Thursday, August 23, 2007
Grove Park > Crystal Palace
TREPIDATION is exactly what we felt about this part of the walk, probably because we started out later than we’d planned to complete this gruelling 8.2 mile section (we didn’t get to Grove Park til 2-ish). Also, going by previous Ring walks we know that you always walk longer than the stated distance, taking into account the links from public transport at the start and end of each section and the detours that we do round large parks and en route.
We picked up this section of the walk at the start of Railway Children Walk, named after EE Nesbit’s famous book (she lived nearby). I almost expected to see Jenny Agutter waving from one of the houses close by (no such luck). This is quite a pleasant little walk though nothing prepares you for the truly hideous footbridge that takes you over the railway lines linking London and Kent. The other side of the bridge is massively overgrown - we’d never seen banks of nettles that big! (and we certainly didn’t see them in the Railway Children film!)
From here, you walk along quite a boring part of the walk mostly round housing estates, before entering Downham Woodland Walk, a remnant of the Great North Wood. We did pass a chav family who asked for a light for their ciggies but they were quite harmless, walking their dogs and drinking cans of carling. Although you’re essentially walking along the back of terraced houses there’s enough little features (sculptures and carved wooden hobbitesque leaf seats) to make it pleasant enough. The wooden animal sculptures reminded of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe where the evil queen turns all the little animals to stone.
Out of the walk, we crossed Bromley Road and entered Beckenham Palace Park, a massive park and nature reserve, heavily wooded with a public golf course in it. This is a great part of the walk as you really feel like you’re out of civilisation. After walking through some woodland, it’s not long before you have an 18th century mansion and farmhouse in view. It looks nice from a distance but is a bit shabby close up. The mansion contains the golf clubhouse, which is also open to the public. There’s toilets and a cheap bar – we felt obliged to have a couple of drinks and sit outside on the wooden bench seats as it was such a super day. Bar was quite busy with some kind of community golf competition and we had the added bonus of the Biggin Hill air show with jets flying overhead – deafening, though it looked spectacular. Lots of people had dogs with them, as it was so hot there were lots of water bowls being passed around. Two drinks at the bar was a definite mistake, we started the next part of the walk and it wasn’t long before toilets were required. The only plus side of this was that we tended to walk a lot faster!
Exiting Beckenham Palace Park you come to a part of the walk that sends you through back streets in residential areas and small parks and sports fields. We passed rows and rows of some very posh mansions, under a subway and into Cator Park (the path into the grounds is between 2 houses so keep your eyes peeled for the signs). Cator Park is very nice in a sculpted kind of way, lots of sporting activity taking place. A few streams meet in this park to form a huge pool. The next point of note is Alexandra Recreation Ground – we had our terminator vision set on the pavilion to use the public toilets. CLOSED!! Damn you guide book for toying with our hopes (and our bladders!)
We arrived at Penge East station, where you have to cross a railway line using the footbridge, the signage could be a lot better here – it’s never clear that you actually have to do this and we wandered around like idiots for a bit. At this stage you’re within spitting distance of Crystal Palace, however a v rough looking bar (Hollywood East) provided a necessary toilet break. It’s the kind of bar you would never normally go into, and as we used the toilet we felt obliged to have a drink. We stayed for one and saw that it was as dog rough as we suspected, complete with numerous “Don’t deal drugs pls thx” signs in both English and Chinese! Nothing happened, thou the horned locals definitely knew that we weren’t. You walk up Penge High Street under some bridges, apparently this section is one of earliest rail sections in London and the trains used to operated by atmospheric traction where trains were vacuum drawn through a pipe – how cool!! Shame it’s not still like that. All sounded very Willy Wonka-esque!
Make sure you leave plenty of time to take in as much of the splendour of Crystal Palace Park, which is huge. The Palace burnt down in 1936 but you get the idea of how massive it must have been with the foundations! I can only imagine how spectacular the fire was as it must have been viewable from the whole of London. The park is also home to the huge and famous sports/athletics centre, though this basically looks like a 1960s new town. There are capital ring signs directing you round the park, though I recommend just making your own way round it. The park is landscaped with lakes, moats, a maze, etc… Avoid the maze - hugely disappointing arrangement of straggly hedges. Must sees are the huge concrete concert hall stage simply for its design, the transmitter mast (if only for the views as this is one of the highest points in London), the stone Sphinxes and the cool Victorian dinosaur statues. The prehistoric section is magical – Mark remembered seeing these on Blue Peter when he was a child (a v long time ago then) and they defo lived up to his expectations - for any kids or kidults they would be one of the highlights of the whole capital ring walk. They’re fenced off so people can’t deface them and this works surprisingly well as they’re placed amidst greenery beside lakes and streams to fit in with the surroundings.
Before getting the train from Crystal Palace we headed into the village and were pleasantly surprised really by the choice of bars and restaurants (though not so pleasantly surprised by the massive hills, as we were knackered by then). We had a drink in the Holly Bush, which was OK, but definitely recommend Black Sheep, we got a window seat looking onto the busy street and happily sat with a cocktail or two, hic!! What a brilliant way to end this section where we must have covered at least 10 miles, yikes!!!!
For more pic's click here:
Next the joys of Streatham…..
TREPIDATION is exactly what we felt about this part of the walk, probably because we started out later than we’d planned to complete this gruelling 8.2 mile section (we didn’t get to Grove Park til 2-ish). Also, going by previous Ring walks we know that you always walk longer than the stated distance, taking into account the links from public transport at the start and end of each section and the detours that we do round large parks and en route.
We picked up this section of the walk at the start of Railway Children Walk, named after EE Nesbit’s famous book (she lived nearby). I almost expected to see Jenny Agutter waving from one of the houses close by (no such luck). This is quite a pleasant little walk though nothing prepares you for the truly hideous footbridge that takes you over the railway lines linking London and Kent. The other side of the bridge is massively overgrown - we’d never seen banks of nettles that big! (and we certainly didn’t see them in the Railway Children film!)
From here, you walk along quite a boring part of the walk mostly round housing estates, before entering Downham Woodland Walk, a remnant of the Great North Wood. We did pass a chav family who asked for a light for their ciggies but they were quite harmless, walking their dogs and drinking cans of carling. Although you’re essentially walking along the back of terraced houses there’s enough little features (sculptures and carved wooden hobbitesque leaf seats) to make it pleasant enough. The wooden animal sculptures reminded of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe where the evil queen turns all the little animals to stone.
Out of the walk, we crossed Bromley Road and entered Beckenham Palace Park, a massive park and nature reserve, heavily wooded with a public golf course in it. This is a great part of the walk as you really feel like you’re out of civilisation. After walking through some woodland, it’s not long before you have an 18th century mansion and farmhouse in view. It looks nice from a distance but is a bit shabby close up. The mansion contains the golf clubhouse, which is also open to the public. There’s toilets and a cheap bar – we felt obliged to have a couple of drinks and sit outside on the wooden bench seats as it was such a super day. Bar was quite busy with some kind of community golf competition and we had the added bonus of the Biggin Hill air show with jets flying overhead – deafening, though it looked spectacular. Lots of people had dogs with them, as it was so hot there were lots of water bowls being passed around. Two drinks at the bar was a definite mistake, we started the next part of the walk and it wasn’t long before toilets were required. The only plus side of this was that we tended to walk a lot faster!
Exiting Beckenham Palace Park you come to a part of the walk that sends you through back streets in residential areas and small parks and sports fields. We passed rows and rows of some very posh mansions, under a subway and into Cator Park (the path into the grounds is between 2 houses so keep your eyes peeled for the signs). Cator Park is very nice in a sculpted kind of way, lots of sporting activity taking place. A few streams meet in this park to form a huge pool. The next point of note is Alexandra Recreation Ground – we had our terminator vision set on the pavilion to use the public toilets. CLOSED!! Damn you guide book for toying with our hopes (and our bladders!)
We arrived at Penge East station, where you have to cross a railway line using the footbridge, the signage could be a lot better here – it’s never clear that you actually have to do this and we wandered around like idiots for a bit. At this stage you’re within spitting distance of Crystal Palace, however a v rough looking bar (Hollywood East) provided a necessary toilet break. It’s the kind of bar you would never normally go into, and as we used the toilet we felt obliged to have a drink. We stayed for one and saw that it was as dog rough as we suspected, complete with numerous “Don’t deal drugs pls thx” signs in both English and Chinese! Nothing happened, thou the horned locals definitely knew that we weren’t. You walk up Penge High Street under some bridges, apparently this section is one of earliest rail sections in London and the trains used to operated by atmospheric traction where trains were vacuum drawn through a pipe – how cool!! Shame it’s not still like that. All sounded very Willy Wonka-esque!
Make sure you leave plenty of time to take in as much of the splendour of Crystal Palace Park, which is huge. The Palace burnt down in 1936 but you get the idea of how massive it must have been with the foundations! I can only imagine how spectacular the fire was as it must have been viewable from the whole of London. The park is also home to the huge and famous sports/athletics centre, though this basically looks like a 1960s new town. There are capital ring signs directing you round the park, though I recommend just making your own way round it. The park is landscaped with lakes, moats, a maze, etc… Avoid the maze - hugely disappointing arrangement of straggly hedges. Must sees are the huge concrete concert hall stage simply for its design, the transmitter mast (if only for the views as this is one of the highest points in London), the stone Sphinxes and the cool Victorian dinosaur statues. The prehistoric section is magical – Mark remembered seeing these on Blue Peter when he was a child (a v long time ago then) and they defo lived up to his expectations - for any kids or kidults they would be one of the highlights of the whole capital ring walk. They’re fenced off so people can’t deface them and this works surprisingly well as they’re placed amidst greenery beside lakes and streams to fit in with the surroundings.
Before getting the train from Crystal Palace we headed into the village and were pleasantly surprised really by the choice of bars and restaurants (though not so pleasantly surprised by the massive hills, as we were knackered by then). We had a drink in the Holly Bush, which was OK, but definitely recommend Black Sheep, we got a window seat looking onto the busy street and happily sat with a cocktail or two, hic!! What a brilliant way to end this section where we must have covered at least 10 miles, yikes!!!!
For more pic's click here:
Next the joys of Streatham…..
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Falconwood > Grove Park
We headed back to south east London and back along the path by the railway path and busy road to rejoin the start of the walk. We walked across a heavily graffittied concrete footbridge and found ourselves in Eltham Park South, a large open space lined with trees, and deserted but for an elderly couple trying to get their elderly dogs to pay fetch. The path then took us across a road and down a footpath running around the edge of a leafy residential area and some meadows. We walked between some large houses and came across a little triangle of grass with a sort of weird little hobbity red brick building (Conduit Head, surprisingly a Grade II listed structure) that turned out to be an old medieval sluice gate for nearby Eltham Palace – no water passes through it now though and if you peer through the grilles you will only see a few crisp packets and empty tins. It definitely could be better maintained.
After the sluice gate, we walked down another quiet residential street past a lovely church to a huge roundabout, ah civilisation – take care to follow the signage crossing the road as it’s a bit confusing - and up the hill passing a school (some v big houses – a bit Footballers Wives in places) that runs parallel to Eltham High Street – we didn’t check out the shops but it would probably have been a good idea to get some snacks for a picnic in the Palace grounds. Sigh - oh well! We passed a big church and finally (even though it had been signed as ¼ of a mile away for the last two miles…) we came to Eltham Palace! It’s a saving grace that this section of the Ring walk is so short as we’re rarely in this part of London and planned to have a good look round while we were in the area.
The palace was built as a royal lodge in the 14th century and was used by royalty until King Henry 8th decided that he wanted to move up west and abandoned it. It fell into ruin and neglect until the 1930s, when super rich textile magnates Lord and Lady Courtauld used the remnants of the great hall as the basis for a fantastic new house. Even though they spent a small fortune on it, they buggered off to (the then) Rhodesia towards the end of WW2. It was used by the army until recently and has now been restored and is open to the public. Phew!
First of all we looked round the beautiful gardens – complete with picturesque medieval ruins, a moat and bridge, rockery and waterfall and lots of beautiful plants and flower beds, all of which were in bloom due to the early hot weather. Lots of people had brought picnics, which made us very envious. I can’t recommend these gardens enough and the whole palace is worth a day trip wherever you live.
After lazing around in the sun for a while, we went into the palace itself to check out the fantastic art deco interior. The entrance hall is amazing – a large two story circular room lined with wooden panels and with a fantastic domed skylight over an art deco rug and coffee table. You could just imagine having a nice martini in there before popping off for a game of croquet with a smashing young gel called Lettuce. We had a look round the rest of the rooms too, notably a dining room with panelled doors and a curved aluminium ceiling, bedrooms with built in curved wood bookcases, complete with built in speakers and vents for a house-wide vacuum cleaner system, a centrally heated den for a pet lemur and Lady C’s roman nymph grotto of a bathroom. As well as the modern house, you can also get into the medieval great hall, a high ceiling, churchlike pace with an ornate wooden vaulted roof. It’s apparently not v authentic (more like the set of an Errol Flynn film apparently) but I wouldn’t mind having it as my dining room.
We got an ice cream and carried on our way, though everything after the palace was a bit of an anti climax. The route next takes you along King Johns Walk – an ancient hunting track that takes you by some paddocks and meadows with horses and ponies! It feels like you are right in the country now, even though you can occasionally see Canary Wharf and the Gherkin in the distance. Unfortunately you end up being fenced off by 6 foot barriers on both sides for quite a long way, which we did not really like. You walk by some woodland on one side and sports fields on the other. The path crosses a concrete drainage ditch and we then found ourselves in deepest suburbia, leading all the way to Grove Park; a station, row of dingy shops and a rough looking pub (Baring Hall Hotel) that looked chavtastic. Instead we hopped on the train to Charing Cross and went to the Retro Bar instead.
You can check out rest of the pics here
Next: the longest section on the whole walk (Grove Park>Crystal Palace)! Yikes!
We headed back to south east London and back along the path by the railway path and busy road to rejoin the start of the walk. We walked across a heavily graffittied concrete footbridge and found ourselves in Eltham Park South, a large open space lined with trees, and deserted but for an elderly couple trying to get their elderly dogs to pay fetch. The path then took us across a road and down a footpath running around the edge of a leafy residential area and some meadows. We walked between some large houses and came across a little triangle of grass with a sort of weird little hobbity red brick building (Conduit Head, surprisingly a Grade II listed structure) that turned out to be an old medieval sluice gate for nearby Eltham Palace – no water passes through it now though and if you peer through the grilles you will only see a few crisp packets and empty tins. It definitely could be better maintained.
After the sluice gate, we walked down another quiet residential street past a lovely church to a huge roundabout, ah civilisation – take care to follow the signage crossing the road as it’s a bit confusing - and up the hill passing a school (some v big houses – a bit Footballers Wives in places) that runs parallel to Eltham High Street – we didn’t check out the shops but it would probably have been a good idea to get some snacks for a picnic in the Palace grounds. Sigh - oh well! We passed a big church and finally (even though it had been signed as ¼ of a mile away for the last two miles…) we came to Eltham Palace! It’s a saving grace that this section of the Ring walk is so short as we’re rarely in this part of London and planned to have a good look round while we were in the area.
The palace was built as a royal lodge in the 14th century and was used by royalty until King Henry 8th decided that he wanted to move up west and abandoned it. It fell into ruin and neglect until the 1930s, when super rich textile magnates Lord and Lady Courtauld used the remnants of the great hall as the basis for a fantastic new house. Even though they spent a small fortune on it, they buggered off to (the then) Rhodesia towards the end of WW2. It was used by the army until recently and has now been restored and is open to the public. Phew!
First of all we looked round the beautiful gardens – complete with picturesque medieval ruins, a moat and bridge, rockery and waterfall and lots of beautiful plants and flower beds, all of which were in bloom due to the early hot weather. Lots of people had brought picnics, which made us very envious. I can’t recommend these gardens enough and the whole palace is worth a day trip wherever you live.
After lazing around in the sun for a while, we went into the palace itself to check out the fantastic art deco interior. The entrance hall is amazing – a large two story circular room lined with wooden panels and with a fantastic domed skylight over an art deco rug and coffee table. You could just imagine having a nice martini in there before popping off for a game of croquet with a smashing young gel called Lettuce. We had a look round the rest of the rooms too, notably a dining room with panelled doors and a curved aluminium ceiling, bedrooms with built in curved wood bookcases, complete with built in speakers and vents for a house-wide vacuum cleaner system, a centrally heated den for a pet lemur and Lady C’s roman nymph grotto of a bathroom. As well as the modern house, you can also get into the medieval great hall, a high ceiling, churchlike pace with an ornate wooden vaulted roof. It’s apparently not v authentic (more like the set of an Errol Flynn film apparently) but I wouldn’t mind having it as my dining room.
We got an ice cream and carried on our way, though everything after the palace was a bit of an anti climax. The route next takes you along King Johns Walk – an ancient hunting track that takes you by some paddocks and meadows with horses and ponies! It feels like you are right in the country now, even though you can occasionally see Canary Wharf and the Gherkin in the distance. Unfortunately you end up being fenced off by 6 foot barriers on both sides for quite a long way, which we did not really like. You walk by some woodland on one side and sports fields on the other. The path crosses a concrete drainage ditch and we then found ourselves in deepest suburbia, leading all the way to Grove Park; a station, row of dingy shops and a rough looking pub (Baring Hall Hotel) that looked chavtastic. Instead we hopped on the train to Charing Cross and went to the Retro Bar instead.
You can check out rest of the pics here
Next: the longest section on the whole walk (Grove Park>Crystal Palace)! Yikes!
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Woolwich > Falconwood
It felt a bit weird starting this section of the walk because according to the trusty Capital Ring book this is technically the start of the walk.
We had been contemplating getting the Woolwich ferry across just for sake of it, but thought better of it when we were travelling to Woolwich. As we’d had a good walk round the village on the previous section we decided to de-board the train at Woolwich Dockyard and catch up with the walk from there as we didn’t want to double back on ourselves. Don’t rate this area at all – it’s all huge tower blocks and estates and appeared to be completely deserted– we did see one scally lad in jogging bottoms, trying desperately to restrain his pitbull with a huge silver chain that Mr T wouldn’t have worn. Immediately I started humming Staines mass’eve Hard Fi’s Cash Machine song – goes without saying that we walked v quickly (over a massive dual carriageway) to get to the river! Warning to Capital Ring walkers – according to the book you may be directed through the above section of the walk even if you decided to start from Woolwich cause of diversions.
The first thing we noticed when we got onto the Promenade along the Thames were 2 huge old cannons, the only remnants of the Gun Drill Battery which for 4 centuries from 1512 was part of the Royal Naval Dockyard. The cannons are arranged so that they can cover the whole of the river, though somehow I don’t think anyone is that desperate to get into Woolwich these days. Still, it was nice to see some trace of Woolwich’s maritime past - apparently HMS Beagle was launched here in 1831 and took 5 yrs to circumnavigate the globe with Darwin on board.
Across with river you get superb views of the hideous Tate & Lyle sugar factory, and can also see the Dome, Canary Wharf and the Thames Barrier. Watch for cyclists as this is popular with them, thou walkers get to walk up a cool flag shaped footbridge so take that cyclists!
We had lots to say about the next short section of the walk and none of it was good. You take leave of the river, through a nice enough housing development (Henry’s Wharf Estate), then up the very rough looking Ruston Road crossing a roundabout onto the even worse Woolwich dual carriageway which you follow for a bit – it’s basically a very busy road lined with shut down pubs, garages and little warehouses and sheds. Having completed quite a bit of the walk at this stage we debated whether it was a good idea to get people onto this small section of the walk as it would have been the first section for lots of people and it was horrid. I would imagine plenty of people perhaps being put off.
Fortunately the rest of the walk was to make up for it – we didn’t know this part of London at all and were surprised at how green and hilly it was. You head up a few steps to the beautiful Maryon Park and for the next 16 miles to Crystal Palace you find yourself on the Green Chain Walk (GW) which links parks and woodland in South East London. It was here that we noticed the annoying habit of the Capital Ring signposts to never let you take a short cut if you could walk along two sides of a triangle to get to the same place. You need to have your walking shoes on firmly for some of the steps and slopes on this section. You pass tennis courts, walk past a massive open field and turn right up a set of steep steps through a beautiful wood, into a vast open green space which looks a bit like a valley, with a kids zoo in the middle – it’s fantastic. Deer, pigs, goats and peacocks wander round huge enclosures and for families this would be great – lots of small kids were pointing and staring at the animals. You then follow a little stream through more woods to Charlton Park Road and into Charlton Park – a huge playing field. Lots of sports action going on here as it was the weekend. Charlton House looms at one end of the park and looks impressive from a distance – in hindsight I wish we had went up for closer look as the doors are very impressive (we came across a pic in the book after completing that section of the walk). The house was built in the early 17th century and is apparently the finest example of Jacobean architecture in London. Now it’s a library and community centre. You can still take in the hidden wall from a distance thou which was built not to detract from the architecture.
After the park you walk up a nondescript street through some residential areas and through another playing field before heading into Woolwich Common which you follow via a tarmac path. The Common was great as it’s quite wild and unspoiled and at times you feel like you’re the only people on it for miles – the only reminder that civilisation is close by are the parapets of the Military Academy and the huge incline that is Shooters Hill, which at 130 metres is one of the highest points of the entire walk. Shooters Hill will also be memorable to us as it’s where we encountered what we defo knew to be Capital Ring walkers (they had the book and looked as petrified as us about climbing the hill!) Halfway up we decided to stop for a drink in The Red Lion pub. The sun was out so we sat in the garden. It was kind of a local pub for local people with nothing memorable about it except that it’s one of the only times I’ve seen people playing Texas Hold’em openly in a bar for money! We only stayed for one drink.
We carried on up the hill to Severndroog Castle in Castle Woods – a sort of folly built in the 18th century by some lady to commemorate her husband’s military exploits. You get amazing views of London, thou the Castle itself looks only good from distance – up close the empty bottles of drinks and graffiti do it no favours at all. Now it looks vaguely sinister and rundown, like where you expect for a satanic rite to take place in a Hammer film. Perhaps it should be looked after better. Once you get to the other side of the castle it improves, with flower beds and an ornamental garden leading down into Jackwood and Oxleas Woods where you really do feel like you’re in hiking territory. These are all parts of ancient woods that used to surround London going back to the last Ice Age – it reminded us a lot of Hampstead Heath, only without so many three wheeled prams, wealthy gays and children called things like Leopold and Jacinta.
Lots of steep climbing and descending in this part but we loved it as it felt totally unspoiled. When we emerged in Oxleas Meadows, the only thing keeping us going was the promise of an ice cream at the pavilion at the top of a very steep hill. The book refers to it as a mountain hut at the top of the alps and I feel that does it justice. Looks better from a distance thou ice cream was lovely – think 2 grannies running a café and you’re there. We had time to sit and take in the fab views over south east London before heading back to the wood to finish the last section
We walked through more woods, past lovely flower beds and woven wood fences – into Shepherdleas woods where some elderly man was desperately trying to get his massively disobedient overweight but friendly beast/dog to walk. You head past a lovely wildlife sanctuary called Long Pond, round this and down a heavily wooded path (you follow this right down to get to Falconwood station). The woods are quite pleasant but unfortunately the path takes you along a railway line and a very busy road. Some little bugger has messed with the signage here and we, and the other ring walkers got very confused and nearly started next section of the walk. I think after nearly 7 miles we’d had enough for one day. There’s nothing much in Falconwood (a station and a Harvester) so we caught the train to the lovely little town of Blackheath. I couldn’t persuade Mark to visit the resident funfair so we had a quick look round, went to the Princess of Wales for a drink and lounged in their conservatory for a while before getting the train home.
More pictures here
Next is one of the shortest sections of the Ring walk though there’s the mighty Eltham Palace to take in…..
It felt a bit weird starting this section of the walk because according to the trusty Capital Ring book this is technically the start of the walk.
We had been contemplating getting the Woolwich ferry across just for sake of it, but thought better of it when we were travelling to Woolwich. As we’d had a good walk round the village on the previous section we decided to de-board the train at Woolwich Dockyard and catch up with the walk from there as we didn’t want to double back on ourselves. Don’t rate this area at all – it’s all huge tower blocks and estates and appeared to be completely deserted– we did see one scally lad in jogging bottoms, trying desperately to restrain his pitbull with a huge silver chain that Mr T wouldn’t have worn. Immediately I started humming Staines mass’eve Hard Fi’s Cash Machine song – goes without saying that we walked v quickly (over a massive dual carriageway) to get to the river! Warning to Capital Ring walkers – according to the book you may be directed through the above section of the walk even if you decided to start from Woolwich cause of diversions.
The first thing we noticed when we got onto the Promenade along the Thames were 2 huge old cannons, the only remnants of the Gun Drill Battery which for 4 centuries from 1512 was part of the Royal Naval Dockyard. The cannons are arranged so that they can cover the whole of the river, though somehow I don’t think anyone is that desperate to get into Woolwich these days. Still, it was nice to see some trace of Woolwich’s maritime past - apparently HMS Beagle was launched here in 1831 and took 5 yrs to circumnavigate the globe with Darwin on board.
Across with river you get superb views of the hideous Tate & Lyle sugar factory, and can also see the Dome, Canary Wharf and the Thames Barrier. Watch for cyclists as this is popular with them, thou walkers get to walk up a cool flag shaped footbridge so take that cyclists!
We had lots to say about the next short section of the walk and none of it was good. You take leave of the river, through a nice enough housing development (Henry’s Wharf Estate), then up the very rough looking Ruston Road crossing a roundabout onto the even worse Woolwich dual carriageway which you follow for a bit – it’s basically a very busy road lined with shut down pubs, garages and little warehouses and sheds. Having completed quite a bit of the walk at this stage we debated whether it was a good idea to get people onto this small section of the walk as it would have been the first section for lots of people and it was horrid. I would imagine plenty of people perhaps being put off.
Fortunately the rest of the walk was to make up for it – we didn’t know this part of London at all and were surprised at how green and hilly it was. You head up a few steps to the beautiful Maryon Park and for the next 16 miles to Crystal Palace you find yourself on the Green Chain Walk (GW) which links parks and woodland in South East London. It was here that we noticed the annoying habit of the Capital Ring signposts to never let you take a short cut if you could walk along two sides of a triangle to get to the same place. You need to have your walking shoes on firmly for some of the steps and slopes on this section. You pass tennis courts, walk past a massive open field and turn right up a set of steep steps through a beautiful wood, into a vast open green space which looks a bit like a valley, with a kids zoo in the middle – it’s fantastic. Deer, pigs, goats and peacocks wander round huge enclosures and for families this would be great – lots of small kids were pointing and staring at the animals. You then follow a little stream through more woods to Charlton Park Road and into Charlton Park – a huge playing field. Lots of sports action going on here as it was the weekend. Charlton House looms at one end of the park and looks impressive from a distance – in hindsight I wish we had went up for closer look as the doors are very impressive (we came across a pic in the book after completing that section of the walk). The house was built in the early 17th century and is apparently the finest example of Jacobean architecture in London. Now it’s a library and community centre. You can still take in the hidden wall from a distance thou which was built not to detract from the architecture.
After the park you walk up a nondescript street through some residential areas and through another playing field before heading into Woolwich Common which you follow via a tarmac path. The Common was great as it’s quite wild and unspoiled and at times you feel like you’re the only people on it for miles – the only reminder that civilisation is close by are the parapets of the Military Academy and the huge incline that is Shooters Hill, which at 130 metres is one of the highest points of the entire walk. Shooters Hill will also be memorable to us as it’s where we encountered what we defo knew to be Capital Ring walkers (they had the book and looked as petrified as us about climbing the hill!) Halfway up we decided to stop for a drink in The Red Lion pub. The sun was out so we sat in the garden. It was kind of a local pub for local people with nothing memorable about it except that it’s one of the only times I’ve seen people playing Texas Hold’em openly in a bar for money! We only stayed for one drink.
We carried on up the hill to Severndroog Castle in Castle Woods – a sort of folly built in the 18th century by some lady to commemorate her husband’s military exploits. You get amazing views of London, thou the Castle itself looks only good from distance – up close the empty bottles of drinks and graffiti do it no favours at all. Now it looks vaguely sinister and rundown, like where you expect for a satanic rite to take place in a Hammer film. Perhaps it should be looked after better. Once you get to the other side of the castle it improves, with flower beds and an ornamental garden leading down into Jackwood and Oxleas Woods where you really do feel like you’re in hiking territory. These are all parts of ancient woods that used to surround London going back to the last Ice Age – it reminded us a lot of Hampstead Heath, only without so many three wheeled prams, wealthy gays and children called things like Leopold and Jacinta.
Lots of steep climbing and descending in this part but we loved it as it felt totally unspoiled. When we emerged in Oxleas Meadows, the only thing keeping us going was the promise of an ice cream at the pavilion at the top of a very steep hill. The book refers to it as a mountain hut at the top of the alps and I feel that does it justice. Looks better from a distance thou ice cream was lovely – think 2 grannies running a café and you’re there. We had time to sit and take in the fab views over south east London before heading back to the wood to finish the last section
We walked through more woods, past lovely flower beds and woven wood fences – into Shepherdleas woods where some elderly man was desperately trying to get his massively disobedient overweight but friendly beast/dog to walk. You head past a lovely wildlife sanctuary called Long Pond, round this and down a heavily wooded path (you follow this right down to get to Falconwood station). The woods are quite pleasant but unfortunately the path takes you along a railway line and a very busy road. Some little bugger has messed with the signage here and we, and the other ring walkers got very confused and nearly started next section of the walk. I think after nearly 7 miles we’d had enough for one day. There’s nothing much in Falconwood (a station and a Harvester) so we caught the train to the lovely little town of Blackheath. I couldn’t persuade Mark to visit the resident funfair so we had a quick look round, went to the Princess of Wales for a drink and lounged in their conservatory for a while before getting the train home.
More pictures here
Next is one of the shortest sections of the Ring walk though there’s the mighty Eltham Palace to take in…..
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Beckton District Park > Woolwich:
After a long break for holidays, Xmas, bad weather and pure laziness we finally got round to tackling another section of the walk. Luckily we didn’t have any transport problems this time and made it from the flat in North London to the start of the walk in Beckton in just about an hour. The DLR station is sandwiched between a huge empty glass box shaped building and a section of Royal Albert Dock and it all seemed very soulless and techno. We walked back to Beckton District Park, round the edge of some playing fields past some generic 80s style housing developments – it was all very cul-de-sac-arama!! The only signs of life were a couple of grazing horses and some kids playing football and again I didn’t really have the feeling we were in London.
Bored with the houses we detoured at Cyprus DLR station across a footbridge to look at the super modern campus of East London University; opened in 1999, it’s a complex of modern buildings and cylindrical hobbity looking accommodation blocks (thou I bet the hobbits never had such beautiful butterfly-shaped roofs!). The whole complex overlooks the huge expanse of the Royal Albert Dock and the City Airport. All the caffs and toilets were shut on Saturday morning (dammit) so we didn’t linger and went back to continue the walk. After a while we passed the scariest looking pub (The Ferndale) that we had ever seen – the windows (half of which were broken) were covered in suspicious brown smears as though someone was having a dirty protest or something –come to think of it the ex-Maze prisoners would have felt right at home in the Fern.
The housing thinned out and we passed through an area of roundabouts and building sites before coming to the Sir Steven Redgrave bridge, built in honour of the 5 times gold medal Olympic winner – personally I was fuming to learn that this heap of steel replaced a lovely ancient swing bridge, boooo!!!! It’s only when we crossed the bridge that you get the sheer scale of the Royal Albert and King George V docks – the Royal Albert opened in 1888, were the largest docks in the world and are now used for massive watersports events – no doubt they’ll be much in use for 2012 but I would think the Dock was too choppy for even Steve to make much progress on the day that we were there. You get a pretty good view right down the length of the docks towards the Dome and Canary Wharf from the middle of the bridge and the planes are close enough to wave to the trolley dollies serving gins and slimline tonics.
We walked over another little dainty gate bridge to the very end of the dock, where there is a little marina and then got a bit confused before picking up a crappy gravel path by the side of some flats and coming round to the river bank, where there is a park and path between a load of swanky flats and the Thames. We had a pretty good view of Woolwich and the old Arsenal buildings as we walked but it isn’t exactly the most picturesque part of London. There is quite a nice park en route, with an original steam hammer from one of the old factories. Pretty soon we caught sight of the Woolwich ferry pier – this section of the walk is very short. Mark wanted to ride the ferry but Ethan wanted to walk every step of the way and insisted that we go through the Woolwich foot tunnel, opened in 1912 – after all, what better way is there to cross the Thames than underground in a passage that smells of wee! Once you got past the corroded steps and urine stench it wasn’t that bad, honest.
We came up in another of the little Victorian brick cupola style buildings that mark the entrances to the tunnel and began to explore the delights of Woolwich - a fairly typical London suburban town centre, a bit scruffy and run down but with a wide range of shops and facilities and a nice square and market. We popped into the most highly recommended pub – Rosie’s - but it was pretty quiet so we didn’t stay long. There was lots of darts action going on! It seemed to have a pretty good range of beers, though was way too early to start going through them all.
We fancied a bite to eat but the nicest looking place that did food was charging a cover fee to watch Chelsea get beaten by Liverpool (which would have been worth the money in retrospect, esp to see Jose’s gurny face) so we had one more drink in (oh the shame) a Wetherspoons before grabbing a snack and heading off to Woolwich Arsenal station and back into town. The walk was so short that we almost considered doing the next section in the same day – before seeing that it was an additional 6 miles. Yikes!
The rest of the pictures are here
Next time: Sarf of the river! Gasp!!
After a long break for holidays, Xmas, bad weather and pure laziness we finally got round to tackling another section of the walk. Luckily we didn’t have any transport problems this time and made it from the flat in North London to the start of the walk in Beckton in just about an hour. The DLR station is sandwiched between a huge empty glass box shaped building and a section of Royal Albert Dock and it all seemed very soulless and techno. We walked back to Beckton District Park, round the edge of some playing fields past some generic 80s style housing developments – it was all very cul-de-sac-arama!! The only signs of life were a couple of grazing horses and some kids playing football and again I didn’t really have the feeling we were in London.
Bored with the houses we detoured at Cyprus DLR station across a footbridge to look at the super modern campus of East London University; opened in 1999, it’s a complex of modern buildings and cylindrical hobbity looking accommodation blocks (thou I bet the hobbits never had such beautiful butterfly-shaped roofs!). The whole complex overlooks the huge expanse of the Royal Albert Dock and the City Airport. All the caffs and toilets were shut on Saturday morning (dammit) so we didn’t linger and went back to continue the walk. After a while we passed the scariest looking pub (The Ferndale) that we had ever seen – the windows (half of which were broken) were covered in suspicious brown smears as though someone was having a dirty protest or something –come to think of it the ex-Maze prisoners would have felt right at home in the Fern.
The housing thinned out and we passed through an area of roundabouts and building sites before coming to the Sir Steven Redgrave bridge, built in honour of the 5 times gold medal Olympic winner – personally I was fuming to learn that this heap of steel replaced a lovely ancient swing bridge, boooo!!!! It’s only when we crossed the bridge that you get the sheer scale of the Royal Albert and King George V docks – the Royal Albert opened in 1888, were the largest docks in the world and are now used for massive watersports events – no doubt they’ll be much in use for 2012 but I would think the Dock was too choppy for even Steve to make much progress on the day that we were there. You get a pretty good view right down the length of the docks towards the Dome and Canary Wharf from the middle of the bridge and the planes are close enough to wave to the trolley dollies serving gins and slimline tonics.
We walked over another little dainty gate bridge to the very end of the dock, where there is a little marina and then got a bit confused before picking up a crappy gravel path by the side of some flats and coming round to the river bank, where there is a park and path between a load of swanky flats and the Thames. We had a pretty good view of Woolwich and the old Arsenal buildings as we walked but it isn’t exactly the most picturesque part of London. There is quite a nice park en route, with an original steam hammer from one of the old factories. Pretty soon we caught sight of the Woolwich ferry pier – this section of the walk is very short. Mark wanted to ride the ferry but Ethan wanted to walk every step of the way and insisted that we go through the Woolwich foot tunnel, opened in 1912 – after all, what better way is there to cross the Thames than underground in a passage that smells of wee! Once you got past the corroded steps and urine stench it wasn’t that bad, honest.
We came up in another of the little Victorian brick cupola style buildings that mark the entrances to the tunnel and began to explore the delights of Woolwich - a fairly typical London suburban town centre, a bit scruffy and run down but with a wide range of shops and facilities and a nice square and market. We popped into the most highly recommended pub – Rosie’s - but it was pretty quiet so we didn’t stay long. There was lots of darts action going on! It seemed to have a pretty good range of beers, though was way too early to start going through them all.
We fancied a bite to eat but the nicest looking place that did food was charging a cover fee to watch Chelsea get beaten by Liverpool (which would have been worth the money in retrospect, esp to see Jose’s gurny face) so we had one more drink in (oh the shame) a Wetherspoons before grabbing a snack and heading off to Woolwich Arsenal station and back into town. The walk was so short that we almost considered doing the next section in the same day – before seeing that it was an additional 6 miles. Yikes!
The rest of the pictures are here
Next time: Sarf of the river! Gasp!!
Monday, January 22, 2007
Hackney Wick to Beckton:
Or should that be Highbury to Hackney Wick…
Where do we begin talking about this section of the walk? Getting to Hackney Wick was the equivalent of Frodo’s quest for The Ring, and not as picturesque. What should have been a straightforward train journey on Silverlink tested our resolve – trains running with 45 min delays, heaving platform (with a lot of undesirable characters!), and cancellations a go go. We caught a mega-packed bus instead to Hackney Wick; the only seats left were at the very back on the top deck with the sun on your neck through the back window - it wasn’t pleasant - hot and flustered however a very young sweet girl sitting opposite with her Dad cheered me up no end with her winning smile.
To make matters worse the bus got completely gridlocked in traffic. Tempers frayed, people exited the bus and we followed suit. All the traffic lights at a huge junction were out – just a shame that the coppers directing the traffic weren’t in any rush to clear the log jam of traffic which must have backed up to Highbury by time we got off the bus. We ended up walking the rest of the way to Hackney Wick – no mean feat I tell you –we covered 3 miles before we got to the start the next section of the walk (see Mark’s face on the picture at the Hackney Wick sign…) We were never as delighted to see the River Lea I can tell you…
Although we were a bit sick of the River Lea last time, we were glad to get back onto it after walking miles through some v dull housing estates. When we thought the walk would let us discover new parts of London we didn’t really have the back end of Homerton in mind!
We carried on down the river and passed the studios where they used to film Big Breakfast – a little house and fake garden, no doubt still haunted with the ghost of Chris Evan’s cockfarmery. Blink and you’ll miss the house (it’s beside Old Ford Locks - an impressive double lock system in a large basin surrounded by trees where the river branches and heads down to Limehouse Basin. There were a couple of girls lunching on the lock who cheekily asked us if we would like their autographs – we were simply taking a photo of the locks, honest, and they weren’t no Sam Fox, Li Lo or Nicola from Girls Aloud
We walked a little further past a nature reserve and some half completed yuppie type flats that looked pretty nice but apart from the river they’re still in something of a shitttay area, so no thanks – and then left the River Lea and headed for our next section – The Greenway; a long raised path on a ridge that covers the Northern Outfall Sewer (acronym is NOSE with ‘e’ standing for embankment), a still functional 6 mile huge pipe that carries over 100 million gallons a day of London’s ahem effluent all the way from the city centre to the treatment works in Beckton. Apparently it’s the biggest sewage flow in Britain. It’s a pretty impressive engineering feat and it’s a great idea turning it into a pathway, though it does whiff a bit occasionally. Keep your eyes closely peeled for the signs leaving the Lea as it’s a sharp turnout. When we got to the path there were a few scally lads hanging around on bikes, they were harmless though and didn’t so much as give us a second look, phew!
Whilst on The Greenway we had to cross a confusing bit with lots of roads, railway tracks and little artificial rivers – the river is split into four for some reason – the Bow Back Rivers. The whole area however was still very light industrial and even worse than Hackney Wick – basically consisting of wasteland, scrapyards and great piles of fly tipped junk. It is amazing that space so close to London is basically just wasted and covered with mouldy, piss stained mattresses. Presumably the Olympics will turn this area around and Marshgate will be turned into a state of the art dolphin jousting arena or something. This was the worst part of the walk so far – esp when you have to go under a threatening, rubbish strewn, railway bridge and then walk up a very narrow path between some portacabins and some shrubbery. If this was a horror film you would be moidered here for sure, possibly by the inhabitant of one of the art studios we saw in the area, who had a load of shop window dummy arms hanging from the ceiling in a serial killer stylee.
Once on the Greenway proper it got more pleasant as it went along. Unfortunately it never actually got very interesting as it went along, being basically an incredibly long straight path with no variation, passing loads of very samey housing. The path crosses several busy roads, including Stratford High Street, an enormous and super busy dual carriageway where we managed to avoid the traffic but were then nearly run over by a lad riding his scooter on the pavement grrr.
The first “Highlight” was (surprise surprise) sewage related – the Abbey Mills pumping house. A very OTT oriental Grade 2 listed Victorian building designed to pump sewage from one level of the NOSE to the next. It has been replaced by a modern facility but is still used by the water company as back up. It has been described as the “Cathedral of Sewage” but the “Victorian Railway Station of Sewage” is perhaps a bit more accurate. Unfortunately the sun was in the wrong place to get a good photo but we did our best.
The next highlight was when we left the path and headed to Plaistow High Street for a drink. The actual high street is fairly crappy with barely any shops or anything, but the pub, The Black Lion, was pretty nice and also friendly and busy. It’s an old coaching inn, apparently linked to dandy highwayman Dick Turpin !! (as is every coaching inn in London, I’m sure) and with a long timbered gallery holding the bar and a courtyard etc. We had a quick Magners but couldn’t linger as all our transport related shenanigans had made us late and we were worried about it going dark before we finished. I would certainly recommend it if ever you are in Plaistow (thou I wouldn’t recommend being in Plaistow first place, sorry Plaistowians).
Back on the path we passed East London cemetery, it’s a bit boring as it’s a smart well maintained one, not a cool overgrown gothic one. After that it was relentless walking. More houses, a hospital, yawn... Boring with a capital B. We did see a hawk or something at one point, circling overhead, which was cool. In the distance we could see the giant guillotine shape of the huge Barking Creek Flood barrier, impressive in stature even thou it’s still 3 miles away – the end it was in sight!! Now walkers, keep a watchful eye out at this stage for 2 metal banners where you take your leave from the Greenway, and about time too. I’d hazard a wild guess that some ruffian pulled the Capital Ring sign down to keep people walking to the flood barrier.
Eventually we left the Greenway and headed to Beckton. We had never been there before and it is not really like London – an area of ring roads, modern housing estates and big boxy office developments that reminds me more of somewhere like Swindon or Milton Keynes. As you cross a footbridge make sure you look out for the giant slagheap of a former gasworks, known as ‘Beckton Alps’.
The walk then takes you through the lovely Beckton District park – complete with rare trees, a wild meadow area and a big duck pond but by now it was getting dark and we were both knackered and just wanted to go home. There is a big old disused dock right by the DLR (which, like all DLR stations, will always remind me of crappy BBC techsploitation series Bugs) but we’ll be exploring all that on the next section. We caught the DLR (which I love – being like a cross between a monorail and v crap roller coaster) back to Bank and were home in no time, especially compared to the hassle we had getting to the start of the walk in the first place.
Next: Beckton to Woolwich! Docks! EastEndery salt of the earth types (hopefully) and we finally reach the River Thames! woo hoo!
The rest of the photos are here
Or should that be Highbury to Hackney Wick…
Where do we begin talking about this section of the walk? Getting to Hackney Wick was the equivalent of Frodo’s quest for The Ring, and not as picturesque. What should have been a straightforward train journey on Silverlink tested our resolve – trains running with 45 min delays, heaving platform (with a lot of undesirable characters!), and cancellations a go go. We caught a mega-packed bus instead to Hackney Wick; the only seats left were at the very back on the top deck with the sun on your neck through the back window - it wasn’t pleasant - hot and flustered however a very young sweet girl sitting opposite with her Dad cheered me up no end with her winning smile.
To make matters worse the bus got completely gridlocked in traffic. Tempers frayed, people exited the bus and we followed suit. All the traffic lights at a huge junction were out – just a shame that the coppers directing the traffic weren’t in any rush to clear the log jam of traffic which must have backed up to Highbury by time we got off the bus. We ended up walking the rest of the way to Hackney Wick – no mean feat I tell you –we covered 3 miles before we got to the start the next section of the walk (see Mark’s face on the picture at the Hackney Wick sign…) We were never as delighted to see the River Lea I can tell you…
Although we were a bit sick of the River Lea last time, we were glad to get back onto it after walking miles through some v dull housing estates. When we thought the walk would let us discover new parts of London we didn’t really have the back end of Homerton in mind!
We carried on down the river and passed the studios where they used to film Big Breakfast – a little house and fake garden, no doubt still haunted with the ghost of Chris Evan’s cockfarmery. Blink and you’ll miss the house (it’s beside Old Ford Locks - an impressive double lock system in a large basin surrounded by trees where the river branches and heads down to Limehouse Basin. There were a couple of girls lunching on the lock who cheekily asked us if we would like their autographs – we were simply taking a photo of the locks, honest, and they weren’t no Sam Fox, Li Lo or Nicola from Girls Aloud
We walked a little further past a nature reserve and some half completed yuppie type flats that looked pretty nice but apart from the river they’re still in something of a shitttay area, so no thanks – and then left the River Lea and headed for our next section – The Greenway; a long raised path on a ridge that covers the Northern Outfall Sewer (acronym is NOSE with ‘e’ standing for embankment), a still functional 6 mile huge pipe that carries over 100 million gallons a day of London’s ahem effluent all the way from the city centre to the treatment works in Beckton. Apparently it’s the biggest sewage flow in Britain. It’s a pretty impressive engineering feat and it’s a great idea turning it into a pathway, though it does whiff a bit occasionally. Keep your eyes closely peeled for the signs leaving the Lea as it’s a sharp turnout. When we got to the path there were a few scally lads hanging around on bikes, they were harmless though and didn’t so much as give us a second look, phew!
Whilst on The Greenway we had to cross a confusing bit with lots of roads, railway tracks and little artificial rivers – the river is split into four for some reason – the Bow Back Rivers. The whole area however was still very light industrial and even worse than Hackney Wick – basically consisting of wasteland, scrapyards and great piles of fly tipped junk. It is amazing that space so close to London is basically just wasted and covered with mouldy, piss stained mattresses. Presumably the Olympics will turn this area around and Marshgate will be turned into a state of the art dolphin jousting arena or something. This was the worst part of the walk so far – esp when you have to go under a threatening, rubbish strewn, railway bridge and then walk up a very narrow path between some portacabins and some shrubbery. If this was a horror film you would be moidered here for sure, possibly by the inhabitant of one of the art studios we saw in the area, who had a load of shop window dummy arms hanging from the ceiling in a serial killer stylee.
Once on the Greenway proper it got more pleasant as it went along. Unfortunately it never actually got very interesting as it went along, being basically an incredibly long straight path with no variation, passing loads of very samey housing. The path crosses several busy roads, including Stratford High Street, an enormous and super busy dual carriageway where we managed to avoid the traffic but were then nearly run over by a lad riding his scooter on the pavement grrr.
The first “Highlight” was (surprise surprise) sewage related – the Abbey Mills pumping house. A very OTT oriental Grade 2 listed Victorian building designed to pump sewage from one level of the NOSE to the next. It has been replaced by a modern facility but is still used by the water company as back up. It has been described as the “Cathedral of Sewage” but the “Victorian Railway Station of Sewage” is perhaps a bit more accurate. Unfortunately the sun was in the wrong place to get a good photo but we did our best.
The next highlight was when we left the path and headed to Plaistow High Street for a drink. The actual high street is fairly crappy with barely any shops or anything, but the pub, The Black Lion, was pretty nice and also friendly and busy. It’s an old coaching inn, apparently linked to dandy highwayman Dick Turpin !! (as is every coaching inn in London, I’m sure) and with a long timbered gallery holding the bar and a courtyard etc. We had a quick Magners but couldn’t linger as all our transport related shenanigans had made us late and we were worried about it going dark before we finished. I would certainly recommend it if ever you are in Plaistow (thou I wouldn’t recommend being in Plaistow first place, sorry Plaistowians).
Back on the path we passed East London cemetery, it’s a bit boring as it’s a smart well maintained one, not a cool overgrown gothic one. After that it was relentless walking. More houses, a hospital, yawn... Boring with a capital B. We did see a hawk or something at one point, circling overhead, which was cool. In the distance we could see the giant guillotine shape of the huge Barking Creek Flood barrier, impressive in stature even thou it’s still 3 miles away – the end it was in sight!! Now walkers, keep a watchful eye out at this stage for 2 metal banners where you take your leave from the Greenway, and about time too. I’d hazard a wild guess that some ruffian pulled the Capital Ring sign down to keep people walking to the flood barrier.
Eventually we left the Greenway and headed to Beckton. We had never been there before and it is not really like London – an area of ring roads, modern housing estates and big boxy office developments that reminds me more of somewhere like Swindon or Milton Keynes. As you cross a footbridge make sure you look out for the giant slagheap of a former gasworks, known as ‘Beckton Alps’.
The walk then takes you through the lovely Beckton District park – complete with rare trees, a wild meadow area and a big duck pond but by now it was getting dark and we were both knackered and just wanted to go home. There is a big old disused dock right by the DLR (which, like all DLR stations, will always remind me of crappy BBC techsploitation series Bugs) but we’ll be exploring all that on the next section. We caught the DLR (which I love – being like a cross between a monorail and v crap roller coaster) back to Bank and were home in no time, especially compared to the hassle we had getting to the start of the walk in the first place.
Next: Beckton to Woolwich! Docks! EastEndery salt of the earth types (hopefully) and we finally reach the River Thames! woo hoo!
The rest of the photos are here
Friday, September 22, 2006
HIGHGATE TO STOKE NEWINGTON:
by Ethan and Mark
Why start at section 12 I hear you ask?? One word, convenience! Living in Upper Holloway it was a quick jaunt out on the No 43 bus and Bob’s your Uncle or should that be Aunt. :-D
We didn’t get off to a great start –in fact we spent a while wandering round near Highgate station like fools – how close we came to jacking the whole thing in and retiring to the Boogaloo bar for a quick pint instead you’ll never know. (Great bar btw) Eventually however we did spot the little green Capital Ring sign and off we went.
PARKLAND WALK
The first part is on a disused railway line that has been allowed to become overgrown and turn into a two mile long narrow park stroke nature reserve, apparently it’s London’s longest linear park, so there! According to the information signs, the park is inhabited by muntjac deer and foxes (no news as to whether sloane rangers hunt them down on miniature ponies or anything though – perhaps if it was in Chelsea). We didn’t see any real creatures of note on this walk, however there is a ‘spriggen’ – a fearsome mythical goblin type thing – unfortunately it was made of stone – gutted by that.
As an old railway line, the path sometimes follows deep cuttings and is sometimes on high bridges over the surrounding roads and houses. It was kind of weird looking down from a park onto the houses and terraces of N4. My favourite parts of this section were all the post apocalyptic style abandoned railway stations and platforms along the way, which reminded me a bit of the parts of Logans Run after they escape from the giant shopping centre (thou without Jenny Agutter getting her kit off, sadly). Most of these parts are covered in graffiti and we even saw some lads hard at work practising to become the new Banksy or whatever. They let us take a photo of them and their mural, gosh did we feel cool & hip :-D
by Ethan and Mark
Why start at section 12 I hear you ask?? One word, convenience! Living in Upper Holloway it was a quick jaunt out on the No 43 bus and Bob’s your Uncle or should that be Aunt. :-D
We didn’t get off to a great start –in fact we spent a while wandering round near Highgate station like fools – how close we came to jacking the whole thing in and retiring to the Boogaloo bar for a quick pint instead you’ll never know. (Great bar btw) Eventually however we did spot the little green Capital Ring sign and off we went.
PARKLAND WALK
The first part is on a disused railway line that has been allowed to become overgrown and turn into a two mile long narrow park stroke nature reserve, apparently it’s London’s longest linear park, so there! According to the information signs, the park is inhabited by muntjac deer and foxes (no news as to whether sloane rangers hunt them down on miniature ponies or anything though – perhaps if it was in Chelsea). We didn’t see any real creatures of note on this walk, however there is a ‘spriggen’ – a fearsome mythical goblin type thing – unfortunately it was made of stone – gutted by that.
As an old railway line, the path sometimes follows deep cuttings and is sometimes on high bridges over the surrounding roads and houses. It was kind of weird looking down from a park onto the houses and terraces of N4. My favourite parts of this section were all the post apocalyptic style abandoned railway stations and platforms along the way, which reminded me a bit of the parts of Logans Run after they escape from the giant shopping centre (thou without Jenny Agutter getting her kit off, sadly). Most of these parts are covered in graffiti and we even saw some lads hard at work practising to become the new Banksy or whatever. They let us take a photo of them and their mural, gosh did we feel cool & hip :-D
We walked over a bridge crossing the overland lines north of Finsbury Park station and got a great view of the shiny new Emirates Stadium – we could even hear the roar of a crowd when a goal was scored (probably not by Arsenal though, given their current shocking form!). The bridge connected right up with Finsbury Park (meaning we walked about two miles through zone 2 without having to cross a road once. Despite being one of the largest open spaces in North London it also one of the worst!! The only saving grace was that we came into it about half way up, far away from the rough trampy end. The north end of the park is actually quite pleasant with lots of leafy groves and little ponds etc. The day we were there, there also some kind of sparsely attended religious festival going on, complete with a band on stage which sounded like every super bland 80s/90s brit soul act rolled into one. We could hear their warblings for miles and miles around. No more amps on eleven please thanks Mr Religious Person.
NEW RIVER PATH
After the park we walked north and picked up the path of the New River which is actually neither, being an aqueduct dating back to the 17th century so that London could steal water from Hertfordshire. Good – I have had it in for Hertfordshire ever since spending the worst night ever in a bar in St Albans that was full of (a) 14 year old schoolchildren and (b) smarmy leather trousered swiss tony types hoping to pull said schoolchildren. Anyway, the first part of the river walk was kind of unpleasant – the river is an ugly metal trough type affair and part of the path was a stinking quagmire like that bit in Lord of the Rings where Frodo is nearly eaten by a ghost. Things got better after we came to Seven Sisters Road (and there aren’t many times I’ve ever used that sentence before) – the path became drier and was lined with bramble bushes and willows and the actual river looked more natural. Unlike the earlier part which didn’t look like a dirty toad would inhabit the waters, this part had lovely white pure swans, as well as suspicious looking brown ones – though I’m sure that was their natural plumage and not the quagmire's fault!!
The best bit of the New River was when we came to the reservoirs at Stoke Newington –sailing boats combined with a lovely view across the reeds and water to the church spire in Stokey. You could almost imagine that you were somewhere out in the country (unless you turned round and happened to notice a HUGE council estate (Woodberry Down – the biggest in the country apparently.) One thing you don’t see everyday in London is people picking blackberries picking (though at £3.00 per punnet in your local Sainsburys I can’t blame them). I’ve never seen so many berry bushes before in London nor berry pickers!
At the end of the New River Path, note to reader, it ends somewhat abruptly and you’re out onto a very busy road, OMG – it was Green Lanes!! This road seems to stretch through the entire length of N London! Take a left down the road past the huge castle style climbing wall which can be seen for miles around – oh how I dreamed about Rupert the Bear living in this Castle only to have my dreams shattered that it was a disused pumping station. (I also kind of hoped that the climbers would be hanging round the parapets of the faux castle but apparently the wall is actually inside. Wimps) and you’re at the entrance to Clissold Park. How beautiful is this park, especially in comparison to Finsbury Park. It has lush fountains, a lovely animal enclosure with deer and flopsy bunny rabbits and there was even a free jazz performance. The only downside of the Park was the dodgy travelling amusement fair - £6.50 in and all rides were free. We didn’t go in, not just cause of the cash or because the rides looked death-wish-ish, but more because of the Deliverance type lads hanging around like a very bad smell outside it – given a banjo they would have been right at home. I thought that only Guardian reading social workers with three wheeled prams made of organic muesli lived in Stoke Newington!
After leaving the park, we passed beautiful St Mary’s Church (the one with the huge spire) and hit S-N Church Street - this is closest you’ll ever get to central London on this walk, yikes! After hours of walking we decided it was now time to put a couple of www.fancyapint.com’s suggestions to the test. Number one was the Auld Shellilagh - more like a corridor with a bar in the middle than an actual pub. It supposedly has Guinness to rival Dublin (it was nice but not all that – the Crown in Upper Holloway has better!) I can’t tell you how good the Genuis looked coming out of the pumps after walking all that time. It all went a bit Pete Tong though when Sky TV broke the minute that our, and 15 other peoples by the look of it, pints had been poured and it was obviously more important for the lone barmaid to fiddle round with the remote control for half an hour rather than, oh I don’t know, serving people drinks. If the girl behind the bar had said one more time that she would bring it over I would have slapped her! Needless to say I had to vi sit the bar no less that 3 times before we got our drink and this was at least 10 mins after ordering. I’m not knocking this bar as the drinks and clientele looked good – just don’t even go in if there’s a game on, in case their Sky box takes the huff! Across the road is another bar which came recommended - The Daniel Defoe, yes he of Robin Crusoe and Moll Flanders fame. Talk about a step back in time! I nearly expected to see Daniel propping up the bar! Swirly carpets, prawn cocktail and steak type cuisine and even a Duty Free-esque type sitcom on the box in the corner. Nice friendly service and the drink wasn’t too bad either. Shame about the décor and the music though (Now that’s what I call music 3, possibly)!
After a drink in the Defo we boldly set off on the last section of the walk – through Abney Cemetery, an old Victorian cemetery that has become neglected and overgrown and now has been turned into a nature reserve. It kind of reminded us of Highgate Cemetery with the same sort of decaying Victorian faux gothic headstones overgrown with ivy and undergrowth. Atmospheric doesn’t do it justice. I smelled a rat when we first walked into this park as some older gent immediately did an about turn when we saw him! Gosh, had the New River Path infected us!As we wandered around we noticed that their seemed to be an awful lot of single men lurking around the pathways and sitting on benches and came to the conclusion that there was some full on gay cruising going on! At 5pm in the day with the sun blaring, I ask you, have people no shame :-D Our suspicions were confirmed when we went off the path to take a shot of some gothic tomb action and a young chap made to follow us in! He turned and fled in confusion when we emerged a few seconds later though much to our delight. He was no looker I can tell you – his shiny red blouson jacket wouldn’t have looked out of place on Krystle (Dynasty) Carrington.
All this excitement, cough!! made us thirsty again - we had a final drink in the Bird Cage on Stamford hill – a nice old boozer that has been done out in clichéd but pleasant modern style – big sofas, bare floorboards etc. Nice bar but a bit pricey (95p for a bag of crisps!!! OMG! WTF! Etc) especially considering that we were in the arse end of Hackney and not exactly in the west end (only joking, Hackney dwellers…) After we finished our drink we symbolically walked to Stoke Newington station (even though we were busing it home) and congratulated ourselves on completing the first section of the walk. Hurrah!
You can look at all the pictures we took of this section by clicking here
Next: Walthamstow Marshes! The Lea River! Hackney Marshes!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
INTRODUCTION
Capital Ring is a walk around the edges of London, about 4-5 miles out from the centre and mainly along waterways and through park land. Check out the link to the left for more info. We decided to (a) do the walk and (b) blog the whole experience
Most of the blogs we've read on the Capital Ring have made it sound as dull as dishwater (sorry) and honest, we’ve checked!
If you’re looking for a blow by blow account of each section of the walk you’re in the right place. If you’re looking for an account which will send you into a coma and “bigs up” the achievement of us walking each section (plus the usual moans about the weather) best stop reading now and look elsewhere.
Me & Mark are into walking and though we’re strongly committed to finishing the Ring we’re gonna be taking our time – the desire to stop for coffees, cakes, drinks and chat is just too strong and we just can’t help ourselves. This is where you (devoted reader) will come in so useful - we’re desperately sick & tired of checking websites that claim to be the fountain of all knowledge when it comes to recommending must visit bars and cafes and eateries en route (no sites slagged off case people find out where we live! We are on the lookout for must visit places on the walk (not too far of the beaten track mind!). The very last thing we want is to be walking round the deepest parts of Hackney Wick in search of some place we might never find.
So what’s in it for you? Well besides getting us to rave (or diss) your favourite local place we're gonna try and bring the idea to BBC London 94.9 where we’ll be able to openly talk about it to BBC Londoners. Help us out – you know you want the fame! Just make sure the places you recommend are close to the Ring path and that you give us good directions for them. I think it might also be fun to throw the gauntlet down to those people who think they might know some of the truly awfulest places in London (again they definitely have to be close to the Ring walk path). Please tell us what’s so truly awful about them and I promise we will make an effort to go there and rate it on its scale of terribleness (note to reader – we don’t mind awful as long as we’re likely to see the light of day after frequenting the place!
It couldn’t be easier to get your suggestions to us – we’re doing the walk clockwise from Highgate>Hendon. We’re taking the sections bit by bit – we’ll aim to give you some idea when we’re about to complete the next section so here goes….
Capital Ring is a walk around the edges of London, about 4-5 miles out from the centre and mainly along waterways and through park land. Check out the link to the left for more info. We decided to (a) do the walk and (b) blog the whole experience
Most of the blogs we've read on the Capital Ring have made it sound as dull as dishwater (sorry) and honest, we’ve checked!
If you’re looking for a blow by blow account of each section of the walk you’re in the right place. If you’re looking for an account which will send you into a coma and “bigs up” the achievement of us walking each section (plus the usual moans about the weather) best stop reading now and look elsewhere.
Me & Mark are into walking and though we’re strongly committed to finishing the Ring we’re gonna be taking our time – the desire to stop for coffees, cakes, drinks and chat is just too strong and we just can’t help ourselves. This is where you (devoted reader) will come in so useful - we’re desperately sick & tired of checking websites that claim to be the fountain of all knowledge when it comes to recommending must visit bars and cafes and eateries en route (no sites slagged off case people find out where we live! We are on the lookout for must visit places on the walk (not too far of the beaten track mind!). The very last thing we want is to be walking round the deepest parts of Hackney Wick in search of some place we might never find.
So what’s in it for you? Well besides getting us to rave (or diss) your favourite local place we're gonna try and bring the idea to BBC London 94.9 where we’ll be able to openly talk about it to BBC Londoners. Help us out – you know you want the fame! Just make sure the places you recommend are close to the Ring path and that you give us good directions for them. I think it might also be fun to throw the gauntlet down to those people who think they might know some of the truly awfulest places in London (again they definitely have to be close to the Ring walk path). Please tell us what’s so truly awful about them and I promise we will make an effort to go there and rate it on its scale of terribleness (note to reader – we don’t mind awful as long as we’re likely to see the light of day after frequenting the place!
It couldn’t be easier to get your suggestions to us – we’re doing the walk clockwise from Highgate>Hendon. We’re taking the sections bit by bit – we’ll aim to give you some idea when we’re about to complete the next section so here goes….
