A stroll around historic buildings, cemeteries and winding back streets can lift your spirits just as effectively as communing with nature, according to author Annabel Streets. Let’s put that to the test …
When I arrange to meet Annabel Streets, the appropriately named author of a new book, The Walking Cure, I’m presented with a challenge. She wants me to choose a London location I am unfamiliar with, so I can experience her ideas about the upsides of urban landscapes. In the book, Streets contemplates the powerful impact walking can have on our mood, thoughts and emotions, and how this can differ according to where and how we walk. While most people are aware of the benefits of walking in nature, Streets makes the case for urban environments, known as “brown spaces” by developers. Surprisingly, churches, convents and cemeteries, all of which are found in cities, often offer a superabundance of wildlife. A study in one Berlin cemetery found 604 species, 10 of which were rare or endangered.
Streets believes it is in cities that our collective ingenuity is most obvious. I haven’t exactly been basking in astonishment lately, unless you count feeling astonishingly grumpy.
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