Tyneside Travels

 February 23rd to 28th 

It had been a long time since I’d last visited Newcastle-upon-Tyne. That was on a Saturday afternoon in July 1981 having just walked most of Hadrian’s Wall and we were only there while waiting for the 10.30 pm coach back to London. A return visit seemed due. I’d stay for five nights this time rather than five hours.

Monday

I wouldn’t be doing with cramped long distance buses but the relative comfort of the 1214 Lumo train from London Kings Cross. I’ve travelled with Lumo before (to Edinburgh). Their one-class service is much cheaper than LNER, the service on board is good, and for a modern UK train the seats and legroom are not bad at all even if you are 6’5”. The train arrived at Newcastle Central at five minutes past three for a convenient check-in at the adjacent Royal Station Hotel. Good job I’d remembered to bring my passport which they insisted on seeing at check-in. Newcastle must have separated from the rest of the UK at some point in the last 45 years 😀

Once settled in I set off for a walk around the city and to get something to eat and drink, heading first down to the Quayside to see the famous bridges.

Later I went into the Victoria Comet pub opposite the railway station for a pint of bitter. In a thin glass. Their web site claims Our pub is well known for appearing in the cult gangster film classic ‘Get Carter’, as the first stop for Michael Caine’s hitman character when he arrives in Newcastle. Sources elsewhere on the internet (so it must be true) suggest that the pub Carter goes to opposite the station when he first arrives in Newcastle was The Long Bar and that that was demolished not long after the 1971 film was made. I don’t know who is right but everyone was certainly drinking from thin glasses, mostly Italian lager. Fortunately they also had a fairly good range of cask ales to ensure that I’d return. Interestingly I did not see one person drinking Newcastle Brown Ale the entire time I was up there. Not even with a bottle and a half-pint glass. What happened to regional stereotypes?

Tuesday

Back in 1981 when we approached the outskirts of Newcastle after a week of walking in hot weather (we were all sunburnt on the right hand side only) our party split in two. The completists would carry on walking through to Wallsend. Those who had had enough caught a train into the city and found a suitable pub in which to wait before reuniting with the others for the bus home. The latter idea appealed more to 18 year-old me so I’d never seen the Eastern end of Hadrian’s Wall. Forty-five years on I still didn’t fancy the walk. Instead having breakfasted on a local delicacy consisting of sausage meat encased in flaky pastry, retailed by a Mr. Gregg, I hopped on the Metro train to Wallsend. I got an Adult Day Saver ticket for £6.70 which would allow me unlimited travel all over the Metro Network plus the Shields Ferry for the day. To put that into context that 90p less than a single 22 minute ride from my local station to Reading.

It’s a short walk from Wallsend railway station to the Segedunum Roman Fort museum which marks the end of Hadrian’s Wall next to the River Tyne. A space age Viewing Tower 35 metres tall overlooks the site of the Roman fort, now visible only as lines where the walls stood, the actual buildings long gone, becoming a convenient quarry for local builders.

The site became the Wallsend Colliery and from the 1880s the fort area was covered by streets of terraced houses for the workers in the shipyards. The museum displays cover two main stories of things that have gone. The Roman occupation and life in the fort is the larger subject. The other story is that of the famous Swan Hunter shipyard which grew up in Wallsend. Between 1842 and 2006 over 1600 ships were built here including RMS Mauretania (1906) and the former flagship of the Royal Navy, HMS Ark Royal (1981), as well as many tankers. I must admit the Swan Hunter side of things was more interesting to me, perhaps because it’s from within my lifetime. Even more so the former shipbuilder who was showing his grandson around the museum and reflecting on the change in the scene since the yards closed.

I did at last get to see the end (or the start) of Hadrian’s Wall where a small part of it remains, poking out toward the river through the railings surrounding the fort site.

I wonder whether the completists from our 1981 group saw much? At the time the shipyards were still here and the houses still covered the fort.  

From Wallsend I took a train to Whitley Bay, the North East’s big seaside resort, now somewhat diminished. But for Dire Straits fans the famous Spanish City is still there and still looking pretty as mentioned in the 1980 song Tunnel of Love although now flanked by a Premier Inn.

I had a coffee on the seafront surrounded by fearless and noisy starlings and then got a train to Tynemouth. As I arrived the sun came out and bathed the Priory and Castle in golden light. I walked up to Admiral Lord Collingwood’s memorial on the headland where it was very, very windy but afforded great views across the mouth of the Tyne to South Shields and back up the river towards Newcastle.

Then I headed back on the train to the city.

36 Flickr Photos of Whitley Bay and Tynemouth (opens in new window) 

Wednesday

Another day, another Metro Day Saver ticket. This one took me back to the coast. It was a nice day for it too. First I went to South Shields. My Nan (paternal grandmother) was born in South Shields although I wasn’t really sure of that fact until a few years ago so I sort of have roots in Tyneside, albeit very shallow ones. Nan was born in 1896, making her an actual Victorian and died when I was still a child. I recall her as a small but formidable woman, quite strict, who had raised four sons and two daughters - probably explains the strict part - and it’s only looking back now that I can recognise that she had retained her North East accent despite moving to Suffolk, Pembrokeshire, West London, and back to Suffolk. Anyway I can at last say that I’ve been to Nan’s birthplace and very nice it is too with sandy beaches and a picturesque red lighthouse.

I joined the small crowd on the pier and watched a giant vehicle carrier ship come in from the North Sea and shepherded by a tugboat make its way between Tynemouth and South Shields and disappear up the Tyne. Then I walked along the seafront and through the town to take the ferry to North Shields. This plan was promptly scuppered because the Shields Ferry was suspended due to the north landing being damaged by a storm. Bugger.

37 Flickr Photos from South Shields (opens in new window)

Plan B. Train to Sunderland. I have a vague recollection of stopping for supplies at Sunderland once on a road trip to the Scottish Borders. This time I walked from the station to the Wearmouth Bridge, crossed the river and saw a sign pointing to “St Peter’s Church AD674” and decided to go there. Only the west wall and tower are Anglo-Saxon, the rest having been rebuilt, added to, and restored over the subsequent centuries. I guess Bede would still recognise some of it though.

I looked at the map and decided to carry on to Seaburn railway station. Then I remembered that a sign on the platform at Seaburn had said it was only 15 minutes walk from the beach so I had the bright idea of walking there via the seafront at Roker. The flag-shaggers had been out to adorn the lamp posts of Monkwearmouth but apart from that it wasn’t too tiresome a walk down to the front at Roker. For a Wednesday afternoon in February it was even quite busy.

Wrong time of year for guided tours of the pier tunnel and lighthouse though unfortunately. I walked along the front, up through Roker Park, and threaded my way through the residential area to Seaburn Station where I was surprised to sea an unexpected windmill sticking up above the houses. With excellent timing a train back to Newcastle showed up almost immediately.

24 Flickr Photos from Sunderland and Roker (opens in new window) 

Later that evening I took a stroll across the High Level Bridge and back via the Swing Bridge just for the opportunity to get photos of the Tyne bridges at night.

Thursday

I couldn’t visit Newcastle without visiting the actual castle really so after breakfast I did just that. I arrived shortly after it opened for the day and it was quiet. Shortly after that the party of (possibly Portuguese) school students arrived and it was… less quiet. On the plus side I could eavesdrop on their guided tour. What remains of the castle is divided into two sites, the Black Gate and The Castle Keep. They are separated by a bloody great railway viaduct carrying the East Coast Main Line above you. This is not immediately obvious when you come out of the Black Gate back into the street. Some signage might help since you can’t see one building from the other.

I was a bit disappointed that the roof level of the Keep was locked off due to “risk of dangerous winds”. Especially since you only found this out after climbing the ninety-ish uneven stairs to the locked gate at the top. The rest of it was still worth it though.

12 Flickr Photos of Newcastle Castle (opens in new window) 

Next stop was St. Nicholas Cathedral which was very cathedral like.

There are a lot of grand old buildings in Newcastle, coal and shipping used to pay well. There are as you’d expect a good many statues too. Behind the cathedral you can find probably the oddest. High on a wall above an ornate doorway into the back of Cathedral Buildings The Vampire Rabbit stares down at you. Totally black save for the staring eyes and red, bloody fangs and claws you might miss it as you walk by. Be sure it will be watching you though. There’s a panel on the wall giving a couple of stories to try to explain this strange apparition, including the idea that it might be a hare with its ears on backwards. Which just raises more questions.

12 Flickr Photos from Newcastle Cathedral (opens in new window) 

I also visited the Laing Art Gallery, the ornate Central Arcade, the large covered Grainger Market, had a general explore of the city centre, and later dined at the Victoria Comet before wandering back down to the castle for a really nice pint in the Bridge Hotel opposite the keep and right alongside the High Level Bridge. I think there was live jazz upstairs which was clearly audible downstairs. Either that or they have a very eclectic jukebox.

Friday

All the walking around over the last three days was beginning to tell on my joints. So I elected for a gentle ride on a train. Durham or Hexham? I flipped a coin, Hexham it was. The better outcome I think in the end. About half an hour on the train and I stepped out into a sunny Hexham. I walked slowly up the hill from the station to the market place, then through a park with masses of crocuses in bloom to Hexham Abbey.

You cannot help but look up when you enter the abbey - it’s designed that way. I think it is an even more impressive space than the Cathedral in Newcastle. So much carving, so much painting, so many stained glass windows, so tall. Also two very worn tomb effigies, almost faceless so that they reminded me of The Auditors in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.

After the abbey I had coffee at a Buster's near the Moot House, wandered the lanes of the town centre and failed to resist the temptation of the delightful smell coming out of Paxton’s Fish and Chip shop on the Market Square. Sat on a bench on the market in the sunshine eating cod and chips. In February.

I went back down the hill, got a cold drink and something for lunch on the train home the next day (I do like hotel rooms with fridges, even if this one only had three of its four feet) and with plenty of time to spare sat next to the River Tyne by the stone many-arched road bridge. It was so nice that I did sweet FA for the next half an hour.

Until it clouded over and sent down a few spots of rain to remind me that this was The North and February. I got the train back to Newcastle. Had an afternoon nap. Watched Top of the Pops. Watched Endeavour. Packed. Slept.

45 Flickr Photos from Hexham (opens in new window) 

Saturday

Train - Tube - Train - Train - Walk - Home. No train dramas for a change.

What a good adventure that was.

The Big Trip To Tyneside Flickr Album, 247 photos (opens in new window) 

Or as a slideshow below if your viewer supports it:

 

Capital Ring Section 9, Greenford to South Kenton

4th February

The promise of a dry day took me back to Greenford to walk another section of the Capital Ring path around London. Delays on the Central Line meant that I didn’t arrive until twenty past eleven in the morning but no matter, it was only about five and a half miles to walk to South Kenton. Leaving Greenford Station I walked under the railway bridge and down past all the bus stops in Rockware Avenue to reach the start of section 9 near the McDonald’s on Westway Shopping Park. I went along the shared use path alongside the shopping park to a set of steel gates at the entrance to an underpass. These were painted green and almost matched the Lime Bike abandoned nearby but the gates also have the silhouette of a large Beaver and the words “Welcome. The Ealing Beaver Project” painted on them.

You (and me) can try to put out of mind any thoughts of the scene from The Naked Gun featuring Priscilla Presley, Leslie Nielsen, and a ladder because this project "was born out of a vision to reintroduce beavers to an urban setting, enhancing biodiversity and engaging the community in wildlife conservation. Our mission is to create a sustainable environment where humans and beavers can thrive together, enriching the local ecosystem."

Though tag lines like “Bringing Beavers Back To London” and “A unique community-led, fully-accessible urban beaver project” are a gift to those of us with a childish sense of humour. The underpass leads to the delightfully named Paradise Fields, the area into which the beavers have been introduced and to which they are restricted by the gates and fences. The path through Paradise Fields led through the trees past a wetland area and over a Beaver Crossing to eventually reach the towpath of the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal. I didn’t see any Beavers though because they only come out at night. Stop sniggering at the back 😀

Heading along the towpath I was worried to see that it appeared to be blocked for works to install fibre optic cabling alongside the canal. On reaching the work site I found that the towpath was indeed blocked but a long floating walkway had been provided for pedestrians. The walkway was constructed on the canal and made from interlocking plastic floating boxes about a foot square. It was like trying to walk on a slightly slippery water bed and I was glad to reach the far end and regain dry land. Having passed a man with a tracked motorised barrow full of tarmac heading back along the towpath to reinstate the trench they’d dug for the cables and been passed by a work boat pushing a barge carrying stuff away from the work site I reached Ballot Box Bridge by which means I crossed the canal. I had a choice here of the main route going steeply up Horsenden Hill or the slightly longer route via Horsenden Farm. I chose the latter because there’s a public toilet at the farm complex but it had the disadvantage of the path above the farm being muddy, slippery, and in places impassable making for a sketchy ascent. I suspect that the main route being stepped might have been easier and safer. Having slipped and slithered upwards I found a bench with a good view west and stopped to remove my outer jacket from its liner because it was too warm for both. Here I had a brief conversation with a couple also walking the Capital Ring before carrying on up the hill. The last section before the path turned east up some steps was particularly treacherous and I almost ended up on my arse in the mud. I suspect this path might be much nicer after a period of dry weather. I also think I might be due new boots before long, I hadn’t realised how many miles I’ve put on them and in places the tread wouldn’t pass an MOT test! The path improved with some steps cut into it and I made it safely to the top of Horsenden Hill.

From the top of the hill a path led down through Horsenden Wood, better than the way up but still occasionally requiring care about where you stepped. It’s a pleasant stroll through a woodland although not quiet thanks to the huge number of Parakeets who have made it their home. With the sun filtering through the branches it was easy to spot the bright green birds and I even managed to get a snap of one at the entrance to its nest hole in a tree trunk.

At the bottom of the hill I turned east along a tarmac path, pausing to wash some of the mud from my boots in a shallow drainage ditch before reaching Horsenden Lane North by The Ballot Box pub. The next bit of the walk was very suburban, passing a row of shops then through residential streets and along Ridding Lane which became a busy, broad tarmac path alongside the Uxbridge Branch of the Piccadilly Line and brought me out opposite the classic Charles Holden designed Sudbury Hill station.

I passed Sudbury Hill station and then the much less impressive Sudbury Hill Harrow station on the Chiltern Main Line then turned left along South Vale to reach Green Lane, a rough footpath that climbed steeply upwards through a belt of trees between the backs of houses on the left and school playing fields on the right. This emerged onto Sudbury Hill at a road junction with joy of joys, a tiny triangular pocket garden with three benches and a bin! Time to break out the picnic lunch and flask of Bovril.

After lunch I carried on up Sudbury Hill, crossing it where it became London Road and carried on steadily upwards to enter Harrow on the Hill.

Harrow on the Hill is most famous for Harrow School, the public school founded in 1572 by local landowner John Lyon and whose houses and other buildings cover much of the hilltop. Those whose parents can afford £21,245 per term can become an Old Harrovian like seven former British Prime Ministers, one Indian Prime Minister, numerous former and current members of both Houses of the UK Parliament, several members of various royal families, and three Nobel Prize winners. John Lyon’s school was originally founded to provide free education for 30 poor boys of the parish.

Harrow on the Hill High Street thus contains a number of interesting buildings and the Capital Ring runs right along it, past numerous signs stating “Private. No Public Access.” It also passes the small village green with its striking King’s Head Gantry and a granite water fountain presented in 1880 to the local board for the use of the public, by Thomas Charles Hudson, a native and life long resident of Harrow.

If you look left and right between the buildings as you walk up High Street you will glimpse far reaching views over London, but no wide vistas because all is private property on both sides. Having passed the Vaughan Library and School Chapel - actually a large Victorian church - on the right and the War Memorial Building and Speech Room on the left I turned right into Football Lane and headed steeply down hill to reach the school playing fields, turning left along the drive then right along a footpath between the sports pitches on the right and Ducker Fields on the left. After about 500 yards I bore diagonally left at a Capital Ring finger post and “followed” some non-existent Capital Ring markers across a slightly squelchy playing field with a distant view of Wembley Stadium arch to reach Watford Road.

It took a minute or two for a gap in the traffic to appear for a dash across Watford Road and into the woods on Ducker Path, apparently named for Harrow School’s swimming pond, which was once located here. The path curved around to run parallel to the south side of the huge Northwick Park Hospital and then to the right of a golf course called “Bigshots”. It emerged into the wide open space of Northwick Park Recreation Ground by the pavilion.

The last stretch of the walk ran around the edge of the recreation ground with many trains seen on the far side going up and down the West Coast Main Line out of Euston. A gate in the corner led out into the street and after a few yards a left turn took me to South Kenton station, with Section 9 officially ending at the far end of the station subway under the tracks by The Windemere pub. Which didn’t appear to be open so I got on the next train for a slightly convoluted journey back to Hounslow.

Capital Ring Section 9 ✅

There are 46 photos taken along the way in this Flickr Album.

 

 

 

Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2026

20th January

London light festivals seem a bit thin on the ground this year. Battersea Power Station is taking a break from theirs and Westfield West London’s “Here We Glow” looks to have been a one off last year. At Canary Wharf however it’s business as usual so I headed up on day one for a look.

Free to visit Winter Lights is on from 20th to 31st of January and runs from 5pm to 10pm each day. Sixteen temporary installations are spread throughout the Canary Wharf estate alongside the nine permanent works which are there year round.

They vary in size and wow factor with some being full-on sound and light shows and others a bit underwhelming. If you look near each there will be an explanatory panel but it’s easy (and advisable) to ignore the Art Bolx and just enjoy the exhibits for themselves. Pick up a free map from the pink-tabard clad stewards on site or download it before you go else you’ll probably miss something. I never found 6b (indoors somewhere and I wasn’t the only person having trouble locating it) and another one, outdoors in this case I could have missed even though I had a map if there hadn’t been a crowd round it.

Stand outs for me were FloWeЯ PoWeЯ by Aerosculpture/Jean-Pierre David and Christian Thellier down near Westferry Circus, Hulahoop by Scale in Union Square, and Manifestation by Marcus Lyall in West Lane. Several others were pretty good too, again mostly the ones with the benefit of movement.

I arrived at about 5pm and by 7.30pm had managed to do the whole circuit (not necessarily in order) and by that time the temperature had begun to drop sharply so I took my frozen fingers indoors to find something to eat before heading back to Waterloo and the train home.

Although it was fairly busy with plenty of “phone zombies” to try and dodge I’d recommend visiting midweek and avoiding the weekends especially if you want to photograph or video anything. That’s because from previous experience the weekends are like someone left the gate to the twat farm open and it’s harder to even get a good look at the installations.

If you can’t get there at all here’s a Flickr Album (69 photos).

And here’s a video (YouTube, 14 minutes).

Capital Ring Section 8, Osterley Lock to Greenford

6th January 2026

Well three different weather apps all agreed there would be no precipitation until late evening so an ideal day to tick off the first new Capital Ring walk of 2026, right? With temperatures set to barely rise above 0° C that should prevent it being muddy too. So I armed myself with a Corned Beef sandwich and a flask of Bovril and set off.

The first few snowflakes fell as I stepped out of Boston Manor Station and made my way back down to the Grand Union Canal at Osterley Lock to walk Section 8 to Greenford. The canal was partly frozen over which seemed to have lifted the litter and detritus up onto the surface making it look particularly grotty.

I carried on along the towpath and crossed Osterley Park Weir at the top of the loop of River Brent which flows to the east of Osterley Island. The Grand Union Canal uses quite a bit of the River Brent in its course but the cut through Osterley Lock bypasses this loop.

A little further along the towpath there was the sad sight of a sunken cabin cruiser frozen into the ice covering the canal and with all its side windows put out. Wrecked boats seem to be common along this stretch of canal, there were a few on Section 7. Of course there are also boats that on first sight appear to be wrecks but are actually someone’s home. It’s a long way from the image of gaily painted narrowboats featured in the Canal and River Trust literature. A long low board on the side of the towpath bore the inscription

“BRITISH WATERWAYS 

KERR CUP PILE DRIVING COMPETITION 

PRIZE LENGTH OF PILING 1959”

I can find little information regarding the Kerr Cup beyond that it was a competition held between work gangs installing the piling that reinforces the banks of the cut.

I passed under Trumpers Way road bridge and past a building on the far side of the cut with a Victorian looking round brick chimney although the building itself looked newer and came to the bottom of the Hanwell Flight of locks. This flight of six locks with another two a bit further up is the largest flight in London and was built in 1794. It carried the Grand Junction Canal (now part of the Grand Union Canal) up and to the west, away from the River Brent which continues Northwards. After the first lock, number 97 - which is actually the last lock in the Hanwell Flight since the Grand Junction ran from Braunston in Northamptonshire to the River Thames at Brentford therefore locks and bridges are numbered from north to south - the Capital Ring leaves the canal to follow the River Brent.

I followed the path alongside the tree lined River Brent until I reached Hanwell Island and then Hanwell Bridge which carries the busy Uxbridge Road over the river. Fortunately the arch taking the path under the road wasn’t flooded as it sometimes is so I had no need to divert to the pedestrian crossing the reach the other side of Uxbridge Road and Brent Meadow. I’ve been to Brent Meadow before because it has a large and obvious interesting feature in it which thousands of people use every day but hardly any of them have ever seen it.

The brick built Wharncliffe Viaduct is 890 ft (270m) long and 66 ft (20m) high and carries the Great Western Main Line and the Elizabeth Line across the Brent Valley between Hanwell and Southall stations on eight arches. You’d not notice it from a train though unless you were specifically looking out for it and even then you can’t really see it, for that you need to visit Hanwell. Then you can admire what was the first major structural design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and the first major engineering work on the GWR project to be completed. It was also the first railway viaduct to be built with hollow piers and later in 1839 carried the world’s first commercial electric telegraph system, installed by Sir Charles Wheatstone and William Fothergill Cooke between Paddington and West Drayton stations and extended four years later to Slough at which time it became Britain’s first public telegraph system, to the delight of the Royal Household at Windsor Castle though not of one John Tawell, a murderer from Slough who was apprehended at Paddington after a telegraph message was sent saying:

A murder has just been committed at Salt Hill and the suspected murderer was seen to take a first class ticket to London by the train that left Slough at 7.42pm. He is in the garb of a Kwaker with a brown great coat on which reaches his feet. He is in the last compartment of the second first-class carriage

Which is thought to be the first use of the telegraph to catch a murderer. If you do come you probably won’t get to see the viaduct through plentiful numbers of snowflakes as I did though.

I passed under the viaduct and turned left into Churchfields Recreation Ground and with the Brent on my left then into Brent Lodge Park continuing by the river with Hanwell Zoo on my right before cutting across towards the zoo buildings in search of a bench on which to eat lunch, preferably sheltered though the best I could find was under some trees near the coach house. It was OK though because the snow suddenly stopped. A picnic lunch was had accompanied by the sounds of Parakeets.

I carried on after lunch past the Parish Church of St. Mary Hanwell and crossed over the River Brent on the tubular steel Boles Bridge to Hanwell Cricket Ground and then onward across Brent Valley Public Golf Course. There were many signs warning of the danger from golf balls but no one appeared to be up for ruining a good walk in this weather.

Crossing over the River Brent again I climbed up past some allotments to reach Bittern’s Field, a wide open space elevated from the river bank because it was once a landfill site. Where bulldozers once levelled piles of rubbish dogs now run happily across the grass which is managed as a hay meadow. Apparently there are Slow-worms here but this isn’t the weather for them to be out. I followed the path parallel to the river until reaching Greenford Bridge which carries Ruislip Road East over the Brent and where a Heron patrolled the gravel bank in the middle of the river.

Crossing Ruislip Road East on the Zebra Crossing I was nearly hit by a wanker in a BMW who decided that was the best place to furiously overtake the JCB that was impeding his progress even though I was half way across the road. Then the JCB driver blew his horn at me because I had paused to avoid being run down. Two wankers in the space of twenty feet. Welcome to Greenford.

The bright lights and no doubt warm pubs and cafes of Greenford town centre lay just to the west but the Capital Ring eschews such pleasures and turns down Costons Lane to reach Perivale Park. A tarmac path led into the park, crossing Costons Brook then turning left and then right along the north side of the open space passing an interesting memorial bench in the form of a piano keyboard. This commemorates local musician Nicky Hopkins. You might not have heard of Hopkins (I confess I hadn’t) but you’ve probably heard him play. Born in Perivale in 1944 he died in 1994 in Nashville TN. Ill health caused him to work mostly as a session musician and the list of acts with whom he worked is impressive, including The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Jeff Beck, Art Garfunkel, John Lennon, and Rod Stewart.

Leaving Perivale Park I crossed the A40 Western Avenue on the high footbridge just north of South Greenford Station for the final stretch of Section 8, a short bit of suburban street followed by an alley sandwiched between the railway and the fence of Cayton Green Park, home to Northolt Rugby Football Club and Tara Gaelic Football Club, then another curve of suburban houses to reach Greenford Road by the two railway bridges. The first carries the Central Line and the GWR Greenford Branch, the second the Acton–Northolt line, otherwise known as the New North Main Line. Having passed under both bridges I arrived at the crossroads with Rockware Avenue and the end of Section 8.

On the corner of Rockware Avenue as I walked to Greenford Station I noticed a very old piece of street furniture, a habit carried over from my old job, it is a cast iron electricity supply cabinet with the words “Boro. of Ealing Electricity Dept.” surrounding the Ealing Coat of Arms and the date 1910 cast into the door. Quite a survivor, I wonder if it is still in use?

At Greenford station I jumped on a Central line train to head for home. 

Capital Ring Section 8 ✅

53 photos from Section 8 are in this Flickr Album

 

 

Deadpool 2026

 The same bunch of apparent immortals as last year but Tom Baker replaces the late June Lockhart. Knowing my luck he'll regenerate 😃 

• Neil Percival Young (Canadian Musician)

• Michael Caine (English Actor)

• Melvyn Hayes (English actor & voiceover artist)

• Sir Thomas Hicks "Tommy Steele" (English singer & actor)

• Elizabeth Lois Shields, née Teare (UK politician, former MP for Rydale)

• Vanessa Redgrave (English Actress)

• Billy Connolly (Scottish actor, comedian, artist, writer, musician, and television presenter)

• Iain David Thomas Vallance, Baron Vallance of Tummel (retired businessman)

• Wendy Craig, (English actress)

• Tom Baker (English actor and Time Lord)
  
  

Turning off the AI features in Mozilla Firefox

 In light of recent announcements from Mozilla towers I've been revisiting my choice of web browsers. For various reasons which I won't go into here neither Waterfox nor Librewolf were entirely satisfactory for me. Meanwhile here's the list of AI things to turn off in Firefox that I've found to date. Putting it here so that I can find it again and in case it's useful to anyone else.

How to turn off the AI features in Firefox

    In Firefox, type about:config in the address bar and hit Enter.

    Click "Accept the risk and continue" or similar wording.

    Search for each of the following options and change them all to "false":

•         browser.ml.enable
•         browser.ml.chat.enabled
•         browser.ml.chat.page
•         browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled
•         browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled
•         browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled
•         extensions.ml.enabled
•         sidebar.notification.badge.aichat

    Additional resources such as this additionally suggest setting these to False as well:

•         browser.ml.chat.page.footerBadge
•         browser.ml.chat.page.menuBadge
•         browser.ml.chat.menu
•         browser.ml.smartAssist.enabled
•         browser.ml.pageAssist.enabled
•         browser.ml.chat.sidebar
•         browser.ml.chat.shortcuts
•         browser.ml.chat.shortcuts.custom

        


This should disable most if not all of the embedded AI features. Note that not all of these will be set to True, some of these are not enabled by default - they may be False by default which is fine, meaning they aren't enabled.

These settings do not appear to sync using Mozilla Sync so need to be manually set on each of your machines that have Firefox installed.

This guide was current on 17/12/2025 but Mozilla may (for which read 'will') add more AI "features" in future releases.

The list above was found originally on this post on Ask Ubuntu

 

UPDATE 23rd January 2026

Another way of taming this stuff has come to my attention which uses Group Policies as used in web browsers intended for companies and other organizations. Details at:

Just The Browser

This isn't just for Firefox either, it works for other browsers too. 

 

Capital Ring Section 7, Richmond to Osterley Lock.

10th December 

Richmond to Osterley Lock

On a whim the previous night I decided to walk Section 7 of the Capital Ring, it being easy to get to, relatively short, and the weather promising to be dry. Much of the ground I had walked almost a year ago on an urban ramble but it needed completing as a Capital Ring walk.

To that end I got a train to Richmond’s Art Deco station, arriving at 1130, crossed the road and headed down Old Station Passage on my way to Richmond Green and the River Thames where section 7 properly begins. A steady procession of aircraft passed low over Richmond Green on their way into Heathrow Airport. At the river I turned right along Cholmondeley Walk noting that the river level was quite low, probably because of the draw off although not much of the river bed was exposed. There were a couple of partially sunken vessels near Corporation Island and the delightfully named Flowerpot Islands, victims of the unusually large tidal range during the draw off? I carried on beside the Thames passing first under the railway bridge and then under Twickenham Bridge to reach Richmond Lock.

Up the stairs onto Richmond Lock Footbridge with its ornate pale green and ivory painted ironwork I crossed the Thames to Isleworth. With the river level down there was no risk of wet feet on the path to Isleworth Promenade, a rather grand title for what amounts to a broad grass strip with some bench seats and currently not working street lamps. It does have Ring Necked Parakeets though, one of which obligingly posed for a photo in the sunshine high in a tree 😀

They get almost everywhere in their bid to oust the pigeon as London’s signature bird. The short diversion away from the Thames around Thisleworth Marina (not a typo) passes first alongside the River Crane then right onto Richmond Road where a prominent sign denotes that Isleworth is multiply twinned with Issy-les-Moulineaux in France, Ramallah and al-Bireh in Palestine, Lahore in Pakistan, and Jalandhar in India. An unremarkable gap in the high brick wall led to a footpath back towards the Thames which passed the site of the Isleworth Pottery. Joseph Shore and his son-in-law partners established the Isleworth Pottery at Railshead Creek c.1756 having acquired their skills for ceramics production in the Worcester potteries. There’s nothing of the pottery to be seen now but an information board says:

Chinese porcelain was in very high demand in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. Potteries in England and on the continent were eager to tap into this market and the process to produce hard paste porcelain was discovered in Meissen in Germany in 1708. The Isleworth pottery made soft-paste porcelain experimentally being one of five London pothouses to do so, the others being Limehouse, Chelsea, Bow and Vauxhall. Production was secretive and subject to industrial espionage, and their wares sold mainly locally. Archaeological excavations on the site have revealed walls and deposits of pottery waste belonging to the potteries.

The Isleworth works also made coarse earthenwares and ceramics very similar to those being manufactured in Staffordshire. After 1790 it largely made coarse and slipwares, with production ceasing around 1830 when the works at Isleworth were demolished and the site landscaped. The potteries moved to Hanworth Rd in Hounslow were it continued to operate until 1855.

Returning to the Thames the Capital ring passes Lion Wharf with the boatyards alongside Isleworth Ait and then through the outside decking of the Town Wharf pub. I resisted the temptation.

At the end of Town Wharf by the tall crane (the mechanical type not the bird) the route has to turn inland to reach the arched stone bridge across the Duke of Northumberland’s River. This eastern section of the Duke of Northumberland’s River was earlier known as Isleworth Mill stream and was built by the monks of Syon Abbey to power their mill. It was inherited, in 1594, by wife of Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, Dorothy (née Devereux) so automatically became his property through the marriage. Sluices at Mill Plat just West of the bridge control flow into the Thames, originally via the mill, and to feed the main lake in Syon Park, Northumberland’s estate. I managed to take a very bad photo of a heron in the river channel between the Thames and the Church Street bridge 🙄

I carried on along Church Street past the London Apprentice pub (resisting the temptation once again) to waterfront Isleworth. Along the way I passed a green plaque on a house facing the river with the inscription “ARTHUR JOSEPH PENTY 1875-1937 Architect and Pioneer of Guild Socialism lived here 1926-1937”. I had to look him up, Wikipedia informs me that:

Arthur Joseph Penty (17 March 1875 – 1937) was an English architect and writer on guild socialism and distributism. He was first a Fabian socialist, and follower of Victorian thinkers William Morris and John Ruskin. He is generally credited with the formulation of a Christian socialist form of the medieval guild, as an alternative basis for economic life. Arthur Penty was born at 16 Elmwood Street, in the parish of St Lawrence, York, the second son of Walter Green Penty (1852–1902), architect, and his wife, Emma Seller. After attending St Peter’s School in York he was apprenticed in 1888 to his father. Around 1900 Penty had met A. R. Orage; together with Holbrook Jackson they founded the Leeds Arts Club. Penty left his father’s office in 1901, and moved to London in 1902 to pursue his interest in the arts and crafts movement. Orage and Jackson followed in 1905 and 1906; Penty in fact led the way, and Orage lodged with him in his first attempts to live by writing. There is a plaque on a house on the Thames riverside in Old Isleworth (near Syon Park) commemorating his residence there.

The Isleworth Draw Port at the foot of the slipway was completely empty whereas a year ago I was entertained by containers being unloaded from a vessel using a crane in a manner that looked like an accident waiting to happen at any moment.

And so after rounding the corner by the church I passed through the iron gates into Syon Park. Syon Park takes its name from the Bridgettine abbey begun in 1426, which stood on the site now occupied by Syon House. Suppressed in 1539 by King Henry VIII Catherine Howard, Henry’s fifth wife, was confined at Syon before he “suppressed” her too in 1542. Looking across the “Capability” Brown landscaped parkland I noticed the green copper cap of the clock tower at Gillette Corner on the Great West Road sticking up above the trees in the sunshine. Further along I passed Syon House on the right with its wide lawn and Ha-Ha.

Syon House was built by Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector to King Edward VI. Lady Jane Grey, the “Nine Day Queen” was offered the Crown at Syon in 1553. The estate was gifted to Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland in 1604, and has remained in the family’s ownership to the present day. Today it makes its money from guided tours on Mondays and Tuesdays “during the season”, self-guided entry on Sundays and Bank Holidays, and venue hire. If you fancy having your wedding reception here budget on £9000 to £26000 depending on what day you want it. This being Wednesday I moved on. The 3rd Duke made further improvements to the house and grounds, including building the spectacular Great Conservatory in the late 1820s which is now behind the large garden centre which has everything you’d expect in the way of cafes, restaurants, masses of Xmas tat etc. Probably sell plants too but I can’t confirm that since my sole reason for entering was that it also has toilets. On the way to which there is the Monastery Barn, one of the oldest recorded buildings at Syon, it dates back to the fifteenth century. Before the dissolution of monasteries under Henry VIII it belonged to the Bridgettine abbey mentioned above. The steep roof, previously thatched, was tiled after collapsing in 1910, the windows have also been replaced and extensive additions in the sixteenth century obscure much of the earlier structure. It’s the Trigger’s Broom of historic barns 😃

I exited Syon Park to London Road and turned right towards the bridge and High Street. Brentford lies where the old route west from London crossed the River Brent before the Great West Road bypassed it in 1925, relieving the notorious congestion on Brentford High Street.

Some few hundred years previously on a cold and foggy weekend in November 1642 there was a bit of a bust-up here which is now known as the Battle of Brentford. During what was called when I went to school The English Civil War but I think we’re now supposed to refer to as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms Parliamentary troops arrived here on Friday 11 November and barricaded the road at the bridge. The Royalists overcame part of Denzil Holles red-coated regiment in the late morning of Saturday 12th at Sir Richard Wynn’s house to the west of the town near where the famous lion Gate stands now. Here the overwhelming numbers of Royalists dislodged the rest of Holles’ men in under an hour. This was made easier as the Parliamentarian commanders were absent in London and the horse troops in the town scarpered when they heard the firing at Wynn’s house. Fighting continued that afternoon near Ferry Lane in the town centre. About 20 Royalists were killed in the battle, perhaps 50 Parliamentarians died in the fighting and more again drowned in the Thames fleeing the Royalists. That night Royalist soldiers stole supplies in Brentford and slept in the open. The Battle of Turnham Green took place the next day. Parliamentary barges from Kingston, laden with artillery and ammunition, sailed down river overnight and came under Royalist fire from Syon House, injuring a few men on board. Royalist cannon on the river bank downstream threatened the barges so their crews sank them deliberately to prevent the capture of their cargoes. On 13 November Syon House was damaged by firing from Parliamentary ships on the Thames; repairs listed in the Syon accounts cost £26.10s. Returning fire, the Royalists sank one boat. The Royalists failed to press any advantage that they had gained and as a result of these battles early in the Civil War King Charles was prevented from capturing London and ending the war. The struggle went on until 1646 but the Royalists were never able to attack London again.

383 years later Brentford High Street was a little more peaceful so I went and got samosas for lunch and had a picnic down by the canal past Brentford Gauging Lock. Located at the junction of the River Brent and the Grand Union Canal the Gauging Lock was used to measure the loads on boats to determine the tolls to be paid to use the canal. In 2022 the Toll House next to the lock was opened for Open House London and I paid a visit. The wide basin by the lock and bridge was until the early 1980s lined with canopied warehouses which gave protection for the loading and unloading of cargo boats. Now those have been replaced by modern flats and on the High Street side, posh restaurants.

During my picnic I was visited by a friendly doggo named Beano and afterwards a large Coot with a ring of green algae marking its waterline. It stood in the middle of the towpath staring at me. Apparently Coots are partial to Marmite & Cheese flavour corn puffs. After lunch I carried on along the canal towpath under first the Hounslow Loop railway line and then the Great West Road to Boston Manor Park. There is a recommended Capital Ring Diversion here to visit the Jacobean Boston Manor so I crossed the canal on the footbridge, passed under the M4 motorway viaduct and through the park to the house. Last time I was here the house was swathed in scaffolding, now it’s open again and free to visit but that would have to wait until I have more time, I didn’t want to risk finishing another Capital Ring section in the dark. I’ll have to come back.

I retraced my steps over the canal footbridge and turned right by a sunken boat to continue along the towpath to Clitheroe Lock noting along the way the brick ramp leading down into the water, provided to enable horses which fell in to climb out again. This section of canal was notable for the number of boats in various stages of DIY renovation and even more notable, so many Coots! It’s Coot Central here, I've rarely seen them outnumber the Mallard Ducks.

I crossed the canal at Gallows Bridge, a cast iron “turnover bridge” built by the Grand Junction Canal Co. before the amalgamation which formed the Grand Union. This type of bridge allowed horses to cross from one towpath to the other side without being unhitched from the boat. I passed under the Piccadilly Line, saw a Great Cormorant take off from the canal, then walked under the M4 motorway through a tunnel of colourful graffiti before reaching Osterley Island which lies between the canal and a loop of the River Brent. Finally I arrived at Osterley Lock, the end of Section 7 at 1435. You’ll be glad to know that I did not let the swan swim in the lock. Or the goose.

From here it was a short walk to Boston Manor tube station, albeit for the first time today it was uphill. Section 7 is remarkably level save for steps over bridges.

Capital Ring Section 7 ✅

More photos in this Flickr Album