A day trip to Lewes, East Sussex.

21st April

Pick a town, get a train, see what’s there.

Lewes (/ˈluːɪs/) is the county town of East Sussex and lies at the point where the River Ouse cuts through the South Downs. It is at a junction on the East Coastway railway line with lines to Brighton, Newhaven and Eastbourne and importantly in my case from London via Gatwick Airport, to which I can get a direct train. It’s also much more hilly than I’d appreciated from the map.

I arrived at Lewes’ triangular station at 1 p.m. on an afternoon which had become colder and cloudier than when I left home that morning.

I first headed south to the site of Lewes Priory, The Priory of St. Pancras to give it its full title. I had a picnic lunch and the hope that the sun might re-emerge. It didn’t but there was a bench in a relatively sheltered spot overlooking the ruins. In 1845, the Brighton, Lewes and Hastings Railway drove their new line through the middle of the priory site, including the priory church. The part to the north is privately owned but the part to the south is a public park, free to enter, and contains several monastic ruined buildings. Fragments of the dorter (monks’ dormitory), reredorter (monks’ khazi), frater (monks’ dining room) and infirmary can be see and walked around, or in the case of the only other visitor present sat behind with a small bottle of whisky.

With the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII the King’s secretary Thomas Cromwell appointed a specialist demolition team led by an Italian engineer Giovanni Portinari to destroy the priory and they did a pretty thorough job. The manor of Southover which contained the priory was subsequently granted to Thomas Cromwell (now there’s a surprise) who built a large house on the site of the prior’s lodgings. After Cromwell’s falling out with Henry and subsequently being shortened by a head (see Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall novels and the TV series based on them) the manor passed through several hands until passing to the Sackvilles, the Earls of Dorset.

I left the priory site through the western exit having passed the medieval style Priory Tower folly and Priory Cottage which was built from stone taken from the ruins. I turned north up Cockshut Road (no sniggering at the back) alongside the priory precinct wall, under the very low arch beneath the railway to Southover High Street then east passing the Church of St. John the Baptist which was formerly the hospitium of the priory and which has a very fishy weather vane.

Turning left by The King’s Head I then ducked through an arch into Southover Grange Gardens to avoid the oncoming flock of primary school children being herded south. This was fortuitous since had I just continued along the street I’d have missed the pleasant gardens with the Winterbourne Stream running through in a straight channel and the best side of Southover Grange house itself. This house was built in 1572 by William Newton, using stone from the priory, and owned by this family for the next three hundred years. After this it was the residence of a series of wealthy merchants, bankers, and adventurers until it was sold by local gentleman farmer Harrie Stacey to the Council in about 1945. Now owned by East Sussex County Council it houses Lewes Registry Office.

From behind Southover Grange I headed towards the High Street via St. Swithun’s Terrace and discovered how steep a hill Lewes is built on. I emerged onto the High Street from St. Swithun’s Lane a little out of breath. Lewes town centre is filled with interesting old buildings including the red brick Queen Anne - Baroque style Town Hall, an impressively grand Portland stone and bronze war memorial sited in the middle of a road junction, and a brick and stone Market Tower which also used to be the town hall.

I looped around the back streets and alleyways crammed with listed buildings including the former Star Brewery and a round cottage which is the stump of a windmill and once owned by the writer Virginia Woolf. I returned to the High Street via the steep and narrow Pipe Passage. This runs past the site of a clay tobacco pipe kiln but it’s fenced off. Having circumnavigated the castle I headed there next.

Tickets for Lewes Castle (£12) are bought in Barbican House Museum on the other side of Castle Gate. The museum staff then have to escort you across Castle Gate to operate the electronic lock on the gate to let you into the castle. A zigzagging set of steps leads ever upwards to the top of the steep-sided castle mound. Here you can look out over the site of the Battle of Lewes, fought on 14th May 1264 between Henry III and a bunch of rebellious Barons. This didn’t end well for the King but Simon de Montfort fared rather better, becoming in effect the “uncrowned King of England” for a year while holding Prince Edward hostage to ensure that Henry ruled as “advised” by the Barons. Casualty figures are apparently unknown but don’t appear to have included any of the rich bastards whose power struggles started the unpleasantness in the first place. Nothing changes.

On top of the mound sits the stone and flint Shell Keep.

Inside the Shell Keep narrow spiral staircases take you up through several floors to the rooftop. It’s a lot of stairs but the views from the top over the town far below and the surrounding country are worth it. From up here you can also see the castle’s other “motte”, Brack Mount, a small wooded mound located at the north end of the bailey behind the long Maltings building. Lewes is one of only two castles in England built with two mottes, the other being Lincoln Castle where I’ve also been.

You've climbed a lot of stairs so take lots of photos, I did (see link below). I also had the place to myself, probably because it was a Tuesday afternoon in April. I met a few other visitors while I was coming down but no more than could be counted on your fingers.

A path around the Gun Garden named after the captured Russian gun from the Crimean War that is in it leads to the Norman Gate of which only one wall survives and the later Barbican Gate. This has an even narrower wooden spiral staircase to the rooftop. Here you can see a set of Machicolations. Holes behind the protecting parapet through which defenders could from a position of safety drop rocks, turds, hot pitch, and rotting animal carcasses on people attacking the castle gate below. For some reason these are now fenced off behind a sturdy railing 😃

After leaving the castle I had a look around the museum in Barbican House which has the usual collections of artifacts from prehistoric through Roman to medieval times found in a small town museum, and some history of the Sussex Archaeological Society. All located in a Grade II* listed sixteenth century house of course because you can’t stretch out your arms without touching a listed building in Lewes town centre.

It was past three o’clock so I continued down the High Street via a coffee shop in a bakery and some interesting old shop fronts then onward to cross the River Ouse at Lewes Bridge.

At the end of Cliffe High Street I turned round. Next to the river off Cliffe High Street is Harvey’s Brewery, the oldest independent brewery in Sussex. A family business since 1790. More importantly across the other side of the street is the brewery tap, the John Harvey Tavern. Hmm. If I got a later train than I’d originally planned I could sit in the sun facing the river - albeit across a car park - and have a birthday pint. So I did, Dark Mild because Mild is a rarity in pubs these days.

Then it was back to Lewes railway station for the ride home. With an hour hanging around the windy hell-hole that is Gatwick Airport Station because GWR cancelled one of the trains to Reading. Of course they did. They’ll probably try to wriggle out of the Delay Repay claim too.

Lewes is a good place for a day trip though.

72 photos from Lewes in a Flickr Album (opens in a new page)

Or as a slideshow below if your viewer supports it:

 

 

 

Capital Ring Section 11, Hendon Park to Highgate

9th April

After visiting the open day at the London Transport Museum Depot in Gunnersbury I jumped on the tube at Acton Town and travelled back to Hendon to walk more Capital Ring. Now the clocks had gone back there would be plenty of daylight left to walk the 6 miles of Section 11 from Hendon Park to Highgate. I’d also be getting better value for the £9 TfL now charge to park at Hounslow West. 😲

Alighting at Hendon Central I made my way back into Hendon Park to the path crossing near the railway bridge at the end of section 10 and turned left across the park onto section 11.

Exiting the park at its most easterly point I made my way through the residential streets and across Brent Street to find the narrow path that led off to meet the River Brent by the partly ruined and graffitied Weir Folly, then followed the river into Brent Park, crossing it at a little bridge. I passed the Decoy Lake, left the park crossing Bell Lane and turning into Brookside Walk which appropriately brought me to a bridge where the Dollis Brook and the Mutton Brook joined to form the River Brent. Also here the Capital Ring joins with the Dollis Valley Greenwalk and follows it all the way to Finchley Road and beyond. I turned right onto the path beside the Mutton Brook which I’d be following for most of its whole length. I didn’t see any sheep, if that is the origin of its name 🐑

The Mutton Brook and The Capital ring both pass under the North Circular Road in a long, low, but well lit tunnel then alongside a broad grass bank beside the North Circular higher on the left. There’s a large Art Deco apartment block here on the North Circular called Kinloss Court but I didn’t find out much about it online except in connection with the busting of a County Lines drug gang in 2023.

At Finchley Road the Mutton Brook goes underneath but the Ring crosses over via two pedestrian crossings (with long waits) on the southern side of Henly’s Corner. This crossing is the most Northerly point of the Capital Ring after which I followed it downhill into a woodland to cross and then again follow the Mutton Brook for some distance until the brook went under Falloden Way and the Ring turned right to Addison Way where three guys hanging about at the end of the path apologised for the exotic smoke. No problem mate 😁

After crossing the Mutton Brook again over the bridge on Falloden Way I turned right into Northway Gardens and away from the noise of the A1 traffic. Here the brook is confined in a deep wooden sided channel between the path and the tennis courts but was brightened up by some vigorous daffodils on one bank and fluorescent yellow tennis balls on the other.

The Ring (and the Mutton Brook) now took me along the north side of Hampstead Garden Suburb through Northway Gardens behind the shops and businesses lining the A1 Falloden Way and then out into Lyttelton Playing Fields where daffodils were replaced by tulips. Leaving the playing fields through a narrow lane into Norrice Lea I turned left under the trees heavy with pink blossom and past the classical stone portico of the 1956 red brick Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue which now houses the Kerem School, an Orthodox Jewish day school which auto-correct keeps wanting to change to "Kermit School" 🐸. (Blimey, £5,000 - £6,000 a term!)

The Mutton Brook vanishes unseen not far ahead into an underground culvert below East Finchley to its source in Cherry Tree Wood, I followed the Ring across the A1 Lyttelton Road then uphill along Vivian Way, Deansway, and Edmunds Walk where one house had a colourful tulip display in the front garden of remarkable variety. This took me to the back entrance of East Finchley Station which I passed through out onto the High Road which I crossed and turned around to view Eric Aumonier’s “The Archer” statue atop Charles Holden’s Art Deco/Streamline Moderne station building built in the 1930s.

Leaving High Road I entered Cherry Tree Wood. Somewhere under here apparently is the source of the Mutton Brook and the low lying field in the park was once watercress beds. Now it’s mostly kids playgrounds and sports pitches. At the Cherry Tree Cafe they had turned off the espresso machine and were about to shut so I had to forego a flat white and have tea instead. It was a nice cuppa and very welcome refreshment all the same.

Leaving the playing fields into Fordington Road and then crossing into Lanchester Road I found the Capital Ring sign pointing left by number 69 and dragged myself up the long steep tarmac path to Highgate Wood. Stopping for a breath part way up I turned around and hoped that the huge bank of black cloud to the west wasn’t coming my way (it wasn’t). The path curved to the right, levelled out, and entered Highgate Wood. I headed straight into the wood on a broad path passing a large swathe of bluebells on the way and turning right on reaching an isolated stone drinking fountain. 

 

The fountain appears now to be non-functional so you can no longer do as the inscription from one time local resident Coleridge suggests: 

"Drink, Pilgrim, here! Here rest! And if thy heart / Be innocent, here too shalt thou refresh / Thy spirit, listening to some gentle sound / Or passing gale or hum of murmuring bees!" .

A left turn in the woods before the cafe took me back down the hill to Muswell Hill Road. Having crossed the road I entered Queen’s Wood (devoid of Queens as far as I could tell) and further downhill to cross the Moselle Brook. Not far to the end of the section now but that’s at Highgate. Which meant some sadist had arranged things so that the longest and steepest up hill stretch was right at the end of the walk. B******s 😀

A final steep alleyway with a handy rail up which to drag yourself brought me to Priory Gardens where Section 11 ends opposite another alleyway at the start of Section 12. I carried on to the “back” entrance to Highgate tube station though.

I didn’t fancy paying a peak period fare to stand up for an hour and a half though so walked up the path to the right where you can see the abandoned Highgate “high level” station platforms through the security fence and headed to The Woodman for a refreshing pint (with complementary popcorn) and later took a gentle stroll down Archway to get the tube at Tuffnell Park.

Capital ring section 11 ✅

A Flickr Album of 43 photos is here (opens in a new page)

Or as a slide-show below if your viewer supports it:

 

 

 

Capital Ring Section 3, Beckenham Hill to Crystal Palace

 

1st April

I return to Beckenham Hill Station to pick up where I left off on 5thMarch 2026 and complete Section 3 of the Capital Ring to Crystal Palace. It is only a short walk from the station to Beckenham Place Park but I ignore the signposts towards “Capital Ring and Green Chain Walk” that point through the gateway opposite the station and cross over the railway line to retrace my steps along the path that runs along the northern edge of the park. After a couple of hundred yards I turn right to regain the route of the Capital Ring where I had left it before.

I take the path through the trees and up over the bridge that crosses the railway line into the woods, then follow that path in a great loop through dense woodland filled with birdsong (and yes, squawking parakeets too), passing the former lake which is now a wooded wetland then steadily uphill to a large Green Chain/Capital Ring signpost. Turning right here I walk back downhill emerging close to the western end of Beckenham Place Park Lake. It’s a quarter to one and time for a picnic lunch. Having been beaten to the one bench facing the lake I settle for one on the slope looking across the greensward to Beckenham Place Mansion, built in about 1760 for wealthy timber merchant John Cator. I notice that it could do with a lick of masonry paint 😀

After lunch I continue past the end of lake and climb uphill again, passing a large concrete squirrel, an almost Brutalist sculpture which I’m sure must scare at least some of the smaller kids. Its peeling paint is reddish though all the local live squirrels are the grey foreign invaders from across the Atlantic. The Homestead Cafe is very busy with young families but fortunately the Public Conveniences are not. I continue up the path to join a road which passes in front of Beckenham Place mansion with its tall portico. If the portico looks slightly out of place it might be because in 1783 Cator bought an estate in Blackheath with a house that he didn’t really want but which had an impressive portico. So he had the portico dismantled and rebuilt on the front of his house here. Rich people, lack of taste, not a new thing. If he were still here today he’d probably be adding a triple-fronted garage and a basement swimming pool 😏

I turn away from the house and head along a path to Stumps Hill Pond where a fox eludes my getting a decent photo, then through Stumpshill Wood (why the inconsistent spelling?) to emerge onto Southend Road. Crossing the road I begin a zig-zag trail along New Beckenham’s residential streets, with few points of interest save for The County Ground, home to Kent County Cricket Club, reminding everyone that this was once part of Kent rather than London, and the tall spire of St. Paul’s Church in Brackley Road. This part of the walk might have been a bit dull but for quite a few cherry trees in bloom and some very flowery front gardens.

I carry on along the streets until emerging from the subway under New Beckenham station I see the Crystal Palace Transmitter Tower on the horizon, looking quite close but in reality still about an hour and a half walk away. Another 500 yards or so on streets and I turn down an alleyway to escape into Cator Park where the sun comes out properly and I have to take off my gilet and stuff it into my backpack. Walking through Cator Park I cross two bridges over streams, first The Beck and secondly the Chaffinch Brook. They are both tributaries of the Pool River which the join in the middle of the park to flow north to its confluence with the River Ravensbourne just south of Catford. I walked the Ravensbourne from Catford Bridge to the Thames at Deptford Creek, I see that that was back in January 2023.

As I walk in the sunshine through Cator Park I come across some groundsmen with what I thought was a very small lawnmower. It seems to me a bit inadequate for the wide expanse of grass. On getting closer I realise that it’s actually a petrol powered disc cutter on wheels, used to trim the edges of the paths but for a moment I’m reminded of the rude joke involving a schoolboy, the punchline of which ends with the word “contagious”. You can look it up 😉

Out of Cator Park and I’m back to residential streets, a fenced off path between school playing fields, and more streets. Along the way I notice a stink-pipe in Lennard Road so I award myself two points even though it looks as if its top half is missing.

I also notice that around half of the telecoms jointing chambers (they’re not manholes) have covers with cast iron frames bearing the legend Post Office Telegraphs, which makes them likely to date from before 1911. Later ones say Post Office Telephones (or GPO, or BT). It’s quite a thing to think that these are still in use today. I can tell you that they are bloody heavy to lift out of their frames to access the cabling beneath 😅

I turn right after passing the junior school onto Cator Road - that man’s name runs through this area like the lettering in a stick of rock - then left between the houses up a short path with an old cast ‘Borough of Beckenham’ sign at each end warning that “The riding of Bicycles, Tricycles, or other similar machines on this footpath is Prohibited by Byelaw” with a maximum penalty of £5. I doubt that the cyclists take much notice now, even if they did when R Webster Storr, Town Clerk had the signs placed there. At the end of the path I enter the top right corner of Alexandra Recreation Ground and I’m greeted by a good showing of daffodils followed by another view of the Crystal Palace Transmitter Tower.

I walk the length of the park, passing a Metropolitan Drinking Fountain, exit into Maitland Road and find myself back on Lennard Road having completed a long loop to the north. I turn right down Lennard Road to cross over the Chatham Main Line railway using the station footbridge at Penge East, along Station Road past the former Park Farm Dairy building, then along the full length of Kingswood Road to reach the High Street. Some drama is afoot here involving an ambulance and three police cars in the road opposite but I continue up the High Street under the railway bridges at Penge West Station and into Crystal Palace Park.

I find Crystal Palace Park busy and largely a building site. Lots of things are behind hoardings and fences as the park is part way through a regeneration project. I’m grateful that the Public Conveniences are not fenced off and are still open! I have a choice of Capital Ring routes here and choose the slightly shorter (and recommended) route through the dinosaurs. The dinosaur area is safely fenced off, not to keep the beasts in but to keep the public out since the dinosaurs are also getting a makeover. I manage to get a half decent shot of an Iguanodon.

I’m nearly there and nearly done. The final push uphill past the Athletic Stadium brings me to the impressive building that is Crystal Palace Station. I can see the transmitter tower is much closer now and the terraces where the Crystal Palace stood before burning down in November 1936.

Capital Ring Section 3 ✅

A quick walk up and down Anerley Road reveals that it is disappointingly devoid of open pubs in which to have a celebratory pint, so I return to the station and catch the next train homeward.

A set of 52 photos from Capital Ring section 3 can be seen in this Flickr Album  (opens in a new window) or as a slideshow below if your viewer supports it.