Tracking the Tube: Northern Line 04: Mill Hill East to High Barnet

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Weather: Warm sunshine with cold winds
Distance Walked: 13.12km 
Distance By Tube: 7.60km
Stations Visited: 6
Fantastic Place: Mill Hill Viaduct

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The bright blue skies in the photos might make you think the weather was warmer than it was! As soon as I was in any sort of exposed position the strong chill winds cut through my jacket, but when sheltered I wanted to take it off as it was too warm. 

Lots of blossom and fresh green leaves sprouting on the trees and the air was full of the smell of spring.

Mill Hill East station has the feel of a countryside station. Very quiet and a single track with a platform just on one side. It is, according to its Wiki page the least used station on the Northern Line and it feels sleepy and peaceful so different to the hustle and bustle of the central portion of this line.

Just after leaving the station, passing a very large and new looking Waitrose store, the route goes under the Dollis Brook Viaduct over which the tube runs to the station. It soars 18m above the road on slender brick arches and was worth travelling out to see.

Finchley Central station continues the theme of this part of the line with stations built from an attractive pale brick.

The next section of the walk heads north east along the busy shopping street of Ballards Lane. Half way along I passed Leisure Games provider of Role Playing Games and accessories. I've shopped here via the internet for many years as well as various Dragonmeet shows. Turning north west towards West Finchley I was now on the High Barnet branch after completing the spur from Mill Hill East. I don't know this part of London at all and one of the best things with this series of walks is discovering new and very attractive parts of London.

Dollis Brook Greenwalk

After West Finchley the route joins the delightful Dollis Valley Greenwalk. Apart from dropping off the path to visit the stations the route follows the Greenwalk for most of the rest of the way to High Barnet. The Dollis Brook isn't a large stream, even after all the recent rain, but it pretty and it meanders through grassy fields and light woodland. 

Early Oak Leaves

Lots of dog walkers, cyclists (on their own dedicated path) and birds in the trees along this stretch. It is places that this that would surprise some people that everything inside the M25 is concreted over and polluted.

Leaving the Greenwalk as it reaches the playing fields near High Barnet and after a short road section I arrived at the end of this section.

Next tube walk will be the final one along the Northern Line heading north from Camden Town towards Edgware via Hampsted.

I wonder if my rope's still hanging from the tree

Peacock Path

 

  

 

Tracking the Tube: Northern Line 03: Euston to East Finchley

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Weather: Sunshine and scattered heavy showers, cool.
Distance Walked: 13.12km 
Distance By Tube: 7.62
Stations Visited: 8
Fantastic Place: Temple of Bastet Greater London House

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Not the best weather for walking, a mixture of relatively mild sunshine and blue skies suddenly changing to heavy grey cloud with penetrating drizzle. So I was both too warm from wearing a coat but it the rain was too frequent to take it off.

Just 8 stations on this leg

The walk started off at possibly my least favourite terminus, Euston. The current station is a rather unappealing blocky structure while round the corner the original tube station in the traditional ox-blood red tiles stands rather forlorn and decrepit.

The Original Euston Tube Station

Just past the station there is a small open space which looks at first like a small public garden, or a space that had been cleared after WW2 bomb damage but in fact turns out to be the grace yard for the church of St James Piccadilly. There is one grave in particular that shows several generations of the Christie family that all seemed to have died in interesting ways such as a fever caught in Port Royal or in Persia by Russian troops.

Walking north in bright winter sunshine under a dome of blue sky the walk improved with one of the most fabulous art-Deco buildings in London. The Carreras Cigarette Factory, now named Greater London House, was inspired by an Egyptian temple to the goddess Bastet. As someone who is owned by three cats I could not fail to be enchanted by this and it was good to see that it has been well maintained.

Greater London House

Bastet

 The next station on the route is Mornington Crescent made famous as a complicated game in the long running BBC Radio 4 comedy show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Like many of the stations on this part of the walk the station displays the ox-blood tile frontage with large arched windows designed by Leslie Green.

Moving on I reached Camden Town station just as the rain was settling in for much of the rest of the walk so I didn't detour via the famous Camden Market. Instead I continued heading north towards Kentish Town. In between Camden Town and Kentish town there is a very distinctively styles building - the former site of South Kentish Town.

Ghost Station - South Kentish Town

 I have visited this part of London quite frequently but only a small part of it, the road between the station and the Forum. Many a cold winter's night I have spent queueing outside here to get close to the front to watch bands, in particular, Marillion.

Doesn't seem the same without a queue

The next station, Tuffnell Park is currently closed, for refurbishment which is an ongoing business on the underground network. Many of the lifts, escalators and pumps (many of the stations are below the water table) are old and there is an ongoing program of replacement and repair going on.

The road from Tufnell Park climbs steadily and steeply, just as the sun came out again making me quite warm in my nicely moist coat! The area between Camden and Archway has lots of nice looking coffee shops but they were filled with rather hip looking gents (beards, those strange earlobe plug things and tattoos) who were probably web designers, advertising executives and other such b-ark type occupations (yes I wish I was as hip as them!) into which circles I wouldn't have fitted in.

Archway station was invisible behind hoardings where a new tower block is being built so I can't tell you what it looks like. As I was waiting at the crossing a horse drawn hearse went by.

The on and off rain stopped for a bit as I joined the disused railway line (and the Capital Ring) for a time as it soars above back gardens (lots of very nice conservatories and dining room extensions on the backs of some of the houses). The ground was heavy black sticky mud and I had to keep dodging cyclists and dog walkers (one of which had eight dogs of various sizes (all muddy) before emerging at Highgate station. Before the station there are some old tunnels occupied now by several types of bat according to a helpful information panel. The rain started up again as I walked to East Finchley and the end of this leg, familiar territory as this was again part of the Capital Ring route I walked several years ago.

Next month I hope to complete this side of the northern end of the Northern Line with the spur to Mill Hill East and the terminus at High Barnet, two places I have never been before.

Camden Town Graffiti

Five Go Mad On A Towpath

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.

Tracking the Tube: Northern Line 02: Kennington - Euston - Kennington

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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

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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.

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,

Borough Market Greengrocer Stall

olives, fruit, vegetables, oils, wines etc etc etc! I had no room to carry anything back today but I have tucked it away for a morning trip with my wife, perhaps combining it with a visit to a gallery or two.

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.

Here be dragons

As you step onto the bridge you are greeted by the symbols of the City of London, a city within the greater city.

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!

Regent's Canal

More dog-legs followed along with a short stretch of the Regent's Canal just before Angel station.

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.

A Home Form Home!

Goodge Street is followed quickly by Tottenham Court Road which at last is beginning to open up again after all the work needed for Crossrail. Heading down towards Leicester Square I popped up Earlham Street to Orcs Nest where I have spent many a happy hour (and quite a bit of money) on D&D books, figures, paints, dice etc. They also stock a wide range of other games and so a visit is always worthwhile.

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.

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.

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

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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

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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: 05: East Ham to Upminster

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Weather: Warm and Sunny to start, becoming cloudy and windy later
Distance Walked: 18.65km
Distance By Tube: 14.63km
Stations Visited:10
Fantastic Place: Mayesbrook Park

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This leg's stations

 I have a week off this week so I plan to get two legs of my tube walk in, as long as the weather stays fair and my two legs can cope with it. Today's walk has one of the longest journeys to and from the actual walk, zone 4 in the west to zone 6 in the east and I will be entering 'here be dragons' territory once I get past Barking (though the LOOP did pass near Upminster station). Barking I know fairly well as that is where my fair wife was living when I first met her.

The walk started by passing through rows of terraced Victorian and Edwardian houses, a theme that would recur through most of the walk, though the quality and size of the properties varied and towards the end the terraces were replaced by larger, semi-detached houses with some interesting details (arched and round windows and brick detailing).

Crossing the very busy North Circular by a footbridge with very awkward shallow steps the next stretch was through a rather unattractive light industrial estate. There were a lot of men hanging around outside Wickes (DIY suppliers) with boxes of tools and occasionally a white van would pull up and a talk to the men and some would get in. I assume that this is a known pick up point for day-labourers. Not much security of income and slightly reminiscent of the way that dock labourers used to be employed.

Barking appears to have been tidied up a bit from when I used to visit on a regular basis with new modern apartments and a vibrant street market with food and shoes being a particular strength of the bit I walked through. Barking station is not attractive, but then none of the stations on this leg were, most being the brick box with flat concrete roof. Barking and Upminster being larger interchange stations were even less attractive than that!

Past Barking Hospital and Upney station the route entered the very attractive Mayesbrook Park. Two large lakes with numerous swans, ducks and geese. It was like a mini Barnes WWT site!

Large Lake in Mayesbook Park

Grazing Goose

If I lived nearby I would spend a lot of time here, wide open spaces birds, water, everything you need in a municipal park. Very neat and tidy too.

Along the long Rugby road to Becontree station I started to notice something I've not seen very much of in London - decorative cement rendering. In the country, if it was done in plaster it would be called pargeting.  I used to see a bit of this when I lived in Norwich and it is common in Suffolk and Essex so I shouldn't be surprised to see it on houses on this leg of the walk, it just looks a bit incongruous on a thirties semi!

One of many houses with pargeting

In the same area I saw the fastest sprayer in the east! On his little buggy this guy was spraying the gullies to control weeds. The car tyres of the residents should also be proof against bindweed etc. as he was not too careful as to where his wand was spraying as he zoomed along the pavement!

Ernie and he drove the fastest sprayer in the east!

Parsloes Park is even bigger than Mayesbrook Park but has only a small formal section, the rest being playing fields and is very flat and a little dull. It is however another large green lung for London and a valuable resource for the locals.

Dagenham Heathway and Dagenham East followed with much more suburban streets before a very wild section running between high fences. To the south it looked like derelict factories while to the north empty parking lots. I assume these were linked with the Ford motor works that were based in Dagenham. After a while the fences were hidden by damson trees, elderberry, hawthorn, wild roses and blackberries. In a week or two you could come down and make a very handy wild harvest here.

The path led into the Chase Nature Reserve a wild area of hummocks, horse droppings and wild life. I almost got twizzled around in this section but found my way out and rejoined the route to Elm Park station.

After stopping for a sandwich as the wind picked up and the clouds gathered I headed along through tree lined streets and larger semi detached properties (and more pargeting) to Hornchurch and Upminster Bridge where the route briefly joined the LOOP.

The last stretch from Upminster Bridge was uphill and I passed Upminster Windmill just before reaching Upminster station and the long journey back to Greenford.

That's the end of the District Line, now for the Northern Line starting at the south end and working my way north. 

Tracking The Tube: District Line: 04: Monument to East Ham

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Weather: Very Warm and Humid
Distance Walked: 16.68km
Distance By Tube: 10.73km
Stations Visited:12
Fantastic Place: The Tower of London

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12 Stations on this leg with no coherent design

I was already working up a fine sweat by the time I arrived at Monument on what was the hottest day of the year so far and the tube was busy with people in suits rushing to become something in the city while I was wondering how far I was going to get on my journey into the uncharted regions of the east. Actually, not so uncharted to be honest as I hadn't noticed that one stretch of the walk was along the Greenway. If I had I would have also noticed that the Greenway was closed for part of that stretch for engineering works and it would have saved me a couple of tiresome detours, but more of that anon.

After leaving Monument station (having this time been directed underground from bank up and down untold numbers of short flights of stairs and escalators) I headed towards the Tower of London. I remember going in there when I was young but haven't been in since I moved to London as it is so expensive. The area around the Tower has been tarted up a bit since I last walked through and you can get a good view of the buildings from the walk up towards Tower Hill station.

Buildings Ancient and Modern

You can also see of my least favourite modern towers - the 'Walkie Talkie' and the 'Cheese-grater' as you look back to the city. 

The Tower of London

I used to have a brown plastic money box in the shape of the Tower of London, I imagine I bought it when I taken there by my sister.

Emperor Trajan by the Roman Walls

There are quite a few remains of the old Roman Walls in this area (which may be an interesting theme for a series of walks for the future - tracing the old boundaries of London, Roman, Saxon etc.)

 

Attractive Victorian Pub 

After passing through building sites and narrow alleys I reached Aldgate East, a station that appears to have an inordinate number of entrances; one very modern, one less so and the original one tucked into what I thought was a library. Mind you at least I didn't walk past it like I did with Whitechapel station as it was almost invisible on the other side of the road (and I had forgotten that it existed and hadn't marked it on my route map)!

The Whitechapel Road follows the route of an old Roman road heading out to Colchester and parts of it look like they haven't been resurfaced since then while other parts are undergoing major roadworks. I have never seen so many cones and orange plastic fences! The walk follows this road all the way to Bow Road.

Don't think is a real ancient column

Now my pencil ran out about here so I don't have many notes to remind me of what I saw or where I saw them. This combined with the heat and humidity may make the rest of this commentary a little odder than normal.

After Stepney Green station the route passes under Mile End Park where they have built a green bridge over the road linking the two haves of the pub just after the road passes over the Regent's Canal.

View down the Regent's Canal

Green Bridge linking two halves of a park. Note the cones!

Just before this I passed Queen Mary College, a fine set of buildings both ancient and modern including some nice bas-relief work showing various arts.

The next section was one of my least favourite so far. Very hot and alongside the very busy A12 south towards Bromley By Bow station then back north looking for an underpass across to the far side of this major trunk road.

Once through a light industrial estate you enter the River Lea valley a collection of riverways and canals, a peaceful change from the roads barely a hundred yards away.

Three Mills

Amongst the buildings here are 3 Mills Studios where I notice Masterchef is filmed (spotted the bridge I walked over on the credits for this week's episode).

As well as the canal architecture, peaceful waterways with birdsong and views across to the Olympic Park there is quite a bit of sculpture lining the route.

Memorial to workers killed by bad air

Not sure who this was

After getting lost, retracing my steps and then having to re-retrace them when discovering that the Greenway is partially closed I eventually reached West Ham station before rejoining the Greenway for a stretch. The views from the Greenway are splendid and it should be far better known and used than it is.I took an ill-advised short cut to Plaistow station ending up walking the same distance but in less interesting surroundings before heading on to Upton Park. Couldn't resist taking a shot of the Boleyn Ground on y way. As I was heading up to Upton Park station (prettiest station on this leg by the way) I saw what I assumed to be a traditional East End funeral; a horse drawn hearse with black ostrich plumes and a train of six or seven long black limos.

Upton Park / Boleyn Ground Home (for now) of West Ham United

The last stretch to East Ham was enlivened by a long conversation with Pat, a long standing resident of the area who questioned what I was doing (something I do regularly). We chatted for at least half an hour, my legs slowly stiffening but we bonded over politics and the poor manners of the younger generation (I was a little annoyed to be be classed as the same generation as her!).

I hope to be able to complete the rest of the District Line on y next walk which will take me through Barking and out to the utter east.