Sexual harassment map of London created by woman fed up with 'daily catcalls'
Whitechapel, Shepherd's Bush and Haringey all earmarked as hotspots of sexual harassment.
A woman got so fed up with the "daily catcalls, wolf whistles and bizarre sexual commentary" she is subjected to in London she has created a map warning other women about the capital's most notorious areas for sexual harassment.
The 28-year-old Londoner published the map on her the r/London subreddit, asking other women to share ideas on where she should move to avoid sexual harassment, which she said she experienced every day while walking from her home in Whitechapel to her office in Fitzrovia.
"I'm a feisty person so half these catcalls result in me having a verbal screaming match with the instigator. Almost daily screaming matches are not a good way to live," she wrote.
The woman, who has chosen to remain anonymous, told the Evening Standard that she decided to post the message because she was annoyed about being subjected to harassment on the streets of London "all the time".
"It is almost every day or whenever I am walking anywhere alone around Whitechapel," she said. "I used to live with other girls and it was something we discussed a lot. If I am with a group of people or my boyfriend it is fine."
She has lived in Australia and France, but said she has never experienced harassment as badly as in London.
"And Paris is awful for it. But London is definitely the worst. It is the consistency of it in London that makes it bad," she said. "It wears you down when you are thinking 'oh it's happening again'."
The areas she highlighted as being particularly terrible for harassment are Stepney Green and Whitechapel in East London, Shepherd's Bush and Notting Hill in the west and Haringey and Seven Sisters in the north of the capital.
Commenters suggested that she move to a more "family-friendly area" such as Hampstead, Highgate or Crouch End.
One user wrote: "Oh god Whitechapel is the absolute worst. I had friends who lived there and it was literally like running the gauntlet every time I visited! And shouting makes no difference!"
Another commented: "Good grief, it's absolutely horrible that you even have to ask that question. Feel so sorry for you. Is there no way you can report this sort of harassment, or will the 'authorities' do nothing?"
