Dismantled railway walk, Finchley Park to Ally Pally

20th March 2019

This walk in North London, known as the Parkland Walk goes from Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace Park, following (mostly) the route of the former Edgware, Highgate, & London railway from Finsbury Park to Highgate and then part of the branch line from Highgate to Alexandra Palace. The history of the line is complicated and covered in this Wikipedia Article.

The walk is now a linear nature reserve divided into two sections, total distance around three and a quarter miles (5km). This is the hilly part of North London and so the railway is sometimes on an embankment, sometimes in a cutting, and sometimes on a viaduct with some very good views over London.

This Google Map shows the route helpfully indicating where you can take in (or let out) fluids and the options for getting between the two sections. 

 The start, cross this footbridge over the railway from Finsbury Park.


As you leave it says Welcome to Finsbury Park, which is a bit odd.


If you're tall enough you can pause to watch the trains coming and going along the lines leading north from King's Cross and Moorgate.

 The path starts of looking like any other path through the trees but soon you find the first obvious sign that you're on what was the railway track, a bridge over the roadat Upper Tollington Park.

 At Stapleton Hall Road the disused railway passes over the road which passes above the Gospel Oak to Barking Overground line far below.

There is as you'd expect quite in an urban environment quite a lot of street art, or graffiti, or vandalism depending on your point of view.

Very pink though in this case.

 Where Mount View Road crosses the line, sorry, walk some maintenance seems to be ongoing to the structure of the over-bridge so you can't see it for scaffolding.

These arches in the retaining wall as you approach Crouch End Hill have been heavily decorated.

What I wonder is whether they bring ladders or abseil down from the top to reach the middle?

The 3 guys that were there at the time had plenty of paint cans but no obvious ladders.

 The most obvious railway relic on the southern part of the walk is Crouch End Station.

The platforms remain in fairly complete condition.

Only a small part of the station buildings remain, the greater part of it which was located on the road bridge having been demolished.

Beyond Crouch End Station on the right are the remains of a small brick structure, may be a line side hut which has been all but consumed by the growth of a tree.

 At Stanhope Road the railway bridge seems to be only half as wide as it should be.

Not sure if half has been removed or if the bridge that is there is a replacement just for the Parkland Walk.

Nearly at Highgate.

On the right a wildlife trail is being created featuring amongst other habitats a bug hotel, stag beetle loggery and a pond.

 At the very end of the southern section of the Parkland Walk in a rather wet cutting are the twin portals of Highgate East Tunnels.

These lead to the disused Highgate Station - the Great Northern Railway one not the Northern Line tube station nearby.

They are home to roosting bats and are not publicly accessible.


At this point you have to leave the route of the railway and walk up Archway Road past Highgate tube station and turn right onto Muswell Hill Road following the Parkland Walk North signs. There are a choice of three routes to the north section of the walk, probably the nicest being through Highgate Woods. I went that way, not least because by this point I was bursting for a piss and there are public loos in the woods. Also a cafe but it appeared to be in the process of closing for the day.

 You rejoin the Parkland Walk just east of the now demolished Cranley Gardens Station.

It was on the other side of this bridge but nothing remains now, a school having been built on the site.

What very much does still exist and is the best feature of this northern part of the walk is St. James Lane viaduct.


 From the path though it's not immediately obvious that you are on it, at least until you look right and see how far up you are.

This 17 arch viaduct provides good views to the east and south over Haringey. 

There is a clear view of the Olympic park, The Shard and The Gherkin.

And on this particular day a good view of a red helicopter circling over London.

Panorama of London from St. James Lane viaduct

 From the north end you can get see the viaduct arches, mostly housing garages.

You can also be shouted at "No consento! No consento!" by some bloke while taking the photograph and while walking away. Given the huge cloud of marijuana smoke emanating from the same location as the shout I guess he wasn't going to want to discuss the rights and wrongs of taking photos in a public place with a police officer 😜

 The end of the Parkland Walk is via this pedestrian subway into Alexandra Palace Park, past a puddle-splashng toddler, and to the thankfully still open cafe for tea and cake.

From there I walked up to the People's Palace and then down the other side of the hill to Alexandra Palace station to catch a train back into town.

 Alternatively I could have got a W3 bus back to Finsbury Park but I had more places to see. It's not a long walk but it's an easy one and has plenty of interest whether you're looking for wildlife or railway relics, or just a good view over London.

More pictures in this Flickr Album

And more pictures of Alexandra Palace in this Flickr Album