I've been out of the UK for ages but I do go back fairly often and I'm sure they do move to the left. Here in Australia (where we also drive on the left) it's very noticeable that people keep to the left in shopping malls and on footpaths. (So, on reflection, perhaps it is less so in the UK?).

That's how it works on sidewalks in Japan; they both walk and drive on the left.

Here in Queens, it's more like oncoming sidewalkers will walk on whichever side of the sidewalk you're walking on, which is really fucking infuriating, especially when they use baby-filled strollers like cowcatchers and then get all angry when you slow down and let them run into your ankles. I just laugh and tell them how beautiful their babies are, which they understand even if they don't understand English.

Welcome to NYC "hey I'm walkin here!"

I once held my ground and had a guy say exactly that to me. I responded, "You better not walk into me!"

He went around.

In the UK in my experience there is no general rule, just an awkward negotiation every time.

There was a AskMe or MetaFilter thread about this, I think... I remember researching it for a while. Lemme see if I can track it down...

All right, that was quicker than I was expecting.

AskMe thread is here.

My answer there, almost all of which was cadged from here, was:

A fascinating (at least to me) page on Which side of the road do they drive on? has this to say:

What about pedestrians?
The rules about which side of the road people drive on are clear, but there are also "rules" that govern how pedestrians behave in relation to each other. These pedestrian rules are not usually codified in law (the recent proposal to legislate a "fast lane" for walkers on Oxford Street in London notwithstanding) but form a sort of "standard practice" which many people are not even consciously aware of until they travel to a country with a different standard practice and end up bumping into the locals.

In this section, when we describe pedestrians keeping right or left, we mean right or left in relation to other pedestrians on sidewalks, in hallways, and in pedestrian-only areas. We're not talking about pedestrians in relation to cars. That situation is universally covered by law or at least by parents' instructions to their children, as follows: for greatest safety, pedestrians walking on or next to a street that has no separated footpath are advised to walk so that they are facing oncoming motor vehicles, no matter which side the cars are on. This means that if cars keep right, then pedestrians should walk on the left side of the road facing oncoming traffic, and vice-versa.

Keep right: Keeping right is the normal practice in the USA and Canada. (There might be some regional variations: one reader says that people in Idaho keep to the left.) Mark King reports that people keep right when skating on Ottawa's 8-kilometer-long Rideau Canal skating rink. France also keeps to the right. Pedestrians in Taiwan keep right and to reinforce the rule, some crosswalks in Taipei were painted with arrows directing people to keep right when crossing roads. As the habit has become more ingrained, these arrows have been gradually removed. (Justin Jih)

No preference: The United Kingdom seems not to have a preference as to which side of the path to use when walking. Mark King comments that this puts the British at a disadvantage when they go to places where there is a standard practice, because "they are unaware that there is a convention and so do not instinctively follow it, so getting in the way of roughly half of the people coming the other way and muttering about how crowded it is." Jay Doty confirms that the Scots also walk "every which way."

This doesn't mean that the British bump into each other. They don't tend to use single-file traffic, but they still manage to negotiate their way effectively using body language, eye contact, and other cues to signal their intentions and notice others' intentions. Foreigners in the UK who are not tuned in to the signals try to play follow-the-leader and end up bumping into people when the leader's route turns out to be unpredictable. Conversely, British tourists in foreign lands who don't realize that they are supposed to fall in line, cut through traffic at odd places and get run down. Aaron Moreau-Cook, an American, says that he used to constantly run into people when visiting the UK, but then he moved there and adapted: "after four months of living here I now can navigate the pedestrian walkways without a problem." William Hibbert suggests that "if you're in a hurry, the best way to proceed is to ignore other peoples' signals, and give out a very strong signal of your own by staring hard in the direction you want to go, aiming for each successive gap in the oncoming crowd. They'll understand and move aside in response to the strong psychological pressure you're exerting."

In the London Underground, some of the foot tunnels have signs (not always obeyed) asking passengers to keep to the left, and in some cases there are even railings down the centres of the tunnels to separate people walking in opposite directions.

Sreekumar Ashok writes that in India, just like in the UK, there is no fixed side for pedestrians and they use all the same techniques to avoid a jam.

Keep left: People in Japan keep left when walking. Tourists in Japan should remember this, says Jay Doty: "When you walked on the right you were definitely a hinderance to traffic." Conversely, Japanese tourists cause traffic jams in other countries: Wayne Huffman reports from Hawai'i that he has "had countless Japanese people walk directly into me, even though I am 6'4" and 220 pounds. If someone is coming at you and you step to your right, they step to their left, and you stay on a collision course. This happens to me at least five times a day." There is a weak tendency to keep left in Australia and New Zealand, although many people report that the tendency is weak indeed. David Hoole says, "Australians... are even more unruly than the English," and he's not referring to Aussie-rules football. Bill Lockhart mentioned that he has observed Mexicans fighting the flow by trying to keep left in Texas when everyone else was keeping right, and wonders if keeping left might be the standard practice in central or southern Mexico. David Newgreen recalls sailing from England to Australia in 1966-67, when the safety briefing instructed passengers that in case of emergency, they were to keep to the right-hand side of staircases and passageways. The briefing stated, "we emphasise this for the benefit of Australian and New Zealand passengers who normally keep to the left." Edwin Man reports that in Hong Kong there is a slight tendency to walk on the left.

" one reader says that people in Idaho keep to the left" Just the drunks I'm thinking. "Jay Doty confirms that the Scots also walk "every which way." I'm going to guess drunk also.

I tend to keep to the left.

I was trying to write something about the way banks of escalators work differently in the US than the UK, but haven't had coffee yet so can't think straight. But it always fazes me that a bank of escalators such as you'd get in a department store, with the 'up' ones on one side and the 'down' on the other are 'threaded' the opposite way in the US. So on one side of the Atlantic you would go down a series of escaltors in a clockwise direction and on the other side, anti-clockwise.

In the UK, I think it's the case that you get off the escalator and then generally turn left to get the next up or down escalator. In the US I think it's the opposite way round. (Or maybe it's opposite to that. Don't bug me, I need caffeine!)

Bartender! Caffeine for all my friends!

GET ON THE LEFT YOU FREAKS!

(also, if you're in London, you're not walking fast enough. No. I don't care how fast you're walking, it's not fast enough. Hurry up you annoying tourist toerag. Ta.)

Yeah, keep to the left or risk being trampled. Also, I don't care if you walk slow, but walk in a fucking straight line or I'll fucking walk right over the top of you!

Well I can tell you right now that the reality in Japan is that people wander all over the damn place, and love to stop suddenly when shiny stuff in windows attracts them.

They even have arrows painted on the ground in the train stations to try and keep some order. These are mostly ignored.

Swedes who changed from left side of the road to right side driving in 1968 are still confused about which side of the pavement to walk on, but the "stay to the right if your not walking up the escalator" rule is obeyed.
≡ Click to see image ≡
The moment we switched, Kungsgatan, Stockholm.

Ha! Great picture dabitch.

I've been quite ashamed by myself at times for growling "excuse me" so it sounds just like "fucking MOVE" when stuck behind people standing to the left of the escalator.

I can switch from left to right, no problem there. But don't fucking stop in the middle of the walkway. I will mow you down whilst swearing like a sailor.

Not really, I'll just ask politely if you would move to either side, but it annoys me to no end.

In the UK in my experience there is no general rule, just an awkward negotiation every time.

In my experience that pretty much sums up the UK in general.

"In the UK in my experience there is no general rule, just an awkward negotiation every time"

actually, it's all about class. scions of landed gentry have right of way, always. look out for the oxbridge tie or harrow/eton pin in the lapel.

if you can't recognise these significant class markers, you should probably be walking in the gutter, anyway, where you belong.