Tracking The Tube: Northern Line: 01: Morden to Kennington

---

Weather: Mild becoming very warm and sunny as the walk progressed
Distance Walked: 18.2 km
Distance By Tube: 11.9 km
Stations Visited: 12
Fantastic Place: Kennington Oval

---

Northern Line Map

The Northern Line has a wretched reputation amongst tube travellers but I've not had to use it regularly since I finished my training at Old Street. In those days Silicon Roundabout was but a twinkle in a UNIX Administrator's eye and the place had a shabby run down feel. I'll see if that is still true when I visit on the second leg of this set of walks.

Stations on this leg - spot the missing one!

Decided to walk from south to north to give me more time to consider how I was going to handle the odd branching nature of the 'top end' of the line. I'd never been as far south as Morden before and I was very pleasantly surprised. The station itself, like many of the others has a Modernist design by Charles Holden as do many of the others on this leg of the walk. In fact there is a Charles Holden pub opposite Colliers Wood station. The interior of the station is dominated by a large octagonal skylight, while the outside is unfortunately marred by the busy bus depot and shops. My next surprise was Morden Hall Park, a National Trust property (and a cafe) which will probably get a visit of it's own at a later date.

A stroll through wild meadows and across the tram lines (trams are very nearly silent and they can catch you unaware) leads you to a peaceful stretch of walking along the River Wandle.

River Wandle

I hadn't realised that this area had such strong link with Nelson but there were several pubs with his name, the Victory and Trafalgar and then in a small area of open space this memorial stone.

Memorial Stone

South Wimbledon and Colliers Wood stations come and go as you move from the peace and quiet of the Wandle to the hustle and bustle of a main road that climbs gentle but continuously past shops and markets from Wimbledon to Tooting.

Branching off the high street after Tooting Bec  I walked through Tooting Bec common where today's root crossed that of the Capital Ring, I thought the park looked familiar.

Returning back to the high street at Balham the climb continued to Clapham South and the wide open expanse of Clapham Common. The tube stations here (Clapham Common, Clapham South and Clapham North were used as deep-level shelters during WW2. Above ground there is little to see other than the drum shaped shelter entrances.

Clapham North Deep level Shelter Entrance

Clapham Common itself is, on a sunny day like today, a pleasure to walk across. Mature trees, ponds, a cafe and an ornate bandstand make the place an oasis seemingly a mile away from the busy roads that surround it.

Clapham Common Bandstand

The road continues on and on and now into more familiar territory for me as I have worked in the Vauxhall area for several years now. Stockwell Station is one of the few on this leg that is not to the Charles Holden design. Oval station is of course near the Kennington Oval cricket ground (England was winning the Ashes elsewhere as I was walking past it). The ground itself is not visible from the road but the old stands and the gasometers (a sight that I remember from my childhood watching the cricket on the telly during the summer school holidays, when the Vauxhall Road End sounded a lot more exotic than I know know it to be) are. The last station on this leg, Kennington is a pretty little one with a domed roof and a very cramped ticket office with little room for the lifts that need to serve the deep level platforms.

Next leg will be the Kennington - Euston - Kennington loop.

Tracking The Tube: District Line: 01 Ealing Broadway to Richmond

---

Weather: Cold and grey to start with then brightening up.
Distance Walked:16.2 km
Distance By Tube: 10.14 km
Stations Visited:8
Fantastic Place: The Thames near Richmond

---

Third line of my Tracking the Tube project and the first that runs East - West rather than diagonally across London. I think this one will take me the furthest east of all my journeys into places where I would normally write - "here be dragons".

Conversely the walk started in the part of London I know best. Our first flat was a short walk from Ealing Broadway station and it Ealing is still the default setting for when we want to go shopping (which is strange as we are closer to Harrow yet apart from my walking projects we have never been there).

As I didn't walk to spend too much time on streets I knew well I stayed away from the busy Broadway shopping centre, the interesting area around Ealing Studios and the very pleasant Walpole Park instead taking a route through streets lined with tall Edwardian mansions before crossing Ealing Common. The common is bounded on all sides by roads some of which are very busy, so it doesn't have the bucolic air that the name suggests. 

There is a strange bunker like building by Ealing Common station which I assume is a disused and closed up public lavatory. Before long some enterprising soul will convert it into a bijou dwelling with the good transport links into the city close by.

More attractive suburban streets follow the railways including the large sidings outside Acton Town. A short stretch of Carbery Avenue has three houses with what appear to be stone circles in the front gardens. Odd. 

Obelix lives here...

Acton Town station comes up swiftly. I have probably spent several days here changing trains and yet have never until now been outside. It is one of the classic Charles Holden designs of which I will be seeing more as I travel across the network. This example has a massively high ceiling with tall windows and once inside it feels more like a cathedral than a station.
The next section is typical 1930's light industry including several engineering works belonging to London Underground, names I was familiar with from my time supporting their IT systems. After a wait at a level crossing (you go for months without seeing one and then cross two in the space of a hundred paces) I reached Chiswick Park station another Holden design but this one circular and less tall.
After all the light industrial grime of the previous section the short section through to Turnham Green was more pleasant with interesting buildings, some attractive open space including an information panel describing the Battle of Turnham Green which took place there in 1642.

Turnham Green station itself is a small unprepossessing building almost hidden behind a flower stall. Here I turned back on myself to head south of the river towards Richmond rather than carrying on east towards Earl's Court.

The next station, Gunnersbury is almost hidden down a narrow alley between houses as you approach from the east and all that is visible above ground is a tunnel with the name above it.

Heading south towards the Thames I passed a most unexpected sight, a Russian Orthodox church with a splendid blue onion dome.

The picture is a little wonky as I had to climb up a muddy earth bank covered in brambles to get a shot over the chain link fencing that was protecting the tracks..

After passing under the Great West Road the pretty village of Strand on the Green leads on to the Thames itself and a short stretch towards Kew Bridge follows. The river was flowing fast today and there were many swans and other river birds floating along with it.

Kew Bridge

My wife and I are members of Kew Gardens and we have spent many a happy day wandering through them (many a cold Boxing Day walking off the previous day's turkey) but the membership is in her name so instead I took to some of the side-streets. There must be some pressure on the inhabitants of these houses to have pristine front gardens with Kew so close by. Kew Gardens station itself has a pub next door and a range of nice shops (including a good butcher and an independent bookshop). I have suggested on several occasions that the pub (which has windows that look out onto the station platform) should have a serving hatch so people waiting for a train or tube (the line is shared with Overground services) could have a cheeky half!

A short stroll from Kew brought me to Richmond, which I had visited on one of my earlier Capital Ring walks, and the end of this leg of the walk.

With the complexity of the various branches I need to consider carefully how to break up the rest of the line heading east from Turnham Green.