Joe Gets About (@joegetsabout)

Replying to @🪙_/-jusafan-\_🪙 Thank you @🇮🇶 Suzie 🍉 for so brilliantly getting across what British city centres lack - pleasant places to sit! The video gives me a perfect opportunity to show why this is: compared to other global cities, British city centres are EMPTY! People don’t live there…

London’s Capital Ring Stage 12: Highgate - Stoke Newington My favourite stage so far. A gorgeous summer’s day. It doesn’t get much better. From the Parkland Walk to Finsbury Park and the New River to Clissold Park, this stage is non-stop green action. There’s no better way to see the real London…

@Fulham FC does this mean we can buy a new centre mid? Fulham Pier is a genuinely innovative piece of stadium design, meaning that the area is in use (and generating revenue) every day of the week. I highly recommend a visit out to west London to check it out. #fulhamfc #fulham #premierleague #epl…

🏎️🏍️🏎️🏍️💨💨💨💨💨💨💨 Anti-social noise in public space. In my opinion it's more than just a nuisance. It sends a clear message to everyone in that space that they not welcome. At best, they're a guest - at worst they're unsafe. I think enforcing anti-social noise as well as speeding would make high…

PART 2/2 London-Glasgow, plane vs train. The ultimate battle between British transport. I always wondered what the quickest way beteeen London and Scotland was. Today I found out. I hope you enjoy watching this as much as me and @philiemg enjoyed filming and editing it. Thanks to @AvantiWestCoast…

🚂🛩️🚂🛩️🚂🛩️🚂🛩️ London to Glasgow, train vs plane, who will win? My Dad is the ultimate plane nerd but I wanted to see if he had what it takes to race me to Glasgow, me on the train and him on the plane. I wanted to evoke the classic Top Gear race. The first half of the race takes us from the Regency…

😀😁What makes a city happy?😀😁 I'm reading the excellent Happy City by Charles Montgomery and it got me thinking, what are the things most important to the happiness of a place. I came up with three: 🏡🏡housing🏡🏡 I think affordable, decent housing near enough to work, friends and green space is the…

🤏💡Small Ideas to change Britain💡🤏 @Martin Lewis, the Money Saving Expert is looking for your small ideas that could make a BIG difference to the UK. The best ideas will be put to the UK Government. Is it the way your Council formats its forms? Is it the accessibility of train station signs? Is it…

A healthy high street?? High streets up and down Britain make up the backbones of our communities. But what makes a high street healthy? I headed to the local high street of our nation’s monarch, King Charles, to see how healthy the high street really is in the royal town of Windsor. A busy…

Is this urban planning rage bait? Have I been tricked? I saw a video the other day saying that the worst housing development I’ve ever seen was actually good so of course I had to react. What do you think? Is this a fun, whimsical design? Or is it a suburban travesty? #urbanplanning #urbandesign…

🛸🛸Is this the UK’s weirdest building? 👽👽 Superstar architect Zaha Hadid designed it in the 2000s, as part of a huge overhaul of Glasgow’s former industrial riverside. Glasgow was chasing a phenomenon known as the Bilbao Effect. That’s where one piece of striking architecture, often revolving…

Full video coming soon… ✈️ vs 🚂, London to Scotland, who will win? Let me know who you think the favourite is in the comments. #topgear #topgearuk #grandtour #uktrain #avgeek

🚴‍♀️🚴🏼‍♂️Safe cycling infrastructure🚴‍♀️🚴🏼‍♂️ It can be the difference between a city people can access quickly, safely and conveniently or one that people can’t. Vauxhall roundabout is the perfect example of this. It used to be a place where you needed to be brave to cycle through. This meant it…

📚🌆URBAN PLANNING BOOK RECCS🌆📚 A couple of months ago I made a vid chatting about some planning books I like and got some great reccomendarions from it, here are a handful! 1. Feminist City, Leslie Kern 🤷🏻‍♀️🌆 2. Happy City, Charles Montgomery 😀😀 3. The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane…

🌆 Urban planning is all around us 🌆 Why are houses so expensive? Why do some streets feel safe and others don’t? What makes a place walkable? How can cities adapt to climate change? Questions about urban planning are questions about how we live in cities and why we’ve come to live that way. I…

A question about cities and urban planning, from an urban planner. Why do some parks have boundary fences, walls amd gates and others don’t? Also, why do some parks have opening and closing times and others don’t? I suppose the answer is something to do with history, local government and local…

How did this vital green space come to be? It’s not a normal London park. Burgess Park is incredibly well used by the local communities of Elephant and Castle, Walworth, Peckham and beyond. But it may never have existed if not for extensive bombing during the World Wars. Before it was factories…

🚕🚂✈️ TRANSPORT DAD ✈️🚂🚕 I’m visiting the country’s most important transport-related spots and there’s no one better to come along with me than my transport obsessed Dad. He’s truly in his element among the British made planes at @Brooklands Museum. The museum is in Weybridge, Surrey - close…

🌳🌳London Loop Stage 5🌳🌳 This stage of the 150 mile London Loop barely touches tarmac. It’s 6 miles of undulating woods, fields, valleys and ridges. One detour I’d advise is to Chaldon to see one of Britain’s oldest wall paintings - an absolute marvel. The Happy Valley and Farthing Downs are also…

One of the most striking pieces of art you’ll ever see is hidden away in a small church in the countryside. There are easier ways to get here, but I walked and it felt appropriate because the church feels like a spot where a pilgrim would be able to rest a while. This isn’t just a London hidden…

🌇 London is a city of High Streets 🌇 Hundreds of them! While 9 million people live in London, it’s our local shops, services and parks that form the majority of our experience of the city. It’s so important that London’s high streets remain vibrant places where there’s economic and social activity…

🌳Premier League of Parks🌳 I love parks. Summer, winter, rain or shine - parks are the best. The idea that green, open space is open to the public every day of the year should be celebrated. That’s why I’m making this series, to share the love for the greatest parks there are in London and maybe…

🌳🌳WALKING AROUND LONDON🌳🌳 Stage Four of the London Loop takes you from Hayes, once Kent now the London Borough of Bromley, into Croydon, briefly into Surrey before finishing near Sanderstead. It’s another fascinating, varied stage with plenty of elevation gain as you criss-cross meadows, valleys…

🤓🇬🇧The UK has another new Prime Minister! 🤓🇬🇧 The noises I’ve been hearing from Andy Burnham in his first week in office have been very encouraging from a public transport perspective. He seems to have identified that transport is not only central to growth and social mobility but it’s also a key…

🌳🔄WALKING LONDON🔄🌳 This summer I’m walking 150 miles all the way around London. This is stage 3, taking me and my mate Leo from Petts Wood to Hayes. This one’s an absolute stunner, dipping between dense ancient woodland and open, green fields. There’s plenty to see along the way with Farnborough…

Two urban planning books that changed my life! 🌆🌆Cities for People, Jan Gehl🌆🌆 This book is a comprehensive guide to good urban design. It uses examples of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to fostering a vibrant social scene in a city. This book is a rabbit hole and if you read it you’ll…

🌳🔄🌳LONDON LOOP STAGE 2🔄🌳🔄 Stage Two of the Loop takes me from Bexley to Petts Wood. We cross over from the London Borough of Bexley to Bromley as we follow the course of the River Cray. A beautiful and unspoilt part of London. There were families and friends picnicking and enjoying the weather, it…

🔄🌳LONDON LOOP: STAGE 1🌳🔄 This first stage of my 150 mile walk all the way around the UK’s largest city starts near the Thames Estuary in Erith. It takes me along the river, between scrapyards, fire engines and recycling centres towards leafy Bexley. The contrasts of this stage made me super…

This country pub is like no other in the whole UK. The Green Man is just a few minutes walk from Hatton Cross on the Picadilly Line, and that’s just a few hundred metres from one of Heathrow’s main runways. The planes will shake your bones and you’ll feel like you can reach up and touch the…

🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳I’ll be spending this whole summer walking 150 miles all the way around London. The London Loop is a signposted walking route that does exactly what it says on the tin - it loops its way right around London. I want to show people that nature, history and adventure is right here on our…