Capital Ring

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…..