JANE'S WALK COLCHESTER
We are looking forward to JANE'S WALK 2024!
Saturday 4th May - Sunday 12th May 2024 (inclusive)
Our 2024 PROGRAMME is now OUT!...
Jane's Walk is an international weekend of local walks led by local people on local themes (‘citizen-led, walking conversations’), taking place in towns and cities around the world, honouring the legacy of the urbanist, writer and activist, Jane Jacobs (1916-2006), and marking the anniversary of her birth.
Jane’s Walks are typically shorter (under 3 miles), and best thought of as non-expert, community-led ‘walking conversations’ on a wide range of themes.
Our Colchester festival this year is dedicated to the memory of Pam Nelson, Ron Bell & Derek Wray, longtime supporters of Jane’s Walk Colchester, who we have sadly lost in 2023-24.
All walks are FREE. Walk times are approximate. Some meet locations (prefixed ///) use what3words: https://what3words.com/.
Unless otherwise indicated (*check accessibility info), all city centre walks are step-free. For large text and further info on walk accessibility, see our Facebook walk event pages, or call Rowena Macaulay (07710 474999).
See also:
About Jane Jacobs, the festival namesake
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New York Times Obituary - Douglas Martin, April 25th 2006 [NYT Online]
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Guardian Obituary - Veronica Horwell, April 28th 2006 [Guardian Online]
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Vital Little Plans review – why the ideas of Jane Jacobs are still vital. Chris Hall 2017 [The Guardian Online]
"You've got to get out and walk!" Jane Jacobs
About Jane's Walk Colchester
Jane's Walk was established in 2007 in Toronto, Jane Jacobs’s home for her last 40 years. Jacobs was writing and speaking right up until her death aged 89 in 2006, and was a well-known and much-loved public figure. Walking as a vehicle for understanding place, alongside discourse and civic engagement, were dominant lifelong themes in her work. Hence 'Jane’s Walk', the creation of Jacobs's many friends and colleagues: a weekend festival of walking established to commemorate her life.
By the time of Jacobs’s death however, her ideas and influence already extended worldwide, and Jane’s Walk too went rapidly global. In 2016, a decade after its inception in Toronto, over 1,000 Jane's Walks took place in 212 cities, in 36 countries, across 6 continents.
Colchester held its first Jane’s Walk festival in 2011, and is proud to have been the UK’s first Jane’s Walk town. Over the years since, it has reached a further 13 UK towns and cities, including London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Coventry and Belfast.
Images from former Jane's Walk years in Colchester (click arrows left/right to scroll)
"Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because,
and only when, they are created by everybody" Jane Jacobs
Our Sponsors
Walk Colchester is grateful to the following local organisations for their support of Jane’s Walk Colchester over recent years:
To CCC Cutural and Creative Fund, Firstsite Gallery, The Headgate Theatre and Colchester Arts Centre (in 2023) for their sponsorship and/or support in kind. And similarly to The Minories (Colchester Institute) and CODA Jazz Bar in recent years.
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