As a break from my usual urban explorations and in support of two good friends and their favoured charity I agreed, drink must have been involved, to do a 25km sponsored walk along the river Lea from Hertford to Enfield Lock.
The original idea was to do a 25 mile walk, in celebration of their 25th wedding anniversary, but it was pointed out that none of us had really done enough training for this and also that the length of the day in October might not be sufficient for us to complete the walk without torches.
So the day rolled around and I was recovering from a really heavy cold but still managed to drag myself out of bed at 05:15 in order to be at Hertford by 09:30 on a very foggy and chilly October morning.
Hertford itself is a very pleasant town which still exhibits a partial medieval street plan and a fine selection of buildings in a variety of styles. I was able to pontificate on the pargeting on some of the buildings in the town centre.
A fine breakfast at a local bar set us up for the walk and we headed off to the tow-path that runs beside the Lea which is part river and part canal. After about an hour the fog burnt off and the day turned bright and warm. This combined with good quality walking conditions underfoot (mainly gravel and tarmac with some very short stretches of muddy grass) meant that we made good progress.
One of the most interesting places we passed was Ware which is famous for its riverside gazebos.
I decided on this walk not to take my camera so there are no photos of the swans, ducks, moorhens, coots and other wildlife we saw, all I have to remember the journey by is a couple of huge blisters. Nor are there pictures of the speeding cyclists that seemed to be out in droves (what is the collective noun for cyclists? A chain? A hazard? A lycra?).
The further south we went the less interesting the scenery unfortunately but it was all downhill (very gently apart from at the locks) so when we eventually reached our journeys end we didn't feel too exhausted but were glad that it was only a short walk to a local pub (the Greyhound - home to 'eyebrow' Terry) and then a stiff legged hobble to the train station for, in my case, the long journey home.
A goodly sum was raised for charity, much laughter was had due to most of us not being to speak or hear clearly for one or other reason which led to a conversation around whether a GPS walk tracker was best kept in a dwarf or on an elf, so all in all it was a great day.
Normal service will be resumed next month with the next leg of my tube walk and possibly some strolls in the Cotswold Hills.
Tuesday 6 October 2015
Tracking the Tube: Northern Line 02: Kennington - Euston - Kennington
Weather: Very warm for the end of September with lots of sunshine.
Distance Walked: 20.75km
Distance By Tube: Technically 0km but 13.43km in reality.
Stations Visited: 18 (or 19 if you include Kennington twice!)
Fantastic Place: Borough Market
A perfect day for walking on what turned out to be one of the most enjoyable walks so far in this set of Tube walks. This is partly because of the lovely sunny weather and also it took me through what I regard as 'my London'. |
| 18 stations on this leg |
I started out from Kennington, again getting confused by the lift where you get out of the same door you enter through unlike most lifts on the underground. The dome on top of the station was designed to house all the heavy lift machinery - it is nice when function produces an attractive form. Its a shame that some of the tower blocks I saw on today's walk didn't achieve this goal (yes I'm looking at you Mr Walkie-Talkie building).
First up was the maze of streets, roadworks, underpasses, coned and fenced off walkways that make up the Elephant and Castle roundabout.
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| Pink Elephant before 10am and I hadn't been drinking |
Obviously they are doing improvement works and hopefully things will be better soon but at one point I didn't think I'd escape and I wasn't sure where I should be heading.
Anyway I soon put this behind me and it wasn't long before Borough Market came into view. I used to work in the area and one way of relieving the stress of the day was to pop down and stroll around the stalls and perhaps pick something up for supper. If anything the market has got larger and busier in the past few years and is a great place to spend an hour or two. Buy some cheese, some cured meats, some bread,
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| Borough Market Greengrocer Stall |
Continuing along the high street I passed the George Inn, the last galleried inn in London and it does good food and drink as well though it was far too early to stop there today!
London Bridge station is a sprawling mass of underground and overground lines spread over a large area right next to London Bridge. London Bridge itself has seen many incarnations from the famous one with houses and shops lining it as seen in many a picture of the Frost Fairs on the Thames to the version that a rich American bought and set up on a lake somewhere in the USA to the bland modern version that stands today.
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| Here be dragons |
A short distance across the bridge is Monument station named for the monument to the great fire that stands nearby. Next up is Bank named for the Bank of England, the Old Lady of Threadneedle street which stands pretty much on top of the station.
The streets here still follow the old medieval street pattern and they twist and turn, zig and zag in the shadow of the towers of the banks and other financial institutions leaving the streets shaded like canyons.
More extensive roadworks and diversions around Moorgate for the long planned Crossrail project that will hopefully reduce some of the load on the Central line in a few years time follow before I reach Moorgate station.
Continuing North and West in a series of long dog-legs towards Old Street station I came across Bunhill Fields a non-conformist burial ground that is the last resting place of William Blake and Daniel Defoe amongst others. Well worth a detour if you are in the area it is a peaceful oasis amongst the hustle and bustle that surrounds it.
Old Street was where I did my initial training in IT after I left teaching. The area has developed since then and is now known as Silicon Roundabout because of all the tech startups there are there now. A bit further north-west along the City Road, opposite my old office, is the Eagle pub. Famous for being the pub mentioned in pop-goes-the-weasel. In my day it was a bit of a dive and we used to use the cafe nearby, the Shepherdess, which also seems to have gone up in the world in the last twenty odd years!
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| Regent's Canal |
The route between Angel and Kings Cross took me through the picturesque Percy Circus. Built on a very steep hill the houses around the circular green are very attractive and there is a blue plaque nearby commemorating Lenin who lived/stayed in one of the properties for a time.
A very windy and dull stretch along the Euston road followed where in quick succession Kings Cross, Euston and Warren Street stations were ticked off the list but I had passed half way.
Turning south I enter what I regard as part of my London and it has been pretty much ever since I moved to the city after completing my teaching qualifications in Norwich. This is a landscape of galleries, bookshops, theatres, opera houses and places to eat and I think I know my way around here fairly well.
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| A Home Form Home! |
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| The Home of the ENO |
Shortly after Leicester Square station I passed the Colosseum home of the English National Opera and the national Portrait Gallery - two more of my favourite places in this part of London.
Carrying on south past Charing Cross station and through Embankment I recrossed the river via Hungerford Bridge and then dropped down on the south side of the river towards Waterloo.
The South Bank was busy with fun fairs and performers which it seems to be more often than not these days which goes some way to hide the rather unattractive concrete buildings of the Festival Hall etc built for the Festival of Britain back in the 50s.The roads around Waterloo were busy and I got a bit lost as I have done in the past, though I did manage to spot an unusual sculpture outside one of the hotels.
Turning back towards Kennington I looked back and caught a fine view of the Houses of Parliament framed by the London Plane trees that line this part of the river near Lambeth Palace.
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| The Houses of Parliament |
I was ready for a break when I got back to Kennington tube after what was quite a long walk, made longer by the crowds in the centre and the number of stations and points of interest to take photos of.
Next leg will see me heading north but not before I do a 25km sponsored walk along the River Lea with some friends in aid of the Samaritans.
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