21st March
On impulse I took advantage of a sunny Saturday and rode the trains up to South Kenton to walk Capital Ring Section 10 which zig-zags across north west London from outside South Kenton station to Hendon Park. By the time I’d got to South Kenton it was twenty to one in the afternoon and since I’d not had time to prepare a picnic my first stop was Apna Superstore outside the station to grab a sandwich. A short walk on streets brought me to the Montpelier Rise entrance to Preston Park which was lined with very photogenic cherry blossom.
I decided that Preston Park was a good place to stop for lunch even though I’d only been walking for 10 minutes because the next 20 minutes or so would all be on suburban roads with no likely picnic spots. Also I was hungry. Once refueled I carried on along residential streets of semi-detached houses, past Preston Road Underground Station on the Metropolitan Line and then down Uxendon Crescent to pass under the Jubilee Line. Just after going under the railway bridge a water course in a concrete channel appeared on the left which a check on Open Streetmap revealed that this was the Wealdstone Brook, a “lost river” and troubled tributary of the River Brent, taking water - and often other less pleasant things - from the Harrow area to the north to its confluence with the Brent near Wembley. It has a reputation for smelliness but fortunately not today.
Climbing up Uxendon Hill a grassy pathway which was being cut by a man with a lawnmower led past his barbed-wire topped, CCTV sign adorned garden fence to a slightly muddy path through a small wood and then out into an open space beside the Jubilee Line.
This was the beginning of Fryent Country Park and what is the best part of Section 10. Turning right by the footbridge over the Jubilee Line I began the long and increasingly steep climb across the open field and into the woods where it continued upwards on a broad muddy path to Barn Hill Pond. The bench next to the Trig Point was conveniently available for a sit down and from there i could see the arch of Wembley Stadium to the right and through the trees to the left a glimpse of the BT Tower, the cluster of towers in the City, and of course the ever-present Shard.
After a while I left this viewpoint behind, walking around the pond and about 20 yards down a woodland path before returning to the pond and turning right along the path that I should have taken, which led steeply downhill (which was the clue that I had wandered off course at the pond) through Barn Hill Open Space. There were signs warning that the path might be slippery but I was happy to find it had dried out enough to offer reasonably firm footing all the way to the bottom where the route turned right along the edge of the woods to the car park. Having crossed the busy A4140 Fryent Way a gap in the hedge led into an old hay meadow, then through another gap on the far side into another meadow. Standing in this field surrounded by white flowering Hawthorn hedges which filtered out the sound of traffic leaving only the birdsong (not parakeets for a change) it was difficult to believe that I was in London. I sent a panoramic photo to my sister with the title “This is London” and got back the reply “Is it hiding behind that tree?” 😀
I passed a small pond with a couple of information boards next to it then followed the hedge line through another couple of fields where the grass was a bit squelchy but no deep mad and up onto Gotford’s Hill. From the Capital Ring signpost at the top there is another good view of the Wembley Stadium Arch.
From the top of Gotford’s Hill I descended through more fields and Hawthorn blossom to a short alleyway that led out of Fryent Country Park and out of the countrified bit of Section 10. From Salmon Street which wasn’t at all fishy I turned into Lavender Avenue which seemed conspicuously lavender free but at least had cherry blossom then zig-zagged through more residential streets to the B454 Church Lane. I crossed the road by the imposingly tall St. Andrew’s Kingsbury Church with its spire thrusting up into the blue heavens then turned left down Old Church Lane. Here on the left set among Yew trees in an old graveyard I found the much more interesting 12th Century Old St. Andrew Kingsbury. This old church building, replaced by the much larger one I’d just passed, has a pale green copper-clad spire, incorporates Roman bricks into its structure and is now used by the Romanian Orthodox Church. More immediately important was the big flat stone table grave near the door which made a very handy place to sit and rest in the shade of the Yews.
From the old church I headed down the lane to Birchen Grove past the allotments and through a gateway to reach the northern side of the Brent Reservoir. A long stretch of water more popularly known as the Welsh Harp Reservoir after a pub which stood nearby until it was demolished in the 1970s. Constructed in the mid 1830s by damming the River Brent and the Silk Stream the reservoir was intended to provide water to the Regent’s Canal and the Grand Union Canal which in the 1820s were suffering water shortages. They had become so busy that the number of lock operations was draining the pounds faster than the existing water supply could fill them. From the dam at the western end there are two outflows, the River Brent and a canal feeder channel that runs south to eventually flow into the Grand Union Canal Paddington Branch near Harlesden railway station. Not that you can see the outflows from the Capital Ring which skirts north around the grounds of the Welsh Harp Sailing Association before running parallel to the water.
I followed the path for about a mile beside the reservoir, occasionally making short diversions to the waterside where I could see sailing boats and a Golden Retriever blatantly ignoring the No Swimming signs, until I came to Cool Oak Lane and the Welsh Harp Bridges, crossing the Silk Stream on the footbridge provided parallel to the very narrow old road bridge.
This would be the last bit of open space until reaching the end of Section 10. At the end of Cool Oak Lane I turned left to cross the busy A5 West Hendon Broadway, made more complicated by footway diversions and temporary traffic lights for roadworks, which made what should have been a right turn into Park Road into a left turn. Park Road took me over the Midland Main Line railway and then the M1 Motorway just north of Staples Corner, site of two IRA bombings in 1992 and 1993. It was a long old slog up Park Road between semi-detached houses with small front gardens, bins and junk on the footways, and only the occasional stunted cherry tree in blossom attempting to brighten up the scene.
I crossed under the A41 Hendon Way dual carriageway and into another residential street, Beaufort Gardens where the local council had adorned multiple lamp posts with notices which stated all the public behaviours, from begging to peeing, for which you could receive a £1000 fine. A right turn into Cheyne Walk then left into an alleyway and up onto a footbridge over the Northern Line Edgware Branch where I had to squeeze through a group of God’s Chosen People who seemed a bit put out at the inconvenience of moving aside for a mere goy to pass, then down the other side and into Hendon Park where Section 10 ends.
The bench became free so I had a sit down, the last of my water, and an oat bar before following the path alongside the railway line towards Hendon Central station. By the exit from the park I spotted a Public Convenience. Ah, good. Locked up and looked like permanently shut, not good. It smelt of piss around the back so presumably a lot of people had needed to risk the £1000 fine. Perhaps provide fewer threatening notices and more necessary facilities Barnet?
On reaching Hendon Central Circus and after walking past it twice because the front is somewhat inconspicuous, found The Bodhran pub where I was able to do what Barnet Council had denied me and then have a very welcome (and very reasonably priced) pint of Murphy’s ☘
Then I had another pint of Murphy's. Then I decided that I really should go home 😁
It had been a lovely day for a walk and about half of this section is very nice, the other half was quite tiring though.
Here’s a link to 48 photos on Flickr (opens in a new tab)
Or slideshow below if your viewer supports it:
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