LOHO WALKS
Three London Parks
A zoo, a view and possible tea for two… (or more)
Easy walking, people-watching in the parks, ending on Hampstead Heath where you can abandon the route directions given here and set out on your own improvised ramble, getting deliciously lost, perhaps finding Kenwood House café en route before improvising your path back to your chosen station.
Featuring (The) Regent’s Park, a free peak into the Zoo, two panoramas of London – from Primrose then Parliament Hill; a saunter through chi-chi Belsize Park village and on to the semi ‘wilderness’ of the ancient Heath.
Route Summary
Easy / 3 out of 10
5.6 miles / 9 kilometres
(for basic guided walk from Regents Park, round Hampstead Heath returning back to Parliament Hill. Additional walk options – guided walk or anarcho/free style across the Heath)
OS Urban Map Walk London
Dog Friendly
Terrain
How to get here
Facilities
Eat and drink
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Easy walking – parks, streets and heathland.
Start at Regent’s Park underground Station (Bakerloo Line). The Number 30 bus also stops here.
End at either Gospel Oak, Hampstead Heath (Overground) or Belsize Park (Northern line)
Duke of Edinburgh’s advice to the young Prince Charles on royal duty:
“If you see a toilet, use it”
(Though which toilets are open and when is one of life’s mysteries).
LOOS on this walk:
- Regents Park – on your route, next to the small café in Chester Road.
- Primrose Hill – as you enter the park follow the track along the bottom edge of the hill to the row of buildings ahead and to your right.
- South End Green – as you descend past the Royal Free Hospital to the junction of Southend Green ancient loos are directly ahead and opposite the Victorian bandstand.
- Bottom of Parliament Hill by the tennis courts café and bandstand.
Cafes in Regent’s Park at Steps 2 and 3; on Primrose Hill (#7); and at Kenwood House (#26).
A Farmers’ Market is often held at a school down Primrose Hill at #9.
Plenty of shops, cafes and pubs in Primrose Hill village (#10), Haverstock Hill (#13) and South End Green (#14).
RECOMMENDED LUNCH STOP – The Spaniards Inn (reputed haunt of highway men) with its expansive seated garden, at the northern end of Hampstead Heath (#24)
Or the cosy Hollybush fifteen minutes walk from Kenwood House across the Heath and into Hampstead Village.
Primrose Hill & the Welsh Druids
As well as offering spectacular views across London from its grassy summit, Primrose Hill is also an ancient pagan religious site celebrated by Welsh Druids for the last 200 years.
One of the Druid members was the poet William Blake and his quote is engraved into the coping stones on the summit:
“I have conversed with the spiritual sun. I saw him on Primrose Hill.”
Having taken in the view and the quote from Blake, turn around to find another quote insert into the the circular celebration of Iolo Morganwg, the bardic name of Edward Williams – 18th Century Romantic poet, political radical, anti-slavery campaigner and, let’s be frank, a bit of a slippery customer.
While his brothers lived off the misery of sugar plantation slavery, Morganwg took the opposite line remaining an anti-slavery activist all his life. In his colourful and multifaceted life, he associated with leading political and literary figures including Coleridge – a relationship that may have been imaginatively enlivened by their shared enthusiasm for opium.
His interests drew him into Druidism where, not content with just ‘joining in’, he convened the first Welsh Druidic gathering on the island of Britain, the ‘Gorsedd of Bards’ at Primrose Hill; appointing himself as Chief Bard, naturally. The Assembly lives on today as the Eisteddfod.
Despite his impressive political credentials and great learning, Iolo has also been described, with good reason, as as ‘a fantasist and forger on an heroic scale’ for, among other acts, the way in which dodgy but seemingly important historical documents seemed to magically appear in his possession.
His motto as etched into the Hill’s stone: ‘Y Gwir yn Erbyn y Byd’, translates as ‘The Truth against the World’ – a motto as ambiguous as the man himself.
Because of Iolo, and despite him, the Druidic system persists in Britain. Though easily mocked – perhaps something to do with all that flowing garb and seemingly quirky rituals, which to be fair is a feature they share with most major religions – Druidic beliefs have a strong modern resonance with an emphasis on arts, ecology and the environment. Loyal Druids still gather at the summit of Primrose Hill, at the Autumn equinox, for their earnest but often joyful rituals and celebrations.
Finally, if the druidic quote by Blake engraved into the curved coping stones seems a little mysterious, be grateful that it is there at all. There was a brief, and fortunately unsuccessful, attempt by fans of the band Blur to have the words of one of their song lyrics instead:
“Let’s take a drive to Primrose Hill,
It’s windy there, and the view’s so nice,
London ice can freeze your toes,
Like anyone,
I suppose…”
So Blake’s words prevailed; a narrow escape for us all…
Hampstead Heath
This corner of London is one of the most loved and fiercely protected of all the capital’s green spaces. Its history, especially in the 1800s, is one of a fierce tussle between the rights of landowners to exploit and sell their land and the emergent belief that the Heath was a public, and perhaps even a spiritual, good.
Accounts of the legal and Parliamentary battles vary but centre stage as pantomime villain is the landowner, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson. His determined attempts to assert his property rights, including seven acts of Parliament- all defeated – created an equally fierce opposition which finally led to the public acquisition of the Heath in 1871.
Over the previous decades the opposition, included poets, painters and Political activists, often underpinned by the Romantic movement, who saw the Heath as both an assertion of the need for a connection with natural ‘wilderness’ as much as a public space.
Blake, Constable, Keats and others have revered these paths and woods. For Blake it is said the Heath inspired his anticlerical poem, ‘Garden of Love’. On encountering a church built on land where he used to play freely as a child Blake railed:
“And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be,
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars, my joys & desires”.
For Constable and Keats it was their home, providing endless changing cloudscapes for the painter and the source for ‘Ode to Autumn’ for the poet. As you wander the Heath you may begin to see why Constable’s gaze was drawn upwards to the vast shifting skyscape normally only half observed by most street-facing Londoners.
If you can let go of your desire to be in control it is both possible, and very enjoyable, to abandon any attempt at navigation. Following paths at random with perhaps only the sun to provide some degree of direction, it is very easy to become happily lost on the Heath – doing so is an underrated delight.
If you should lose your nerve and be in need of a tranquilising moment, ask a local to point you towards the nearby Spaniards Inn (reputed haunt of highway men) – with its expansive seated garden – at the Heath’s northern end, or the cosy Hollybush fifteen minutes walk from Kenwood across the Heath and into Hampstead Village. Hampstead Tube is five minutes further on should you need it.
Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill provides one of best views and highest points in London. Also known as Kite Hill or Traitor’s Hill, the association with kites is obvious but that with ‘treachery’ is murky and contested. The hill’s topographical prominence almost inevitably makes it a possible location for a Bronze Age burial. Much later it became part of various manors and estates owned by a succession of noble grifters and dogsbodies among them Henry I’s, one would assume, grateful butler until finally ending in the hands of the wonderfully named Sir Spencer Pocklington Maryon-Wilson (d.1944).
Now in the hands of The City of London Corporation, the hill’s reputation for duplicity lies in associations with Guy Fawkes and Richard Catesby of the Gunpowder Plot (1605) who were said to have planned to be there to bag a top notch view of Parliament being blown to smithereens.
Later, in the Civil War (1642 onwards) the Hill was host to an arguably different ideological alignment when troops loyal to the English Parliament gathered there.
Nowadays, the historical turmoil is lost in the mist when, late in the chilly year, the view at dusk transforms London into a twinkling jewel box – rubies and diamonds – making for a very special end to the walk.
Boudicca's Grave
The legend of the Queen of the Iceni being buried here on Hampstead Heath persists despite the lack of evidence or plausible explanation. In 1967 Druids (here they are again, perhaps this whole walk is on a Ley Line) laid a wreath to commemorate her death.
Minor excavations have found only major rubbish, but the believers insist that the digs didn’t go deep enough. The mystery for me is, if it is ‘just rubbish’, or heavy spoil from the quarrying of the ponds below, then why would anyone haul it uphill? Perhaps the Druids are onto something… (add eerie music here).
Alternative locations for Boudicca’s last resting place include Peckham Rye and under platform 8 at Kings Cross, right next to platform 9¾… (add magical woohoo sounds here).
Kenwood and the House
For most of those who traverse the Heath, Kenwood House is a welcome vista and place to pause in the café or its extensive outside Garden and forecourt.
The house and grounds of Kenwood have developed a separate and almost superior identity from that of the rest of the Heath. The name Kenwood contains within itself the haughty Norman origins of land ownership here (Caen Wood).
Kenwood’s colourful political history embraces, among others, the tale of Dido Belle, daughter of an African slave but raised as a ‘lady’ at Kenwood and sometimes referred to as as Britain’s first black Aristocrat.
Her great uncle Lord Mansfield presided over the ‘Somerset Case’, one of the first cases to provide some measure of legal protection to slaves several decades before slavery was officially abolished in the British Empire in 1833. Against this noble deed might be set those of Dido’s father, Captain Robert Lindsay, who ‘fathered’ four more illegitimate children by five different mothers of whom four would have been African – the fate of these children is unrecorded.
The grounds including the woods are a vital habitat for wildlife and there is rumour of muntjac deer hiding in the woods, though in decades of visiting I have seen no trace.
On your way to the house you may have passed the dairies created to provide a fashionable diversion – pottering around in a dairy had been a fashionable hobby for aristocratic women since Marie Antoinette. However this was a working dairy and ice cellar for Kenwood house created by the second Earl Mansfield for kitchen use and whose wife Louise is said to have had tea and scones with her friends there, enjoying the pastoral scene of sheep and dairy cows which grazed these meadows then and well into the mid 20th century.
Highlights
Regent's Park
(The) Regent’s Park is named after the Prince Regent, sometimes known as the playboy prince, who later became King George IV. Covering 395 acres and boasting large open spaces with tree-lined pathways, formal gardens and four children’s playgrounds, the Park is also home to London Zoo.
Primrose Hill
Adjacent to Regent’s Park, Primrose Hill offers spectacular views across London from its grassy summit. It is also an ancient pagan religious site celebrated by Welsh Druids for the last 200 years. The Order included among their number William Blake>>
Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath is one of the most loved and passionately protected of all the capital’s green spaces. Its history is one of a fierce tussle between the rights of landowners to exploit their land and the belief that the Heath was a public, and perhaps even a spiritual, good>>
Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill provides one of the best views and highest points in London for everyone to enjoy, with intriguing associations with the Bronze Age, English Civil War and the Gunpowder Plot>>
Boudicca's Grave
The legendary Queen of the Iceni is reputed to have been buried here on Hampstead Heath – or is it just a load of old rubbish?>>
Kenwood House
An impressive former stately home on Hampstead Heath, Kenwood House and grounds have developed a separate and almost superior identity from that of the rest of the Heath, as well as an ideal place to stop for a breather and cuppa>>
Begin Walk
Start: Regent’s Park Underground Station
1
Leave Regent’s Park Underground Station facing the busy Marylebone Road, head left towards the traffic lights and cross over towards the grand Georgian houses opposite. Take the small road straight ahead (Park Square West) towards Regent’s Park.
2
Cross over the Outer Circle (watch out for whizzing cyclists) into the Park.
There are now two options depending on whether you have a dog with you:
Non dog owners can take the path just past the notice board, right, and after 50m or so at the fountain turn left to go straight ahead through the beautifully planted Italian Garden emerging after a few hundred metres at Chester Road, crossover to pass through the obvious entrance by the small café (and loo) just inside the park.
Dog owners – If you’re lucky enough to have a dog companion then you and your hound are unlucky enough to be banned – for no given reason – from the Italian Gardens. So, at the noticeboard, continue straight ahead with a small playpark on your right and an open meadow on your left. Emerge after a few hundred yards on Chester Road; turn right and crossover to take the entrance by the small café (and loo) just inside the park.
3
Shortly past the café the main route continues on, but you will take a slightly quieter diversion which will run parallel to this main path and run along the side of the zoo.
So, take the first path after the café/loos 80m ahead bearing left, then a short distance ahead at the Y-junction take the right fork. As you then almost immediately hit a T-junction of paths, leave the paths to continue onwards across rough grass between trees to pick up the path which clearly has open football pitches on its left and a café surrounded by trees to your right. Continue ahead (north) on this path ignoring all paths off.
4
With the football pitches on your left and fenced trees on your right, you will eventually be able to peek at a few of the enclosures of London Zoo. If you are lucky you may catch glimpses of, or hear, some of the animals; the camel enclosure is usually a reliable find. If you are very lucky, next to it is a tall bare grey tree marking the home of the watchful tigers. If you happen to arrive when it’s tiger feeding time (usually around noon) the tigers will emerge. Sometimes I have seen a tiger lying languidly in the tree eyeing, with a casual disdain, the oblivious visitors below.
And… what do we think about animals in captivity and the justification of conservation? Are they being ‘preserved and protected’ or are they serving life sentences in depleted conditions far from their natural habitats?
5
If the tigers are not to be seen, and even if they are, look out for a small break in the trees alongside the tiger enclosure . The ‘tiger house’ also has a separate monkey house. If you drop down into the gully by the fenced off zoo boundary you can see into the rope and swing exterior of the spider monkey enclosure. You might even see one emerge to climb, clamber and just hang out.
6
Still with the football pitches on your left and the zoo on your right, continue on for several hundred metres until you reach the footbridge across the Regent’s Canal and the busy outer road. Turn right and use the pedestrian crossing to enter Primrose Hill immediately opposite.
7
Make your way by whatever route you prefer towards the summit of Primrose Hill directly ahead and up to your left. (Note: there is a café and a loo c150m, directly off to your right).
On reaching the summit take a moment to consider that you are standing on an ancient pagan religious site celebrated by Welsh Druids for the last 200 years. The Order included among their number William Blake. (See link below for the curious tale of the battle between the Welsh Druids and Blur fans.)
8
Having “conversed with the spiritual sun”, politely turn your back to face North, choosing the sloping path leading slightly right and down to the corner and the road a few hundred metres to your right. As you track down towards the north east corner you may see, on your right, a barely discernible patch of concrete showing through the grass. This is believed to be the sight of an anti-aircraft gun from the Second World War, positioned below the summit so as not to be a silhouetted target for the Nazi enemy bombers and their fighter escorts.
9
Follow the path down towards the corner where it abuts a school; at weekends this often serves as a Farmers’ Market, making for an interesting diversion. Use the pedestrian crossing opposite the Market and continue onwards away from the Hill, passing on your right a short row of shops and head-high wall. Note the mixture of grand houses and occasional, seemingly haphazard, architectural interruptions of post war development in this area. This can be largely ascribed to the area’s heavy bombing in the Blitz, the intended target being the railway lines, behind the head high wall, which serve London’s mainline stations. It has been said by unkinder souls than mine that what the Luftwaffe began the post war designers of London finished.
10
Follow this road straight on (Primrose Hill Road), crossing Adelaide Road at the lights and continue on to The Washington pub. Here, turn right into England’s Lane and, if you can afford to pass Starbucks, you will find better coffee shops further along.
11
As the shops on the right end, cross England’s Lane to the pharmacy on the corner to turn left and walk on the right hand side up Primrose Hill Gardens – a cheerful hotchpotch of flats and houses sandwiched between the grand Georgian splendour of neighbouring streets.
12
At the end of the Gardens turn right into Belsize Grove passing a lovely row of houses of old terraced houses on your right.
13
Emerge into the bustle of Haverstock Hill turning left, uphill, passing Belsize Park tube station opposite on your right. More coffee shops and mini diversions abound.
14
As the shops end by the WACA centre, cross over continuing onwards to The George pub ahead. Immediately after take the diagonal path down to your right with a tiny nature reserve and church on your left. Emerging at the front of The Royal Free Hospital descend downhill to the busy junction of South End Green where more cafes and pubs abound (in summer you can try the Freemasons pub garden 300m to your left and 100m then up Downshire Road).
15
At South End Green turn left following the row of shops and cafes with Hampstead Heath Station on your right – where you cross over. Immediately ahead your path enters an avenue of tall plane trees and rises up to open out on the just visible southern corner of the Heath and the car park.
16
Take this path until it opens out with a lake on your right. Ignore the first narrow path off to your right between the ponds. Follow ahead along the main path, passing a second lake, before dropping slightly down to follow the wide main path (the busiest of the two paths that pass between the lakes) running between the second lake and the mixed bathing pond on your left. Keeping to the right follow this obvious busy path up as it passes through trees then climbs to the summit of Parliament Hill (aka Kite Hill or Traitor’s Hill).
You are now 134m above London, though it feels much higher if you say 431 feet.
See link below for the curious history of this much loved vista.
17
Here your options are endless or, in this case, two:
1) The Guided Route
Follow on from #18 below.
2) The free-form anarcho-rambler’s route.
With your back to the southerly view, so now facing north, head directly into the Heath on any path – straight ahead where possible, aiming to keep Parliament Hill (and the sun) behind you, head for Kenwood House which is about a 20 minute ramble away depending on how lost you want to get.
If in doubt ask passers by for directions, (don’t be shy, it’s Hampstead, the lovely people here will give advice to anyone who’ll listen). You will pass through meadows and woods and eventually stumble into the Kenwood Estate and thence the House.
Rejoin the guided route at #25 below.
18
From Parliament Hill – with your back to the southerly view, so now intending to head mainly north, take the path down to your left back the way you came, then about 50m from the summit take the right path at the junction by a small tree, heading towards the tall grouping of trees about 150m away. (Note the path over to your left following the line of trees and heading north, away from the Hill summit. You will pick this up very soon).
19
Where you reach the trees, the path curves to descend downhill and right, but you should leave the path to head left and onwards, bearing diagonally left into the edge of a copse of old beech trees. Look out for the upright dead tree in among them about 50m away – note the arty arrangement of wooden blocks on the trunk. From here head across open ground out of the copse towards the line of trees and its adjacent northerly path ahead of you. Head around the fallen tree in front of you – either side it doesn’t matter – towards the northerly path and go right to continue north with the line of trees on your left.
20
With the wood on your left (one of several Anglo Saxon field boundaries) head onwards; you will see on your right in the open meadow a large, round, fenced ‘tumulus’ with its conifers.
See link below for speculations about this mysterious prominence tagged by some as Boudicca’s burial site.
Note the landmark of landscaped ponds some way off down to your right at the bottom of the meadow – you will encounter these on your return. Beyond them, high on the wooded hill, is Highgate Village with St Michael’s Church – useful navigational landmarks.
21
Continue on until you see the large wood ahead blocking your onward travel. As you meet the wood, at the T-junction of paths turn right then, after about 60m, take the left fenced path into the wood. Your path now opens up and rises slightly uphill through the wood until after about 150m there is small patch of open ground and benches on your right with a conjunction of several paths.
22
Go straight ahead to follow the obvious path, round a majestic upright remnant of a veteran oak tree girdled by shrubs on your right, and then winding onwards between trees and bushes for c100m to reach the gate of the Kenwood Estate.
23
Follow the obvious stony/muddy path ahead of you, with a large open meadow on your right, which after c300 m begins to curve right. Note the small white buildings up to your left – these are the newly renovated dairies (see link below about Kenwood House at #25).
24
Note: If you intend to make the Spaniards Inn your lunch stop you will need to look out for the stripped bare silver grey tree trunk on your left at the edge of the wooded slope. Turn left here to enter the wood and head directly up on the obvious short steep path ahead. This will take you through the trees and alongside a posh residential block to emerge after 150m on Hampstead Lane. The Spaniards is 100m to your right on the opposite side of the road.
25
Staying on the original curving path, passing the Dairy: After another 300metres or so the path takes you through an open gate into the large open meadow that announces Kenwood House. Follow the path on to Kenwood, or for a better view turn right to drop down about 80m or so, and then head across the meadow admiring the Humphrey Repton created vistas, to the neoclassical splendour of the House – described in the 183os as “beyond all question, the finest country residence in the suburbs of London”.
Go figure…
Don’t miss the Henry Moore sculpture off to your left. Though sometimes called ‘Mother and Child’ it’s official title is ‘Two Piece Reclining Figure’.
See link below for information about Kenwood House and grounds.
26
Kenwood’s café (and loos) are your extremely handy stopping off place.
27
After Kenwood you can loop back towards your choice of end point to any of the three stations by following these directions (#28 onwards) or, if you’re feeling adventurous, tracing any path away from the House and heading in the general direction of the sun. This will, with luck and perhaps some mild swearing, take you back to Parliament Hill.
28
The guided route back:
Leave Kenwood by facing the lake and taking the main path left to head directly steeply down towards the trees and the lake to enter Kenwood itself and exit the estate after 100 shady metres or so at a junction of paths.
29
Continue straight on, passing the bleached remains of a fallen tree on your left.
30
Follow the path as it glides downhill, with a copse on your right, and bending right to emerge after several hundred metres through a line of trees at another junction of a major busy path.
31
Cross the path (can be muddy) to take the obvious rising ground up into the more open meadow. (If too muddy turn left down towards the ponds and swing right). The tumulus from before is off to your right. Soon you’ll see a clump of trees (including a copper beech) and a bench at the crest of the hill with the ponds down to your left. Descend from the crest of the hill bearing slightly left to meet the junction of paths clearly visible below and just past the pond.
32
At the junction of paths continue ahead for a short distance where there is a path just beyond the hedge boundary, rising steeply at an angle up to your right. Take this, to arrive after 300m or so, to the back of Parliament Hill which will be directly to your left and familiar to you from your previous encounter.
33
At the junction of paths continue ahead for a short distance where there is a path just beyond the hedge boundary, rising steeply at an angle up to your right. Take this, to arrive after 300m or so, to the back of Parliament Hill which will be directly to your left and familiar to you from your previous encounter.
34
Directions to stations from summit of Parliament Hill.
(For Hampstead Heath and Belsize Park you will be retracing your steps).
For Gospel Oak Overground:
- Facing the City (and the south) turn left from the summit going steeply downhill on an obvious busy path. Follow this path for several minutes as it swings right between scrubby trees to eventually reach the bottom of the hill: Huts, loos and, at weekends a Farmers’ Market.
- At the busy T-junction of paths turn right passing a café immediately on your right and take the first path left. This will take you to the Lido and then shortly after the station can be found to your right after passing under the railway bridge.
For Hampstead Heath Overground station:
- Facing the City (and the south) take the path to your right and retrace your steps down, straight ahead, through the woods between the ponds and back towards the station.
For Belsize Park Tube:
- Follow the instructions to Hampstead Heath station then go straight ahead for c100m to take the right turn up Pond Lane, past the Royal Free Hospital, to retrace your steps to Belsize Hill. The station is at the top of the rise, to your left and downhill, in 200m.
Browse more walks…
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 7.7m/12.4km
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
ISLAND GARDENS I EASY I 5.5m/8.8km
The sister walk to Route 5.
Follow the north bank’s Thames Path all the way from the Isle of Dogs to the City through a random procession of history and eccentricity…