2024’s saunter sans purpose also marks 25 years of The Chap Magazine.
This year sees two very special milestones for The Chap Magazine. We mark our Silver Jubilee, having first published in 1999, and we shall sally forth on the fourth Grand Flaneur Walk on Sunday 5th May 2024. Assembling as usual at midday beside the statue of Beau Brummell on Jermyn Street, London W1, after hearing some stirring words on the subject of flanerie read by Chap editor Gustav Temple, the dapperly-dressed multitudes will then shuffle about a bit, complain of already feeling a little tired and thirsty, and then, with a couple of insistent clicks from Mr. Temple’s cane on the pavement, will begin the Grand Flan.
The purpose of the Grand Flaneur Walk is not to walk with any intention of arriving at any particular destination. This, in the age of one’s devices buzzing with scheduled appointments and people shouting “Where are you?” into their phones, is more difficult than it sounds. To saunter sans purpose is truly an art, and one at which the chaps and chapettes who regularly attend our Grand Flaneur Walks are past masters. Not for them the whining from the rear guard of “Are we there yet?”; not a word of impatience nor demands for destinations issue from their ranks, since all of them, to a man or woman, are perfectly happy to keep walking until someone announces that we have arrived.
Clearly, this is not an exercise in endurance. Nobody is counting the steps taken by the flaneurs and flaneuses and entering them into some ghastly database, later to be told that they are fit as fiddles or, more likely, running low on alcohol. We considered having the equivalent of doping tests conducted at the beginning of the walk, and disqualifying anyone with unacceptably low levels of alcohol in their bloodstream, but the profusion of hip flasks and cans of premixed gin and tonic made this an unnecessary measure.
If the Grand Flaneur Walk is an exercise in anything, it is in proving that, no matter what the world throws us all in the way of terrible news, pointless gadgets and unpredictable weather patterns, a chap or chapette cannot be prevented from simply taking a walk around a city, and refusing to declare their intention, destination or purpose.
The Grand Flaneur Walk is a celebration of the pure, the immutable and the pointless, taken by the bold, the adventurous and the inebriated. The only reason for pause in the stroll is to take refreshments, and for this the hostelries of central London and sometimes beyond always thank us, for the prospect of serving one hundred thirsty dandies, dandizettes and quaintrelles with the finest wines known to man is not one they willingly shy away from.
The Fourth Grand Flaneur Walk – Sunday 5th May, 2024, commencing at midday by the statue of Beau Brummell on Jermyn Street, London W1.
