You can’t work in London (or even visit) without spotting the Jubilee Walkway circles. Some of them - the original ones from 1977 not yet worn to nothing by countless passing feet say Silver Jubilee Walkway, and mark the original route of the walk, as laid out to celebrate Her Madj’s 25 years in the big house. They missed out the large northern loop around Camden on the first attempt, perhaps on account of it being too bohemian for royalty, but that was put right in 2003 when Mayor Livingstone redrew it to mark a doubling of the regal milestone.

So, having seen these all-too familiar circles for most of my life I decided, today, that the time has come to follow the route and see where they actually lead. They start and finish in Leicester Square - that much I do know - but beyond that they are a bit of a mystery, since they seem to appear at seemingly random intervals beneath my feet as we cross paths on random excursions.

Fortunately there’s a web site that explains all about it, and includes an interactive map. In this case, though, ‘interactive’ means hobbled, to such an extent that it’s no good when you’re out and about. What I want is a PDF of the whole thing that I can print out and take with me, but the designers seem to have split the whole thing into a dozen separate parts, each of which must be downloaded and printed on its own.

Yet if you did deep enough, there is a fold-out, all in one, free map, which is just perfect for walkers. Shame, then, that they didn’t have the foresight to put it online. Instead you have to fill in a form and they will post it to you, although the stated timescale is ’soon’, so it could well be next week, next month or the end of summer before it arrives.

If you take time to read the laughable privacy policy, it quickly becomes clear why they want you to apply for it, and why the application fails if you don’t also include your email address and phone number (both of which I faked).

Personal data which we collect about you when you visit this site will be disclosed only to the following types of persons:

* Business Associates and other professional advisors
* Central Government
* Local Government
* Data subjects themselves
* Employees and agents of the data controller
* Local Government
* Other companies in the same group as the data controller
* Persons making an enquiry or complaint
* Suppliers, providers of goods or services
* Survey and Research organisations
* Voluntary and charitable organisations
* Transport for London

It’s the ‘persons making an enquiry’ and ’suppliers, providers of goods or services’ that worry me, since they’re so general and non-specific those two clauses alone could conceivably be used as justification for passing on your data to anyone and everyone, despite the assurance that ‘we will only collect and retain personal data to the extent that it is strictly necessary for our purposes’.

Suddenly those silver discs no longer look quite so innocent.

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