago must have been a pretty near miss for some of those Bromley squares.

DavidC | 14.06.22 - 1:06 p.m. | #

Good luck, great project! These are always an enjoyable read.

Kevin | 14.06.22 - 1:27 p.m. | #

Crikey! Bet most people haven’t been to 95% of their area, even if they live in a village. Top stuff, you should try and see how much of the areas surrounding London you can do next

Luke | 14.06.22 - 4:12 p.m. | #

I know I’ve visited every London borough- Capital Ring and London Loop certainly help, but grid squares is something else. I also can’t be sure which ones I’ve been to in my 55 years, many of which have been in London. But I may just try - hoping for a rainy day. So congratulations- see you, metaphorically in Croydon one day - maybe if I spend all my public transport journeys with the blog open I may even make the metaphorical real.

Robert Butlin | 14.06.22 - 10:11 p.m. | #

Rather reminiscent of VeloViewer, which shows a similar grid of which squares you've visited (in Strava activities). A number of my cycling friends are competing to have the largest "full square".

Lmm | 15.06.22 - 12:26 a.m. | #

I'm pretty sure you missed TQ2398 on the grid squares you coloured that are on the edge of London.

Sophie | 16.06.22 - 11:02 a.m. | #

Additionally, TQ5580 is missing as well

Sophie | 16.06.22 - 11:18 a.m. | #

And TQ4659... I don't think me pointing out all the missing squares is all that helpful tbh, but I will do so anyways

Sophie | 16.06.22 - 11:22 a.m. | #

I'm not visiting or counting the squares around the edge, which'll be why I was slightly slapdash about recording them, sorry.

Only ¼% of TQ2398 is in London (and I have actually been to that ¼%).

TQ2398 and TQ4659 are only pedantically in London, at 0.04% and 0.02% respectively.

So they're completist but not helpful, thanks :)

diamond geezer | Homepage | 16.06.22 - 2:41 p.m. | #

Hi Mr Geezer

I have double checked and I still get 1467 1km squares, not 1470. I am only counting the TQ squares fully in London.

I copied your spreadsheet layout, populating the squares with their respective TQ reference and then used the COUNTA function to count the cells with values in them.

The total still comes to 1467.

Graeme | 16.06.22 - 8:49 p.m. | #

I've recounted and cross-checked and it's actually 1465, not 1470, sorry.

Three posts updated, thanks.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 17.06.22 - 3:43 p.m. | #

The part between New Addington and Whyteleafe seems completely messed up. TQ3761, TQ3661, TQ3561 have parts outside Greater London for example. I think it would be best if you rechecked that area.

Sophie | 17.06.22 - 7:46 p.m. | #

I have rechecked that area, thanks.
And redrawn the maps.
And amended the numbers in three posts.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 18.06.22 - 5:06 p.m. | #

TQ5481 has a tiny sliver not in Greater London, so it shouldn't be counted.

Sophie | 05.07.22 - 9:55 p.m. | #

TQ4863 has a tiny sliver not in Greater London too.

Sophie | 05.07.22 - 9:59 p.m. | #

TQ2166 and TQ1863 also contain tiny slivers not in Greater London, and that's all I could find that would affect the numbers.

Sophie | 05.07.22 - 10:20 p.m. | #











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