Log Off
Head Out
Escapes on your doorstep
from anywhere in London by public transport
Log Off – Head Out
Access the outdoors, in London and beyond, from your doorstep
Keen walker, reluctant rambler or just need to get outside, somewhere… anywhere?
This website is for anyone living in or around London who might need a mind clearing, spirit restorative escape route or two. No droning history lectures or improving nature guides – nothing to learn apart from that which catches your free-wandering mind. Here you might find stories, idiosyncratic observations, curated curiosities and ‘mind noodling’ about anything rambly in the wide, and occasionally narrow, blue yonder.
And then there are the routes…
Each route has:
~ An easy step by step navigation guide ~
~ Essential feature guides, pointing out stories and features of note ~
~ For the out of London routes there is an additional printable map ~
So, here’s what to do:
~ Pick a route ~
~ Print off the step by step navigation guide (‘Print-Friendly’ tab on the right beneath the header of each walk) and, if going out of town, the map ~
~ Pack up and go! ~
Log off, Head out – you know you want to…
10 Walks in and out of London
Lucky you. I’ve walked several thousand miles of footpaths and city streets to distil out a choice selection of rambles for everyone to enjoy. There is no way of knowing whether a walk is worth doing except by walking the route every step of the way; a lot of terrible walks, dull vistas, and frankly boring trudges have been endured and discarded. Lucky me, I love walking and being outside so it’s all been worth it. I hope you can find the time to explore a route or two.
"Everywhere is within walking distance if you create the time..."
No 1 : Princes Risborough to Wendover
ST MARYLEBONE I MODERATE I 6.8m/11km
Leaving habitation behind you, spend the day following one of Britain’s most ancient trackways dating back 5000 years, possibly much further...
No 2 : Hampton Court to Richmond
WATERLOO/VAUXHALL I EASY/MODERATE I 7.8m/12.5k
A favourite walk bookended by the imposing Hampton Court Palace and the bare remains of Richmond Palace, along the Thames path and through diverse parks and meadows...
No 3 : Three London Parks
REGENT'S PARK I EASY I 5.6m/9k
Easy walking, people-watching in the parks, and chi-chi 'villages' ending on the splendid views and rambling of Hampstead Heath...
No 4 : Newington Green to Smithfield
CANONBURY I EASY I 3m/4.8k
An idiosyncratic trail of visual and historical curiosities taking in radicals, rebels and assorted contrarians along the way...
No 5 : London Bridge to Greenwich
LONDON BRIDGE I EASY/MODERATE I 5.6m/9k
A real treat for the soul, spending an entire walk following the course of the River Thames from the heart of the old City...
No 6 : Eynsford to Otford
VICTORIA/CHARING CROSS/BLACKFRIARS
I EASY/MODERATE I 6.8m/11km
A perennial favourite to introduce self-identifying 'non-walkers'. Stunning views of the length of the Darenth Valley, an impressive Roman Villa, a 'castle', a 'palace' and three typically Kentish villages...
No 7 : Eynsford Circular via Shoreham
VICTORIA/CHARING CROSS/BLACKFRIARS
I MODERATE I 8.2 - 9.1m/13.3 - 14.8km
A longer cousin of Walk No. 6, this route follows the lovely Darenth Valley on its western slopes and returns along the valley bottom. A landscape of hills, open views and a riverine return with a choice of picnic, pub or vineyard for the lunch stop...
No 8 : Sole Street Circular
VICTORIA/ST PANCRAS INTERNATIONAL
I MODERATE I 8.8m/14.2km
Continuously undulating chalk hills and farmland welcome you with vineyards and gorgeous valley views, including a welcome and timely lunch stop at a splendid Kentish scene of a windmill and pub overlooking the local cricket pitch...
No 9 : Guildford St Martha's Church Circular
WATERLOO I MODERATE I 7.3m/11.7km
Along the meandering River Wey via an old watermill to an ascent along ancient pilgrim paths under open skies and woodland, tracking the North Downs Way and the Pilgrims' Way, including an aerobic climb to the perfectly located St Martha’s Chapel for a rest and lunch...
No 10 : Greenwich to London Bridge via Limehouse & Wapping
COMING SOON...
Notes of the Season
The Beauty of Change
Seasonal Ramblings
Walking is an opportunity for us to experience the magic and beauty of ever-changing nature, no better demonstrated than by watching a tree. This one on the left is in my local park, captured through it’s gentle metamorphosis over the period of a year.
Or watch the video here with sound:
One Tree, Two Minutes, Four Seasons and a Dog
Get in touch with the seasons on your walks and join me for more seasonal ramblings below where I post seasonal observations to follow along with, as well as a recommended ‘Walk of the Season’…
Walk of the Season
Spring 2023
In the spotlight – Hampton Court to Richmond
This is my most walked of walks; the walk I turn to more than any other for all the right reasons (riverside breezes, historical tales, wide open skies) and a few of the ‘wrong’ ones (convenience, no hills and an excellent pub)…
A quick TravelCard trip to the Tudor show piece, Hampton Court, and in moments you are gazing across the wide relaxing Thames, still sleepy from its meandering route from Oxford. Following the river with a soul relieving diversionary stroll through Hampton Court Park, then crossing Kingston Bridge and onto the glorious dilemma of which pub to choose at Teddington lock – the bustling variety of The Anglers or the intimacy of bijou The Tides End next door?
And then on, with the option of roaming across a semi-wild meadow at Ham Lands, and later views of Richmond Hill with the civilised pleasures of riverside Richmond town.
As well as being book-ended by Hampton Court and the poignant ragged remains of Richmond Palace, don’t forget to look out in the Highlights section for tales of aristocratic intrigue by two remarkable women.
Seasonal Miscellany
Spring 2023
Take One Tree
Now is the perfect time of year to pick a tree, any tree, that you pass regularly and make it ‘your tree’.
Notice its slow metamorphosis from its stark winter sculptural pose to a softer profile as it gains its spring and summer greening. Check it out throughout the year and, if you can get close, see how the buds and leaves are developing in strange and mysterious ways. And, later, what fruit? What seeds?
Rise and Fall of the Swift
Don’t forget to catch the swifts as they return at the end of April. Take a look at the article In Praise of the Swift and note that as of 2022 the RSPB has put this beautiful bird on the endangered species list due to its massive decline. Work is underway to address this in those countries which provide the thousands of kilometres migratory pathways between here and its ‘winter’ home in Africa.
Meanwhile, if you’ve ever wondered how a fledgling swift can tumble out of its nest and fly so beautifully and seemingly effortlessly (and why wouldn’t you?) it’s because in between feeds, whilst huddled in their nests, the fledglings use their wings to do ‘press ups’, raising their tiny bodies up and down to create the essential strength for that all important, and potentially perilous, maiden flight.
Hail to the swift.
Pagan Ways in the Heart of London
For over a decade now I’ve collated a photographic record of a small hidden shrine secreted within woodland on Hampstead Heath. Barely a metre across and despite wind, rain or the unwitting ‘tidying up’ by the park rangers, this collection of trinkets, leaves twigs, stones, the odd photograph or poem has become a place of pilgrimage for those that know about it.
Changing from month to month, sometimes it’s a scruffy mess while at others it has been carefully and lovingly rearranged. Being tucked away from the main paths, only once have I ever encountered another person there: a young Japanese woman standing in quiet contemplation. Daring to break the silence that the secluded spot seems to impose, I said that I found the collection quite mysterious. Clearly taking me for a fool, she asserted with a matter of fact certainty, “It’s a shrine…obviously”.
Of course, she was right.