On the 18th May 2019, Nikki and Nog met at Blackfriars Station and began walking along the north bank of the Thames. They were headed for Vintners Place, the site of Nog’s grandfather’s offices in 1911, when he worked for CW Martin. This interactive map shows their walk route with images and audio captured along the way.

Why a walk?

Alongside watching Gordon’s films, Nog and Nikki had begun compiling timelines. Using Gordon’s ‘London Hafters’ document, they began as he did from his own father’s relocation from Switzerland to the UK in 1896. Henry Hafter met his wife, Else Heymann, in 1911. ‘It is alleged that they met under the clock at Liverpool Street’, wrote Gordon in 2002.

As they captured dates and locations onto Post-It notes, Nog and Nikki discussed map-making as a possible avenue to explore. Their family had diverged and spread across the globe, now based in Scandinavia, the USA and New Zealand. They also considered creating a London map, a survey of every location across the city that was notable to their family. This might include buildings that were now destroyed, such as the Swiss Church in which Nog and her twin brother Kevin were christened, on the same day that Kevin’s wife Caroline was born.

But all this timeline- and map-making felt rather staid. They were drowning in tiny pieces of paper, which seemed a shame considering that within the scope of an arts project they could do anything they chose! At one meeting, Nog suggested revisiting these locations. Later, they planned a day in which they would attempt to visit every location Gordon had listed as significant to his parents. But this started to feel like a monumental, and uninspiring, task. As they looked at the list of locations, Nog pointed out that Henry’s office was reasonably close to Liverpool Street Station, where he had met Else under the clock.

“Why don’t we suppose that one day he left work, and walked there?” suggested Nikki. And so, they decided to walk, as Henry may or may not have, from Upper Thames Street to Liverpool Street Station.

To help us on our way

Having studied her degree in Geography and devoted her career to London Transport, Nog has always loved maps. For the walk, she prepared a likely route using historic maps of the area alongside current Google maps. She also sourced some historic images, showing how places they would pass on their route had looked in 1911. On the 18th, she also brought along some objects that might help them get into the spirit of things – a book titled ‘Under Eight Monarchs’ which chronicled the history of Henry’s company, CW Martin, and her christening certificate from the lost Swiss church.