London Trip #17: Part 6 London Loop Segment 11

This is part 6 of a series. 

 

It was now Thursday, our 7th full day in London.  The London Loop is divided into much longer sections than the Capital Ring, and we often undertake a Loop segment over two days.  This allows time to enjoy the journey more, rather than hurry along just to get the mileage done.  I ended up doing the first part of this walk by myself, as Deb was still feeling a bit wonky.  She elected to remain in Croydon for the day.  I left East Croydon on the 9:40 Thameslink service, switching at Blackfriars.  A few minutes later along came my second train, on its way to Luton.  My stop was earlier at Elstree and Borenwood, where I had left off last May.  At that time I had explored the town a bit, but today it was all business, setting out on my walk at 10:50.

 

The full segment is 10 1/2 miles and at first I thought I might have a chance at getting the whole thing done in one go.  That was before I knew how many giant hills there were to climb on this route.  I ended up doing 7.8 miles and saving the remaining bit for another day.  As soon as I left the station the first of several uphill grinds began, this one on a busy street.  There ended up being seven pretty hefty climbs today!  I thought I was in New Mexico for a time.  Had Deb come along today she would not have been impressed.  On my entire segment today there was only one chance at a stopover, a park cafe.  I looked forward to that cafe a lot en route, but when I arrived it was shuttered and looked as if it had been closed for years.  Sigh.  Onward and upward.  Another sad part of this hike (just after the cafe fiasco) involves walking on a sidewalk along a four lane expressway.  There is no safe place to cross, and there is a barrier between traffic directions.  A long detour is needed just to get across the road where the next park awaited.  More than half a mile down to the nearest underpass, then turn around and go almost half a mile back to the park entrance.

 

The best parts today were when I was immersed in deep woods.  I only saw two other people on the entire walk when away from sidewalks and streets.  It was a great time and I really got into the mood during this walk.  The only thing missing was a bit of dampness; the drought had robbed the woods of most of their best scents.  A small deer leaped out right in front of me along a narrow part of the trail, startling me as I must have startled her. 

 

There is a walking tour within Elstree tracing its claim to film and TV fame.  This large sign was just outside the train station. 

 

The walk begins with a very long walk uphill along a busy street.  Elstree and its station are down there somewhere. 

 

When the trail finally leaves the road behind it drops down into Scratchwood Open Space. 

 

The long and winding road. 

 

It's rare to see so many pine needles.  A small part of the forest had been planted with pine years ago.  

 

One of many interesting things to see along the trail today. 

 

 I like collecting photos of signs of all the parks we have been through on these walking adventures within London.  See the detail below.

 

This is the part of the walk on the opposite side of the expressway.  Follow the dotted line.  That's me!

At the one o'clock position I turned off the main path and headed north to High Barnet Station.

  

This was my second park of the day, across the road from Scratchwood.  The pines were in here. 

 

Part of my day in the woods, while still being within London. 

 

It was as much fun walking here as it looks.  Except for all the hills. 

 

It was just up ahead where the deer leaped out, coming from the right and heading left.
 

After the woods came the fields. 

 

Life along the London Loop.  

 

The path is kept mowed.  It was so dry. 

  

The 2nd half of today's ramble was alongside the Dollis Brook.  For the most part it was dry, but a few springs along the way kept some water in it.  A lot of birds were in the area as a result. 

 

Finally, near the very end of the segment the brook ran with a bit of a flow. 

 

By 2 pm I was in High Barnet happily ensconced in the Queen's Arms, a basic pub with no food. It did have London Pride, though, so I will offer praise where warranted.  The pub was uphill from the end of the walk, and the train station was uphill from the pub, some distance away.  So by the time I boarded the tube at High Barnet (the end of the line, literally) I was pretty much done in.  I rode the train all the way to Kentish Town, where I would catch my train back to East Croydon.  I left the station to explore, as it was now coffee time.  I came across the Parakeet, a fine little establishment on the High Street just steps from the station.  I had coffee, Camden Pale Ale and a refreshing and filling order of Houmous and Crudite.  By the time I left I was almost like new and ready for the journey back to Croydon.

 

The first part of my Loop segment involved roads at first and a giant hill before dropping into the woods.  The far right trail shows me arriving at a closed and run down former park cafe. 

 

This shows my route from the defunct cafe.  To cross the road and get to the next park I had to take a long detour on both sides of a busy expressway.  After exiting the woods note how the field crossings begin. 

  

More fields to cross with nary a place to stop and whet my whistle. 

 

The final leg of my solo walk allowed me to follow the Dollis Brook, though it was mostly dry.

 I reached the hotel by 4:30 pm, ready for action.  I collected Deb and we headed for the Green Dragon, where we entertained ourselves with Snail's Back Mango Cider and Brentwood Brewery's Marvelous Maple Mild (not much maple taste).  We watched a bit of "the football" on the screen above the bar.

 

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I will give the 2nd part of the Loop Segment 11 here, though it didn't take place until the following Monday.  Today I had my walking partner back, with only a short segment left to complete.  However, as it began with yet another uphill climb, I am glad I waited to continue on rather than try to tackle the entire segment in one go.

 

We caught the 9:45 Thameslink Service to Farringdon, waited a few minutes for the train to Kentish Town (same platform), then resumed our journey on the Northern Line Tube all the way to High Barnet.  The walk lasted from 11 am until 12:50, and we covered 4 miles (thus the 11th segment was actually more than a mile longer than advertised in the guidebook).  Though it began with a downhill street element, we were soon chugging back up a large hill in the woods.  This one at least provided a nice overview back towards central London, many miles south of us.  We ended up in Monken Hadley, with its large common and wood.  Monken Hadley was once a separate village and nearly every house and building has historical significance.  We took our time here, stopping to visit another fine church and cemetery.

 

The walk concludes at Cockfosters Station, the final stop on the very long Piccadilly Line .  We usually start and end our London journeys at the opposite end of this line, Heathrow Airport.  The trains we catch into London from here always say "Cockfosters" on the front.  We finally made it to the end!  Appropriately there is a very fine pub just before the station called The Cock Tavern.  It was now officially refreshment time before heading back towards central London for the afternoon.  For the latter portion of what we did that Monday, see part 9 of this blog.  If you are a lover of ale you won't want to miss it.

 

At least our first big hill climb of the day had a suitable reward.  It even had a bench!  

London from High Barnet. 

 

Our old Loop guide keeps things to 15 segments, but subsequent ones now have many more segments.

Their section 16 was our section 11. 

  

Monken Hadley remains an exclusive neighbourhood.  This was once the manor house.

 

Livingston Cottage, where the famous explorer lived after his notable African journey. 

 

Once Sir Roger Wilbraham's Almhouses, these six cottages likely have different dwellers today. 

 

St Mary The Virgin, Monken Hadley. 

 

St. Mary. 

 

The churchyard. 

 

Church house next door to St. Mary The Virgin Church. 

 

We walked the dotted line plus the red line attached to it from the left and right. 

 

Mossy rock, a tiny world unto itself. 

 

With the walk now over it was time to claim our reward.  We split a pint of exceptionally well kept Timothy Taylor Landlord ale. 

 

Cockfosters Station, one of the more dismal ones.  This sits at the northwest end of the Piccadilly Line.  Our next Loop segment will bring us back here someday.

 

Deb and I completed Loop segment 11 together, beginning at High Barnet and ending at Cockfosters.
 

 The final part of Loop segment 11.  More to come some day.

 

Next up are two day trips outside of London.  In part 7 I will talk about our trip to Eynsford and in part 8 we finally get to Lewes and the film festival.  Check back soon.  I'm trying to hurry and finish this series.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

London 2026: Part 4: London Loop Part 10

This is part 4 of a series.

This walk is along the second long distance trail within the boundaries of London, sticking to the far outer areas within Zone 6.  It is 150 miles long, thus the segments are longer then those of the Capital Ring.  This London Loop walk was 11 1/2 miles but we spread it over three days.  The first day we walked 7 miles, the second was 3.1 miles.  Deb was not feeling up to the walk for Part 3 so I walked the final part solo, 4 1/2 miles.  The walk begins at Moor Park Station and ends at Elstree and Borehamwood Station.  Newer versions of the Loop guides shorten some of the segments, but we use an older book and try to keep to the original 15 long segments.

 

The day began with a comedy of errors.  We messed up two of our trains so we ended up starting the walk about 75 minutes later than we should have.  At East Croydon we jumped on a train as the doors were closing.  I thought we had gone down the ramp to Platform 1, so any train we jumped on would have been fine.  Alas, we had tramped downhill to Platform 3 by mistake, so the train we jumped on was going in the opposite direction.  We got on just as the doors closed.  We sat down and heard over the speaker that we were merrily on our way to Gatwick Airport instead of Victoria Station.  It's only a 17 minute ride, but we had no ticket for this mistaken journey.  We got off at Gatwick, crossed the platform and caught the train back to East Croydon and beyond, again with no ticket.  Once back at East Croydon we were fine.  Luckily no conductor asked for a ticket.  So we lost about 35 minutes there.

 

Later in the morning we had to take the Metropolitan Line from Harrow on the Hill Station.  We did, even going in the right direction.  However, the train tracks split one station later, each ending at different destinations.  Our bad luck held and we got on the wrong train.  Noticing the mistake about three stations later, we got off, crossed the platform and headed back to Harrow on the Hill.  We waited for the correct train there, finally arriving at Moor Park Station.  We had spent the entire morning on trains, instead of half a morning.

 

In the old Loop guidebook this is the first part of Section 10.  This sign was outside Moor Park Station. As it turned out this is how much we walked today, ending at Hatch End. But their mileage way short of the truth.

 

Our walk today through outer London. Click on the map for a larger version.

 

The walk began in a wood then onto a golf course and we had to cross open fairways to reach the woods.  Oxley Woods is yet another major deep suburban park that goes on and on.  The walk was about as far from urban as one can find within the boundary of London and we enjoyed it immensely.  Here are a few photos of our walk.

 

It was still very windy and warm, so being in the forest away from the wind and sun felt good.

  

Redhead and bluebells. Oxley Wood.

 

We saw many amazing trees today, including one or two Ents. 

 

 

Early 18th C. Pinnerwood House and its pond. 

A Victorian farmhouse at Pinnerwood Farm.

 

A view back towards Harrow on the Hill.

 

Ah yes.  Grazing horses in a field.  Within London.

 

 We were usually alone on much of this walk. 

 

Hatch End Station was a welcome sight at the end of today's walk, part 1 of 3.  But before that came The Moon and Sixpence Pub, close by the station. 

 

After the walk we were pretty tired, having had four rather strenuous days in a row. A Wetherspoons pub near Hatch End Station revived us for the journey home.  We enjoyed Hobgoblin Gold from Wychwood Brewing (on cask, of course), an above average ale, and a very fine glass of Plum Porter from Titanic.  We also discovered Maude Valerie White, a Victorian female songwriter; Barry Cryer, a comedian and comic writer (remind to tell you one of his jokes next time we meet); and Sir Ambrose Heal, who started a successful arts and crafts furniture company.  The pub celebrated all three who were local to the area at one time.

 

We had to transfer trains at Clapham Junction, but we stayed in the area and visited two other pubs (at 5 pm!), just outside one of the busiest train stations in England.  The Falcon was an old fashioned beauty, while The London and Southwestern was a Wethies.  The Harvey's Best Bitter at the Falcon was top knotch, while the other pub featured an ale from Oakham, one of our favourite breweries.

 

 Near Clapham Junction Station at 5 pm.

 

View of a beautiful old building across from the Wethies pub.

 

The London Southwestern had 10 ales on handpull. 

 

The next day was a serious pub crawl in Fleet Street, but I will deal with that in the next blog entry.  Part 2 of this Loop segment was two days later.  We began at Hatch End Station and walked just over 3 miles to Stanmore Street, where we caught the 142 bus to Stanmore Station from Priory Hill bus stop.  This was the hottest day, near 80 F so we called an early halt.  There were no cafes or pubs at the tube station, so we boarded a train and Deb did her phone search toward upcoming stations.  We got off at Kingsbury Station and walked the short distance to J J Moon, another Wethies pub.  We shared three half pints that included Red Kite by Vale Brewery (not too shabby), Chestnut Bitter, delicious, and Black Beauty Porter, also by Vale.  Yum!  Closer to home and just outside East Croydon Station we stopped at the Porter and Sorter for Wainright Gold, downright drinkable after a long day and a long ride on a series of trains.

 

Our second segment of Loop 10 crossed a lot of fields, through woods and around another golf course.  Because of the heat we finished early today, catching a bus at a road we had to cross and headed towards home, but slowly.  After all, there were unvisited pubs between us and home.

 

 

Another distant relative of the Ent family of trees.

 

Shrubs and trees everywhere were exploding in colourful flowers. 

 

See above.

 

Ent toes.

 

One of many parks crossed by Loop Segment 10.
 

Look how far we are from central London!  We are gradually making a giant circle around the city, but staying within the boundaries of London itself. 

  

Two days later I finished the walk by myself.  Deb had started out with me but at London Bridge Station decided she was not up to a long walk today.  It was the only day she was unable to keep pace with me, likely needing a rest day.  I resumed the walk where we had left off, at Priory Hill bus stop, crossing field and stream before stopping for lunch at Bhageecha Restaturant.  Once a pub, the place has been given a very expensive makeover and now serves first rate Indian food.  There were a lot of vegan options and I chose a yellow dahl that was quite divine.  A highly recommended stop  for Loop walkers, as the trail passes its front door.  They have some draft and bottled beer.

 

My solo walk from Priory Hill to Elstree and Borehamwood Station.  It was 4 1/2 miles. 

 

Horses are very popular in outer London. 

 

I crossed a field filled with buttercups.

 

After lunch I visited Aldenham Reservoir and Dam. 

The village of Elstree is now part of Greater London, but it still looks and feels like a village.

 

A dead tree covered in flowering vines. 

 

The finest tree of my walk today, and one of the finest I have ever seen.

 

How rural can a big city get?   Nearing the end of my walk, approaching Elstree and Borehamwood Station.  I made a brief stop at the Wellington Pub nearby, drinking half a pint of Old Speckled Hen, the only ale on handpull here.  Oh well, can't win them all. 

 

I was back at the hotel in time for coffee, so I picked up Deb and we went to the George.  We had coffee and shared a half of Orkney Brewery's delicious and recommended ale called Red McGregor Ruby Red.  We followed this up with a visit to our favourite pub in the world, The Green Dragon.  We enjoyed a perfect glass of Mad Squirrel's London Porter, following that up with a draft ale, the unbelievably delicious Viennese Swirl, also from Mad Squirrel, a chocolate vanilla porter that weighed in at 8 % (very heavy for London).  We heard that the pub would be closing for a change in management and a spring cleaning.  We are quite worried, frankly.  We hope it will still be there when we return.

 

On the way home Deb spotted Art and Craft, a tap house for microbrews.  They have an original Banksy on the wall, in addition to some fine brews.  Today we had London Black Nitro Porter fromd Anspach and Hobday brewery, and it was very special indeed!  We finished the day's rounds with New Bristol's Bristol Cider, which was truly delicious.  What an area to have for one's hotel location! 

 

The Green Dragon, Croydon. I called my Mom in Sudbury from here thanks to the phone deal Deb got us on arrival day.

 

Green Dragon beverages.  Yum!!!

 

Tap list at Art and Craft, Croydon, just a few yards from the Green Dragon.

 

to be continued...