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I'm guessing you are puzzled by the intricacies of the streets in London compared with the N American street system. With European and Asian cities, I usually visualise the landscape with a bird's eye view of the place by having a quick glance of the local map. I feel it is important to have a different approach based on the geographical features of the city. London, for example, has the Thames, but what's important is that most of the city is to the north of the river. So I'd be using another prominent feature. In this case, the major roads are the easiest one to recognise. Then you overlay the tube map (adjusting slightly because of the simplification of the tube map) and block of areas e.g. Mayfair, Soho, Hyde Park, Regents Park, Kensington, Bloomsbury etc. What is important on the ground is to know where you are on your mental map and which way is which in terms of direction. As you turn from one street to another, make sure you update your bird's eye view to reflect on your new direction. Then you should know roughly where you are. I can say that this approach worked for old cities such as Bangkok, Hong Kong, Paris and Boston. Hope this doesn't sound too complicated.
Posted 86 months ago.
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yes, that's kind of what i've resorted to and it's worked really well. i've got a little compass now to help me figure out which way i'm supposed to be headed and its great.
i'm from africa so it's not just the maze-like nature of the city that's a problem but the sheer scale of it all.
cape town had the city centre, where pretty much everything went down. london's just so massive that it doesn't have that, that one place...
wrapping my head around that is the next big challenge
Posted 85 months ago.
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