Day Out

Going for a walk is a bit too much like work, so I would just go to Soho, have lunch, stare in shoe shops and go to the cinema. Alternatively, if I had to go for a walk, I would get up very early and go to Battersea Park.

I'd have breakfast in the Cafe Portugal (071- 587 1962) South Lambeth, wonderfully inexpensive and full of Portuguese - which makes you think you're somewhere else. I'd then buy a travelcard, go to Paddington and get the 15 bus, which takes you from Ladbroke Grove to Canning Town via Paddington, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's, the Tower of London, and Limehouse.

I would get off along the way at the Whitechapel Gallery (071-377 0107) and have lunch in Brick Lane. I'd walk around Limehouse, regret the loss of its Chinese community, and visit the church of St Annes, which was designed by Hawksmoor. Then I'd visit the Lansbury Estate in Poplar, built around the time of the Festival of Britain. Erno Goldfinger's flats there were the last tower blocks built under the GLC and were never tenanted.

I'd get a train to the Woolwich ferry through Silvertown and the docks and then I'd visit Maryon Park in Charlton. I'd take a series of trains through south London and end up loitering on the platforms at Clapham Junction.

I'd end the day by going to see a very long Jean-Marie Straub and Danielle Huillet film at the Goethe Institute (071-411 3400). Then I'd probably meet someone and have a drink, but I haven't got a clue where because everything would be shut.

Patrick Keiller is director of 'London' currently on release

(Photograph omitted)