Capital Ring Section 01

Woolwich to Falconwood 26th November 2025

6.2 miles plus 1.0 miles of station links. Total = 7.2 miles (11.6 km).

I finally completed the London Loop path back in September and now want a new project to get me out and about and walking. Needs to be something that can be done in sections and accessible by public transport. So the logical choice is the Loop’s “little brother”, the Capital Ring.

Capital Ring Overview Map (Inner London Ramblers)

The Capital Ring is 78 miles (126km) long and divided into 15 sections. It’s an urban walk in a smaller and more central loop around London than the London Loop, staying within 10 miles of the Houses of Parliament. Opened in 2005, it crosses the Thames at Richmond in the West and Woolwich in the East and starts and finishes (if you do it in order) at the southern portal of the Woolwich Foot Tunnel. The Inner London Ramblers’ walking guides are available to download at

Inner London Ramblers Capital Ring Guides

I was going to leave it until the Spring to start, with longer days but the sun came out and having waited in for a parcel I reckoned that today was as good a time to begin as any and I could still get to Woolwich and complete the first section by around sunset. The Jubilee Line had other ideas though and I arrived at Woolwich Station a good half hour later than planned. This was to prove less than ideal later on.

From the station I walked to Woolwich Arsenal Pier and then left along the Thames to the official section start at the Woolwich Foot Tunnel.

I carried on upstream beside the river, crossing the Woolwich Ferry approach road and several inlets and dry docks with fine views across the river to the Tate & Lyle Sugar Refinery and aircraft taking off from London City Airport. It was fresh and clear with bright sunshine and I quickly dispensed with my unnecessary woolly hat.

From the raised walkway by the river I could see the wreck of the MV Royal Iris lying partially sunk and burnt out on a mud bank close to Barrier Gardens Pier. A sad fate for the Mersey Ferry of the song.

At the end of the raised walkway I turned inland and then right down Bowater Road, a long canyon between multi-storey industrial buildings. Unprepossessing at first sight this industrial estate was of some interest to this ex-telecoms engineer since it is the site of the former Siemens Brothers Telegraph Works. Between 1863 and 1968 it produced telegraph and telephone cables, electrical equipment, and Strowger telephone exchange equipment, some of which I’ve no doubt I worked on. A lot of the buildings are now part of London’s largest complex of artists’ studios, Thames-Side Studios.

After Bowater Road I made a short diversion to the riverside to see the Thames Barrier. It isn’t strictly on the Capital Ring but there was a sign pointing that way that promised Toilets. Surprisingly they were actually open. I don’t ignore an open toilet on a walk. Also a good view of the barrier in the sunshine.

Returning from the riverside i passed through the strip of green beside the school and crossed Woolwich Road into Maryon Park. I crossed the railway on a bridge between two tunnel portals and into the recreation area. The sun was now dropping behind the trees but since there was still frost on the grass obviously hadn’t risen much above them all day. It was a long climb up the 115 steps out of Maryon Park to cross Thorntree Road and enter Maryon Wilson Park. I headed south passing between the Deer enclosure and the children’s zoo then along a tarmac path through the wooded park parallel to a stream. It was prime dog walking and parakeet territory.

Emerging from the woods opposite Charlton Park Academy I crossed the road, turned right and left through a gate in the wall to reach Charlton Park itself. After passing the cafe (tempting but remaining daylight time was becoming short) the route then went round three sides of the playing fields, passing on the way the Jacobean Charton House built in 1612 for Sir Adam Newton, before exiting the park through a gateway to Charlton Park Lane.

A brief stretch of urban residential walking, weaving around the wheely bins in Inigo Jones Road brought me to Hornfair Park. Can you see a pattern developing here on the Capital Ring route? I passed the heavily fenced BMX track, exited the park through a small gate in the very corner of the fence and crossed Stadium Road onto Woolwich Common. This was the first bit of unsurfaced footpath so far, thankfully still firm under foot. Crossing the common there were far reaching views to the North across Woolwich and Beckton and in the far distance fields in Essex.

On the far side of the common I regained the tarmac of Academy Road and crossed its busy junction with Shooters Hill, which actually has no pedestrian crossings at the traffic lights so you have to take your chances. Bearing off across the grass south of Shooters Hill and then into Castle Wood I followed a winding trail uphill through the trees then along the driveway to Severndroog Castle. This 70 feet high triangular castle was built in 1784 by the widow of local landowner Commodore Sir William James. It’s a great and eccentric memorial for a man who was employed by the East India Company to suppress pirates. It’s open on Sundays, today was Wednesday but any story is improved by the inclusion of pirates. Arr!

The other side of the castle I descended the 72 steps through the rose garden to the accompaniment of many loud parakeets and with a fine view to the South West.

At the bottom of the rose garden I turned left and had an even better view of the setting sun in the South West. I was definitely losing the light. I carried on into Jack Wood following the waymarker posts to a clearing by the remnants of Jackwood House, past the house’s rose garden, downhill through the increasingly gloomy woods then up again to emerge by Oxleas Wood cafe. Which had just closed. At least the toilets were still open. I sat on a bench in front of the cafe admiring the view and since my destination was not far away ate the Twix I’d been carrying in my back pack. Although I wasn’t feeling cold the Twix was almost frozen, to the point that even the caramel bit was crunchy!

There was just enough light to follow the track through Oxleas Wood and down to Rochester Way where the Ring does a loop through Shepherdleas Wood to reach the end at Falconwood Station. I followed the path into the woods a short way before deciding that it was a bad idea since it was fully dark now and if I went arse over tit in the woods I could be there for the rest of my life.

I backtracked and walked down Rochester way to the station instead. I’ll do that loop through Shepherdleas Wood when I start Section 2.

I’m counting that as Capital Ring Section 1 ✅

Flickr Album for Capital Ring Section 1 (46 photos)

Update.

Err, yes, it seems to have been a while since I updated this blog. 😳

It’s not that I haven’t done anything since September 15th, just that I haven’t got my arse into gear and written anything about it. So a few mini entries to fill the yawning gap in content.

Open House London 

18th September

I didn’t get to visit anything big and grand this year but did manage a few interesting smaller exhibitions. First was “Frames of Reference” at Pushkin House, 5A Bloomsbury Square, WC1A 2TA. This is an arts and cultural centre focussing on Russia and the former Soviet Bloc countries. They presented a display of “‘Thaw-era’ photographs that, unlike the staged assemblages of socialist realism, offer a more humanistic vision into everyday life in the USSR.” Next up I went to the People’s Museum in Somers Town, 52 Phoenix Road, NW1 1ES, a small space (single shop unit sized) packed with all sorts of interesting stuff from the area, particularly the Ossulston Estate, a prime example of pre-war Social housing in which it is located. Every part of the space is used with posters, photo albums, videos, and a recreated living room with lots of things you’d maybe recognise from your parents or grandparents homes. The volunteers were lovely. Of the visits I made this day I enjoyed this one the most. 

 

From Somers Town to Soho and the De Lane Lea Studios at 75 Dean Street. I’ve long been fascinated by Soho so couldn’t pass up “Timelines: 300 years of Soho” at the former Warner Bros. Sound Studio. The exhibition space was possibly smaller than that at the People’s Museum but they’d gathered some good artefacts to display “The People, The Places, The Pulse” of the West End’s urban village. My next stop was far to the west, on the way home I dropped in to Hounslow Library at 7 Bath Road for the London Borough of Hounslow 60th Anniversary Exhibition. It took some finding on the first floor and was only a display of a couple of dozen photos taken around the borough in 1965 and with contemporary views with which to compare them but this is (or rather was) my “manor” so had to take a look.

Cardiff Bay

October 6th

I needed a getaway so braved the trains and had a few days in South Wales. I’d spent an afternoon in Cardiff Bay more years ago than I’d like to count but never stayed there. Booked the Premier Inn who then emailed to say that my sea view would more likely be the inside of their builder’s scaffolding so I cancelled and rebooked at the Future Inn, which was fine if slightly further to walk to the waterfront. 

And yes, Torchwood 😀

 

I arrived a bit later than scheduled because of course GWR fucked up but the room was huge and the weather was if not sunny at least not raining. Yes, in Wales, who’d have thought it. 

 

The following day I took a walk out across the Cardiff Barrage and got a bit carried away and ended up on Penarth Pier. 

 

It was a nice walk though and easy to get the train back. The weather was better the next day so I got a train to Caerfilli and visited the huge castle. It’s a good one, well presented and takes a good while to get around. The sun came out (yes, in Wales) and I even went full tourist and bought a commemorative tee-shirt - they even had my size. 

 

The day after that I came home with 156 photos to sort through and a Delay Repay claim to submit. It was a good getaway.

Cardiff Trip Photo Album on Flickr 

The rest of the month was taken up with days out locally and to the coast because I find it hard to resist going to the seaside if it’s sunny. After a meeting in Acton I caught the District Line to Cannon Street and then went for an early evening stroll along the north bank of the Thames, ending with a pint in The Grapes in Limehouse, as you do. 

No sign of Gandalf. 

Steve Knightley and The Winter Yards Band

November 1st

I intended to go to more music gigs this year. I haven’t done very well at that but managed to go and see Steve Knightley at the Haymarket in Basingstoke. This was part of his post-Show Of Hands solo tour with a new band. It was of course an excellent evening and one where the support act, True Foxes, was as good as the main act. (They also provide vocals for Steve and the Winter Yards Band.) Both are well worth seeking out to see live although when not touring with Steve True Foxes are mostly to be found near their native Cornwall. Check out their website.

Computer touching - experiments with GhostBSD

My main desktop and travelling laptop both run Xubuntu. I like the simplicity of the XFCE desktop, no fancy bells and whistles that I don’t need and runs well on older machinery. I’d been playing about with GhostBSD on an old Packard Bell but it was a bit painful especially as it didn’t have a working battery. To find out what it was like on something that wasn’t basically a wreck (which also weighed a ton!) I splashed out on a refurbished laptop, a Lenovo Thinkpad L470. It’s hard to go wrong with a Thinkpad, especially at under £100. It even has the extra capacity battery which lifts the back of the keyboard up and makes it quite comfortable to type on. Essentially this is the same type of laptop as the last one I had at work but without Windows 10 and BT’s corporate crapware which makes it quite a nice device. Indeed I’m using it to type this blog post.

Not however running BSD. It was an interesting experiment, trying out an alternative OS. I had some fun and games installing it which turned out to be something to do with using Ventoy to create the bootable USB stick. Re-creating the USB stick using old fashioned CLI tools solved that. The OS booted quite quickly and ran OK. It was a little like using Linux ten years ago though. A major pain was WiFi. It all connected OK but only at 2.4 GHz, no drivers are available for 5 GHz so it was rather sluggish. More than I’d expect even for 2.4GHz to be honest. Not all the software that I wanted was available, in particular my preferred cross-platform password manager Enpass. I couldn’t find a way to export from Enpass to KeepassXC that worked and manually transferring passwords etc. got old quite quickly. The standard desktop on GhostBSD is MATE, which is OK once you find your way around it. What isn’t OK is when the taskbars/menus randomly vanish and you have to poke about blindly to restart the Caja file manager to get them back. In the end I decided that GhostBSD is an interesting and light weight OS but you need a lot of enthusiasm to run it as a daily and I don’t quite reach that level of geekery. So this laptop is now running Linux Mint (the XFCE version of course) which works much better. I’m going to see if it would be OK as a Snap-free OS to replace Xubuntu on my other machines although so far I’ve found little to favour one over the other.

...and finally

It’s that time of year again, roll on January. I’ll try not to leave it so long before the next blog post. 😉

London Loop Section 24, Rainham to Purfleet.

15th September, 13:42 hours.

I finished my picnic lunch on the sheltered bench outside Rainham station and prepared for the final push along Section 24 to Purfleet. When I say prepared I mean tried to arrange my socks so that they didn't rub on my toes. I first crossed the Tilbury Loop railway line via the level crossing and then over the High Speed 1 line to the channel tunnel on a tall footbridge. Didn’t manage to time it for a photo of a Eurostar train but here’s the view looking towards the continent.

Walking down the long ramp the other side I was hanging onto my hat in the blustery conditions, the yellow wind warning still very much in force. At the foot of the ramp I took the footpath along the north west edge of Rainham Marshes, then under the A13, crossing the slip roads using the light controlled crossings with very long wait times even when no traffic was coming, and back onto the narrow footpath around the edge of the marshes.

I was momentarily thrown here as the route marked on Open Street Map follows Ferry Lane around the west side of the K9 Industrial Estate but this is wrong and I was on the correct path eventually crossing Coldharbour Lane and between the two industrial parks to reach the Thames at the point where there used to be a ferry across to Erith, founded in 1199 AD. If there was still a ferry it would link Section 24 here to the start of the LOOP, Section 1 across the water in Erith.

I followed the path south towards the Tilda Rice factory, at a slightly lower level than the top of the river wall thus affording a bit of shelter from the wind but not from the first of the afternoon’s brief rain showers. The other side of the Tilda factory the path ran along the river bank and was much more exposed to the wind which was gusting strongly enough to make it hard to walk in a straight line. Not far along from the factory there are a number of World War 2 concrete barges, originally used to support the D-Day landings in Normandy they were placed here to shore up the Thames estuary flood defences after the damage caused by the storm and floods of 1953.

Close to the barges a sculpture stands in the river, this is The Diver by John Kaufman The sculpture consists of galvanised steel bands on a steel frame and is a monument to Kaufman’s grandfather and to all the people of the area who worked in difficult and dangerous conditions. I’m sorry but I couldn’t help thinking of The WickerMan

From here the LOOP follows the river bank while on the landward side is the fence and high grass slope of the giant Rainham Landfill, in use for over a century and currently run by Veolia. At least the wind was coming from off the river so if it smells I couldn’t tell you. Along the fence are a number of painted wooden “grave markers” with humorous “obituaries” on them.

I passed the large jetty where clay to cap the landfill is brought in and reached Coldharbour Point where the Thames turned directly east so that from here on I’d have views down the river all the way to the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge and the docks at Purfleet.

At Coldharbour Point is located Momentum, a modern business and logistics park, surrounded on the landward side by the landfill and with the south side close to the river bank but with a high security fence and lots of CCTV. A number of pairs of wooden benches have been placed between the fence and the footpath, each bearing an engraved metal “No Smoking” sign. Just as well I gave up years ago although in that wind I doubt I’d have been able to roll a fag let alone get it to light! 😃

Instead I rested a while and finished the contents of my Thermos flask, there being no prohibition on Bovril. I carried on alongside the river with the occasional annoying shower that stopped as soon as you’d got your coat on 😒. I could almost see the end of my journey at Purfleet now.

Beyond the landfill I joined the path on top of the old river wall embankment that separates Aveley Bay on the river side from Rainham Marshes. I could have used the more sheltered path on the landward side but then I’d have missed the views. Including the Ro-Ro cargo ship Aveline passing quite close to the river bank on its way to Dagenham.

Another short sharp shower got me as I approached the RSPB “Education & Environment Centre” and then I crossed the Mardyke into Purfleet.

I walked through the riverside gardens past the Heritage and Military Centre located in a former Gunpowder Magazine to the point where a last LOOP sign directs you past the Royal Hotel to the London Road opposite the War Memorial.

Unfortunately the hotel was closed, covered in scaffolding and builders, so no chance of a celebratory pint. I already knew it would be shut thanks to Diamond Geezer.

Instead I headed along London Road against the flow of secondary school pupils, half of whom were looking at their phones rather than where they were going, to the end of Section 24 and the end of the LOOP at Purfleet railway station. Is there anything to mark the end? Is there buggery. Not a footpath sign, not a LOOP information board, nothing to take a photograph of to mark the achievement. Also the kiosk outside the station was shut and I was thirsty so I just got on the next train to Fenchurch Street and had a celebratory pint in The Ship in Jews Row instead 🍻

London Outer Orbital Path - ✅

A Flickr Album from Section 24 is here.

 

 

London Loop Section 23, Upminster Bridge to Rainham

15th September

I arrived at Upminster Bridge station on the District line at about ten past eleven in the morning which gave me plenty of time to complete sections 23 and 24 of the LOOP. First however a short diversion to Upminster Windmill, the actual mill this time rather than the pub as on my last visit at the end of Section 22.

Upminster Windmill was built for James Nokes, a local farmer, in 1803. It is a Grade II* listed building and in terms of quality, completeness and significance it is widely considered to be amongst the very best remaining English smock mills, so called because its shape is said to resemble the traditional clothing of agricultural workers. It is owned by the London Borough of Havering and managed by the Friends of Upminster Windmill. It works and they have open days but today the slats on the sails were fixed open and the stiff breeze was turning the fantail that keeps them pointed into the wind. Talking of wind today there was a Yellow Warning for high winds and it was certainly very gusty.

From the windmill I returned to the route of the LOOP along residential streets, occasionally holding onto my hat. Once through Hornchurch Stadium’s car park the way ahead shadowed the River Ingrebourne, as it would for much of the remaining walk. Passing through an open grass area and then crossing the river on a footbridge to a stretch of scrub, woodland and rough grass with the unseen river now behind trees on my left. Across Hacton Lane and around the children’s play area I followed the well surfaced path through Ingrebourne Valley Local Nature Reserve, through shallow puddles until the route turned away to the right over a little wooden bridge provided to allow dry progress when the River Ingrebourne frequently breaks its banks at this point. As it had indeed today.

Past another playground and a visitor centre and now I was entering Hornchurch Country Park, formerly RAF Hornchurch. Looking at the mostly wooded area that you pass through it’s hard to imagine that from 1928 until 1962 this was a military airfield, one that played a major part in the Battle of Britain being a Sector Airfield of RAF Fighter Command’s 11 Group, covering London and the south east of England and was attacked by the Luftwaffe on twenty occasions. It’s a lot quieter now but there are a number of leftovers dotted around from its wartime days, including several “pillbox” bunkers.

I passed Ingrebourne Marshes and climbed the slope up to where the control tower once stood, of which nothing remains but a good view to the south west.

The route carried on down the Ingrebourne Valley parallel to the river until turning west to skirt around Albyns Farm Lake and then south west again by Albyns Farm itself. This much restored and rebuilt medieval manor is surrounded by the sort of strikingly off-white high rendered wall that wouldn’t look out of place around a Spanish hacienda. Part way along which is a very large set of black wrought iron automatic gates with the name across them picked out in gold lettering and a CCTV entry system. It was probably the most Essex thing I saw all day (even if now technically in Greater London). I didn’t dare stand in front of the gates to take a photo though.

Onward through field and wood to cross Ingrebourne Hill where I made the short diversion to the hilltop viewpoint. The path up to the viewpoint has been laid out in a series of lazy back and forth loops by some planner and which therefore mostly has a desire path cutting across them directly to the top because no one has time for that nonsense. There’s a good view from the top, particularly of towers, cranes, and the odd wind turbine across Dagenham, Becontree, and Romford. I returned to the LOOP via the other zig-zag path (mostly, see above) and beside Lake Stilwell to join the Rainham Road and turn south towards the village of Rainham itself. I passed the telephone exchange and its adjacent Albion pub, crossed New Road near the roundabout and then along Bridge Road over the River Ingrebourne again before nipping into Tesco for a pee because every little helps 😀

Then I carried on along Bridge Road following signs to the railway station which is the end of Section 23. I found a bench beside the station that was out of the increasingly strong wind and took a break for half an hour to eat my picnic lunch, (ham and cheese sarnies, crisps, a flask of Bovril, and some grapes that were a bit past their best if you’re curious) and prepared to tackle Section 24 to Purfleet. That will be covered in the next blog though.

There’s the usual collection of photos from Section 23 in this FlickrAlbum.

 

 

 

London Loop Section 22, Harold Wood to Upminster Bridge

20th August, 14:30, outside Harold Wood Station

“It’s only four and a half miles” I reasoned, “It’ll be easier to get home from Upminster Bridge too.”

So I finished my ice lolly and set out in the sunshine to walk section 22 of the London Loop, turning left out side the station down the very suburban Oak Road, into Fitzilian Road, and right into the gravelly Archibald Road past the allotments to Squirrels Heath Road and across that to escape suburban streets at the end of Brinsmead Road into Harold Wood Park.

The Harold from which Harold Wood gets its name is Harold Godwinson, the last legitimate King of England, before the country was occupied in 1066 by the Norman usurper William the Bastard. We’ve been ruled by foreigners ever since 😉

Some of the local street names recall the connection to Saxon royalty, for instance Athelstan Road and Ethelburga Road.

In Harold Wood Park I crossed the River Ingrebourne, the 27 mile long tributary of the Thames whose course the Loop shadows for much of the rest of Section 22 and indeed onwards to the Thames at Rainham.

I walked along a broad well-surfaced path between the Ingrebourne and Pages Wood, a recreational area with many paths and a wooden sculpture trail. Where the path passed beneath the power lines I paused to forage for Blackberries, my sandwich box was now empty and it seemed a shame to be carrying an empty box when I could be carrying the makings of a crumble instead. Particularly when a passing dog walker advised me that there were some apple trees up ahead which would provide something to complement the blackberries. I picked up three windfalls on my way through 😀

Passing out of Pages Wood I came to Hall lane, a busy road which I had to follow to get across the A127 Southend Arterial Road, built in the 1920s to link Romford to Southend-on-Sea and once described by Clement Attlee as “one of the worst pieces of main road in West Essex” due to problems with the road surface after it was constructed. It doesn’t look so bad now but it’s not the nicest stretch of Loop to walk along, especially on a warm afternoon, so I was glad to reach the shaded service road section and then to leave it and turn West down River Drive.

At the end of River Drive the path leading into the dense woodland came as a relief from the sunshine. A winding path led through the trees, fortunately not overgrown and in August not muddy either though I expect in winter it would be quite trying.

All too soon came a bridge over the Ingrebourne and it was open fields with no shelter for most of the way on. I rested a short while at the bridge, the next mile or so was going to be a slog. The Ingrebourne ran to my left, out of sight mostly as I plodded round two sides of a large wheat field that had already been cut, harvested, and the straw baled and carted off leaving only a big expanse of stubble baking in the afternoon sun with just the occasional dog walker circumnavigating it.

Leaving the field through an alleyway at its south western corner it was now back to suburban streets crossing the Liberty Line Romford to Upminster railway bridge in Wingletye Lane then along Minster Way to the end of the section opposite Upminster Bridge Station.

Upminster Bridge is the location of a windmill, “considered to be one of the finer examples of a ‘smock’ mill remaining in England. The name comes from the supposed resemblance to the smock once worn by farmers. Upminster Mill was built in 1803 by James Noakes, a local farmer”, says the Loop guide.

I was too tired at this point to walk down to it though so the only windmill I saw was the The Windmill pub where I could have a sit down and a nice pint of Abbot Ale before getting on the District Line towards home. I’ll check out the other one next time.

London Loop Section 22 ✅

London Loop Section 22 Flickr Album

London Loop Section 21, Havering-Atte-Bower to Harold Wood

20th August

Two Tubes and a Purple Train followed by a bumpy bus ride from Romford deposited me at Havering-Atte-Bower around quarter to midday to start the next part of my London Loop walk. It was considerably cooler than the last time I was here, enough to require a second layer in fact, although that would be put away before too long.

A short walk north from the bus stop on the green brought me to a Loop sign pointing east down a narrow path between a garage and a wooden fence, which soon became a narrow path between a wire fence and a lot of brambles. This was when I remembered that I meant to bring a walking pole, very useful for fending off sharp vegetation but not if you’ve left it in the back of the car on the other side of London 🙄

Oh well, the path soon widened out anyway and then led along the edge of an open field. To the right appeared a white water tower built in the 1930s but made to resemble a Norman tower. I followed the path left around the top of the field past a sad looking horse (Why the long face?) and then through a gap in the hedge over a sketchy-looking wooden footbridge, through some brambles and up over the brow of a low hill in an open field.

Following the path across the field I came to the iron gateposts that were once the entrance to Pyrgo House. Just past here the footpath has been blocked, cordoned off with an electrified fence, the Public Footpath signs and Loop way-markers torn down and thrown in the hedge to provide a space for rich gits to play on their horses.

I followed the faint track alongside the electric fence up and around the horse ride to try and find the route of the Loop again. The route guide here is a bit vague, there are several paths. Once again the waymarker had been knocked down and moved so that it pointed the wrong way. Following the arrow alongside another fence with horses on the other side I came to a metal kissing gate, tied to this was another post with Loop and footpath markers which pointed in directions that made no sense and didn’t appear to be paths. After some messing about I realised that I was now some distance from the correct line of the Loop and had to just take a bearing across the field to regain it alongside Tench Pond Plantation. Come the revolution the bastards at (I think) Home Farm need to be first up against the wall 😦

By the sign imploring people to “please stop shooting our deer, we regard them as pets and our children play in these woods so it’s not safe” I turned North up the field edge then east through another field to reach Paternoster Row, a quiet lane leading past a number of bungalows to Widdrington Farm. Just before the farm I climbed over a high and quite wobbly stile to take Footpath 10. The route guide says this crosses Carter’s Brook but if so I never saw it. What I did see was my first deer of the day and even managed a slightly fuzzy long-distance photo of it.

Footpath 10 ended at Cummings Hall Lane along which I walked to Noak Hill Road by The Deer's Rest PH (too early to stop for beer) and past that turned into Tees Drive. This runs alongside the Carter’s Brook where it flows through the trees in a steep sided dell. Despite being next to the road with housing on the other side this strip of woodland was full of deer so I walked along the roadside, the trees were a bit low along the path anyway. I think that I spotted Bambi anyway, along with some of his friends.

From here I was following the Carter’s Brook, mostly unseen behind a broad strip of brambles and trees, first on the left then after crossing Whitchurch Road with it on the right along with more deer on the wide grass area between the river and the blocks of flats. Crossing Dagnam Park Drive I entered Central Park.

It’s nothing like the pictures I’ve seen of its New York namesake but it did provide a handy bench on which to pause for my picnic lunch. Although lunch was accompanied by loud rap music and the occasional waft of exotic roll-ups, so maybe the two Central Parks do have something in common after all.

In Central Park Carter’s Brook becomes Paines Brook and the Loop follows it South through a strip of green between the housing estates, eventually reaching the busy A12 Colchester Road dual carriageway. Fortunately it wasn’t so busy as to need the 1000 yard detour to the pedestrian crossing. Safely across I rejoined the path beside the Paines Brook through a field to Church Road, and then a short walk through residential streets to the end of the section at Harold Wood Station.

It was now quite warm so I treated myself to an ice lolly, sat on a bench across the road from the station entrance, and prepared to start Section 22.

London Loop Section 21 ✅

London Loop Section 21 Flickr Album.