The Hidden Forces of the City  New Walk!

The Secret – and Strange – Science of London’s Streets

Light Read:

The City has its own climate, come and see it…

This is London as you’ve never noticed it before.

Not the history. Not the architecture. The air itself.

Because the City doesn’t just sit in a climate – it makes one.

Cue architect and urban climatologist Dr Julie. She reveals how the City makes its own climate.

Stand in one street and it’s still, warm, almost close. Turn a corner and suddenly there’s wind tunnelling between the buildings. Step into a courtyard and the temperature drops. Cross into open space and the sky opens up.

It’s all there. Hiding in plain sight.

The City Dr Julie leads you through – and shows you – is London as a living laboratory. Heat, shade, wind, rain – shaped by glass, stone, smells, and the spaces between them.

What’s more, this is a walk that comes into its own when the weather’s “adverse” – hot or cold, wet or dry, blustery or becalmed. Wind, rain, heat, cold – they all bring the City’s hidden climate into sharp relief.

It’s short, it’s conversational, and by walk’s end you’ll never walk through the City in quite the same way again.

Look up, look down. Feel the air change. And understand what’s going on.

“We don’t truly see until we understand” (John Constable).

Scholarly read:

Reading the City’s Climate: An Urban Climate Walk through the City of London

Led by Dr Julie Futcher, an architect and urban climatologist, this research-led walking tour explores how the City of London shapes its own local climate.

The walk invites participants to read the city in a new way, not simply as a historic, financial or architectural district, but as a living urban climate system. Streets, buildings, courtyards, façades, open spaces and materials all influence how sunlight, heat, air and rain move through the urban environment.

At the heart of the walk is a simple idea: cities do not just experience climate – they help produce it. The height and spacing of buildings, the width of streets, the amount of visible sky, the reflectivity of surfaces and the presence or absence of planting all help determine whether a place feels hot or cool, sheltered or exposed, still or windy, dry or damp.

Using the City of London as a living laboratory, the walk connects urban climate research with direct street-level observation. Along the route, participants will consider where heat builds up, where shade is available, where air can move freely, and how rainwater is absorbed, slowed or redirected.

The walk reveals how urban form affects comfort, health, energy use, vegetation, biodiversity and resilience. It also shows why materials and technologies, from reflective façades to green infrastructure, depend on the surrounding urban geometry if they are to perform well.

A central theme is that architecture and urban form should be understood as climate infrastructure. Streets, plots, blocks, façades, open spaces and building heights establish environmental conditions that can last for decades.

The walk lasts around two hours and takes place in all weather conditions, since wind, rain, heat or cold can make the city’s climate processes easier to notice. Comfortable footwear and suitable clothing are recommended.

By the end of the walk, participants will see the City of London differently: as a dynamic urban climate system shaped by buildings, streets, materials, landscape and weather.