Capital Ring

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

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!