Walking in London. Peter Aylmer
or New York – it is true that drizzle, a fine curtain of rain which falls from leaden skies sometimes for hours on end, can come at any time of year. It poses no danger, other than to the spirit. But another marked result of climate change is the downpour. Short, intense periods of heavy rain, perhaps with thunderstorms, are increasingly common in the London area, again at any time of year. They can overwhelm drainage systems and rivers alike, and lead to flash flooding. They can affect London walking even if the rain has fallen many miles away, as the Thames carries flood waters to the sea – see the flood markers at Isleworth (Walk 18), for example.
While many of the walks in this book are on gravelled or metalled paths, many are not, and after heavy rain – or any time between late autumn and early spring – some paths can become very muddy, a by-product of the London Clay beneath the surface. Nothing is likely to be impassable, but it could affect your footwear choice (see What to take below). Natural paths on chalk surfaces may be drier, but very slippery.
Safety in London
In preparing this book, the author walked all of these routes several times, in all seasons, usually alone, with rucksack on his back and expensive camera equipment around his neck. And not once did he feel his safety threatened.
While vigilance is a good quality to bring to city walking anywhere, these walks are for the main part away from the areas in which crime is most commonplace. The rules to follow are those which you would follow in any city: be aware of pickpocketing in tourist areas, Walk 10 the most obvious; cross a road, enter a shop or hop on a bus if you feel you are being followed; use mobile phones carefully.
You are more at risk crossing the road, especially if you are an overseas visitor, and from a nation that does not drive on the left. Use a zebra or pelican crossing if there is one nearby. A zebra crossing is marked by black-and-white stripes across the road, a flashing orange Belisha beacon on each pavement. London drivers are remarkably courteous in stopping for pedestrians on these, but it is wise to look the driver in the eye as they approach, before stepping out.
Pelican crossings (and three other types, pegasus, puffin and toucan – they are similar, and in this book the term ‘pelican’ is used for all) have traffic lights with separate phases for road traffic and pedestrians. Always wait for the pedestrian phase to turn green. Most have a button to encourage this to happen, although you may be forgiven for thinking that it does not always work. Wait, all the same. And keep an eye out for cyclists.
Some heaths, parks and commons around London harbour ticks, which can spread the very unpleasant Lyme disease. Check your skin carefully after a walk – not just exposed areas, as they can crawl to the groin and armpits. If you find a tick, remove it with tweezers or a specialist tool, and over the next few weeks keep an eye out for inflammation around the site, which must be treated with antibiotics. Other insects can bite, but are no more than a nuisance unless you have a specific allergy. Britain’s one poisonous snake, the adder, might be encountered, particularly on heaths, but prefers to scurry away rather than confront.
Getting around London
Every single one of these walks is designed for public transport. Almost wherever you are in the capital, you will find it is the best way to get around. Car parking can be very expensive and road congestion horrendous. Even residential areas can have very restricted parking, although things might be easier on Sundays.
Most of the time, London’s public transport works fantastically well. There are some excellent smartphone apps, such as Citymapper, which give real-time information, as do the websites www.tfl.gov.uk (tube and bus services) or www.nationalrail.co.uk (National Rail services).
Off-peak services are rarely more than 15 minutes apart; the few exceptions are mentioned on each walk. Sunday services are generally less frequent, and in some cases may not run at all, and engineering works on both tube and rail can lead to bus replacements that take far longer. Check before you go.
The Croydon tram network features on Walks 19 and 21
If you are a visitor, either arm yourself with an Oyster card (a pre-loaded smart card valid on almost all tubes, trains, buses and trams within London), a contactless debit card (but it’s unlikely to be sensible to use cards in foreign currency because of the transaction fee), or use a major mobile phone payment app. All come with a price cap promise, so they are a far better option than buying individual tickets or daily travelcards. Only one walk (Walk 1) starts outside the zonal system, by one stop, but it does take Oyster and contactless cards.
If you can, travel outside the morning peak (peak times are from 6.30am to 9.30am), not least because it’s cheaper. Most walks can easily be completed between the morning and evening peak periods, although in summer when it’s light (up to 10pm in June), it’s delightful to walk late into the evening.
Children under 11 travel free, and there are significant concessions for 11- to 17-year-olds. If you have a bus pass for England, bus travel is free after 9.30am, but trains and tubes have to be paid for. London residents over 60 get a Freedom Pass for all zones which entitles them to free buses and tubes; almost all trains are free after 9.30am, and some (Overground and TfL Rail) all day.
Access
England’s rights-of-way network gives the walker open access to off-road footpaths, bridleways and other tracks which can lead to the heart of the countryside. They are important in London too, and are often followed in this book. Each is signposted where it leaves a public road, and usually at path junctions as well.
Perhaps surprisingly, London is far more accommodating to wanders off of rights of way than many other areas. After all, most of London’s parks and commons were safeguarded precisely because city dwellers were to be encouraged into the great outdoors, and are open to the walker, criss-crossed by a multitude of informal paths. Discretion should be used however – if there’s a perfectly serviceable path going in your direction, use it, rather than cause erosion elsewhere, and certainly don’t push your way through thickets and bushes just because you think you can.
In farmland, respect the rights of way. Even here there is often a give-and-take between locals and the farmer, and once or twice the walks in this book use a farmland path which is respected in custom and practice. You will also come across a few ‘right to roam’ areas, shown by a brown logo of a walker traversing rolling countryside, but these are not frequent in London.
What to take
Good walking shoes or trainers will be perfectly adequate for these walks, except perhaps in winter or after wet weather on the more rural walks that traverse farmland or wood, when proper walking boots will be better. The shorter walks need almost nothing in the way of specialist clothing, but if you’re out for a long half-day or more, look for a wicking top, trousers (if not shorts) that will dry easily (so not jeans or cords), and something warm to pull on when you stop. If there is any doubt in the forecast at all, take a windproof and/or waterproof layer, preferably breathable. But on most of these walks, you are only a few minutes from a station or bus stop, or pub or café, to take respite from the weather.
Many walks have fine pubs (Walk 18)
If you have a mobile phone, carry it – signal strength is excellent almost everywhere, albeit with surprising exceptions. Smartphone users will usually find usable 3G signals, or better, and sometimes WiFi hotspots too.
Check the ‘refreshments’ line in the information box to each walk to decide what food to take with you – although a few snacks are always a good idea, and a bottle of water certainly is, especially in hot weather.
Maps
The extracts in this book are from Ordnance Survey Explorer maps at 1:25,000 scale. Coupled with the route