London Loop Section 16: Elstree to Cockfosters.

24th April

 

 

Section 16 is the longest single section of the London Loop at 11 miles. There are limited points at which to shorten the walk so when I left Elstree & Borehamwood station at just after 11 a.m. I initially intended to go as far as High Barnet where I could escape onto the Northern Line, then make a decision about the remaining three and a half miles.

 

It’s a long steady climb from the station to Barnet Lane whether you take the official route via the Deacon’s Hill Road as I did or the alternative unofficial diversion via Woodcock Hill Village Green. Whichever route you take passes above the Midland Main Line far below in the Elstree Tunnel, the towers for the ventilation shafts of which are visible from the road.

 

 

 

I had a bit of trouble locating the path off Barnet Lane because the house next door had the builders in and they’d parked their trucks and vans across it, eventually I had to climb over the drawbar of a plant trailer to get to the footpath. The slightly muddy path led down to an old oak woodland, Scrachwood Open Space. Walking through these bluebell woods is classic London Loop territory, i.e. you wouldn’t think you were in London. Emerging from the woods at the A1 dual carriageway, requiring an 1100 yard diversion to the nearest subway to cross it reminds you that you are.

 

 

 

 Eleven hundred yards of rushing traffic, litter, abandoned tyres, and plastic bottles of lorry drivers’ piss later I turned right into Moat Mount Open Space. It could only get more pleasant from here on and thankfully it did. The loop here joins the Dollis Valley Greenwalk and passes a small pond that is the source of the Dollis Brook. A small pond that I failed to spot. Unless this is it but I’m not sure.

 

 

 

I walked on through a mix of shady woodland and open fields until I reached Hendon Wood Lane, a little way along which I turned into Totteridge Fields. That’s a figure of speech obviously, I didn’t literally suddenly become a nature reserve. I carried on down through the nature reserve then through a sports field and into a section where the path runs through open fields managed under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme by a tenant farmer. That means signs pointing out that it’s private land, stay on the path and nowhere to sit lest you linger rather than pass directly through. Which was a shame because it was really time for my picnic lunch. Eventually I crossed the Dollis Brook over a metal bridge, awarding myself 2 points for spotting the adjacent stinkpipe, and paused on a convenient concrete block at the edge of an open grassy field for lunch.

 

 

 

 As you can see above the forecast cloudy skies and 20% chance of rain were so far staying away. Fortified by my traditional picnic of salmon paste sarnies and prawn cocktail flavour shells I set off east again through wide grassy areas with the Dollis Brook now to my right but mostly hidden and the houses of southern Chipping Barnet to my left, a residential  area that Open Street Map says is called Duck Island despite not being an island and I didn’t spot any ducks, only a pair of self-propelled council lawnmowers. Beyond the houses lay a steep upward climb on a narrow tarmac path followed of course by coming back down again to Barnet Lane, not the same Barnet Lane as earlier. Crossing the road and entering the sports centre, past the football pitches behind high metal fences with “no unauthorised use or ball games” signs and suddenly there were people about, more people than I had seen since leaving Elstree. I was now in deepest residential Barnet, heading for the Great North Road. To get there I walked up Fairfield Way, a street so patriotic that many of the houses proudly flew Union Flags in their front gardens, albeit defaced with the legend “VE Day” in gold lettering. Many of those same houses had drives in which were parked German cars. Draw your own conclusions.

 

 

 

Where the Northern Line crosses over the Great North Road I sat on a wall and tried to decide whether to turn left to High Barnet or right to carry on to the end of Section 16 at Cockfosters. It was 14:37, the sun was shining, plenty of daylight left, no walking back from the station at the end of a long day since my car was at Hounslow West. I convinced myself by a narrow margin to turn right. As it turned out the last three and a half miles happened to be some of the nicest parts of the section.

 

 

 

 Not the very first bit though because having gone under the bridge above and crossed the road at a light controlled pedestrian crossing that only grudgingly allowed pedestrian to interrupt the flow of traffic I turned left up Potters Lane. And I mean up. Save for a short set of steps down a bank off the road and into a meadow it carried on going up. Past the back of High Barnet station glimpsed between the trees, levelling up for a bit along some residential streets before a long climb up through King George’s Fields with a good view if you turned around. I could really have done with that bench being unoccupied.

 

 

 

Fortunately there were other benches and then I reached Hadley Green Road, with the open, tree studded green to the left and old houses facing it on the right, including the large red brick Hadley House with its stable block and near the end of the row Livingstone Cottage, former home of the missionary and explorer. He of “Dr. Livingstone I presume?” fame. Although calling it a cottage is a bit of a misnomer given the size of the place and according to the rather grand plaque on the front bearing his likeness he lived there in 1857. Only 1857?

 

 

 

Beyond Hadley green it gets seriously villagey as you pass a row of almshouses into the centre of Monken Hadley. At eleven miles north-west  of Charing Cross we’re close to the limits of Greater London in what was once  a parish of Middlesex that stuck out into Hertfordshire. It has lots of old buildings, a  late 15th. century church with another set of almshouses next to it, and white wooden gates across the roads into and out of it. You can see why the writers Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard chose to live here, poet Cecil Day Lewis who stayed with them died here, and for nearly thirty years Spike Milligan lived in the village as well, although that wasn’t so good for one local teenager who strayed into his garden.

 

 

 

 I was safe from being shot since a: the London Loop passes Spike's former home on the other side of the road in the trees on Hadley Common and b: he’s dead. The path continued through the woods and through a lot of tree roots requiring some care to avoid tripping over until I reached a small car park in Bakers Lane with some information boards and two burnt out mopeds to reinforce the idea that this is still London. Then I continued to the bridge over the East Coast Main Line just north of New Barnet station, the bridge’s elevated position being good for photographing passing trains between King’s Cross and The North, if you are tall enough to see over the brick parapet that is.

 

 

 

 From the railway bridge I walked (somewhat slower now) through the beech woods disturbed only by birdsong and the incredibly loud public address system at New Barnet station. I climbed a steep set of steps for a quick look at Jack’s Lake with its afternoon anglers - does sweeping a massive net back and forth in the water count as angling? - before returning to the main path.

 

 

 

I carried on along the track passing occasional Loop way marks before reaching houses and a pub which reminded me of the following joke:

 

Three guys were visiting England and were told they had to go to a great old pub called The Cock Inn. Each of them went off in different directions and planned to meet at the pub at five o'clock.Two of them arrived on time, but there was no sign of Edward.  Finally, at five thirty, he showed up with the his shirt torn at the collar and two black eyes.
Shocked by his appearance, the other two asked Edward what had happened to him."Well I was walking down the road," Edward explained, "I noticed a man and woman behind a bush. So I stopped and asked, 'How far is The Cock Inn?’” 

And that’s when the trouble started 

 

 

 

 After that you’ll be glad to know that my walk was close to its end and therefore so is this blog post 😀

 

A last few streets and I passed Christ Church and arrived opposite Cockfosters tube station at four minutes to five, four hours fifty minutes since leaving Elstree & Borehamwood Station including 20 minutes break for lunch and a couple of other brief rest stops. I’ll take that. I’m glad I decided to do the whole section in one go, although I’m feeling it today. The last part was picturesque in the afternoon sunshine, the rain never happened, and it will make starting the next section much simpler whenever I do that. 

 

 

 

Many more lovely pictures to be found in this Flickr Album.

 

 

 

 

 

London Loop Section 15

Hatch End to Elstree

 

Back out on the Hertfordshire - Greater London (Middlesex) boundary again for a 9-ish mile walk on what turned out to be a rather warm day. A mixed bag of suburban spaces, parkland, golf courses and fields. I got off the bus outside Hatch End Telephone Exchange and walked round to Grimsdyke Road, down the path between the houses to the field I’d finished Section 14 in back in June. Section 15 starts in this corner, can you spot it?

 

 

 

 It wasn’t the last time today that I would curse the shockingly overgrown state of the paths on this section of the Loop. I made it over the stile and turned left through the brambles and undergrowth, it would have been easier to follow the field edge but the toilets at Rayners Lane are still “temporarily” closed and I needed some cover to offload my morning mug of tea.

 

For another half mile or so I wished I’d brought secateurs or something and then I found the path down the back of the houses in Derwent Avenue was completely impenetrable. This wasn’t the start I’d hoped for. I had no option at this point but to backtrack and divert via the parallel street to reach the wooded Sylvia Avenue Open Space and beyond that finally an open field!

 

 

 

 On the other side of which lay Hertfordshire. Also the West Coast Main Line railway which I followed to Little Oxhey Lane and crossed via a rather grotty steel trough pedestrian bridge alongside the road bridge. For another half a mile I walked along the road with little of interest except a fading, undated notice from the London Borough of Harrow informing whoever had their horses on the borough’s land that if they weren’t moved they’d be sold. I didn’t see any horses. I managed to cross Oxhey Lane at the lights without being run over and on reaching the far side noted a pedestrian crossing push button in the hedge and a single traffic signal in the trees. Not sure what this is supposed to do? An actual pedestrian crossing would be nice.

 

 

 

 Beyond the field gate here the path got brambly again but passable and I made it through the scrubland to Grim’s Dyke Golf Course without too many injuries. I’ve never really managed to work up any enthusiasm for golf, agreeing with the description often (but probably erroneously) attributed to Mark Twain of it as “a good walk spoiled”. There were a few people out today who seem to disagree though.

 

 

 

 I was glad to reach the shade of the trees on the far side of the course though, the forecast scattered clouds having largely scattered and it being uphill most of the way. I left the course down Ass House Lane, which transatlantic readers will no doubt find amusing and reached Grim’s Dyke, which they might consider inappropriate. It’s a linear earthwork, a ditch believed to be at least 2000 years old and probably marking a boundary. The Saxons didn’t have archaeologists however so they ascribed its construction to the Devil, a.k.a. Grim. I turned left and walked through the woods along the bank alongside Grim’s Dyke which could still be made out on my right, if you looked closely enough.

 

 

 

 Continuing through the woods of Harrow Weald Common I crossed Grim’s Dyke at a bridge and passed the Telecoms radio station with its tall steel lattice tower poking up above the trees to reach Gilbert’s Lake. The Gilbert for whom it is named is Sir William, of “and Sullivan” fame and the lake and surrounds were once his ornamental gardens. Sir William died here after going in to save a young lady who’d got into difficulties swimming in the lake, thereby achieving his wish to die “on a summers day in my garden”. On this summers day I sat on a rock by the lake and ate my picnic lunch.

 

 

 

 Fortified by crisps and fish paste sandwiches I carried on across Harrow Weald Common to the Old Redding road and crossed over to the view point in the car park. There are good panoramic views over London from here and despite the heat haze I could see the top of the Wembley Arch glinting above the treetops and a scatter of tall buildings in North West London.

 

 

 

 Leaving the car park I passed the pub called The Case Is Altered which was closed, probably just as well or further progress might have faltered. It might be permanently shut from what I can gather although it didn’t have the appearance of an ex-pub? Let’s hope it lives again.

 

 

 

 I crossed back over the road and into the woods of Harrow Weald Common and followed wide and thankfully bramble-free paths past cottages built for workers at Grim’s Dyke House, over little bridges and along boardwalks to reach Common Road. Here I crossed to enter Bentley Priory Open Space. Behind the security fence and the trees I caught a glimpse of Bentley Priory itself, formerly the HQ of RAF Fighter Command and the place from where the Battle of Britain was directed in 1940. The open space has a good solid concrete path running across it that looks like it might be a wartime construction but I’ve no idea. 

 

 

 

 There’s a good view over open country to the right and the path is popular with dog walkers, eventually it exits Bentley Priory Open Space onto a track that leads to Priory Drive. This is the posh bit, massive houses, no footway, lots of notices making those passing through feel as unwelcome as a fart in a space suit, expensive cars on large drives, big gates. You get the idea. I left through the black steel security gates and crossed into Warren Lane ahead. Turning left through a car park I almost missed the Loop way marker in the corner which pointed to a path that looped around through the woods to emerge back on Warren Lane. Because sometimes the London Loop takes the long way round to get away from a short stretch of road even when it has a footway. I crossed the road to Stanmore Cricket Club where I rested for a while on a handy bench under the trees at the edge of the pitch and tried not to think about how much further I had to walk. It was a bit hot.

 

 

 

 Fortunately I now headed through shady woodland again past the Brewery Ponds, reservoirs for a long defunct brew-pub and coaching inn, The Vine, nearby. Beyond the larger pond I headed across a grassy space and between a line of trees to a track and then through a gap to Little Common, where I claimed 2 points for spotting the stinkpipe 🙂

(It’s a Joolz Guides thing.)

 

 

 

 From Little Common I passed Ceasar’s Pond at came out on Wood Lane by the Husaini Shia Islamic Centre. It was quite busy and frequented by the sort of arsehole that thinks double yellow lines don’t count if you park on the footway next to them, completely blocking it so pedestrians have to walk in the road 😠

A little further on I turned right into an unnamed private road with a Loop sign, a sign showing it as Public Byway No.6, and of course two signs saying ‘Private’ and ’No Public Right Of Way’ because that’s how they roll in Stanmore. I took no more notice of this nonsense than did the fox crossing the road in front of me.

 

 

 

 At the end of the private road I went down the narrow alleyway (more brambles but someone had been along with the weed-whacker to clear most of them) that runs between high fences through the grounds of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, stepping out at the end to join a broad, rough track and scaring the ‘good-for-the-roses' out of the hooded horse in the adjacent field. Literally.

 

 

 

 Where the track turned right I branched left over a little bridge buried in a hedge and once again entered Hertfordshire. Here I had to climb up and over part of Caldecote Hill following a faint grassy track towards the M1 Motorway. Two walkers came the other way, fully kitted out with rucksacks and walking poles and it struck me that they were the first two hikers I’d met today.

 

 

 

 On the far side of the hill by the gas pumping station I turned right onto Elstree Road under the motorway and followed it across the Watford Bypass until it became Watford Road which I crossed not without some difficulty to enter Aldenham Country Park by the huge Aldenham Reservoir. I paused for a rest by the dam that contains the reservoir and risked checking how much further I had to walk. About two miles, not too bad, about the same as to my local railway station and back. No problem, finished the contents of my water bottle and looked forward to the possibility of an ice cream in Elstree 😅

 

 

 

From the reservoir I crossed Aldenham Road and was surprised to see a group of old fashioned tents in the field to the left. I looked it up later, “Home Farm Glamping” apparently. Bell tents from £150/night, Yurts from £200/night, corporate events, weddings, and hen dos catered for. There seemed to be a large party of blue uniformed kids staying there, standing in a circle and cheering. I moved on through a large open area, part of Composers Park, through some young trees and eventually to Elstree Hill North which is also the Roman road Watling Street which I crossed, turning into Allum Lane. From here the Section 15  takes another big loop, three sides of a square, before returning to Allum Lane near the section end. Tempted as I was to just shortcut it I decided to follow the official route and plodded on up through the field to the north. At least I got to claim another 2 points.

 

 

 

 Further up the hill just before reaching the golf course there was a passive-aggressive sign just begging for wilful misinterpretation. Horses in Elstree can read apparently 🙂

 

 

 

 “Please keep to the Public Footpath” would have served just as well. I went through the broken gate in the hedge onto The Hertsmere Golf Course, following the track eastwards across the course braving some very inaccurate driving - I bet he had trouble finding that ball - and turning south through Allum Lane Spinney to reach Allum Lane again. The final stretch east along Allum Lane brought me at last to the end of Section 15 at Deacon’s Hill Road next to the ASDA petrol station. I was rather disappointed to discover they don’t sell ice creams so settled for a bottle of chilled water and an iced coffee. 

 

 

 

I did get my ice cream at Elstree & Borehamwood Station though, then caught a Thameslink train to West Hampstead, the Overground to Gunnersbury, and the hellish mobile sauna known as the New Routemaster to Hounslow West and my nice air-conditioned car!

 

 Not sure which bit to try next, Section 16 is over 11 miles so I might look at 5, 6, or 7 for something a bit easier.

 

All 57 photos I took on Section 15 are in this Flickr Album