London Loop Section 16: Elstree to Cockfosters.

24th April

 

 

Section 16 is the longest single section of the London Loop at 11 miles. There are limited points at which to shorten the walk so when I left Elstree & Borehamwood station at just after 11 a.m. I initially intended to go as far as High Barnet where I could escape onto the Northern Line, then make a decision about the remaining three and a half miles.

 

It’s a long steady climb from the station to Barnet Lane whether you take the official route via the Deacon’s Hill Road as I did or the alternative unofficial diversion via Woodcock Hill Village Green. Whichever route you take passes above the Midland Main Line far below in the Elstree Tunnel, the towers for the ventilation shafts of which are visible from the road.

 

 

 

I had a bit of trouble locating the path off Barnet Lane because the house next door had the builders in and they’d parked their trucks and vans across it, eventually I had to climb over the drawbar of a plant trailer to get to the footpath. The slightly muddy path led down to an old oak woodland, Scrachwood Open Space. Walking through these bluebell woods is classic London Loop territory, i.e. you wouldn’t think you were in London. Emerging from the woods at the A1 dual carriageway, requiring an 1100 yard diversion to the nearest subway to cross it reminds you that you are.

 

 

 

 Eleven hundred yards of rushing traffic, litter, abandoned tyres, and plastic bottles of lorry drivers’ piss later I turned right into Moat Mount Open Space. It could only get more pleasant from here on and thankfully it did. The loop here joins the Dollis Valley Greenwalk and passes a small pond that is the source of the Dollis Brook. A small pond that I failed to spot. Unless this is it but I’m not sure.

 

 

 

I walked on through a mix of shady woodland and open fields until I reached Hendon Wood Lane, a little way along which I turned into Totteridge Fields. That’s a figure of speech obviously, I didn’t literally suddenly become a nature reserve. I carried on down through the nature reserve then through a sports field and into a section where the path runs through open fields managed under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme by a tenant farmer. That means signs pointing out that it’s private land, stay on the path and nowhere to sit lest you linger rather than pass directly through. Which was a shame because it was really time for my picnic lunch. Eventually I crossed the Dollis Brook over a metal bridge, awarding myself 2 points for spotting the adjacent stinkpipe, and paused on a convenient concrete block at the edge of an open grassy field for lunch.

 

 

 

 As you can see above the forecast cloudy skies and 20% chance of rain were so far staying away. Fortified by my traditional picnic of salmon paste sarnies and prawn cocktail flavour shells I set off east again through wide grassy areas with the Dollis Brook now to my right but mostly hidden and the houses of southern Chipping Barnet to my left, a residential  area that Open Street Map says is called Duck Island despite not being an island and I didn’t spot any ducks, only a pair of self-propelled council lawnmowers. Beyond the houses lay a steep upward climb on a narrow tarmac path followed of course by coming back down again to Barnet Lane, not the same Barnet Lane as earlier. Crossing the road and entering the sports centre, past the football pitches behind high metal fences with “no unauthorised use or ball games” signs and suddenly there were people about, more people than I had seen since leaving Elstree. I was now in deepest residential Barnet, heading for the Great North Road. To get there I walked up Fairfield Way, a street so patriotic that many of the houses proudly flew Union Flags in their front gardens, albeit defaced with the legend “VE Day” in gold lettering. Many of those same houses had drives in which were parked German cars. Draw your own conclusions.

 

 

 

Where the Northern Line crosses over the Great North Road I sat on a wall and tried to decide whether to turn left to High Barnet or right to carry on to the end of Section 16 at Cockfosters. It was 14:37, the sun was shining, plenty of daylight left, no walking back from the station at the end of a long day since my car was at Hounslow West. I convinced myself by a narrow margin to turn right. As it turned out the last three and a half miles happened to be some of the nicest parts of the section.

 

 

 

 Not the very first bit though because having gone under the bridge above and crossed the road at a light controlled pedestrian crossing that only grudgingly allowed pedestrian to interrupt the flow of traffic I turned left up Potters Lane. And I mean up. Save for a short set of steps down a bank off the road and into a meadow it carried on going up. Past the back of High Barnet station glimpsed between the trees, levelling up for a bit along some residential streets before a long climb up through King George’s Fields with a good view if you turned around. I could really have done with that bench being unoccupied.

 

 

 

Fortunately there were other benches and then I reached Hadley Green Road, with the open, tree studded green to the left and old houses facing it on the right, including the large red brick Hadley House with its stable block and near the end of the row Livingstone Cottage, former home of the missionary and explorer. He of “Dr. Livingstone I presume?” fame. Although calling it a cottage is a bit of a misnomer given the size of the place and according to the rather grand plaque on the front bearing his likeness he lived there in 1857. Only 1857?

 

 

 

Beyond Hadley green it gets seriously villagey as you pass a row of almshouses into the centre of Monken Hadley. At eleven miles north-west  of Charing Cross we’re close to the limits of Greater London in what was once  a parish of Middlesex that stuck out into Hertfordshire. It has lots of old buildings, a  late 15th. century church with another set of almshouses next to it, and white wooden gates across the roads into and out of it. You can see why the writers Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard chose to live here, poet Cecil Day Lewis who stayed with them died here, and for nearly thirty years Spike Milligan lived in the village as well, although that wasn’t so good for one local teenager who strayed into his garden.

 

 

 

 I was safe from being shot since a: the London Loop passes Spike's former home on the other side of the road in the trees on Hadley Common and b: he’s dead. The path continued through the woods and through a lot of tree roots requiring some care to avoid tripping over until I reached a small car park in Bakers Lane with some information boards and two burnt out mopeds to reinforce the idea that this is still London. Then I continued to the bridge over the East Coast Main Line just north of New Barnet station, the bridge’s elevated position being good for photographing passing trains between King’s Cross and The North, if you are tall enough to see over the brick parapet that is.

 

 

 

 From the railway bridge I walked (somewhat slower now) through the beech woods disturbed only by birdsong and the incredibly loud public address system at New Barnet station. I climbed a steep set of steps for a quick look at Jack’s Lake with its afternoon anglers - does sweeping a massive net back and forth in the water count as angling? - before returning to the main path.

 

 

 

I carried on along the track passing occasional Loop way marks before reaching houses and a pub which reminded me of the following joke:

 

Three guys were visiting England and were told they had to go to a great old pub called The Cock Inn. Each of them went off in different directions and planned to meet at the pub at five o'clock.Two of them arrived on time, but there was no sign of Edward.  Finally, at five thirty, he showed up with the his shirt torn at the collar and two black eyes.
Shocked by his appearance, the other two asked Edward what had happened to him."Well I was walking down the road," Edward explained, "I noticed a man and woman behind a bush. So I stopped and asked, 'How far is The Cock Inn?’” 

And that’s when the trouble started 

 

 

 

 After that you’ll be glad to know that my walk was close to its end and therefore so is this blog post 😀

 

A last few streets and I passed Christ Church and arrived opposite Cockfosters tube station at four minutes to five, four hours fifty minutes since leaving Elstree & Borehamwood Station including 20 minutes break for lunch and a couple of other brief rest stops. I’ll take that. I’m glad I decided to do the whole section in one go, although I’m feeling it today. The last part was picturesque in the afternoon sunshine, the rain never happened, and it will make starting the next section much simpler whenever I do that. 

 

 

 

Many more lovely pictures to be found in this Flickr Album.

 

 

 

 

 

A Long Weekend In Chester

 

13th to 17th March 2025

Chester looked like an interesting place to visit and somewhere I’d never previously been so I booked a hotel and bought a fistful of advanced singles and set off for a long weekend in the North West of England.

Advanced singles meant some careful planning so that things didn’t go pear shaped at the first hurdle due to our infrequent and unreliable local service so I got an early train to Reading and had plenty of time to wander into town and get breakfast. From Reading I had to travel with Cross Country to Stafford. This is only bearable in First Class, Standard Class being so cramped that I have to sit sideways. Thank goodness for split-ticketing and a railcard. On the plus side you get complementary tea and coffee and excellent Chicken+BLT sandwiches. Avanti West Coast took me from Stafford to Chester and I was pleasantly surprised to find that their complementary tea came in china rather than the usual cardboard.

I stayed at the Queen Hotel opposite Chester Railway Station, very comfortable, convenient for the station obviously, and not too far to walk to the city centre. It isn’t the quietest location mind you because of the above. (Also they cocked up and charged me twice for my booking but at least refunded me promptly once I’d pointed that out to them.) I went out for a brief walk to the city centre, some night photography, and food.

 

On Friday I went out to explore Chester, starting with a full circuit of the City Walls, impressive in themselves and a good way to get the lie of the land.

 

Chester is packed with interesting and curious architecture, a good example of the latter being the Rows, two storey medieval shopping streets.

I also seem to have timed my visit on graduation day at the university so the city centre was busy with smiling faces, dressed up to the nines and/or in gowns and mortar boards. All posing for photos with qualifications in hand.

 

The River Dee runs through the city so with a bit of time to spare I took a short afternoon sightseeing boat trip for which unfortunately the skies clouded over but it did make a nice sitting down interlude.

On Saturday I went further afield. Chester sits at one end of the Merseyrail network based on Liverpool. A day Rover ticket cost only £6.40 so I went for a ride on a shiny yellow and black Class 777. They have really big windows, don't they? I had no particular itinerary in mind so first stop was Liverpool for a walk along the waterfront. 

 

Back in 2017 I had a very enjoyable short break in Liverpool but back in 2017 I was even worse at getting around to blogging than I am now so I didn’t write about it. There are photos though. I did the proper touristy things then, waterfront, museums, Cavern Club, Port Sunlight, New Brighton, etc. So this time after a walk along the waterfront I decided to head to a previously un-visited seaside and hopped back on a train to visit Southport. Which as it turned out was gloriously sunny. Coffee was drunk, ice cream was eaten, the prom was promenaded on. Southport has a very long pier. They should maybe consider opening it to the public, I’m sure it would be popular. (It has been closed since 2022 and unless someone has a spare £13m kicking about its future doesn’t look hopeful.

 

It was such a nice day that I walked all the way along the coast to Birkdale and caught a train back to Liverpool from there. In Liverpool I decided that four o’clock was too early to head back to Chester, where else could my Day Rover ticket take me? I wondered what was at West Kirby. Sometimes random decisions have the most agreeable results. I had no idea what to expect when I arrived at West Kirby railway station at about a quarter to six that evening and wandered down towards the beach. It wasn’t being able to walk out into the Dee estuary on a narrow causeway around the large Marine Lake though with a glorious sunset over the estuary and offshore islands. Proper serendipity.

 

On Sunday I took advantage of being within easy reach by Merseyrail of Ellesmere Port and visited the National Waterways Museum there.

The museum is housed in a conservation area with 19 Grade II listed buildings where you can walk outdoors around the locks, docks with many historic boats moored and warehouses. This was once was a busy working area though thankfully on my visit was relatively quiet. 

 

There is also the forge, stables, workers cottages and the main exhibition area in the Island Warehouse with boats both full size and scale models, plus a lot of waterways paraphernalia. I took another short boat trip. I went inside the Porters Row workers cottages, each decorated in the style of a different era and boy did the 1952 living room remind me of my grandparents’ houses. 

 

I had a cup of tea in the cafe, couldn’t find anything in the gift shop that I liked that would have fitted in my backpack to take home, and headed back to Chester.

Monday’s trip home was unremarkable save that all the trains ran to time and I scored the last Chicken+BLT sandwich for lunch.

As befits a long weekend there are a lot of photos in this Flickr Album.

 

London Loop Section 4: Hayes to Hamsey Green.

24th March 2025 

West Wickham Common to Hamsey Green 

Nearly a month has passed since I was here last and I’m alighting from a train at Hayes (Kent) railway station to tackle the next section of the London Loop. Section 4 starts officially at the edge of West Wickham Common near Coney Hall so the walk starts with a three-quarter mile link up and down along Pole Cat Alley to reach the junction of Croydon Road and Gates Green Road.

The guide says of Section 4, This well wooded section has a fair amount of climbing, rewarded by some splendid views. It isn’t wrong, especially about the climbing.

From here a path goes between the houses, past a car park, along Church Drive and into Coney Hall Recreation Ground, a large area of playing fields with a children’s nursery in the middle. Before you reach the nursery you cross the Greenwich Meridian from the Eastern Hemisphere and into the Western Hemisphere and there’s a small stone marking the line of the meridian.

Leaving the recreation ground across a road I headed for St. John’s church, turning right in front of the building through the churchyard then down across an open field and across the busy A2022 to reach Sparrows Den, home of the Beccehamian Rugby Club. There’s two routes across Sparrows Den. Left along the roadside edge then diagonally across or straight on towards the cafe and toilets then beside the Pitch and Putt course. Ah, toilets, I’ll go that way then. Yes of course they were closed and padlocked because this is England.  🙄

Fortunately the next part of the route was through Spring Park Woods.

Although it was still cloudy overhead the temperature had now risen enough for me to take off my quilted gilet. Part of Spring Park Woods is called Cheyne Wood and an information board gives some of its history. Originally the grounds of a private lodge that became a children’s heart hospital which was damaged by a V1 flying bomb in 1944, becoming a children’s convalescent hospital until 1989. Inevitably the former hospital site was redeveloped for housing in 2003 but fortunately you can’t see that part from the Loop. The information board also tells of the Ancient Order of FrothBlowers, a charitable organisation from 1924-1931 who partially funded the children’s hospital.

I emerged from the woods into the open area of Shirley Heath, popular with dog walkers and with a convenient bench on which to sit and eat a picnic lunch of sausage sarnies washed down with some Bovril from a flask because although it’s officially Spring it’s still Bovril weather. Once refuelled I carried on through Kennel Wood following the Loop markers, the posts for some of which had rotted off at the base and were propped against trees or lying on the ground. There’s a lot of that on Section 4 meaning that in places confirming the right way using the map on my phone was needed. The other things on the ground were a lot of small white Wood Anemones - also confirmed as such using my phone 😀 

After Kennel Wood came a half mile or so of walking alongside the busy Shirley Church Road but at least there was a lot of spring flowers on the wide verge. Also the sun had now come out and stayed that way for the rest of the day.

A footpath left off Shirley Church Road took me around the grounds of Shirley High School Performing Arts College (which just made me think of “Fame!”) and then climbed steadily into Pinewoods. From this point on there would be a lot more climbing. On reaching Upper Shirley Road I chose to make the detour down the road a short way to Shirley Windmill, a tower mill built in 1854 to replace an earlier mill that burnt down and now oddly located in the middle of a small modern housing estate. The mill stopped working in about 1890, but most of the original machinery, including its millstones, is still in place, and has been restored. On some days it is open to the public, today wasn’t one of them so I retraced my steps to rejoin the Loop.

Along Oaks Road I turned off into the woods and having worked out which of the several paths was the correct one headed into the Addington Hills. The path went up. Then it went up some more. Then it came out from under the trees and turned into some shingly steps that went up even more. Being a fat old bloke I didn’t get to the top without pausing for breath.

I was really glad to reach the viewing platform at the top firstly for the far reaching views of Croydon’s towers and south London. The Crystal Palace transmitter tower was visible in the haze to the North. Secondly the viewing platform incorporates some seats. The Bovril flask came out again and I took a 10 minute break to look at the view. At one point two elderly ladies joined me on the viewing platform. They’d taken the nice level route from the nearby car park.

It was along that level route to the car park that I walked next before turning right by the isolated Chinese Restaurant and back into the woods, going up and down some rather more moderate slopes until reaching Coombe Lane tram stop. A little way along to the left I crossed Coombe Lane and entered the grounds of Heathfield House, taking a path through the woods and dropping down some steps to reach the pond near the house itself. A Grade II-listed Italianate Victorian villa at the top of Gravel Hill, it was once the home of industrialist Raymond Riesco who gifted it to the people of Croydon in 1964. Croydon council have been trying to sell it as a development opportunity on a 125-year lease. From the number of yellow petition posters in the area I think it’s fair to say that the people of Croydon are not happy about that plan. As I write this I see that the property has been pulled from the auction in what’s being described in the press as “an embarrassing U-turn by Mayor Jason Perry”.

Having walked around the pond I took the path back up again - yes the route just goes down and around the pond just to go back up again via an almost adjacent path - and through the landscaped grounds with an impressive Camellia tree next to the path. Crossing the car park I noted some vintage COVID Precautions signage still in place on the gate. Will future generations look on such remnants the way we look at ghost signs on buildings and pre-Warboys road signs?

From Heathfield left along Riesco Drive and into the Bramley Bank Nature Reserve, the way through this ridge top woodland being a little difficult to determine, the guide says keep on the main track by the left hand edge but nothing resembles a “main track”, about half way through the left hand edge turns 90 degrees to the left, and if there were any Loop markers they’re well hidden now. I emerged at the small patch of grass opposite the houses of Broadcoombe and followed the Loop markers into Littleheath Woods for a short distance before crossing the open space of Fallen Oak field where a couple with a dog asked me if there were any “sheep farms or anything around here”. Wrong person to ask mate 😀 

Then it was back into Littleheath Woods and uphill again over the brow of a hill.

Near a water tower and comms mast the path turned right, became somewhat uneven, and wiggled its way through a tapering stretch of woodland past a playground to meet the A2022 Addington Road. Thank you if you were the truck driver who stopped to let me cross here rather than take the 200 yard detour via the crossing at the traffic lights.

The next 750 yards or so was along a back alley behind houses and across a couple of residential roads and that’s some good shit you’re smoking there miss. This brought me to the entrance to Selsdon Wood. Where the path went steeply uphill again. Or at least by this point in the day it seemed steep. The surface was also littered with washed out flints and tree roots to catch the tired and unwary. Down again to a right turn onto the old bridleway Baker Boy Lane through the ancient Puplet Wood and after another mile of stumbling over loose flints etc. I arrived next to the entrance to Farleigh Court Golf Club. (This section of the Loop goes around the golf course rather than through it which if you’ve read my previous blogs you’ll realise is frequently not the case.) I followed the path along the side of Old Farleigh Road before crossing it to Elm Farm, the crossing point here being a bit risky as it’s on a fast bend. Nearly got taken out by a Tesla 😒

The path between Elm Farm and Allesley Farm is narrow and I expect in the summer will be overgrown. It runs downhill (hooray!) and then along the edge of Mossy Hill Shaw with views over fields and woods to the north,

before going back uphill again (boo!) through the trees to then pass along the edge of a large field to a shiny new kissing gate erected in memory of a former chair of Croydon ramblers. Here the Loop turns left onto Kingswood Lane where there were a lot of horse riders heading into Kings Wood from the Equestrian Centre. The fella at the back rode head down scrolling on his phone while allowing what looked to me like a cart-horse he was on to take care of the navigation 😀

Kingswood Lane eventually morphed from paddocks to suburbia and at the junction with Limpsfield Road I completed Loop Section 4 by Hamsey Green Pond.

It was about 5pm and since I was still roughly three hours from home I celebrated completion with a can of beer and a sandwich from the Co-Op, sitting on a bench by the pond with the other dodgy-looking characters. Then I got the bus to South Croydon station. Of course Thameslink was in disarray so my trip back via Redhill meant in all I was out for nearly eleven and a half hours. I slept well.

London Loop Section 4 ✅

A Flickr Album with some more photos. 

That's now Sections 1 to 15 done, about 99 miles out of the route distance of 154 (including station links). 

 

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.