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Ring 6 Walk 29

Crayford walk to Erith / Plumstead

Distance: 6.2 miles to Erith, 12.1 miles to Plumstead. I give you both options because Erith is the end of zone 6 while you might be tempted to walk further through an area my other ring walks do not visit.

CRAYFORD

Exit the station towards the road bridge over the tracks and turn L on Station Road towards the roundabout and the town centre

At the roundabout with the town clock, L on Crayford Road (the high street with all the shops) until you reach the river Cray

Cross the river and enter the small green space after the bridge

R on the riverside path (you will also find London Loop signposts)

Waterside Gardens were a core project for the borough in order to revamp Crayford town centre, where very heavy traffic was distracting from a potentially pleasant location astride the river Cray. The borough contracted with a celebrity landscape architect, David Buurma (or more correctly with his design studio MOR). The large steel sculptures over the entrance and in the middle of the garden are typical for his style.

The sculptures are to remind of printing blocks used in silk dyeing works located nearby (the company was known as David Evans works). The connection is a bit artificial but the work is shapely and colourful enough. In a way, one could say it is our manner of commemorating past events just like people wanted to look at serious bronze gentlemen on pedestals in the 19th century.

The park was pretty new when I visited in 2010; nonetheless, I enjoyed the lavender planting around the pavilion and snickered at the faddish (but also cheap because maintenance-free) decorative grass. I paid less attention to the Water Feature whereby the seats surrounding it supposedly have buttons controlling the water jets. I am convinced that this kind of feature is usually broken within a short period of time and not worth maintaining. A fountain with a pre-programmed set of jets is usually more lasting. Overall, the Waterside Gardens are a pleasant and welcome improvement for this area.

The riverside path merges at the end into suburban Barnes Cray Road. You are still following the London Loop signposts.

On the opposite side of the river, you can guess and sometimes see a large industrial estate. This was an important site between 1896 and 1950 as one of the largest British weapons factories; it first produced Maxim machine guns and cartridges. During World War I, it was an important aircraft factory producing Vickers planes and guns. The up to 14,000 workers (but usually not their families who remained at home) lived in emergency housing on the river side pretty much where the path runs now.

At the end R to the river bridge

Cross the river using Maiden Lane bridge and continue on the London Loop and riverside path, now on the right bank

At the next road bridge L across the river again (following the London Loop signposts). There is no bridge further downstream, so that it is important to cross here

The signposted Loop crosses the roundabout and you can cross the highway itself at the next traffic lights.

Soon afterwards R Crayford Creek Road

The Loop keeps temporarily away from the river in order to cross under a train line but then reaches the bank again. Follow the river along its tidal reach until you reach the river Thames and a major riverside landmark, Crayford Ness.

Routing note: The Loop and my own route cannot cross the river Thames here. The Loop therefore leads to Erith train station and starts again on the north bank. My route continues all the way from Crayford Ness to Plumstead using interesting sections not covered in my other ring walks. Afterwards, like the London Loop, I then recommend using public means of transportation and starting again from Rainham station.

Now to the section between Crayford Ness and Plumstead station. This walk follows initially the well signposted and obvious Thames Path past Erith

You have a very nice view from the riverside gardens over the tidal Thames with Queen Elizabeth bridge carrying the M25 quite far away in the background. In the second half of the nineteenth century, middle classes were very keen to escape polluted, crowded London on Sundays and entrepreneurs tried to turn Erith into a resort. The main pier was built at the time.

Unfortunately, the mud flats were not very attractive to families on excursion and the resort floundered, but the pier is still there. It is one of the few piers you are allowed to walk on and it is popular with people angling. The reason why the pier is well maintained is that this was a condition set to a local supermarket in order to develop the area.

From the pier, you have a perfect view towards the gigantic refuse handling station on the other Thames side. There is no horrible smell, but the crowds of gulls are a giveaway. From time to time, you might see convoys of yellow barges bringing refuse from the Wandsworth and City handling stations. They are actually the main industrial use of the Thames nowadays although there are also a few seagoing freighters coming in on occasion to serve the industrial plants in Dagenham.

The riverside gardens are actually a landscaped dam protecting parts of Erith from possible flooding. This may be the reason why the flower beds are not very exciting.

High Street links the pier with ERITH station if you take the shorter option. Otherwise, keep to the riverside Thames Path. The inland buildings are not interesting, most are warehouses and light industrial premises. When they end, you end up walking past extensive sewage works.

Riverside walks can become tedious after a while. My personal choice is therefore to leave the Thames Path at the end of the sewage works and cross under the obvious arch for the Ridgeway.

Follow the straight track called Ridgeway until you reach the motorway.

The Ridgeway is at the beginning a track on the edge of a park. It later becomes a straight track raised above the surrounding flat land because it is actually the covering for the main sewage system serving the southern suburbs. The flat land on the right-hand side was kept aside for a string of green spaces when the new suburb of Thamesmead was developed, so that I prefer walking through the parks at the bottom of the embankment along the motorway rather than on top along the traffic.

Do not cross the motorway, walk R along it through a string of green spaces (Crossway Park, then a footpath under a large roundabout, then Birchmere Park)

When you reach the end of Birchmere Lake, L across Eastern Way (a busy road) into Nathan Way

At the end of the road, climb the steps ahead, passing under a Ridgeway arch

At the top R on The Ridgeway

The track ends just opposite the train station for PLUMSTEAD

Ring 6 Walk 28

Bexley walk to Crayford

Distance: 3.4 miles

BEXLEY 

The station was the location of a goods train derailment enjuring four people in 1997. It was due to a pattern of shocking behaviour by all companies involved. As usual in business-friendly England, the companies were fined about 200,000 £ (some 0.1% of their quarterly profit, I suppose) and that was it. Here the behaviour in detail:

– the train driver had not been schooled for goods trains and therefore did not know that a signal marked 60 may only be passed at 40 with a goods train

– a carriage was overloaded and this had not been noticed either by the supervisor at loading point or by the railway inspector at point of entry on the line

– the speedometer in the locomotive was defect and showed the wrong speed

– track inspectors had reported repeatedly “very urgent” needs and “extremely rotten bridge timber” but maintenance planners did not prioritise the works  

– the contractors in charge with the actual maintenance work “did not carry out their contracts adequately”.

At the time, Railtrack was regulated by a gentleman who was criticised for being too lenient and tougher oversight from 1999 on led to temporary insolvency. In the end, the Labour government bought back the company the Conservative government had privatised without sufficient safeguards. The problem was that Railtrack as a newly privatised company had maximised profit by outsourcing actual maintenance works to all sorts of contractors who had no motivation to deliver more than the strictly unavoidable amount of work needed to secure payment. Railtrack had got rid of most experienced staff able to estimate whether the contractors were doing their work properly – saving money and enhancing profits on a short-term basis but causing its ultimate demise.

This walk follows the London Loop signposts

Exit the station through the access road towards High Street

R Bexley High Street

Note on the L side of the street a large building called Freemantle Hall. It was built in 1891 on ground donated by Mr Freemantle and was later used as a film theatre under the nice name of “Cinema De Luxe”. It has been turned into a community centre where you can attend delightfully suburban activities like Get Thrifty’s Craft Fair and Little Missy Pamper Days.

The road turns R and crosses the river

The large building to the R that straddles the river looks like a former mill. There has indeed been a mill on this location from the Domesday Book in the 11th century until 1907. It was later turned into a factory for sacks and burnt down in 1966. The present building is therefore a reconstruction and houses a pub.

Nearly on the opposite side of the road, you pass a stately Georgian house with a very lush garden. It has a blue roundel because of a local historian living here in later times (Mr Thorpe), but it is supposed to have been built in the 1770s for the owner of the mill.

L into the churchyard

Ahead past the church

Bexley parish church is rather ancient with most walls dating back to the 14th century  but it has been completety remodeled in Victorian times. It is normally closed so that you cannot have a look at what the Internet site describes as a typical example of anglo-catholic “high church” style. The more interesting features of the church are the view from the lychgate and the tower.

Lychgates have their names from a Saxon word akin to present-day German “Leiche” for “corpse”; as mass for a deceased person was not to be said in church, the gate (like modern-day funeral halls) protected the hearse in cause of bad weather during the last rites. In this case, the lychgate leads to an unusual alley of impressively thick yew trees. Victorians loved yew as a symbol of everlasting life but would normally plant only one in order to let it grow nicely.

The church tower has something of a double roof: an octogonal roof sits above a four-sided one. Many French churches have cubic masonry transitioning into an octogonal tower (typical of Gascony for example) but it is less usual to do the transition at roof level. In some cases, it was done on purpose in order to direct the sound of the bells located above along the eaves of the lower roof towards the surrounding village.

Ahead Paved footpath along the cemetery until you enter a small wood

Do not hesitate to have a short walk around the overgrown part of the cemetery. This is now a nature reserve and the toppling monuments smothered in ivy will look romantic at the best of times and downright spooky on a dark winter evening.

L footpath along the lower edge of Churchfield Wood (still following the signposted London Loop), continues all the way to a motorway embankment

There was a bit of excitement in local papers in 2005 when someone reported seeing a “large black cat” in Churchfield Wood. The “Beast of Bexley” haunted impressionable walkers for a few months with someone even pretending to see a black leopard scaring horses in their paddock. Of course, it is highly unlikely there was anything to it.

L along the motorway embankment towards the railway tracks

R underneath the motorway

Lots of graffiti here and I think you cannot really call it street art here (as opposed to graffiti underneath Queen Elizabeth Hall on South Bank in Westminster).

R and again sharp R climbing the embankment up to the road level

Cross the railway tracks along the motorway

R down the embankment

Continue away north from the motorway between the railway tracks and a fence

L along the fence crossing the river

L into the grounds of Hall Place

Hall Place is one of my favourite places in all of suburban London. The buildings themselves take about half an hour but touring all the grounds will take more than an hour and they are highly worth your time, particularly in spring and to some extent in summer.

The original palace was built by a former Lord Mayor of the City of London in 1540 and the building was extended significantly by an other merchant in 1650s who was important enough to be made a Baronet. You can easily see the two buildings as no attempt was made to hide the contrasting appearance.

The older building is closer to the road; it is built in a mosaic of stone and flint, which is typical for this period. You can find a number of churches built in the same way at the same period. Interestingly, the mosaic effect was not popular on the Continent where plain stone walls were affordable. The newer building has a much more regular appearance and is made of bricks as was usual under the Stuart kings.

Later owners included a politician who was rumoured to be engaging in immoral behaviour. This was caused by his membership in the “Hellfire Club”, a rather secretive private club whose aristocratic members indulged in drinking, politicking, mocking religion and possibly unashamed womanising. It is difficult to know exactly what they did as they protected themselves against outside scrutiny, but people were probably unduly harsh in their judgements as they also were against that other secretive club of the period, freemasonry.

The Hellfire Club of the 1750s was probably less scandalous than the original one from the 1720s (quotation from Wikipedia about the behaviour of two members: “Sedley and the Earl of Dorset preaching naked to a crowd from an alehouse balcony in Covent Garden as they simulated sex with each other” – note that such behaviour is quite accepted nowadays at a stag party held by typical English blokes in Vilnius or Sofia or at your average rugby after-game drinking session). Members of such clubs are called “rakes”, a multiple-meaning word confusing for a foreigner like me.

The last owner was a leading society Lady, the Countess of Limerick, and the Prince of Wales visited her at Hall Place on occasion in the 1920s. She sold the property to the borough in 1935 and the buildings were used by the Army during the war before being turned into a school and later into council offices. A trust was given responsibility for restoring the buildings in 1995 and it now houses a small borough museum.

An extension was built in 2010 to house the cafeteria and an information desk. It is quite interesting to see the contrast between the steel-and-glass pavilion and the older buildings. Old buildings I like are the old barn now used by a restaurant and a mysterious small building out of black wooden boards set on stone feet, possibly a former larder as being raised above the ground would protect better against mice. At any rate, this is the use of such buildings in Norway or Spanish Galicia.

If the museum is open (it is sometimes closed for private functions), you can see several restored rooms -the rooms are more interesting than the pure museum section (although I did find the collection of wedding dresses interesting as it is unusual). The entrance hall at the lower level is suitably impressive with a ceiling made of heavy wooden beams painted black; this gives it a Tudor look although it is in the Stuart part of the building.

The hall opens onto the main Great Hall with its Minstrels Gallery. It is a bit too clean and regular to give off a feeling of antiquity, but I can imagine this is a nice location for a wedding or special anniversary.

On the first floor, there is a very nice Parlour with walls entirely panelled in wood as in medieval times. A portrait of Queen Elizabeth I enhances the impression and there is a magnificent chimney with fancy brickwork put together in Saxon style – Saxons had copied the Roman habit of laying bricks in opposing oblique rows as this improved stability. There is something strange about the panelling; as Tudor panelling is normally moulded in a specific design reminiscent of plaited textiles, the present panelling is more 17th century, but this does not fit with the portrait of the queen. It is possibly all fake anyway !

An other impressive room is the Jacobean Room with superb ceiling plasterwork. The complex scrolls are indeed typical as you can see similar designs in actual Jacobean houses like the façade of Charlton House and the lounge of Boston Manor. They have been renovated recently but I don’t know how old they really are.

The Jacobean Room gives access to a Long Gallery, a traditional feature of Tudor houses, but this specific example has been completely redone and the ceiling decoration actually reminds a little of William Kent in the early 18th century. If you want to see an authentic Long Gallery, go to Ham House. If you want an original Kent design, go the Madejski Rooms of the Royal Academy. If you want a stunning Jacobean ceiling, go to Boston Manor. But Hall Place is still worth a visit.

I recommend you don’t spend too much time inside as the real attractions are outside. I suggest you begin by walking all around the East and South sides of the building to an aluminium staircase possibly meant as an emergency exit. Climbing the stairs, you can look at the closed Tudor garden that you normally can only see from the main road. It has a neat geometric design reminiscent of Elizabethan knot gardens.

Next is the apparently haphazard collection of box trees groomed in starkly geometric shapes. It is quite a lot of fun to meander among the trees, being rather enclosed in dark green foliage with unexpected shapes at every corner. I have read that the last owner had decided to grow shapes that would remind of Art Deco chess pieces. The borough received a lottery grant in 2010 and part of this was invested in recutting the trees so that they are stunning on my picture taken just after the work was finished.

Walking along the Western wall of the garden, you will walk past a grass labyrinth. As opposed to those at Hampton Court or Crystal Palace, this one is supposed to remind you of similar designs on the floor of medieval cathedrals. The spiral is a symbol of infinity and walking round into the spiral was supposed to help pilgrims to meditate about coming ever closer to God. In addition, the church could reinterpret in this manner an ancient Celtic design.

Walking to the corner of the grounds, you should begin to see the entry to what I would call the hidden garden. The flower beds are protected by high hedges and the design of the garden creates a set of separate beds. There is a similar design at Queen Mary’s Gardens in Regent’s Park. This garden is at its best in summer as you can see if you compare my April 2010 and August 2008 pictures.

Continuing along the fences, you will reach a garden with brick pavement and regular shapes where gardeners grow medicinal herbs. This is not the most exciting section as nearly all boroughs have this kind of garden.

A little further on, a partly sunken garden is reached by descending a few steps between tall hedges. This is the Italian garden popular with romantically inclined teenagers as not too many people venture this far.

If you look back to the main house from the Italian garden, you should be able to see a row of yew trees grown painstakingly into weird shapes. As signs will tell you, the 10 figures stand for the heraldic beasts that appear on the coats of arms of the English kings at different periods. I give you a 2010 overview after the reshaping, but I also give you an example of the more amusing 2008 state of things.

The lizard, monkey and teddy bear were supposed to be a greyhound, a crowned lion (of England) and a dragon (of Wales). The set of topiary is one the major attractions of Hall Place and a fitting reminder to the gardening efforts of the Countess of Limerick.

Between the beasts and the River Cray, there is a rose garden, but I have never been there at a time justifying a picture. If you visit in spring, I suggest you cross the river into the informal park. There is an excellent display of early heather and you will also find some azaleas and rhododendrons (although they cannot of course compete with Dulwich Park). At the very back of the park near the railroad, there is an orchard with very nicely blooming trees in season.

You are not supposed to attempt to leave the park through a hole in the fence although this would put you back on track for the walk to Crayford station. If you do this, you miss on a significant part of the rich Hall Place offering. I did notice that planting was less impressive in 2010 than in 2008, probably because of the financial crisis affecting the borough revenues, but the borough nursery just outside the normal Hall Place entrance is not to be missed.

At the very back behind the glasshouses, there is a halfhearted attempt at a Tudor garden. It has the geometric shapes and some simple planting because it is actually a learning garden and not a show garden.

Going back towards the glasshouses, you pass on the left a series of long beds, some with perennials needed for the flower decoration in borough buildings and some with saplings of fruit-bearing trees. The separate small garden facing the glasshouse entrance is a specialised garden showing a number of plants from the Southern Hemisphere.

Having been in New Zealand, I was disappointed at seeing no tree ferns, but I admired the huge cabbage tree (called so because Captain Cook fed the leaves to his sailors as he knew vitamins were necessary to avoid scurvy on long sea voyages).

The one glasshouse you can visit is worth a look as it has beautiful colour schemes. Those can be very different from one year to the other. The central plant bed is more educational with interesting examples of tropical flora. The surrounding plant beds show that the gardeners are not frightened by strong colours.

In 2008, it was popular to be nationalistic because of football and the gardeners had also planted an English flag in front of the glasshouse. I remember considering the design a bit obnoxious as you could see similar planting eveywhere including in cemeteries.

After visiting the glasshouse, you can have a look at a few small enclosed gardens set up against the nursery wall. These gardens are actually very interesting as they are planned by young landscaping students as a means to give ideas to owners of typical suburban plots. My picture shows one of them, a sort of rookery with an excellent colour scheme, but there were others like a rather abstract design with lots of white stone, a garden with little earth but lots of hanging plants and a comfy pergola design.

After visiting Hall Place, come back the way you came and cross back above the railway tracks, but do not cross underneath the motorway again.

Take the wide path parallel to the railway tracks. It runs a few hundred yards through bushland above the train line through an area called Old Orchard.

Later on, it runs directly along the tracks and leads all the way to

CRAYFORD

Ring 6 Walk 27

St Mary Cray walk to Bexley

Distance: 6.2 miles

ST MARY CRAY

Exit the station towards the car park

R along the train embankment, the road is called Station Approach

At the end R underneath the train viaduct

L across the car park of a shopping center to High Street

L along High Street for a few yards

Soon R Sandway Road, you walk later along small Sandway Park (on your L)

The viaduct was a serious engineering endeavour back in 1860, but not because of the 9 arches or because of the height. The heavy work was building the embankments on either side. This gave jobs to thousands of labourers for several years and turned St Mary Cray from a sleepy market town into a working class suburb with lots of light industry.

The pub directly along the river, the Mary Rose Inn, looks much older and more modest than your typical neighbourhood Victorian pub. Il was founded in the 16th century; some of the buildings look old, but I don’t think they are this old.

After the park, you walk again along the train embankment on Sandway Road

Ahead Wotten Green (a road)

Ahead Chesterfield Close, keep L close to the train line. It ends with a short footpath

At the end L Sweeps Lane

L along a cemetery on Star Lane

According to a comment on Wikipedia, there was a large Romany settlement here. Many were agriculture workers in the past and moved throughout Britain following ripening crops, but the industrialisation of agriculture and competition from cheaper Eastern European immigrants made many Romany jobless. St Mary Cray was one of the areas where those who elected to settle found a home, local authorities throughout Britain making it ever more difficult for them to follow their traditional way of life and pick up occasional short-term jobs.

As you can imagine, there was serious mistrust from the local residents, many of them working class people fearing new competition for low-level jobs. There was also the usual outbreak of racism as some people spread the usual stereotypes about Romany being horrible tricksters, criminals and do-no-gooders. Honestly, jobless young people forced to live in soulless council estates are equally conspicuous suspects.

The only thing I find unpleasant about Romany in some European cities is begging gangs, whereby I am aware that they do this because it pays better than the few menial jobs employers are willing to give them.

When you reach houses again, R under the arch into St Pauls Cray Hill Park

The main track enters the park and turns L, keeping at half height above the garden fences.

The open space here is St. Paul’s Cray Hill Park, a former landfill for domestic refuse. It cannot be used for anything else than dog walking (and the odd drinking session at night according to local gossip). There are no amenities justifying the title of a “park” except for one sandy track that peters out in a loop. But there is a good view over the Cray river valley from the higher sections of the open space.

Keep L when you cross other paths, but make sure that you do not exit the park

When the path ends, turn half R

At the end L Chapman’s Lane

On reaching the first houses R on Sandy Lane

R into the access road for Orpington Golf Centre

When the road forks after the first car park, keep to the left fork

When the road finally turns R uphill, take the public footpath L of the road. It does not seem to be signposted, it is the one along the two small sets of steps used by golfers

The footpath continues across a motorway (using a footbridge), along a wood and across busy Maidstone Road. It continues between house numbers 199 and 201 and crosses two suburban roads until it ends on North Cray Road

Walk to the traffic lights near a bus stop (called Ellenborough Road) and cross the highway

Walk down Ellenborough Road (away from the highway and the small row of shops)

When the road turns L, take the access road R. It continues in the same direction, turning into a footpath. Keep L in order to cross a ditch and you reach the River Cray.

R on the riverside footpath. It is also signposted as the London Loop (green roundels or wooden posts) and you can keep to it for the rest of the walk. It keeps to the right bank of the river for a while, then crosses a footbridge and continues on the left bank a bit further away from the water.

As the path is well advertised and has a guidebook, it is very popular and you will find many reports on this section on the Internet.

Ahead all the way to a railway underpass.

You are very close here to the train station (sharp L) 

BEXLEY 

Ring 6 Walk 26

Chelsfield walk to St Mary Cray

Distance: 6.4 miles

CHELSFIELD 

From the station building, walk to the road bridge and cross the train tracks

Continue on Warren Road

L The Highway

Very soon R into a paved footpath parallel to Warren Road

As Warren Road has no verge for pedestrian traffic, it is indeed advisable to use this parallel footpath along Chelsfield Green

You also have a grand view towards the Thames Valley from the Green. If you happen to have binoculars or a zooming camera, you will recognise easily the two clusters of towers in London (the City and Canary Wharf).

After about 500 yards, you will find a clear footpath R across the hedge and the road. Take this footpath signposted “Chelsfield Church”

The parish church of St Martin’s Chelsfield is a venerable building with some parts (the tower and the rear wall with the three narrow windows) being about 800 years old. The church was closed when I walked past it but the main attraction is probably just the peaceful location and the aura of centuries past.

Walk on the footpath past the church to Church Road

L Church Road, cross the main road and continue ahead

You are in the old village centre and I was delighted by the pub and neighbouring houses with white plasterboard façades.

Ahead Bucks Cross Road (signposted Lullingstone)

Next L Skibbs Lane

After about 350 yards and a 40-mph sign, take the signposted public footpath at a slant to the R

It leads towards a strip of woodland and then along it. Continue always ahead on the footpath, crossing minor Skeet Hill Lane and shortly afterwards Gorse Road

The path continues either as a footpath or as a farmland track for about a mile.

Shortly before it turns into a paved access road (Darns Hill) near an isolated house, take a footpath L across farmland (the crossing is signposted)

The footpath crosses a number of farm tracks and you are supposed to keep to the one official footpath.

At the end R East Hall Road

Follow the road past a few isolated buildings. After the buildings, you walk along a hedge towards trees. Spot the one well hidden opening R across the hedge, it has a signpost hidden in foliage

This footpath crosses a field, then an other footpath and then a second field, reaching a crossroads with the access to a construction business

Cross Waldens Road and continue along the edge of Kynaston Wood. The footpath turns a few times, keeping to the edge of the wood, until you find a clear sign across the farmland of Derry Downs

Continue ahead on the footpath all the way, crossing at the end the St Mary Cray Recreation Ground

The path finally merges into Park Road

At the end R on High Street until you can enter the riverside open space on your L (near a bus stop called “The Temple”)

Follow the brook downstream until you reach the second footbridge (signposted as “public footpath”)

Cross the brook along a shopping centre car park

Ahead Cray Valley Road

R Lynton Avenue

R Lynmouth Rise

Ahead Furzehill Square

ST MARY CRAY

Ring 6 Walk 25

Keston walk to Chelsfield

Distance: 5.3 miles

KESTON

This walk starts at a bus stop called Westerham Road / Heathfield Road and served by line 320 from Bromley South. If you find it more convenient to start at a train station, the London Loop will lead you reliably from Hayes station (in zone 5) to Keston Ponds, the distance being about 2 miles.

The bus stop is on a roundabout where two roads diverge. Take the footpath that starts in the angle between Heathfield Road and Westerham Road. This footpath soon reaches an other one coming from the right and continuing to the left with London Loop signposts. You can now follow the London Loop for a short while.

The Loop turns R again in order to cross a small area of heath with prickly gorse and goes down to a pond, actually the uppermost of the three Keston ponds.

The ponds are obviously artificial. They were dug in 1827 to supply water to a large mansion set nearby. Because the mansion is on the top of a hill, the water had additionally to be pumped from the ponds and this pump was also hydraulic.

Just above the upper pond, a very neat brick construction marks the source of the Ravensbourne River. It is popularly called Caesar’s Well, possibly because enthusiastic intellectuals liked to see antique references in the 18th century. Caesar would have camped nearby and this well would have been shown him by a raven when he was looking for water for the troops. The real background for Caesar legends is that the area, being off the Thames floodplain, was indeed used by a Roman villa.

You might wish to pay attention to the very elaborate chute leading the water from the upper pond into the middle pond. There is not enough water to pretend that it enables fish to migrate although the ponds have been known to deliver rather large fish to local anglers.

The middle pond in particular was very popular for swimming in summer and for skating in winter, but this is confusing as other reports mention swimming on New Year’s Day in the 1910s. I suppose swimming in freezing water helped sportsmen overcome the effects of intoxicating beverages…

This pond is also most probably the one mentioned in an important experiment by famous naturalist Charles Darwin (he lived on a house you might have passed on walk 24). Mr Darwin checked that mud taken at the bottom of a pond was unexpectedly rich in seeds probably brought in by birds as he managed to grow 527 plants from a small teacup of mud.

Leave the London Loop when you reach the second pond and a road

R Fishponds Road

L Westerham Road

After about 100 yards, take R the signposted public bridleway along the edge of South Park. The tracks continues along the edge of Ninhams Wood until it reaches a busy road called Farnborough Common

R Farnborough Common for about 400 yards

R High Street for about 400 yards

Farnborough is a very ancient village already mentioned in a royal donation in 862. It does not have a separate entry in the Domesday Book and is therefore likely to have been considered part of the nearby manor.

As the village is located on the old coach road from London to Hastings, it has an inn already mentioned more than 500 years ago. I took a picture of a passage underneath a house which was certainly the access to an inn courtyard in old times.

This Farnborough has nothing in common with the town in Hampshire well known for an annual air show. As Farnborough means a “village in a fern heath”, it is a rather common name.

R Church Road

R on the ramp into the churchyard, walk past the church

St Giles the Abbot church is nice because of its location and there are not many village churches clad in flint in London, but it is otherwise not remarkable. There are some remnants from a Norman church but they are only visible to experts. The church is normally closed.

By contrast, the churchyard is exceptionally interesting in addition to being a lovely wooded area. The very imposing yew tree directly near the church is not a Victorian planting as is often the case as it was planted in 1643 at the height of the Civil War.

Many churchyards in England are considered to be “rectors’ freehold”, meaning that the rector would get a fee for each burial but could not sell the burial spot to the family as would be done in a private cemetery. This ensured that the consecrated ground could be reused after an appropriate time span.

The system was derailed when rich people began to set up large monuments as it became either impossible or embarrassing to remove memorials of well connected families. Here is a good example of an overcrowded churchyard that had to be extended.

In Farnborough, you have an exquisite collection of memorials such as a magnificent grieving angel in bronze, a delicate eight-columned Greek temple and an imposing mock-Celtic cross. I guess such crosses became fashionable from the mid-19th century onwards with reference to romantic novels like Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe” and music like Felix Mendelssohn’s “Fingal Overture”.

This cross mixes composite foliage scrolls with sculpted medallions showing i.a. prehistoric battle axes. The cross is a memorial to the family Lubbock, owners of nearby High Elms Estate, whose head had published a reference handbook on prehistoric tools.

Continue downhill out of the churchyard following temporarily the London Loop along a field and across a country lane (Shire Lane)

Enter ahead the grounds of High Elms

The Estate was the country home of the influential Lubbock family who owned a bank from about 1800 on. The bank was sold to Coutts at the beginning of the 20th century. There is a distinctive air of dynasty about the family: for over a century, all family heads were not only bankers but also contributors to science and members of Parliament. Family tradition also ran in political matters as they were all progressive in social matters but cautious on financial issues and conservative regarding Ireland. A descendant of the family still sits in the House of Lords as a respected Liberal peer.

The neo-classical mansion built by the family in the 1840s was bought together with the estate by the Kent County Council in 1937. Considering how many estates were bought by public authorities during that period, it seems local governments must have bailed out many capitalists who had lost their fortune during the great financial crisis. This also made sense from an urban planning point of view as London continued to grow quickly, threatening green spaces.

You will not find any mansion inside the grounds as the building burnt down in 1967 like a conspicuously high number of other publicly-owned mansions in London. I don’t know whether arson, neglect by the boroughs or insufficient fire protection all played a role in these numerous fires. The one remaining construction of interest is a three-sided concrete court supposed to be one of the earliest squash court in existence. It is nowadays more a yuppie sport but must have been a fashionable novelty akin to tennis at the beginning. It actually reminds me of a traditional sports in the Basque Country and Catalonia (pelota or its American variant jai-alai).

As the estate is now used as a country park, you will find a pleasantly landscaped park at the start of the grounds around the location of the former mansion. There are beautiful conifers and a few sculptures such as wooden mushrooms.

Like all mansions, High Elms had formal gardens. You can still look at a few remnants of the terraced gardens in Italianate style. The lower one gives a very pleasant feeling of relaxed gardening, the middle one is more formal although the flower beds are not very exciting.

Come back to the nature centre after touring the gardens. You can have a look at the pond in summer. I was able to take the picture of the fox sitting quietly here in September 2010 in full daylight, something that really astonished me.

Follow carefully the London Loop signs out of Nine Elms. You cross a narrow country lane and turn L parallel to the lane passing the clocktower.

Leave the Loop just after the clocktower, crossing the country lane again into a riding lane signposted “Cudham Lane North”

Follow the track across a golf course (beware of flying balls) until you reach the edge of the wood. Turn L here along the edge of the golf course, you are on a public footpath. When the path enters the wood after about 250 yards, it forks. Take the right fork, soon crossing a meadow and ending along a fenced playground

At the end ahead on “Old Hill”

At the end L towards the roundabout

Walk around the roundabout starting L, crossing the A21

Exit the roundabout taking the A223 signposted Green St Green

You are here in a hamlet bearing the strange name of Green Street Green. The actual name is Green Street (for a village among green pastures) and the second “Green” marks the village centre. There is a church throning quite conspicuously on the crossroads. It is not the parish church, but you do need to pass the baptist church using the close along it.  

Cross the A223 in order to take a public footpath at the back of the bus waiting area. The path starts just at the foot of the large road sign announcing the roundabout.

This path turns L and R and finally reaches the parish church

At the end of the path R on Worlds End Lane

L Dowlerville Road

R Vine Road

Cross a priority road into Windsor Drive uphill

I noticed an interesting methodist church in this road. It has a conspicuously square shape instead of the traditional shape of a nave. It does have some sort of a church tower or spire, but a bit too spiky for my taste. As the earliest Christian churches were in underground caves or former market halls (“basilicas”), there is definitely no special reason why churches need to be in lengthy form except if it helps the congregation to see and hear better during the service.  

Follow Windsor Drive for about 1/2 mile to the train station

At the end R Warren Road

CHELSFIELD 

Ring 6 Walk 24

Biggin Hill walk to Keston

Distance: 5.9 miles

Biggin Hill is located away from any train line, but is reached by convenient buses from Bromley or New Addington. Keston has no train station either, but there is a reliable bus service and you could also combine with walk 25 (together 11.2 miles) if you prefer to end at a train station.

BIGGIN HILL

I suggest you alight at “Maple Leaf Close” and walk towards the church. Other buses stop at “Lebanon Gardens” and you would come back for a few yards to the church.

Take Church Road away from Main Street for about 400 yards

L Old Tye Avenue

Soon R into a public footpath signposted “Berry’s Green”

The path leads past Brickyard Farm and across farmland to the hamlet of Berrys Green

Cross Berry’s Green Road into a private road called Restavon Park

Take the 2^nd turn L, St Peter’s Avenue

Soon R into a public footpath across a small wood and up a steep slope until you reach the road

L Newbarn Lane (a quiet paved lane through a wood)

At the end of the lane, cross Cudham Lane South into a pub car park

Keep R along the first wall and cross the wooden gate into the recreation ground

L along the edge of a cricket ground to the churchyard

The church is ancient in origin. According to the excellent and very detailed comment on http://www.cudhamvillage.org.uk, there are still two small early Norman windows but the proportions of the central nave do not fit and are probably Saxon in origin. The church as it looks now dates back to the 15th century. The church is normally kept closed.

L past the church and down the access road to the crossroads

Cross Cudham Lane into Church Hill

The road soon turns L (with Downe Road branching off R). Continue around the bend on Church Hill and turn very soon R into the public footpath signposed “Luxted”

Walk down into the valley to the corner of a wood

R along the edge of the wood (this is also a public footpath)

At the end L along the paved country lane (Hangrove Hill)

After an access track for houses, take the signposted public footpath L for Downe

The footpath exits the wood and crosses farmland towards a hedge. Cross the hedge and turn R along it. This is an other public footpath that skirts the buildings of Downe Court Farm, keeping just within the meadows. A bit after crossing the farm access road, it turns L towards Luxted Road and then R along the road. When you find the one access provided through the strip of trees, cross Luxted Road to the museum.

Down House (written for some reason without the E of Downe) is an English Heritage property set in the former residence of well-known scientist Charles Darwin. I have never visited the property but friends who did told me it is not spectacular. The house itself was originally built in the 1780s but Darwin did significant extension and improvement work when he bought the house in 1842 in order to settle with his growing family (he ended up with 10 children) in healthier and more spacious surroundings than he had in London.

Darwin was aware of shortcomings that are very apparent when you look at the house: it is directly on the road with no room for a front garden and the flat landscape gets dreary in winter. Because the house was used as a school in the 1910s before being converted to the museum it is now, the living rooms are reconstructions. My friends said the visit is very interesting in terms of learning things about natural history but less in terms of sightseeing.

After the visit, come back to your previous footpath and continue north. It leaves the road nearly immediately, keeping along hedges, and turns later L towards the village. It ends on a small green with a bench.

R on Luxted Road to the parish church

L on High Street Downe

This is a small village that feels much more rural than you would expect for a London suburb. The lack of convenient access to Central London, be it by car or by public means of transportation, protects the village. The name Downe comes probably from ancient Saxon “Dun” for a hill (there are a number of locations with Dun in Southern Scotland in particular). It is said that the peculiar E at the end of Downe, which is not used for properties like Down House, was required by the Post Office in order to avoid confusion with County Down in Ireland. To call a hill a Down is obviously very confusing for foreigners who would think Upping would be a better word.

The church is of medieval origin but Victorian refurbishment left only few reminders of the original building. Instead of a special church, you can have a look at many very fine properties, particularly along Luxted Road.

Ahead into Rookery Road

Nearly immediately L into a public footpath starting at a bus stop. When it reaches a wood, it turns slightly R.

After a surprising number of stiles, the footpath ends on New Road Hill

Ahead along the road (passing the bus stop)

When New Road Hill reaches Shire Lane, it turns L as Downe Road. Continue instead on the footpath signposted “Keston” in the continuation of New Road Hill. You will soon see signs for the London Loop (it comes from the R in this case).

The Loop and the footpath cross a minor access road for a property called Holwood, of which more later, and continue through the delightful wood

This passes Wilberforce Oak, marked by a stone bank behind a fence on your right. The view from the bank would be obscured by trees but an opening is kept because it is an important historical place: Mr Wilberforce sat on this bank when he decided together with leading statesman William Pitt jr. in 1788 to propose abolition of the slave trade in Parliament. Mr Pitt lived in Holwood mansion a bit further uphill.

The mansion where Mr Pitt lived burnt down and was rebuilt in a palatial Greek Revival style in 1826. Unfortunately, this is a strictly private property. It belonged to a commercial company at a time but is now owned by an individual with website http://www.hidden-london.com adding cheekily “with some very ostentatious furnishings”. Do not hesitate to peek at the furnishings on http://www.quintondesign.com (look under “Portfolio” at the heading “Holwood House”).

The Loop soon crosses Westerham Road. There is a convenient bus stop (320 to Bromley South) just nearby on the roundabout to your left. Alternatively, you can also follow the London Loop as it will bring you very close to Hayes station after about 2 miles.

KESTON PONDS

Ring 6 Walk 23

Whyteleafe walk to Biggin Hill

Distance: 8.0 miles

There is no train station in Biggin Hill or in the vicinity, but there are frequent London Transport buses towards Bromley or New Addington.

This walk is very rural and does not warrant many cultural comments, but is very enjoyable.

WHYTELEAFE 

Exi the station towards the large roundabout and the main road (not towards the car park).

Cross the roundabout into Hillbury Road.

Cross under a train line and continue uphill

L into the car park for Whyteleafe Recreation Ground

The access road passes a first pavilion and turns R towards the second one

Walk past the second pavilion on the footpath that skirts the corner of the sports grounds

Ahead across a wood (Roundburrow Shaw), using at one point a flight of steps

Keep ahead, do not turn L. You will reach Tithepit Shaw Lane

Turn sharply R on Tithepit Shaw Lane

When the road turns slightly L and downhill, leave the road for the paved side lane on the left-hand side, remaining above the actual road.

The side lane gives access to a sigposted footpath into the wood (looks a bit wild at the beginning).

Follow the obvious track through the wood and then along football grounds

Cross Limpfield’s Road into Crewe’s Lane

After house number 32 L into a wide paved footpath

The footpath reaches Hamsey Green Recreation Ground and turns R at the end of the grounds as a sort of perimeter path. It now runs along the fence of enclosed sports grounds, passes a playground and turns L along the fences.

The path later reaches an equestrian centre. There are stiles to your L giving access to several paths, but keep ahead on the one path where you do not need to cross a stile. The track keeps along a strip of trees for about 2/3 mile, turning slightly R over time.

When the track finally reaches Old Farleigh Road, walk R parallel to the road (there is a good footpath if you cross the road).

You reach a small roundabout with a pub and a bus stop. The road branching off L from Old Farleigh Road is Harrow Road. Keep L without crossing Harrow Road and take the footpath. It soon leaves the road for the edge of Littlepark Wood.

After about 350 yards, it skirts the end of a road and continues for about 150 yards along open grassland towards the corner of the next wood, Greatpark Wood.

Ignore two tracks branching off R. Your track enters the wood and turns slightly L.

Take the next track R in order to keep well within the wood as the main track would stay on the edge.

Your path passes later Great Park Wood Cemetery on the left and a large housing development on the right, but you stay in the wood and end up turning slightly right. When you reach the end of the wood, there is again a junction of paths.

One goes slightly R between fields, one fully L across farmland and one in the middle along a strip of trees. Take this third option, it is actually also a signposted cycling track.

When you reach a country lane, turn R along the road and a little later L into the next track, called conveniently on some maps “High Hill Road & at Scotshall Lane”. It is still the signposted cycling track.

This track keeps along the edge of a wood for some time but then does turn R across the end of the wood, ending on Fairchildes Road.

L Fickleshole Road

R Park Road (still on the cycle route towards New Addington)

Just after the farm pond, the farm access road branches off L while Park Road continues R. Between the two, there is a wooden gate with the start of a signposted public footpath.

The path crosses farmland, turns slightly R into a track and ends at the next country lane, Skid Hill Lane.

Cross this road into an other public byway (again a part of the signposted cycle route 21). Try to ignore a variety of inofficial paths and to keep to the cycle route.

At the end R Jewels Hill (a road along the edge of the wood). As long as the road is still within the wood, you should find easily an inofficial path parallel to it. The road itself has very heavy traffic and is better avoided as long as it goes. You do need to walk along it when it leaves the wood, but this is only for a short distance.

As you can see on the picture, you are fully within the rural landscape of the North Downs. Biggin Hill is at the background of the picture on the hill; it is one of the highest hamlets within London. The north slope of the North Downs is usually a moderate incline cut by steep valleys. The south slope is a more spectacular escarpment, but you would have to look at my WAAL walks in order to visit it.

Soon R Oaklands Lane

There is no footpath along this country road, but there is a sufficient grass verge and the traffic is light.

You first have a large wheat field on your R. Ignore the farm track that branches off at the end of this field and walk along a smaller field until you reach a bushy patch of wood. There is a footpath here starting R beside a steel gate. It is signposted and there is also a notice “Slow” painted on the road. Take this footpath and keep to it until you reach a farm.

As you can see on the picture, this is typical North Downs landscape.

Walk past the farm and follow R Norheads Lane. The paved road turns into a gravel track that you follow only for about 100 yards.

Just before a pond with farm cottages, take the public footpath L along a hedge towards a small wood

Cross the wood and turn L for a few yards on Beech Road

When Beech Road turns into Highfield Road and reaches houses, leave it R for the public footpath towards the village.

 The footpath merges temporarily into Rosehill Road but continues afterwards again as a footpath

At the bottom of the footpath, you have reached the centre of the hamlet with just a few neighbourhood stores. You are so far into the countryside that you will soon pass a local road called an “avenue” – an unpaved alley shaded by beautiful old trees.

At the end L Polesteeple Hill (the uphill road) for about 500 yards

At the end across Stock Hill into Temple Road

Climb the rest of the hill to Main Road

The main building on main street is the parish church, built in the 1950s. The church in Biggin Hill has an impressive, freestanding tower with a somewhat strange crown of iron spikes at the top. The façade is a plain triangular shape, which was popular at the time as being symbolic and not too fussy, but the brick wall is very cleverly broken by a vertical shaft of glass over the whole height of the building. To be honest, one has to mention that the Biggin Hill church was a little cheaper to build because materials from a demolished church in Peckham could be re-used here.

BIGGIN HILL

Ring 6 Walk 22

Woodmansterne walk to Whyteleafe

Distance: 5.7 miles

WOODMANSTERNE

Exit the station into the station access road (Woodstock Road)

L Chipstead Valley Road for about 500 yards

At the end of the road, don’t miss St Aidan’s Roman Catholic church. The building combines forbidding geometric shapes with mock-gothic pointed windows. This very weird and unique combination is worth a comment. The original plans in 1930 called for a miniature version of a gothic cathedral, notwithstanding the fact that this style was very passé in the time of Art Déco. Funds only allowed for partial completion.

In the 1960s, it was decided to extend the temporary solution to the size of a normal church,. The spirit of the times called for a contemporary, forward-looking design and the architect used modern concrete, cubes and rectangles. I have not been able to look inside, but pictures on Internet show a comparably contemporary interior concept.

At the main crossroads R Lion Green Road

Ahead across the roundabout on Marlpit Lane (signposted “Caterham”)

This road crosses under three sets of tracks. The staircase on the R between the second and the third subway gives access to a station

COULSDON SOUTH

Continue along Marlpit Lane.

R Downs Road, following the London Loop signpost

You can now be follow the London Loop for about 3 miles as it is the most convenient solution in this area. Note that there are two types of signposts, either the customary green signs on masts or small roundels on wooden posts set in the ground.

When you reach the fork between Downs Road and Ditches Lane, take the public footpath that starts between the two roads across a wooden gate. It soon starts rising, keeping parallel with but above Ditches Lane

You end up crossing a cycle track and reaching a car park

Cross Ditches Lane now. The “private road” in front of you is not correct, but the faint path along it within the open space is.

The London Loop keeps away from the few houses and soon turns R and downhill across Devil’s Den Woods.

Because the paths are not easy to describe clearly, I suggest you have also a look at the very convenient guide of the Ramblers Association (the link is https://innerlondonramblers.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=265&catid=36 and you need section 5).

When the path reaches the edge of the wood, it leads around a meadow, crosses the bottom of Happy Valley and rises steeply to a viewpoint.

The marked Loop stays on the hilltop a little while but soon turns L opposite a flight of stairs towards the Happy Valley car park.

Follow the signposts along a narrow paved road called Fox Lane

The Loop continues ahead across Coulsdon Road and bysects Coulsdon Common (follow carefully the marked path as there are many others)

It then crosses into Rydon’s Lane, a paved road that leads to a steep track. Beware that this track can be muddy and slippery.

The path reaches a farm access road in the wood. Do not continue ahead, turn L and walk past the farm buildings.

The London Loop follows an obvious public footpath to a stile, crosses Old Lodge Lane into a recreation ground, but turns R a little later and reaches Hayes Lane. The signposts are clear all the way.

R on Hayes Lane

L Golf Road

At the end of this access road, the Loop turns L. It is a reasonable option but I suggest you stay on the main track ahead. You therefore leave the London Loop as it starts turning towards zone 5.

Using the track, you skirt the end of the aerodrome runway .

The track crosses the lower part of Kenley Common, one of the open spaces bought by the City of London in 1883. The special feature of Kenley Common is the former airfield on the top of the hill. It was set up in 1917 during World War I and remained in use until 1959. It is best known for being one the main aerodromes used by the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain in 1940 and suffered extensive damage in a German attack. But the Germans had lost as many attacking planes than the RAF lost planes parked in the hangars and this was considered a happy escape. Very little remains of the buildings, some of them having been sold later on to developpers, but the runway is still visible. The view from the hilltop towards Warlingham is quite nice.

From the runway end, continue ahead on the main track. It leads steeply downhill

When the path ends at a paved street, turn R on the public footpath above the garden fences.

After about 200 yards, the path comes very close to a road. Go down the steps to the road and continue downhill on Hilltop Road

R Hornchurch Hill

L Whyteleafe Hill passing

WHYTELEAFE

Ring 6 Walk 21

Kingswood walk to Woodmansterne

Distance: 5.1 miles

KINGSWOOD

Exit the station past the station building towards the pub

In front of the pub R Furze Hill

R again St Monica’s Road

When the road turns L, continue on the access road ahead. This continues into a wood as a public footpath

When you reach an other footpath that comes from the train line, turn L along the fences of a training center and then along Kingswood House

Kingswood House is just a fancy name for offices. It is one of the main office buildings of insurance company Legal & General (now L&G). You don’t see much of it from the footpath but it is just your usual pretentious brick-and-glass office park with towers and grand rotundas where managers can try to impress visitors.

When you reach Ambrose Cottages on the corner of the sports grounds, R along the sports grounds

The public footpath turns later L along a row of trees. Walk to the end of the row of trees

Then slightly R on a main track (Reads Rest Lane), but do not go too far right at the next crossing and aim instead for a small wood. After the wood, you reach Perrotts Farm

You could continue straight ahead across Banstead Wood, but you get more interesting views if you turn R and then keep above the train line and the valley road on the public footpath that skirts the hill, alternating between sections in the wood and some along meadows.

Banstead Woods is mostly woods with a few meadows on the edges. It was originally a deer park belonging to the local manor, that is a private hunting forest (to use contemporary notions, a mix of a fitness club and a giant fridge). In part of the open spaces, the Army set up a camp for prisoners during World War II, but I saw no reminder of this on my route.

What the footpath does offer is a mix of enjoyable wooded sections – I read bluebells are quite nice in spring – and open spaces with good views over Chipstead Valley.

Never turn R towards the bottom of the valley and you will reach a car park at the end of the wood.

Cross Holly Lane into the next public footpath (it is signposted and starts just where Park Road joins Holly Lane)

After a few hundred yards, the path exits the wood. Continue ahead walking along Chipstead Way for about 1/2 mile, crossing Manor Way and ignoring a minor road called “The Readens”

After house number 116 L into a footpath (not signposted, make sure that you do not try a back garden access by mistake). This footpath called Blind Lane turns slowly R within a thin row of trees. It ends with a wooden signpost

R downhill Woodmansterne Street

The road passes the parish church. It is rather pretty because of the leafy location although it is to be honest a Victorian building from 1877. I can agree with the squat church tower despite the somewhat strange colour of the clock, but the real surprise comes if you are able to enter.

The side nave is a very contemporary take on neo-gothic that reminds me a little of beehive cells. You are intrigued or you hate it, I guess. In the church, I also found mysterious machinery with coded instructions that proved to be a bell-ringer’s apparatus, something that I had never seen because it is usually hidden in the tower.

Ahead Rectory Lane. Be very cautious along this road as the pavement is missing for a short distance.

After the bend in the road, L into a signposted track (Hatch Lane)

The track skirst open spaces, turning first R. After a stile, it turns clearly L along the left edge of the wood. Take instead the minor footpath ahead along the right edge of the wood.

At the end of the path R downhill on Whitethorn Avenue

Ahead Alexander Road

At the bottom of the road L and directly R into the signposted access for

WOODMANSTERNE

Ring 6 Walk 20

Tattenham Corner walk to Kingswood

Distance: 4.4 miles

TATTENHAM CORNER

Exit the station and turn L on Royal Drive in order to reach the racecourse

L op Epsom Lane North along the racecourse. There is a informal path directly along the barriers

This whole section feels very rural because you have constant views on your right over Walton Downs. You are deep in Surrey here and you get faraway views northwest towards the Windsor area. The southern section near Tadworth is primarily farmland, in particular paddocks for riding centres. The northern section is a buffer for Epsom racecourse.

The landowner and the racecourse operator were never very happy about public footpaths crossing the area and disturbing potential development plans, so that the local council moved Parliament to legislate on a compromise in 1936. Since an additional act of Parliament in 1984, you are allowed to walk freely on the downs (you don’t even have to keep to public footpaths), but you must give way to race training activities if you are here before noon and you must not use implements like headphones that could distract you from hearing approaching horses. The racecourse is completely closed off to the public on racing days, but this is only allowed on a maximum of 16 days per year.

The racecourse is well known for the Derby race, named after the Earl of Derby who had won a wager with a friend on how to name the race back in 1661. I find it interesting that the word “derby” is now a common word in many European countries used when football teams from nearby cities meet – English newspapers would speak of a “local derby”. Examples are Schalke vs. Dortmund in Germany or Metz vs. Nancy in France. Conversely, it shows the decline of horse races as popular sports events.

Opposite Azor Close, a footpath starts at a slant to the R

It is actually a borough limit and marks the edge of the race course grounds

Follow this footpath to a fork on the crest of the hill.

Take the left-hand fork, keeping on the edge of the wood, then across a vale and up the next hill

After a while, you walk along the back fences of gardens, this is a public bridleway.

The track merges at the end into Motts Hill Lane

When the road turns L, keep R on the edge of the paddocks

And when the road turns sharply R, continue on a footpath ahead

When the footpath reaches the wood, the easiest route is to turn L and to follow the path along the edge of the wood, turning R later in order not to leave the wood.

You end up near the Mere Road bus stop on the corner of Mere Road with New Road and Tadworth Road

You need to take the direction of New Road, but you can easily avoid the traffic by using informal wood paths on either side of the road

New Road then crosses Dorking Road and is renamed Mill Road

The road crosses a wood with numerous footpaths – feel free to use appropriate inofficial footpaths parallel to the road as this is much more pleasant. I think the bit of woodland is a common.

Continue walking in this direction, again using wood paths parallel to the road

At the end of Mill Road, cross busy Brighton Road into The Warren (a private road)

Soon R on a public footpath towards Kingswood War Memorial, the path crosses a minor road and ends on Sandy Lane

Follow Sandy Lane ahead

Soon L Warren Drive

The road has its name from the local mansion, Kingswood Warren. My route bypasses it as it is primarily an early 19th century building with some neo-gothic decoration. It was the residence of the chairman of the board of the Southern Railway at the end of the 19th century, who convinced his board to build the train line. The main argument was to capture traffic going to Epsom racecourse, but the chairman might have found it convenient to have a train station near his residence – do I hear anyone comment on a potential conflict of interest ?

The grounds were sold off in large plots and the houses around the former mansion are now large villas in large gardens with many mature trees and good fences. The houses you see from the road do not look like much effort was spent on interesting architecture.

The mansion itself was later used by the BBC and has been converted in 2011 to luxury apartments. The feeling in this suburb is -to quote french poet Beaudelaire- “luxe, calme et volupté” (translated as “luxury, peace and pleasure”), not to be confused with ostentatious pretentiousness. One of my pictures shows the former gate for the mansion grounds on the road called “The Warren”.

Warren Drive later turns L

At the end R Woodland Way

L across the tracks

KINGSWOOD