Sustrans Portrait Benches

Keilyn with a traditional canal horse, in Mile End Park.

Wandering through London as I do, I often see remarkable architecture, hidden gems, and places not written about in any guidebook. It was during one of these walks, from Aldgate to Canary Wharf, that I saw my first 'Portrait Bench'.

These installations feature functional benches placed alongside life-size silhouettes crafted from weathering steel, which slowly develops a beautiful, rust-like patina over time. This particular bench featured the likenesses of footballer Ledley King, suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst, and a traditional canal horse.

Cormorant and bicycle.

On another more recent walk, where I walked from Canada to Russia, I discovered a second installation. The figures here depicted Phyllis Pearsell (creator of the first A-Z map of London), actor Michael Caine, and a cormorant and bicycle representing Barry Mason, a local cycling campaigner and birdwatcher.

Walking with family: Canada to Russia... and beyond

Friday July 3, 2026.

Sunny with a high of 27°C (80.6°F).

As I had the day off work, I had arranged to visit London with my uncle Martin in an attempt to "walk around the world".

I made the short walk to my uncle's house, from where he drove us to Croxley station to catch our Metropolitan line train. Unfortunately, there was a points failure near Wembley Park, so our train would terminate at Harrow-on-the-Hill, from where we would have to board a different train to complete our journey.

We only had to wait for two minutes at Harrow-on-the-Hill station for the next southbound train, which whisked us onwards to Finchley Road, where we boarded a Jubilee line train to complete our journey.

On leaving our destination station, we purchased coffee from the 'Nonna Anna' kiosk, just outside Canada Water station, before beginning our epic trek around the world.

Canada

We entered Deal Porter Square and headed to Canada Water, where we traversed this body of water via the newly installed Rafter Walk boardwalk, which winds along its western edge. In its heyday, Canada Water, then known as Canada Dock, was almost three times the size of what it is now, with much of it being filled in during the regeneration of the area.

We then joined Surrey Quays Road, with Canada Pond and Quebec Pond, now filled in, to our left, before we joined Redriff Road and crossed the border from Canada to Greenland, via the Greenland Dock Bascule Bridge.