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