London Loop: Erith - Uxbridge (Part 1/2)

150 Miles: Erith - Uxbridge

After the bus challenge, but before the night routes started, I looked for a new challenge to participate in, and I found one rather easily. The London Loop is a 150 mile orbital path, split into 24 sections, and is described as an M25 for walkers. Now I never classified myself much as a walker, and I was unsure whether I'd be able to walk the long sections that the loop offered, so as practice the day after I rode X68, I found myself in Dartford. The plan was to walk right up the Darent Creek, which offered amazing views over the marshes and the chance to hear gunshots, which at first, I was unsure where they were coming from, but after looking at Google Maps, I discovered there was a shooting range nearby. I also spotted what looked to be an abandoned house, which I knew I just had to check out, and with the sound of gunshots nearby, made it all the more creepy. Eventually, you get to the Dartford Creek Barrier where the River Darent makes its confluence with the River Thames, and this stretch of the Thames is seriously quiet and rural, and may be my new favourite section of it after Thamesmead - Belvedere. You soon come up to Littlebrook Power Station with its striking chimney, which I was devastated to discover at a later date, that they had collapsed it as the power station was now decommissioned. Close afterwards is the Dartford Crossing, another striking monument that carries the M25 above, and is awesome to walk under whilst beside the Thames. The walk soon finishes at Greenhithe, where I was able to manage the 7 or 8 miles that walk was, so I thought I was prepared for the Loop. The London Loop starts outside Erith Station, where I was excited to be as I never got an opportunity to give this a place an explore on the bus challenge, so I made sure to do that, giving myself a chance to walk out onto Erith Pier, the first time I had been there and was amazed that you can walk right out onto it, and chill on a bench above the Thames. That place has now become legendary. You walk along an industrial filled road next, which are never the greatest, but once you pass underneath, you're back beside the Thames until you reach the opposite side of the River Darent. Clearly, the Littlebrook walk was the perfect warm up for the Loop. You follow the creek on the opposite side all the way down into Crayford, where once you navigate yourself across the town, you find yourself in the vicinity of Hall Place. You're actually beside the River Cray now, which is a tributary of the Darent, and was a very nice garden area, well worth a quick explore. Continuing, I found the water to be extremely blue, as it becomes a little tricky to navigate yourself under the Rochester Way right beside the railway line, until you come close to the end at Bexley Village, noticing a rather creepy looking graveyard almost hidden in the overgrowth. My phone actually ran out of battery at the end at Bexley, as it was a little faulty back then and would run out of charge quickly, which was the perfect time as I needed it from time to time to look at the map to make sure I was going the right way as the direction signs didn't always exist at each intersection, or pointed in the wrong direction, a common occurrence with signposted walks. I very much enjoyed my first day walking the London Loop, and was a rather manageable 8.5 mile section, and was looking forward to doing more.

The good thing about the London Loop is that wherever I finished a section of the walk, that's where I'd had to head to start the next section. So about 3 weeks later, I found myself back at Bexley for the second section that continues at first in the same direction as the River Cray. It was also good to see that at some start of sections of the walk, there was a London Loop plaque providing information and an overview of the walk. The meadows you start off in offer a brilliant view of the same Littlebrook Power Station chimney when you look behind, which unfortunately you cannot see anymore, but you can just about manage to glimpse the top of the Dartford Crossing. There was also some strange tires that had been buried into the ground, creating some sort of seat, but I know that even these don't exist anymore. You enter into Foots Cray Meadows afterwards, where you catch a better glimpse of the river that gives this place its name as it stretches out to form a lake. The magnificent Five Arches Bridge crosses the lake here, and I think I must have first taken the wrong path across the meadows as I wasn't close enough to the bridge to get a good look at it. You did get some good vantage points of the river though, and I didn't give up the opportunity to dip my feet in, ignoring the weird looks I got from passers by. After leaving the meadows, you soon get close to the Queen Mary Hospital, where you have to take a series of underpasses or bridges to get across the roundabout here. I mistook this roundabout to be the one at Foots Cray where my 321 bus terminated one stop early, but I think that was the next roundabout down. Scadbury Park is next, which within its grounds, is the ruins of the old mansion, which I had a quick glimpse at after doing Route R1 which ends at the nearby estate, so it was good to see this place again. The last notable part of this section of the walk is Petts Wood, which is owned by the National Trust and probably one of the larger woodland areas in South East London. There's a lot of railway lines in these areas, which split up a lot into different branches, so there's a few bridges you need to cross over, before you finish this shorter 7.5 mile section from Bexley to Petts Wood Stations. I didn't enjoy this section as much as the first one, but it was definitely still rather pleasant.

Not to say that I didn't enjoy Section 2, but I wasn't entirely sure whether I would continue to do the London Loop, as I wasn't usually drawn to doing long walks, but instead just exploring aimlessly any areas that looked interesting to me. Almost 2 months later since the previous section, I thought I'd try out the next one as a sort of test to see if I wanted to continue more afterwards. So I made my way back to Petts Wood, and as soon I entered the edge of Jubilee Country Park, where I came off of the loop last time to use Petts Wood Station after my walk, a squirrel stopped on a tree to get its picture taken, perfect timing for me. There are some sections of road walking through the suburbs here as greenland areas, which I expect to walk through the most on London Loop, are few and far between here. You do get a nice section through Cuckoo Wood though, and once you walk some more housing streets, you hit an intriguing little green area, with Bromley Tennis Club behind that has a rather nice view looking out towards Kent. Sevenoaks was in that direction, and as I sat down there for a little break, I thought that could be an interesting place to go to have an explore of one day. After a brief glimpse of Farnborough Village, you enter the vicinity of High Elms Country Park, a place I remember passing through on Route R8, and thinking that'll be a nice place to explore. And it was, as it felt very secluded and didn't feel like it was in London, as country parks are not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the capital city, but there seems to be more of these than you may expect. It definitely doesn't feel like London when you have a slight narrow road walk next, with no pavements to walk on, which does make you feel a little bit wary. Bogey Lane is next, which actually is just a standard pathway, slightly muddy, but does offer a good view over to some nice fields. These pathways continue, and what I wasn't expecting was when I caught a glimpse to my right, was a huge mansion on the other side of the field. A mansion, quite the size of the one I saw, was definitely not what I was expecting to see in London, and I believe at some point later, you walk up a steep bank to a driveway that leads into the grounds of the mansion behind a locked mechanical gate. Deep expanses of woods and commons continue next as you come close to the Keston Ponds, and if you remember from when I was doing the bus routes, I fell in love with this little village a bit, so it was great to actually get to walk in it, and see up close and personal The Fox Inn Pub. It did start to rain a little at this point, even though it was very sunny at the start at Petts Wood this morning, but it wasn't much of an issue as I continued through more woodland in Hayes Common, and then finally West Wickham Common, which is one of only 14 sites that is managed by the City of London corporation... outside of the City of London. Hayes Station is not exactly close enough to the end of this 9 mile section here, the longest yet, so I caught a bus instead into Bromley from the Coney Hall Estate. I was really happy that after this section, I knew I was certain that I did want to continue with the London Loop as I really enjoyed this walk and wanted to see more.

The following weekend, because I enjoyed the previous section so much, I set off again back to Coney Hall to pick up where I left off, and almost immediately, you get to something pretty amazing. In Coney Hall Recreation Ground, of which you may think there's nothing interesting to see, there's a little stone with a line in that signifies the Greenwich Meridian Line. A very important place as this is the seperation of the Western and Eastern Hempisheres of the world, and what essentially created time. You would never think this is just passing through a seemingly random recreation ground in South London, but it's always a major part of a walk when you cross over this Prime Meridian Line. So the walk started off great, and continues to be as you pass right by a small church, and then downhill across the field to cross the road into Spring Park, that stretches right alongside Addington Road, a place I wanted to walk through ever since I rode Route 314 along this said road. After a few more nice woodland and park areas south of the Shurblands Estate, and after a little bit of a lengthy road walk, you enter the grounds of Addington Hills. This place offers quite possibly one of the best views of London, looking out onto the towers of Croydon, the Crystal Palace Transmitter Tower, the classic skyscrapers of Central London like the Shard, and off to the right, Canary Wharf. It is rather secluded in a nice place to walk through anyways without the view point, so it's a rather quiet place to sit at and look out across the city. I knew this place existed already though as Coombe Lane Tram Stop is nearby, so I've walked up here before to explore, but it's always great to go back there to look around. Strangely though, there's a direction post in the woods here that signals Erith is about 21 miles away on the Loop, but back near the start of the walk, it said Erith was about 24 miles away, even though I've been walking further away from that location the whole time. A rather strange place next once you cross over the Tram tracks as you walk down a large flight of steps to a pond near a private house, before going up the other side again to continue through Bramley Bank. Crossing over the road that links Selsdon with Addington, I was hoping there might be a local shop nearby to buy a drink but unfortunately there wasn't. I survived though as I continued into Selsdon Wood, which I had also briefly been before for an explore as the 353 terminus of Forestdale is right at the entrance to the woods. It was great to give it a thorough explore this time as I walked through, and then some brilliant countryside, with some horses in fields, all the way through to Hamsey Green. This marks the end of Section 4, measuring at 10 miles long, the longest so far, but it was still manageable and was very enjoyable. No railway station was nearby though so it was another bus ride after this walk into Croydon for me. 

A couple of days after Christmas and only about a week and a half after my last London Loop adventure, I set off back to Hamsey Green again to start Section 5. This walk starts off amazing right away as you are very high up so there's a great view down across the misty meadows into the valley below. This area is known as Riddlesdown, and is one of many commons, that are also all owned by the City of London corporation too, that this walk will take me through. This area of South London is also very hilly and there are loads of valleys, as evident when you realise that the previous sections took you across Addington Hills, and nearby to Biggin Hill Valley. This trend continues as you make a steep decline out of Riddlesdown, and over the railway line to emerge onto a road where you cross another railway line (a train tooted its whistle as I walked over the bridge) and up a steep road to look back for a great view of a quarry and the first railway line now being high up on a bridge. What feels like an even steeper climb now to emerge into Kenley Common, which runs on the outskirts of Kenley Aerodrome, and I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't get to see it up close. This is when I made the decision to come back and see it properly another time, which I did when I had to come down to these parts to do the new Route 404 extension. Coulsdon Common is next, which emerges out by The Fox pub, strange how I seem to keep passing by one on the London Loop. Devilsden Wood, an interesting name, and Happy Valley, also interesting, is next, and it's evident from the name that this area of London continues to be very hilly, and it was from some of the great views and steep paths that I encountered. This leads out onto Farthing Downs, a brilliant high spot with even more nice views, which stretches all the way along until you decline into Coulsdon South. You may remember that I've been here before for a sunrise when I was doing the night routes, and that's because I knew it would be a good spot for one as I really enjoyed when I first came through here on the Loop. This was probably my favourite part of the Loop since the beginning at Erith, and as we descended into Coulsdon South at the end of this section, it was the shortest one so far at only 6 miles, so I knew that I could squeeze in the 6th section too. This section is extremely different from the previous one as we leave the valleys behind, and start off on a rather long road walk. It's still a good section after this though when you pass through Woodcote Park to come across a rather magical spot as you walk right through a field that bizarrely has an old classic red telephone box right in the middle of it. You hit Oaks Park next where a very straight footpath begins which runs right behind the Belmont Prisons, until you get to a golf course near to Banstead Station, where this shorter 4.5 mile section ends. A total of 10.5 miles on this walk, it was a lot of fun, but started to get dark as I walked across the golf course as sunset is really early during December. I definitely got to find some few new areas in London that I find interesting and wouldn't mind returning to at some point.

I struggled slightly to find my way back onto the London Loop from Banstead Station for the next section, as I had walked back to the station whilst it was dark. When I finally made it onto the Loop, the walk starts off across the other side of the golf course I ended up on last time. There's probably the most lengthiest section of road walking next, which isn't a very interesting start to this walk. You do finally get some greenery however when you enter the outskirts of Nonsuch Park, a place I wanted to explore but didn't get a chance to as the Loop sticks to the edge. A view of the Ewell Castle School comes next when you leave the park, which very much is in the shape of a castle, and then that's pretty much it for this short 3.5 mile section, probably the least interesting part so far. As I was sat beside the lake in the middle of the town of Ewell, I was surely not going to end here, so I continued on the next section that takes me all the way up close to the Hogsmill River. I'm going to take a shot in the dark without researching first that the lake I was sat beside in Ewell is the source of the Hogsmill River. The start of this section I spotted what looks like an abandoned building on the opposite side of the stream just before a narrow bridge underneath the railway line. This whole part of the walk continues in these green areas beside the river, that's hidden away behind all the suburbs here in South West London, and it felt like it was a little repetitive after a while. Once you get up to Tolworth, I found myself on this small section that I walked before, as at the end here is the Riverhill estate, where Route 965 terminated, which only ran a couple times a week, so I was forced to walk back to Tolworth afterwards. It was good to see this time though that the pathway was a lot more cleared of overgrown bushes and easier to walk along. The same style of walking continues for a lot longer all the way up to Berrylands, where I got a little bit confused because the Loop signs were pointing in the wrong direction, but once I finally found my way underneath the station to find myself near to a sewage works, I didn't find it too bad strangely as I don't mind walking through a secluded greenery area in an industrial surrounding. The rest of this walk continued close to the same small river hidden behind houses, with more directions signs pointing in the wrong direction, until I reached the town of Kingston after another 10.8 mile walk, the distance according to the PDF of the Loop sections. Personally, this was my least favourite section of the Loop so far as it started off rather uninteresting and the signs pointing in the wrong direction, causing me to keep looking at my phone for the PDF and Google Maps, got a little irritating too. If this was the first section of the London Loop, I may have been more inclined into believing I wouldn't continue with the Loop, but I'm stuck with it and I had to continue at this point, otherwise I wouldn't be satisfied with myself. I was hoping it would get better next time though.

It seemed like I was doing these London Loop walks in quick succession, so I found myself back in Kingston yet again soon after for the next section. I was hoping that this section would be better than the last, and it definitely seemed so when you start off, as you cross over Kingston Bridge, the first time I've seen the Thames on the loop since the beginning at Erith, and looking beautiful glistening in the sun, before you head into Bushy Park, the second largest of the royal parks in London. I knew that within the vicinity of this park is wild deer, much like Richmond Park, so I was hoping to catch a glimpse of some before I left the park completely on the other side. It's a brilliant open area to walk through, but unfortunately the Loop doesn't go close enough to see the Diana Fountain, but I did, very close to my departure from the park, see some deer, which are always great to see. There's a whole bunch of road walking next however, but after this, once you get close to the River Crane, which felt very similar to my previous walk along the River Hogsmill, it got a little better again. What I wasn't expecting to see though was a massive tower hidden away in the trees here, which was a pleasant surprise and I was lucky enough to come on a Sunday, the only day that the tower was open for anybody to walk up the stairs, and it was free so I definitely took advantage of it. This place definitely felt like a hidden secret of London, and I was really glad I came here on the day it was open. The next part of the Loop was a little unfortunate though as it forces you to walk alongside the road for over 10 minutes to enter Hounslow Heath, which is a place I really like, but you don't get to catch a glimpse of the abandoned tunnel or the garden centre that's hidden away within here. There's a better route to take here to avoid the 10+ minute road walk, and that's to continue along the River Crane, past another abandoned place, which seems to be some sort of old skate park, and then you catch a glimpse of the said abandoned tunnel, also cutting off at least half a mile of walking too that's a more interesting route to take. Above the abandoned tunnel here though, there's a pile of old railway sleepers that have no purpose of being there, even though the railway line passes over this spot. I'm not even sure why the tunnel exists because the other end just leads out into some trees and a fence blocking your access into the water of the Crane. Hounslow Heath is definitely an interesting area to explore but it's a little disappointing that London Loop doesn't take the most interesting route through here. There's not much else to see for the remainder of this walk as you just continue along the River Crane, underneath the flight path of Heathrow Airport, until you reach the road that leads down to Hatton Cross Station, a rather large distance away from the Loop, and the end of this 8.5 mile section. I was happy to witness Bushy Park and the surprise Shot Tower on this walk, but it still wasn't as good as earlier London Loop sections, but not as bad as the one before this.

Taking a little break from the Loop, it was about a month later that I found myself back at Hatton Cross, where I had to walk all the way back down the road again to the River Crane. As you come off of the road, there's a strange part of the Piccadilly Line, which serves Hatton Cross Station, where it comes above ground for only a small section before diving underneath again. You actually continue up the River Crane again for this section through some rather pleasant meadows and parks until you reach the Grand Union Canal. You take a pleasant walk along the canal here, with a view of some old industry building that looked as if it was in the process of being demolished. This small 3.5 mile section actually ends here on the canal at Hayes & Harlington, so I carried on to the next section which continues beside the canal. However, it weirdly comes away from the canal here to serve Stockley Park, a large business area, that features a big hill with a nice view of planes coming into land or taking off at Heathrow, whilst in the opposite direction, you actually get a view of the buildings in Central London. I'm actually glad that the Loop comes off the canal here, as I had previously done a walk starting in West Drayton, and going all the way along the canal to Hayes & Harlington, continuing past to see Bulls Bridge, where the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union makes its confluence with the standard canal. On that walk, I then passed where the E5 terminates at a nice park near to the canal, and I actually did this before I did the E5, and the E6/H28 which terminates at the opposite side of the canal at Bull's Bridge, so this was the first time I saw these places. Three Bridges is on the canal next, a brilliant structure that was the last engineering project undertaken by the infamous Isambard Kingdom Brunel before his death that sees the canal running over an old railway line that stretches down to the Brentford Docks, and the road passing over both, creating three layers, not really three bridges. Behind Ealing Hospital next, with an old bricked up entrance that people on boats used to be able to access, right as you reach Hanwell Locks, a flight of several consecutive locks, where one of them provides access over to a rare foot crossing over the said old railway line, which is also nearby to where the River Brent makes its confluence with the Grand Union. I finished my walk up over at Boston Manor, which is genuinely one of the best sections of canals I've walked along. Anyways, back to the Loop, which meets back up with the canal just before West Drayton, as I stay on it for a while until we head off down the Slough Arm of the Grand Union. I then don't stay on that for long as you make your way up the River Colne, right on the border of London, before you head back onto the Grand Union Canal again right up to the end of this 11 mile walk at Uxbridge, now halfway through the London Loop. This was definitely a much better section of the Loop, and made me excited to experience more after the last two not being as good. Walks in West London alongside the water are definitely fun to do, as I made clear by my unrelated rant of a completely different walk that isn't part of London Loop.