Tracking the Tube: Metropolitan Line: Leg 01: Aldgate to Finchley Road

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Weather: Cloudy and Humid becoming Sunny and Warm
Distance Walked: 12.2 km
Distance By Tube: 10.0 km
Stations Visited: 10
Fantastic Place: Primrose Hill

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Metropolitan Line Map (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_line)

The 10 Stations

So the first leg of a new challenge. I'm not sure if I've ever travelled to Aldgate before, I certainly didn't recognise the area when I got out! Turning around the first thing I saw was the skeleton of a wooden framed building.

According to the plaque on the ground this marks the location of the historic Aldgate where Chaucer lived from 1374 to 1386. Behind it is one of the iconic new buildings that are dominating the London skyline - the Gherkin. The timber building is inspired by two poems by Chaucer while resident in the two rooms above the now long demolished gate.

The route between Aldgate and Liverpool Street is made more complicated by the amount of building work that is taking place in the heart of London at the moment. Below ground you have the Crossrail project that is well under way now. This means that streets are blocked off as they build new stations, extend existing ones and insert new ventilation shafts and what not.

Around Liverpool Street I found my favourite street name of the walk; Frying Pan Alley. The area has gone upmarket a bit since Jack London wrote about it and there are now parts of the University of East Anglia nearby, many upmarket sandwich shops, wine bars and other services for those travelling into and out of London via one of the busiest mainline termini.

As a part-time baker and the son of a professional baker I liked the images above a sandwich shop near the station. It's a narrow street and I wonder how many people spot these on their rush to buy lunch?

Moving on past Liverpool Street I encountered the first of many diversions due to building above ground as well as more Crossrail works. New office towers are being squeezed into whatever space is available, whether it be by demolishing an ugly 1960's block or into the space between existing towers. One of the spaces I was looking forward to seeing was Finsbury Circus, an oval oasis of green in the glass and concrete world of the city. However this was currently occupied by some of the aforementioned Crossrail works and only a small part was visible. What was open to view looked very nice though and my walking of another of the lines may bring me back.

More diversions on the route to Moorgate station and then a trudge past, around and under the Barbican centre  to Barbican station. I should have walked through the centre rather than around it but I missed the entrance! I always fancied living in the Barbican if I had to live in the centre rather than being able to live in the suburbs. Lots of culture including the Museum of London on your doorstep and some interesting, others may call it ugly and brutalist, architecture.

Between Barbican station and Farringdon I walked along the appropriately named Cowcross street, appropriate as this leads from the fabulous edifice of Smithfield market, the largest meat market in the UK and one of the largest in Europe. There has been a market on the site since the Middle Ages and the current building dates back to the 1850s.

It was also the place that Wat Tyler, leader of the Peasants' Revolt was executed. Sadly there are plans at the moment to demolish part of the historic market as part of a redevelopment plan.

From Farringdon you enter Clerkenwell, a arty-crafty part of London and as I have been before, I was surprised to come across St John's Gate which spans St John's Lane and which was part of a priory owned by the Knights Hospitallers. It's not often I manage to go on a walk that combines two of my favourite hobbies - cooking and Dungeons and Dragons!


After the pretty and historic area around Clerkenwell its a bit of a shock to emerge into the busy, bustling and rather shabby area around King's Cross and St. Pancreas and it is a relief to get off the main drag and into some side streets for a moment, though not before you pass two of my favourite buildings; St Pancreas Station and the British Library.

In one of the quiet squares south of King's Cross there is a statue of Gandhi, a nice peaceful reflective space in amongst the hubbub of the city.

However before long you are back on the main drag to visit Euston Square station and then not much further along, but feeling it because of the busy Euston Road, Great Portland Street station.

More trudging along this busy arterial route follows but at least there are some interesting buildings on either side, along with a huge queue of people outside Madame Tussauds. Now as a Londoner there are many of the famous tourist destinations that I have never got round to visiting, but I will do one day. This however is one that wild horses wouldn't drag me into! Especially when I saw how expensive it was - phew!

Baker Street station is just off of Euston Road and outside it is a plaque celebrating that this was part of the original underground network, built some 150 years ago. Humming Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street as I turned up the street of that name I passed a crowd of tourists taking photos of the actor dressed as a Victorian bobby outside of the famous detective's house at 221b before heading off into Regent's Park. The direct route would have taken me along the busy Finchley Road to the next station but this walk isn't about following the shortest route, but one that leads me through new and interesting places where possible.

Now Regent's Park is one of London's great open spaces and one that I had never visited before. It is a lot larger and in some places wilder than I imagined especially once you have crossed the bridge across the lake and headed into the northern half of the park. There are some nice sculpture in the park as well as great views of the Post Office tower.

Exiting the park past the London Zoo, no I've not been there either, not even as a kid when I was brought up to London by my long suffering elder sister as a birthday treat, you enter another fabulous open space Primrose Hill.

The views from the top of the hill are amazing and you realise how hilly London is with Hampstead and Harrow also on the walk on other parts of this line and elsewhere it won't be a flat trudge that's for sure.

Primrose Hill

After finding my way out of Primrose Hill you pass through residential areas, in the garden of one house was a statue of Sigmund Freud,  before plunging down a narrow and rather steep alley to rejoin the Finchley Road and the station of the same name.

Possible idea for my next D&D adventure...

This is one of my regular stops as I have friends nearby but it was interesting to approach it from a new angle.

All in all a very enjoyable walk, it was good to get my boots back on and stride out after far too long thinking about what I was going to do rather than doing it. Looking forward to the next leg northwards along the line towards Wembley.







 

A New Project

I've been looking for a new project for some time - since I finished the London LOOP. For a while I thought about walking the Grand Union from London to Birmingham but wasn't sure if the transport links would be suitable. I could do part of the Thames Path from Oxford eastwards but west of Oxford transport gets too time consuming (and expensive!) so that one will have to wait, I may do the western sections when I'm visiting my relations in the Cotswolds.

So I was just browsing in the wonderful Pitshanger Bookshop a week or so ago and I came across Walk The Lines by Mark Mason. This details his walk along and around London's underground network. Within a few pages (while still in the bookshop) I had been inspired to do the same. I'm not as hard-core as Mark so I won't be doing 30+ miles in a day, instead I'll be splitting it up into smaller sections (6-10 miles a day) so it will take me a few years to complete.

Once I got home I found someone else, with the confusingly similar name of Mark Moxon had done the same thing and detailed it on his website. This is divided up into legs of a more manageable length and it is this approach I will take, but I won't be following exactly the same route. Instead I will look at the area around the line and see what interesting sights I can find and the route is likely to change as I walk the route as I get distracted easily! It will be interesting to see how I feel about:

• A walk that is predominately urban in nature
• A walk that I will be planning myself rather than following someone else's route
• A walk that will revisit some places more than once (the Jubilee and Metropolitan lines share the same route for example as well as some stations being a nexus for several lines).

I'll be starting with the Metropolitan Line from Aldgate to Finchley Road.

Strolls in Sussex: Two Rings to Rule them All

Weather: Warm and Sunny

This was a simple but very pleasant walk between two Iron Age hill forts in West Sussex. What made it extra special was that I could do it with my wife and being that it was pretty much on the level on wide tracks we could do it side by side discussing what we saw on the way. On hillier routes Liz normally complains that all she sees is a rather large backside...

Anyway... we started the walk by walking around the ramparts of Cissbury Ring, the largest hill fort in Sussex which dates back some 5000 years. From the ramparts you get fantastic views out to the coast and across the Sussex Downs. It was lambing season and everywhere you looked the lambs were gambling and bleating in a very cute fashion. It also gave me an idea for a game to play on walks - lamb bingo. Each lamb tends to have a number on it to match it with its mother so it would be easy to carry a bingo card with you and when you see a lamb or ewe with the appropriate number you can tick it off on your card.

I am not a number, I am a free lamb

After walking around the ramparts (a group was actually jogging round which I felt was a bit extreme) you return past the small car park (I would like to point out that the track out to the ring could have been better signed we kept getting lost in the little village before finding the correct track) and along a wide chalk track with Chanctonbury Ring in the distance.

Chanctonbury Ring by Jeremy Blighton

Like the Long Man at Wilmington, we were inspired to do this walk by our shared love of the ancient landscape and our etching by Jeremy Blighton.

The walk is easy as all you need to do is follow the wide track, keeping the tree capped hill of Chanctonbury Ring in view.

Eventually you reach a signpost marking the junction with the South Downs way - something we seemed to cross with somewhat scary frequency on many of the main roads we travelled on our holiday. If I was going to walk the South Downs way I would be concerned at the number of times I had to cross bury dual carriageways - especially if it was towards the end of a long hot day. I remember the same thing happening on the London LOOP, after you've walked twelve miles in the rain or sun there is very little left in the tank for rapid acceleration!

Chanctonbury Ring is smaller and covered with a cap of trees giving it a much more mysterious feel to Cissbury Ring and proved to be a more than acceptable picnic stop before we returned along the same track, this time with a view of Cissbury Ring to guide us back to the car all the while red kites circled around on the strong thermals.

Strolls in Sussex: The Long Man of Wilmington

Weather: Warm, Sunny and Breezy

Sussex is a county I've not visited since I was a lad, growing up on the south coast of Hampshire. We used to visit relatives in the Chichester area but we never ventured much further east. Having timed our visit during the only week of good weather we seemed to get this Spring I decided to make the most of it with a six mile walk around one of the most striking landmarks in the area - the Long Man of Wilmington. One of the reasons I wanted to do this walk was that we have a etching of the long man by the artist Jeremy Blighton.

The Long Man of Wilmington by Jeremy Blighton

The view at the start of the walk

The walk starts with a stunning view of the Long Man, which is something like a film trailer showing all the best bits leaving you disappointed with the rest of the film. However I was not to be disappointed by this walk.

After walking up close to the feet of the Long Man (which is now made of concrete blocks painted white rather than being carved out of the turf) you head up and along the face of the escarpment and then down a chalk track to a road. This section was very busy with people flying kites, walking dogs and riding bikes at breakneck speed down the rather rugged track. They were all very polite and managed to avoid me in their pursuit of speed.

After a short road section beside several buildings built in local brick and flint and black painted woodwork the path climbs steeply onto the ridge. The landscape here is very open and I was very glad for my hat as the sun was strong and reflected brightly from the chalk of the path.


The path runs through the Lullington Heath Nature Reserve and I had a moments terror when I reached the far end of it and checked the map on the back of the reserve sign. According to that I had walked at 90 degrees to my intended path and was miles away from where I should have been!

I had two choices: 1. Go back to the pond at the heart of the reserve, about an hour or so back from where I stood or 2. Trust my judgement and my map reading and head on.
Fortunately I trusted my map-reading and a couple of hundred yards on there was the junction with the South Downs Way.

The next section has fantastic views into a coombe which had kites and buzzards soaring on the updraughts, it is always exciting to see birds close up and from above! You then continue above the Long Man getting a strange perspective on the figure and in spring the fields still show the chalky soil between the rows of grain just starting to grow.

Arty shot of fields

The track soon starts to descend and you rejoin the path that leads up from the car park. The walk is well worth doing, lots of open space, interesting sites and fairly easy navigation. The Giant's Rest pub had stopped serving food by the time I got back to it so be prepared for this.