The meeting place for this walk is away from the main station concourse of King's Cross Station outside the Left Luggage Office on Euston Road. From the station concourse follow the signs to exit onto Euston Road. Turn left along Euston Road to where the Left Luggage Office is located and clearly signed (although the sign is quite small).
[1] With your back to the Luggage Office walk to the left and then use the controlled crossings on your immediate right to take you across Euston Road. A few steps to your right, turn immediately left into Birkenhead Street and walk to where it meets St Chad's Street. This is a very busy area. Keep alert as you navigate your way across Euston Road using the controlled crossings.
[2] Turn right into St Chad's Street, pass along the north side of Argyle Square and continue to the end of St Chad's Street to where it meets Argyle Street. Cross over and walk to the left for a short distance and then right into Whidbourne Street which you follow round until it meets Cromer Street. You will see the large Church of the Holy Cross facing you at this point. Turn right and walk along until you reach Judd Street. These are quiet, residential streets with little through traffic.
[3] Turn left into Judd Street and walk along until you reach Bernard Street. As you cross Tavistock Place be alert to cyclists using the double-direction cycle lane on the near side. After crossing Tavistock Place Judd Street becomes Hunter Street. You will pass the Brunswick Centre to your right and you can choose to walk across Brunswick shopping centre - a modern open space with many moderately priced restaurants and shops below flats - exiting into Bernard Street..
[4] Turn right into Bernard Street and walk along until you reach the junction with Woburn Place and Russell Square.
[5] Turn left out of Bernard Street and using the controlled crossing immediately to your right cross to the entrance to Russell Square Gardens. Enter the gardens and walk diagonally across the Square. As you enter the Square note the cafe (WCs here) on your left . As you exit the Square cross Montague Street by the crossing immediately to your right, continue a few paces to your right and turn immediately left into Montague Place.
Russell Square is named after the surname of the Earls and Dukes of Bedford who developed the family's London landholding in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The street lamps around the area carry the Bedford Arms and a number of the original large terraced family houses survive. On the eastern side the Hotel Russell, built in 1898 to a design by Charles Fitzroy Doll, dominates, (its builders were connected with the company that built HMS Titanic). The square was re-landscaped in 2002 in a style based upon the original early nineteenth century layout by Humphry Repton (1752-1815).
[6] Walk straight ahead, past the back of the British Museum until you reach the east side of Bedford Square.
The British Museum was founded in 1753, the first national public museum in the world. From the beginning it granted free admission to all 'studious and curious persons'. Visitor numbers have grown from around 5,000 a year in the eighteenth century to nearly 6 million today. The original collection of the British Museum included antiquities, coins and medals, natural history specimens and a large library collection. It now comprises over 8 million objects spanning the history of the world's cultures: from the stone tools of early man to twentieth century prints.
[7] Turn left and walk along the side of Bedford Square which then becomes Bloomsbury Street, crossing to the opposite side of the road at the first controlled crossing.
[8] Continue walking straight, crossing both Great Russell Street and New Oxford Street until you reach a small triangular garden with a central fountain in the middle of number of roads. Cross to the garden and continue to the right keeping the garden to your left and then cross by the controlled crossing to take you safely over to the far side of High Holborn.
[9] Turn to your right and follow the pavement round to the left along Shaftesbury Avenue. Cross over Monmouth Street and then Earlham Street and continue to the intersection with Charing Cross Road. This is Cambridge Circus. The pavements are now narrow and may be crowded. The roads will be busy. Keep away from the kerb and only use controlled crossings.
[10] At the intersection with Charing Cross Road you will see the large Palace Theatre over to the right. Using the controlled crossing cross Charing Cross Road and continue to walk along Shaftesbury Avenue until you reach Piccadilly Circus at the end. Shaftesbury Avenue is generally considered to be the heart of London's West End theatre district with many well known theaters clustered on the northern side of the road. At the junction with Macclesfield Street, you will glimpse the entrance to China Town to the left as you go along Shaftesbury Avenue.
From Piccadilly Circus London 2012 Ticket Holders will be marshaled to the Horseguards arena by London 2012 volunteers.