Walking the Capital Ring from Balham to Kingston Vale

31st May 2026

Bored waiting for a parcel to arrive that DHL appear to have lost instead I returned to Balham (Gateway to the South) to complete Section 5 of the Capital Ring to Wimbledon Park and then start Section 6 towards Richmond.

Finishing Section 5 

Leaving the railway station I passed under the bridge and back down Balham High Road to the large Art Deco block of flats, Du Cane Court where I turned right along Balham Park road. Balham Park Road was very long and straight and lined with large Victorian villas. Just after the postbox the road bent to the left and the Capital Ring turned left down an alleyway.

At the end of the alley I reached the first part of Wandsworth Common, a small wooded area alongside Wandsworth Common railway station called St James’ Triangle. A wide tarmac path led me alongside the railway and through the station ticket office to Bellevue Road which I crossed by The Hope pub to enter the second part of Wandsworth Common. Where the path turned towards the railway again I spotted a stinkpipe hiding in the trees so two points to me. 

A bit further on I reached the ponds on the common, which don’t appear to have a name. They did have one bench seat that was in the shade though so here I sat to eat my picnic lunch. I opened a packet of crisps and looked up to see every waterfowl on the pond now on a direct course to my location. A female Mallard came and stood before me staring hopefully up between my knees but eventually realised that no cheese and onion crisps or crab paste sandwich was coming her way and waddled off.

After lunch I carried on, crossing the common by the sports pitches to arrive at Trinity Road opposite the County Arms pub. Here I had my first déjà vu moment of the day. I recognize this place, I’ve been here before. I crossed the road and continued along Alma Terrace where I found the reason I’d been here before, HM Prison Wandsworth. No, I haven’t been inside but I have visited their occasionally-open museum in a building just outside the walls, on an Open House London visit in September 2022.

Today I skirted the prison and headed down the long straight Magdalen Road, taking the more interesting alternative path through Wandsworth Cemetery for most of the three quarters of a mile to Earlsfield Station.

More déjà vu here too as I passed beneath the green painted bridge and left into Penwith Road to cross the River Wandle which I’d followed on a walk in 2019. The Capital Ring does not follow the river though, instead passing along now sun-baked residential streets to Durnsford Road Recreation Ground. Here behind Wimbledon Farmers’ Market I found the only bench that was in the shade and sat down gratefully. So much for the weather cooling down a bit, it was 28°C.

I came out of the park into Wellington Road and turned right by the Wellington Works down an alleyway which brought me out opposite Wimbledon Mosque where I turned right along Durnsford Road and right again into Arthur Road. Here I took full advantage of the shops, getting an iced coffee and a Calippo. At the top of Arthur Road I reached the end of Section 5 at Wimbledon Park Station on the District Line.

Capital Ring Section 5 Photos on Flickr (opens in a new page).

The sensible thing to do here would probably have been to get on a train, so…

Starting Section 6

Section 6 starts outside Wimbledon Park Station and runs for 7.3 miles to Richmond. It seemed like a good idea to do some of that and then find a suitable break point, although none are given in the walking directions. I finished my iced lolly and crossed over the railway, turning right to follow the curve of Home Park Road to reach the entrance to Wimbledon Park. Viewed from the top of the steps inside the entrance the park was a bustle of activity. Tennis (obviously, although The Wimbledon Club is actually the other side of the lake), cricket, a busy kids playground and mass picnicking.

I made my way down the steps and through the park to the lake (via the well-kept loos) and picked my way along the lakeside path trying to avoid the worst of the goose shit. I’ll bet it’s like a skating rink when wet. I reached the end of the path by the lake and realised that I’d missed the right turn by the water-sports centre buildings so did a dog-leg to regain the route alongside the fence around the athletics track. from the corner of the athletics track I cut straight across to exit the park through the large gates into Wimbledon Park Road.

At the bottom of the hill I turned right into Queensmere Road which climbed fairly steeply past very expensive houses and apartment blocks to reach the A219 Parkside. 

Crossing at the lights a bit further to the right I entered Wimbledon Common. After a while the path seemed a little familiar and then I reached Wimbledon Windmill and yes I’ve definitely rambled this way before, in fact I would be retracing my steps for the rest of the walk.

I considered stopping for refreshments at the Windmill Tearoom. It had all the appearance of still operating under COVID restrictions, insisting on everyone ordering at an outside window covered by a sheet of Perspex with a small hole cut in it for contactless payment. The trouble was there was obviously nobody on the other side of the perspex actually taking orders. I have less patience with such nonsense than the two people already queuing so I gave up and moved on. Past the golf club the route turned right downhill along a straight and familiar track to reach the lake, Queensmere, currently all fenced off to prevent people or dogs taking a dip. Turning left up the steep hill I stopped to rest on a tree stump and was passed by a jogger heading up the hill. I say jogger, he wasn’t running any faster than I was walking and looked as if he might need an ambulance by the time he reached the top of the hill.

At the top of the hill I crossed the golf course (which reminded me of walking parts of the London Loop) and wombled on across Wimbledon Common, taking a very short detour to the War Memorial before carrying on along Stag Ride to meet the Beverley Brook by Richardson Evans Memorial Playing Fields. Now this was definitely familiar territory because in 2023 I walked along the Beverley Brook from West Wimbledon to its confluence with the Thames near Putney.

I crossed the Beverley Brook near the pavilion and crossed the next field to emerge from Wimbledon Common onto the busy A3 at Kingston Vale. It was five and twenty to six, still bloody hot, and I’d walked far enough (almost 7 miles as it happened). In case you're wondering no, I didn't see any Wombles.

I waited in the hot sunshine at the Vale Crescent/Robin Hood bus stop for a 265, trying to find shade behind the shelter but not wanting to miss seeing the bus come around the bend. Of course it was running several minutes late. At Shannon Corner I changed to the 131 which took me back to Wimbledon from where I had a train ticket home.

Not before I’d had a beer though. A pint of Guinness in The Hand & Racquet barely touched the sides so I ordered fish and chips which obviously needed another pint to aid the digestion. They were still in extra time when I left to get the train so I didn’t witness the undoubted dejection of the group of Gooners in the pub after the penalty shoot-out which ensured that the UEFA Champions League silverware remained in Paris.

Capital Ring Section 6 photos on Flickr (opens in a new page).

Clapham South Deep-level Shelter

9th February 2019

Another Hidden London visit to break up the monotony of winter. This time to a very deep hole in the ground. I got the train from Sandhurst via Guildford and Clapham Junction to Balham (Gateway to the South) and despite it being Saturday all the trains ran within a couple of minutes on time and none were cancelled. I mention this because I'm not usually that lucky.

A 15 minute stroll up Balham High Road brought me to Clapham South station, or more accurately to the Costa opposite for refreshments, impeccably timed so that I missed the rain shower that occurred whilst I was inside. Filled up on cappuccino and cinnamon brioche bun (those are nice) and with some time to kill before the tour of the shelter was due to start I crossed the road and had a wander around the southern half of Clapham Common. 

Clapham South shelter surface building

The first thing you come to (ignoring the robot khazi) is one of the entrance "pillbox" buildings to the deep level shelter. Just behind it is the top of one of the ventilation system shafts. 

This entrance is not the one used for the tour though, that's further south back along Balham Hill, now incorporated into a modern apartment block and known locally as the drum. 

Further wandering across the common brought me to the bandstand and Mount Pond before heading back to Clapham South station to meet the Hidden London tour guides and be registered and fitted with a fetching pink paper wristband. While waiting we were entertained by the leaping beggar outside the station entrance who would occasionally and for no discernible reason jump up into the air. I'm not sure care-in-the-community is working quite as well as we'd hope. Just be glad it isn't you - unless it is you and you're reading this in which case you've dropped your lighter by the south entrance door to the station.

South London Women & Children's Hospital

Across the road from the station is an impressive bit of 1920s neo-classical architecture.

A quick Google informed me that it was the

South London Hospital for Women and Children. Designed by Sir Edwin Cooper it was for women patients and staffed by women only right up until its controversial closure in 1984.

It is now a Tesco store. Or at least the bits that remain that they weren't allowed to destroy are. Thankfully the Tesco branding on the exterior is unusually understated, to the extent that I hadn't noticed its new use until I looked it up.

Back to the main subject of this post and back to Clapham South station. The tour party met up under the high lantern over the station entrance and once all were present and correct lead the short distance

Clapham South entrance

down Balham Hill to an anonymous door at the bottom of a modern apartment block.

Inside we were given a short safety briefing - all sources of ignition are banned and anyone who thinks they might have trouble climbing back up the 179 stairs is requested to seriously consider whether they should proceed on the tour. There is no working lift. There is definitely no step-free access!

Clapham South is one of 8 deep-level air raid shelters built between 1941 and 1942 (10 were planned but two were abandoned before completion due to difficulties) after it became horribly apparent that the tube stations that people were using as air raid shelters were not adequate. There was great loss of life at Bank station and again at Balham, where the bombs shattered water and sewerage mains resulting in many of the victims being drowned in effluent which flooded into the tunnels. Each shelter was intended to house 10,000 people although that was later reduced to 8000 as it was decided that 10,000 would be overcrowded. The shelters were all attached to tube stations on the Northern and Central Lines because they utilised pre-war plans for express tube lines intended to run beneath the existing lines.
The 10 shelters were located at:

• Belsize Park
• Camden Town
• Goodge Street
• Chancery Lane
• St. Pauls (not completed due to concerns about undermining the cathedral).
• Oval (not completed because it kept flooding while they were building it).
• Stockwell
• Clapham North
• Clapham Common
• Clapham South

Of the eight built only Clapham South is currently open to the public, by Hidden London tour only. Although that is about to change as Clapham Common shelter, now an underground farm, are currently taking bookings to run tours of their own hole in the ground. I expect it will look a bit different to its neighbour to the south.

Direction sign in the tunnels

Spiralling down the 179 steps we went (insert your own reference to the "15 storeys" gag here) to the bottom and into one of the cross tunnels.

The shelter consists of two parallel quarter-mile long tunnels connected by cross passages at the bottom of the vertical access shafts. Each tunnel is divided into four sections and each section split horizontally by a floor giving a total of 16 sub-shelters.

The tunnels are 16' diameter tube train tunnels, dug by hand, lined with iron or concrete rings. It's not what you'd call spacious accommodation.

The whole shelter was connected to a powerful ventilation system. It had to be, this was the 1940s, almost everyone smoked!

Upper floor within the tunnel

In order to aid users in finding their way to their allotted space the shelters were given the names of Royal Navy admirals, 16 of them.

Some civil servant had to find 16 admirals with names starting with the letters A to P.

Within the shelter were were medical facilities, toilets and showers, and canteens as well as administrative offices for the Civil Defence staff under the control of the Shelter Superintendent.

Wartime bunk beds

Triple layer steel bunks were installed. There's not much space between them and the bottom bunk on the lower floor is rather short due to the curvature of the tunnel wall.

The shelter had to be evacuated during the day, it was important that people carried on as normally with their lives as possible and didn't become troglodytes. Only those who had been bombed out and had lost their homes were allowed to leave possessions in the shelter. Everyone else had to drag their bedding and everything else in and out up those spiral staircases.

Newspaper article 1944

By the time the shelters were completed the heaviest part of the Blitz had come and gone.

The shelters were mothballed as it wasn't felt to be economically viable to run them for the much reduced number of people who would need them.

They were actually opened later in mid 1944 when the German V1 and V2 weapons were falling on London but never saw anything like the 8000 people a night that they could accommodate.



After the end of the war the shelters were used as cheap 1d/night hotels, troop accommodation for the funeral of King George VI, briefly although famously to accommodate some of the migrant workers from the MV Empire Windrush, and then in 1951 as the Festival of Britain Hotel. A fire at Goodge Street in 1956 which was being used by US troops meant the shelters were deemed no longer suitable as sleeping accommodation and closed.

Secure archive shelving

Since then the shelters have found alternative use as secure archive storage. They are dry, ventilated, and have a fairly constant temperature which is suited to the storage of paper and other items.

As well as installing purpose built shelving many of the wartime bunk beds were converted to shelves by placing sheets of chipboard over the steel bed-springs.

Clapham South is a Grade II listed structure and if you can get a ticket (and if you can climb 179 stairs) it's well worth the entry fee. The Hidden London staff put on a really good tour (Pat is especially good) and you'll be surprised at just how extensive the shelter is while being quite cramped at the same time. At 6'5" tall I spent a lot of time ducking.

Clapham Common shelter

If you walk up past the common as I did past Clapham Common station then on the right on the corner of Carpenter's Place you can see the surface building for Clapham Common deep-level shelter. this is now Growing Underground hydroponic farm so has been spruced up a bit compared with Clapham South.

Next to it is the Maharani restaurant.

I can confirm that they do a bloody excellent curry 😊