There has been something of a hiatus but a few weeks ago we continued on the next section. Previously we had reached Richmond Park, and we did a reverse walk of the next section, from Boston Manor. This far west part of London has always seemed to me to be neglected and rather barren, traversed by major roads and approaching the sprawling hinterland of Heathrow.
However, it turned out to be an extremely pleasant walk, on a bright, almost summerlike day, with fluffy white clouds and the good companionship of Laura, Tony and Gail. It's rather a long trek out on the Piccadilly line, but you immediately plunge into woodland, awash with spring flowers and bird song and with trees just about to burst into full leaf.
Then we are out on the Grand Union canal, partly a reworking of the Brent river, partly a new cut, a wide expanse of water with well wooded embankments, a little linear oasis that takes us under the big roads and past big office blocks and seems to insulate us from all that outer suburban tat. We followed the canal almost to where it joins the Thames; and then to Syon Park, which sits on the bank of the river. The ancestral home of the proud and often rebellious Percy family, Dukes of Northumberland, the house is a foursquare no-nonsense castellated blockhouse with extensive well maintained grounds. One of the largest houses still in private hands (they have been here since 1594), they seem to be making the most of their assets, with a huge garden centre, shops and restaurants, all busy on this beautiful spring day. There is also a very early and spectacular conservatory there predating Crystal Palace.
Passing through the grounds we reach the Thames side at Isleworth, which has a surprisingly attractive, villagey centre, including a spectacular pub, the London Apprentice, where the indentured student tradesmen would row their masters from the City of London to celebrate the end of their training.
We continued along the towpath until the bridges of Richmond came into sight, crossing the elaborate pedestrian footbridge at Richmond Lock, on into the town centre, where every space along the river seems crowded with sunbathers and lunchtime drinkers. We made our way to Richmond Green, and had a well earned pint and empanadas as we soaked up the sun. What a comfortable town Richmond is.
The week before, Ian and I had taken two lovely and very determined ladies, Hilda and Frances, to lunch at Pemboke Lodge in Richmond Park, and we had a tour of the park, so have completed the missing link of the Capital Ring.
A couple of weeks before that, we also walked the first four miles of the Ring 'widdershins', starting from our original setting off point at Finsbury Park, towards Hampstead. This section we have of course walked many times before. It takes you along the excellent Parkland Walk, another heavily wooded gem, on the line of an old railway line that once took ouners up the hill to Alexandra Palace. We often walk up here to the Heath, which you can do with hardly a road to be crossed. But this time, with very convivial companions, Paul and Julie, and Gabi and Jeremy, we followed the Capital Ring route past Highgate Station, through Queen's Wood and Highgate Wood, very pleasant but with some extreme changes of level, that saw us stretched out over quite some distance as our different paces kicked in. Then to Cherry Tree Wood, more muncipal, but complete with fully blossoming cherry trees at this time of the year. Thence a quick stop for coffee in East Finchley (I always remember my geography teacher saying that the glaciers of the Ice Age stopped at East Finchley underground station - which must have played havoc with commuters on the HIgh Barnet brach of the Northern Line!) and on into the byways of Hampstead Garden Suburb. This evocation of the theories of Ebenezer Howard, built between the world wars, now has a slightly sterile feel to it. Beautiful 'cottage vernacular' houses, of course, with perfectly maintained gardens, but no sign of life. They were built for ordinary people, who would have vegetables and chickens growing in the yard and lots of children skipping and hopscotching in the street, but are now colonised by Range Rover man. Not a shop to be seen for miles. We passed along a pleasant linear park following a stream, very close to the A1 yet surprisingly calm, and then turned off the Ring's route, through yet another remnant of the Middlesex Forest, Big Wood, towards the suburb's heart. In Central Square, flanked by two churches and a community centre, there is an almost abandoned air. Where are all the people?
Anyway, we continued on through the extension to Hampstead Heath, not a very well known part of the heath but just as good, with old farm buildings used by the maintenance department and deep woods in the old sand pits. We finished up at the 16th C Spaniards Inn, once a haunt of highwaymen (and Keats) and had a restful time in the gardens there.
