London Loop Section 3: Petts Wood to Hayes (Kent)

26th February 2025 

Petts Wood to Hayes (Kent)

The promise of a dry day in between wet days (should have thought about that) saw me out again to complete another section of the London Loop trail. A fairly long one at 9.3 miles from station to station but mostly through countryside with very little road walking. Alighting at Petts Wood station about 11:40 I retraced my steps from 15thOctober 2024 to the start of the section at Jubilee Country Park.

The path soon became a bit wet and muddy, ideal opportunity to try my new walking gaiters, a Christmas present, and hopefully keep most of the shite off my trousers. After exiting the park came the only significant bit of suburban road walking along Faringdon Avenue lined with classic interwar semis before entering Crofton Woods and climbing gently up a path that was more like a shallow stream. Where possible it was better to walk in the flowing water because where it wasn’t flowing the mud was quite deep. After crossing the East Kyd Brook on a small wooden bridge the land rose and it became a little easier to avoid the mud. In between the detritus of winter a few patches of Crocus were pushing up. Spring is on the way.

I came out of the woods at the top of Tubbendon Meadow, a high grassy area with far reaching views to the south. I paused to admire the view and had a chat with a lady sitting on a bench and her Old English sheepdog. Yes it was the dog that initiated contact. I’d have stopped for lunch here but I suspect I might have had to share my picnic with my new-found four-legged friend :-) So I carried on downhill to Farnborough, passed through the village centre and around the church of St. Giles the Abbot (no relation to Russ) whose churchyard also contained a lot of crocuses, and stopped on a bench just outside the churchyard overlooking a wide open field with woods to the left.

Fortified by a cheese and ham pasty and some Bovril (always take a flask of Bovril on winter walks is my advice, it travels better than coffee and tea from a flask is an abomination) I carried on down the hill following the signs to High Elm Country Park.

Of High Elms the Loop guide says:

High Elms Country Park was originally the country home of the Lubbock family. It covers over 400 acres of woodlands, orchid rich grasslands and a golf course. Sir John Lubbock, an MP, wealthy banker, author and scientist lived at High Elms and was a close friend of Charles Darwin. The park now features the BEECHE Centre, a sustainable education and visitor centre, run by Bromley Council and ID Verde, which also offers refreshment and toilet facilities.

The latter were certainly welcome. An unusual feature near the toilets is an outdoor Eton Fives court. Further on in the park is the site of the former Lubbock mansion house which was destroyed by fire. Its location marked between the formal gardens with bricks inset into the grass to indicate where the corners of the building were.

I passed through an avenue of Yews, through the golf club car park, across the road, through a small rather sparse Community Orchard, and turned up the steepish hill to pass between the 13th and 18th fairways to enter the woods of Blacklands. I emerged from the woods onto North End Lane and followed it left for a short distance alongside a high hedge with many Hazel catkins dangling in the weak sunshine. After about 60 yards I turned right onto the childishly amusingly named Bogey Lane. This ancient sunken greenway runs uphill between hedges and being sunken naturally collects “moisture”. For the first part an alternative path runs parallel on the edge of the field above the lane but where the field edge bears away left it is necessary to drop back down into the sunken lane. The fields on either side contain a number of small paddocks and pony stables so naturally the surface of Bogey Lane has been churned into a quagmire by thoughtless gits on their hay-burners. In places it’s very much boggy lane, I wonder if that might have been the origin of the name? A search of the web reveals no clues.

The tarmac of Farthing Street almost came as a welcome and some long grass at the side helped lighten the load on my boots before heading down the twisty lane and across Shire Lane to a footpath hemmed in between a hedge and a barbed wire fence that ran beside the busy road for a short distance before turning away to go around a farm shop and pet food warehouse. Looking up to the right from this path there’s a good view of Holwood House up on the hill, of which the Loop guide notes: 

 The house became an important meeting place for political figures after it was acquired by William Pitt the Younger in 1784. The house was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1826 by Decimus Burton.

Now the path turns steeply up a long hill, crossing the drive to Holwood House just outside its very firmly closed gates with prominent CCTV, and carries on climbing until it reaches the Wilberforce Oak and the Wilberforce Seat memorials. The Loop guide explains that: 

The Wilberforce Oak commemorates the spot, where it is said, William Wilberforce had a conversation with William Pitt the Younger in 1788 and vowed to promote the abolition of the slave trade. He led a campaign which resulted in the passing of the Slave Trade Act in 1807.

The stone Wilberforce Seat is secured behind stout steel fencing. Fortunately alongside is a very welcome public bench seat affords a view past the oak over the landscape to the south-west but more importantly somewhere to rest after the long climb (and drink the remainder of your Bovril).

The path levels out here and leads on through the woods - sunlit at this point - before dropping down to cross Westerham Road and entering Keston Common, where it runs downhill alongside an Iron Age bank and ditch to reach a car park. Beyond the car park a set of steep steps leads to Caesar’s Well. It’s not actually a well but the spring which is the source of the River Ravensbourne which runs north from here to eventually make its confluence with the Thames at Deptford. I walked the lower part of the Ravensbourne from Catford Bridge to the Thames back in January2023

I had a brief paddle in the spring, sending some of the Kent that had stuck to my boots downstream towards that London. Then I followed the path around and between the upper and middle of Keston Ponds and past the lower pond into the woods north of Fishponds Road to reach Keston village centre. After passing the village green with its pubs, old public drinking fountain, and heavy traffic I bore north-west along wooded paths parallel to and for a short spell alongside the roads to reach West Wickham Common. I soon came to a London Loop signpost that said it was only 1 mile to Hayes Station. This was welcome but inaccurate, by my reckoning (and plotting on a map) if you’re following the waymarked route it’s at least one and a half miles.

West Wickham Common is managed by the City of London Corporation so their name appears on the signage. It also contains some impressive ancient earthworks although the information board suggests no one is entirely confident as to what purpose the served. Iron Age fort, part of a Medieval field system, artificial rabbit warren? All three perhaps.

I skirted around the earthworks, taking in the view to the south-west over towards New Addington, then headed down hill to the end of Section 3 at Gates Green Road, Coney Hall.

This is the end of section 3 - and the start of section 4 so at some point I should be back here - but not the end of the walk because from here there’s still the Loop Link to Hayes railway station to do. This heads uphill back along Croydon Road for a short distance before turning left into a fenced tarmac footpath which the guides describes as “leading up and down” but neglects to add “like a bloody roller-coaster”. Just what I needed after 9 miles. After passing some houses, a small sports ground, and along one last muddy track it goes down Station Hill. At the bottom of the hill I found a bench and made myself at least semi-presentable before going to the Real Ale Way opposite the station and rewarding myself with a pint of Larkins Pale. Which went down so well that I rewarded myself with a second one before heading to the station (via the chippy) to begin the train journey home.

London Loop Section 3 ✅

Flickr Album for London Loop Section 3

London Loop Guides by Inner London Ramblers

London Loop Section 1: Erith to Old Bexley

6th February

February arrived with slightly longer days and the promise of drier weather so I decided it was time to get back onto the London Loop. A couple of hours on the train saw me at Erith station to begin Section 1 with about eight and a half miles walk to Bexley station. The first part of which would be along the banks of the River Thames although not quite the first part since Erith Riverside Gardens was all fenced off for re-landscaping. I diverted around it and joined the riverside near Erith Deep Wharf.

Shortly after which the route turned inland and then along the industrial Manor Road before turning left back towards the river and Erith Yacht Club where it along with the Thames Path, Cray Riverway, and King Charles III England Coast Path headed east along the top of the embankment that separates the Thames from Erith Marshes.

There’s some good views from the top of this embankment including to the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at Dartford but believe me it was a lot fresher in the wind than it looks in that photo.

At Crayford Ness by the radio towers I paused for a picnic lunch, watching a tug pass upstream drawing two refuse barges heading, presumably empty, for London. Across the river lay Rainham Marshes with distant traffic on the A23 and the occasional high speed train passing over the Aveley Viaduct to or from the Channel Tunnel. Behind me however was an industrial estate with multiple scrap metal recyclers because this is classic London Edgelands, the liminal space between the rural and the urban, home to necessary if unsightly businesses.

Past Crayford Ness the confluence with the Thames of the River Darent, here also called the Dartford Creek, impedes further eastwards progress. Now the path turns south and follows the deep, muddy, twisting channel of the Darent past the Dartford Creek Tidal Flood Barrier. This tall structure is part of the same scheme as the huge barrier that stretches across the Thames near Silvertown to protect London from inundation by the North Sea.

About a mile and a half after turning south away from the Thames, past Crayford Marshes, I turned again to follow the route beside the River Cray. From here on the section is never far from the River Cray although the river is not always visible. Mind you where it is visible it’s not always particularly attractive. By a moored residential barge the route leaves the river to pass by more recycling businesses, ducks under the North Kent railway line, through another edgelands industrial estate and emerges at the busy A206 Thames Road close to a large roundabout. I circumnavigated the roundabout via several Pelican Crossings and crossed over the River Cray on the road bridge then turned right to follow the river towards Barnes Cray with a large area of scrubland on my left beyond which lay the Stanham River and the border between Greater London and Kent. It’s not a particularly scenic stretch of the Cray and wasn’t helped by the sunshine now being replaced by increasing amounts of cloud.

I followed the River Cray to Crayford, swapping banks via the road bridge at Maiden Lane, until reaching the Waterside Gardens in the town centre. Here I paused to rest on a bench and get out my Thermos because it was definitely time for more Bovril. When walking in the winter months it’s always time for Bovril :-)

Around the one-way system and a climb up the London Road and Bourne Road before thankfully the route took a left and headed across some slightly slippery playing fields back to the River Cray.

Just before Hall Place Gardens I crossed the river again and walked along the hedge with the miniature railway on the other side, sadly only operating in the summer, crossed the flood channel and skirted two sides of the woodland to reach the ramp and steps up to the bridge that carries the thundering A2 dual carriageway and the London Loop over the Dartford Loop railway line.

A short way up a slope beside the A2 above I turned right through a gap in the fence next to a superfluous broken stile and entered Churchfield Wood. This gently upward sloping path with the woods on one side and on the other fields and a quarry was a bit of a slog to be honest but had I bothered to check the map I’d have realised that there wasn’t far to go. A right turn down a tarmac path and I was passing the graveyard, which is always better than stopping in it, before emerging opposite St. Mary the Virgin church, Bexley.

I finished off the Bovril on a seat by the Lychgate before the short walk through Old Bexley to the station where I’d arrived last October, this time to depart on the first of three trains home.

Section 1 ✅

A Flickr Album from the day is here.

 

 

London Winter Lights round-up

I’ve been to four of London’s Winter Lights Festivals. Here’s how it went.

 

Southbank Centre

 

Dotted around the Southbank Centre was the least impressive collection of light artworks I’ve been to this year. Some were not specific to the festival but are permanent exhibits.

 

 

 

 Others were hard to find and in one case I think wasn’t there at all - the promotional material did mention that not all exhibits would necessarily be there at all times. The most interesting exhibits were the animated projections onto the Brutalist buildings but the whole thing was a bit underwhelming.

 

Here’s the Flickr Album

 

 

 

Canary Wharf Winter Lights

 

Always well organised with plenty of stewards (and security guards) to point the way and dish out free paper maps to help you find your way around. A good selection of artworks too. It’s always worth avoiding the weekends when it gets so crowded it’s hard to see the lights, I went midweek so it was much ore relaxed.

 

 

 

 The exhibits were mostly good. Alas one which I think would have been quite impressive was suffering from technical difficulties which stopped it working. The giant one-armed bandit was a bit meh and needed constant interventions from the attendant since no one seemed to be sure what to do. Apart from those there was plenty of light and sound to go around.

 

A Flickr Album

 

 

 

 Better still here’s a video walk around.

 

 

 

 Battersea Power Station 

 

Around and within the iconic power station were eight installations from the arty to the sparkly to the interactive provided something other than expensive shopping to do at Battersea. It’s worth waiting till it’s fully dark to get the best effect and this year ambient light levels seem to have been taken into account which has been a problem previously. Clever illumination meant the building itself was almost an unofficial installation itself.

 

 

 

 All the installations were present and correct. I’m still a bit confused by the kids horse-on-a-spring called “Never Ends” and no one seemed keen to begin.

 

The Flickr Album

 

 

 

and the video

 

 

 

 and finally to Shepherd’s Bush for

 

Here We Glow, Westfield

 

 This was a new one for me. It was a mix of festival specific installations and what I think are part of the shopping centre’s permanent lighting. Eight installations again - if you include the tacky selfie star outside the entrance to the tube station. A couple of the temporary exhibits  were pretty good sound+light works. One you could easily have walked past and missed.

 

 

 

A Flickr Album obviously

 

 

 

and a video

 

 

 

 

 So how did I rank them?

 

1st Canary Wharf, still the largest and best organised.

2nd Battersea Power Station, it’s improved in its second year.

3rd Westfield London, compact and some quirky installations.

4th Southbank Centre, glad I didn’t make a special trip.