WWW.LONDONXLONDON.COM 22 BRILLIANT WALKS TO HELP YOU EXPLORE WALKS YOU EXPLORE TO HELP BRILLIANT 22 LONDON IN LKS WA BEST London xLondon Guide BY BARNABY JULIANNA LONDON LONDON X LONDON

2 LONDON LONDON X LONDON IT'S TIME TO EXPLORE LONDON

Larger than life in so many senses of the word, London is an incredible place to explore.

Keen to get outside, stretch your legs and discover? Aren’t we all.

London might not seem like a walker’s paradise at first glance but - perhaps unsurprisingly given it has so many trees and green spaces that it falls within the UN definition of a forest - it is brimming with places for you to discover on foot.

I’ve always loved : exploring the Julianna Barnaby city’s verdant nooks is one of my favourite pastimes. [email protected] instagram.com/thediscoveriesof Looking for the best walks in London? I’ve got you pinterest.com/londonxlondon covered.

3 LONDON LONDON X LONDON BEST WALKS IN CENTRAL LONDON

Like any trip, planning your travels to London starts with a series of questions: when should you go, where should you stay, what do you want to do...

Southbank London Wall Walk, If there’s a central London walk beloved by most Londoners, it’s the Walk. The City As the name suggests, the walk takes you along Take a turn along the remains of London’s old the ’ south bank, thrusting you city wall. Started by the Romans, the wall was into the hub of cultural London. maintained right up to the 18th century. Officially known as The Queen’s Walk, the Today, it forms the backbone of one of the full path runs from to Lambeth most interesting city walks in London. You can Bridge. still see sections of the wall, many dating from different periods and echoing the length of Along the way you peek at , The London’s history. Globe, The Millennium Bridge, The , National Theatre, BFI Southbank, Southbank Established by the Museum of London in the Centre and much, much more besides. 1980s, the walk starts at the Tower of London and finishes at the Museum of London, ferreting Jaunt through brutalist architecture, historical into the London of times past as you follow in attractions and some blessedly good street food its steps. - all in sight of the glittering Thames. Getting There: Tower Gateway / St Paul’s Getting There: London Bridge / Lambeth North Distance: 2.8km / 1.7 miles Distance: 3.2km / 2 miles Suggested Map Suggested Map

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improbably lush and verdant centre of London Diana Princess of Wales at its very best. Aside from that, the walk also takes you past Memorial Walk many other places connected to the princess: As the name would suggest, this seven-mile walk Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace, was created to commemorate Diana Princess of Clarence House, St James’s Palace and Spencer Wales. House - it’s a look at London’s regal legacy from a different point of view. The royal connection becomes clear as you chart the walk’s path - winding through four royal Getting There: Various parks it is a snapshot of the green London the Distance: 11.2 km / 7 miles princess loved so much. Suggested Map Those parks, St James’s Park, , Hyde Park and showcase the

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BEST WALKS IN SOUTH LONDON Leafy South London boasts a wealth of trails taking you through the area's hidden gems. Expect the unexpected.

Crystal Palace Park to The , Cemetery to

The long distance Green Chain Walk consists Another longer walk that can be completed in of 11 sections - starting in Thamesmead and the course of a long day, The Wandle Trail is a heading southwards (really southward) to 14 mile hike from Wandsworth to Croydon in . London’s suburbs. To do all of the walk would take you at least four Following in the wake of the (in to five solid days but if you only do one part of its heyday, the Wandle sported 90+ mills along it, this section is it. its banks), it offers the chance to see a part of London that is often overlooked - from Starting at my long-time favourite Crystal Abbey Mills to the eel-laden Bell Lane Creek. Palace Park (the dinosaurs in the world’s first dinosaur park may be anatomically incorrect All accompanied by a host of bird-watching and but it’s a quaint spot in a pretty green space), wildlife spotting opportunities along its course. dip into Park, One Tree Hill and Getting There: East Croydon / Wandsworth the gardens of the Horniman Museum before Town moving onto Nunhead Cemetery. Distance: 20km / 14 miles The cemetery is one of the city’s “great seven” (the others include and Brompton) Suggested Map yet the least visited of them all - it makes for a surprisingly atmospheric end to the walk. Getting There: Crystal Palace / Nunhead Distance: 8.7km / 5.4 miles Suggested Map

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section of the . , Home to more than 200 species of trees and plants, it’s also blessed with a variety of animals, Croydon fungi and birds and is a great place for a walk. The formalised walk takes you from Sydenham Hill Station through the woods to the gardens of the Horniman Museum to Park. Henceforth known as the trail that kept me sane Getting There: Sydenham Hill during lockdown, the Vanguard Way is a long- distance trail starting in Croydon and leading to Distance: 6.6 km / 4.1 miles Newhaven on the Sussex Coast. Suggested Map You can tackle the whole length of the trail in the course of four to five days. I have and it’s beautiful, apart from a rather lacklustre ending. Don't fancy that? The first day’s section, out to Chelsham Common is easily done in half a day. Want to carry on? You can tackle the second section to Limpsfield The Line, Greenwich Chart on the same day if you start early enough. Getting There: East Croydon & Stratford Distance: 11km / 6.9 miles Suggested Map London’s first contemporary art walk flew under the radar for a long time, but Londoners are slowly waking up to its peculiar charms. Running three miles from the O2 in Greenwich (am I the only one who still thinks of this as the Millennium Dome) to the Queen Elizabeth , Olympic Park in Stratford, it was launched in 2015 with pieces from a range of visual artists. Sydenham Some, like Damien Hirst and Antony Gormley, you’ll know, others less so. Well-known or not, each artist has created Prior to Crystal Palace being named Crystal a work that draws on and complements its Palace after the giant Victorian construction, surroundings. the area was just a part of Sydenham Hill - and Getting There: North Greenwich and Stratford that in turn was a part of the Great North Wood that covered much of South London. Distance: 6.9km / 4.2 miles with two stops on the DLR and a flight on the Emirates Air Line Today, the Sydenham Hill Woods are a chance to see a part of that forest as it was. Suggested Map The 11 hectares of land are the largest remaining

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8 LONDON X LONDON LONDON EAST LONDON WA LK S Epping & Theydon Country Walk,

Short enough that you can do it in the course I’ll freely admit that I’ve never quite managed of a (long) day, the London stretch of the Lea to do this walk without getting just the tiniest Valley Walk is a 15.6 mile stroll along the Lee bit lost along the way, but a) that’s part of the Navigation Towpath from Waltham Abbey to appeal and b) you’re probably slightly better at Limehouse Basin. not gabbing with your mate and following the signs than me. Mostly rural, this is a London of marshlands and green spaces, punctuated by flashes of uber- The six-miler treads its way through names modern architecture - most notably at Canary most familiar as being on the outer stretches of Wharf. the Central Line - Epping and Theydon. TfL have designated it as one of the Mayor’s Archaeological finds date Epping’s earliest Strategic Walks in London and have maps and inhabitation as 7500 BC - parts of the walk feel information on each of the walk’s six sections like very little has changed in the intervening (linked below). period. Hornbeams overhead, leaf mulch underfoot, and stretches of ancient woodland. Getting There: Waltham Cross / East India Getting There: Epping Distance: 25.10km / 15.6 miles Distance: 6 miles Suggested Map Suggested Map

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Regent’s Canal, Little Art in the Park Trail, Venice to Limehouse Stratford

Regent’s Canal used to be something of a With all the kerfuffle about the Olympics, hidden treasure, but those days have gone. you might have missed the notice that Queen That doesn’t mean that walking the canal’s Elizabeth Olympic Park has actually become an 8 mile towpath is no longer a delight: it is - integrated part of many Londoners’ lives. Few, you just have to share the experience with a however, know about the Art in the Park Trail, few more people. conceived as part of the park’s development to help viewers appreciate and experience art as Starting in quaint Little Venice and moving part of a landscape. on to eclectic Camden before zigzagging its way through East London to the Thames, The trail leads you past Living Walls - a collection Regent’s Canal is just about to celebrate its of urban street art murals including pieces by 200th birthday. well-known artist David Shillinglaw - beyond steel structures submerged into the river, You can only imagine the scale of the change past poems and other large-scale artworks… that’s happened as the canal has quietly including the (in)famous ArcelorMittal Orbit. forged its course through the city. It’s a much shorter and more compact trail than These days you’re much more likely to find The Line (see entry in South London above) - museums of curiosities and hipster cafes though you can combine the two for an epic day than you are working barges ferrying goods exploring east London’s public art. into town. Getting There: / Stratford Getting There: Warwick Avenue / Limehouse Distance: 4.8km / 3 miles Distance: 13.8km / 8.6 miles Suggested Map Suggested Map

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Hampstead Heath Alexandra Park Walk, Circular, Hampstead

The sprawling 800-acre green of Hampstead Short but sweet, this walk is Heath makes a wonderful setting for this one to do when you want maximum views with circular walk. As the destination where the minimum effort. monks of Westminster came to escape the Black The walk starts at Alexandra Palace Station Death so many centuries ago, it feels particularly before delivering into the Victorian landscaping poignant right now. of the park itself. Large enough that you really do feel like you’ve Framed by Alexandra Palace above and looking escaped the city, this really is one of the best out to some stellar panoramic views of London walks in London. The heath comes withstunning below, you can spend much longer exploring views courtesy of Parliament Hill, a historical the park’s environs than the mile-long distance manor () and skirts past those would suggest. much-talked about ponds. Keen to make it longer? Simply continue on to Along the way, pop into the delights of Pergola the (below) from its Alexandra and Hill Garden (one of the contenders for the Park entrance. prettiest gardens in London) - covered in plants and vines it’s still something of a hidden gem. Getting There: Alexandra Palace Getting There: Gospel Oak Distance: 2km / 1 mile Distance: 9.7km / 6 miles Suggested Map Suggested Map

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Hampstead Hill Pergola

Parkland Walk, Park

Following the course of an old railway line between and Alexandra Palace, this four and a half mile trail is one of the nicest walks in North London. Cutting a swathe through the surrounding urban area, it’s a slice of countryside in the city - one brimming with a variety of habitats and wildlife you wouldn’t think to find in London. Keep your eyes open and you’ll spot birds, bats, even the odd Muntjac deer. Getting There: Finsbury Park or Alexandra Palace Distance: 5.5km / 3 miles Suggested Map

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Tamsin Trail, framed view to central London. Legend has it it’s the very spot Henry VIII awaited a signal to confirm that Anne Boleyn had been executed at the Tower. True or no - it’s a classic London viewpoint. It’s worth diverting off the trail to dip into the outrageously pretty Isabella Plantation - 40 I hate to play favourites but Richmond Park acres of woodland in the centre of the park that really is one of my go-to escapes in London. puts on a blooming azalea display each April The Tamsin Trail is a good starting point and May (yes, that’s right - now). for exploring the park as it circles the park’s periphery. Getting There: Chiswick Station Might sound a bit pedestrian, but trust me Distance: 12 km / 7.35 miles when I say it’s a wonderful walk that allows you Suggested Map to glimpse different parts of the park without getting lost. If the deer don’t provide quite enough excitement, King Henry’s Mound offers a

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Chiswick Riverside , Wimbledon Walk

Meandering along both sides of the River Strewn with Rhododendrons, walled gardens Thames, this walk takes you through Chiswick, and not a tennis racquet in sight, this walk Barnes and Hammersmith, passing historical through Wimbledon Common and Cannizaro homes and gardens along the way. Park is one of the closest things you will get to a rural walk in London. Start at Chiswick Station - your first stop is the 18th-century - one of the finest Move away from Wimbledon’s lacklustre town Palladian buildings still standing in the UK and centre. surrounded by superb gardens that are thought This walk is all about muddy bridleway paths to be the earliest landscaped gardens in the (wear boots if it’s been raining), darting over country. fairways and pleasant picnic spots. You could spend a whole day mooching around There’s even an unusual turn from an 18th- Chiswick House alone, but the walk continues century manor turned luxury hotel in the shape on, past Hogarth House, Hammersmith Terrace of Cannizaro House. and Kelmscott House - home to textile designer William Morris for almost 20 years. The house was historically frequented by Alfred Lord Tennyson, Oscar Wilde and the Last Peek at the wildlife in the Leg of Mutton Maharajah of the Punjab. Reservoir and walk through Mortlake back to Chiswick Bridge and the station. Getting There: Wimbledon Getting There: Chiswick Station Distance: 6km / 4 miles Distance: 11.5km / 7miles Suggested Map Suggested Map

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16 LONDON LONDON X LONDON LONG WA LKS IN LONDON

The Jubilee Greenway Walk

You’d do well to tackle the Long-distance walks in London Capital Ring Walk, in anything The best-known long-distance tend to either skirt around the less than 5 days. This 70 mile walk in London, The Thames city’s outskirts or head out walk encircles a loop of London Path takes you from a little into the countryside. Not so - not in the centre, not on the beyond the magnificent with the , outskirts, rather somewhere in Thames Barrier in the east to which charts a 37 mile path the middle, passing through Hampton Court in the West from Buckingham Palace to nature reserves and grand (it goes on much farther than Limehouse Basin. estates along the way. that but we’re sticking to the The walk was created in 2012 London section). You can It’s a walk of quiet pleasure to commemorate the Queen’s choose to follow the north bank - dipping in and out of areas Diamond Jubilee and the or the south bank walk - both you’ve heard of but may never Olympics and, as such, stops by offer a different viewpoint on have visited. a number of royal attractions the city. and Olympic sites on its route. Walk it for the opportunity Either way, expect to see to see some of London’s less- Buckingham Palace is an eclectic architecture, famous talked-about treasures: from obvious royal connection, but bridges and even some quieter the grandiose Eltham Palace, Kensington Palace and Regent’s more rural sections on the you dip into the remaining Park get a look in there, as does outer fringes of the city. parts of the Great North Wood the Olympic Park as a nod to and see one of the magnificent Getting There: Hampton the path’s dual heritage. seven, Cemetery Court / Slade Green It’s a long one - best tackled too. Distance: 128km / 79.5 miles over a series of day walks. Getting There: Various Luckily, TfL have helped you Suggested Map do just that by breaking it Distance: 126km / 70 miles down into 10 sections with Suggested Map suggested transport for each. Getting There: Various Distance: 60km / 37 miles Suggested Map

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London Walking Map

Click here for a map of the walks featured in this guide.

Looking for more Outdoor London Tips and Guides? Read These…

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I’m Julianna Barnaby - a born-and-bred Londoner, professional travel writer and geek extraordinaire. I started London x London to help you to discover the best of London as well as cool spots further afield. Discovering new places is a thrill - whether it’s a chic cocktail spot, cool landmark or a whole different country, I write to help you explore more. I create quality guides and tips that people can actually use to help plan what they want to do with their time - both in London and when they’re away. As a result, London x London now boasts a readership of over 50k monthly read- ers - a number that continues to grow rapidly. I’ve always been obsessed with travelling and writing. I read English Language & Literature at Oxford University and started freelance travel writing while I was there - a career that I continued post-graduation as I travelled and wrote about the big bad globe. When I returned to London, I decided it was time to get a “proper” job and re- trained as a lawyer to work in the City. I qualified as a corporate tax lawyer – something my friends still find hard to believe. Several years and grey hairs later, I left. And so, London x London was born. A London blog for smart cookies (that’s you) who like to do cool things in awesome places. The End.

Awards WINNER Best Photojournalism Award – Caribbean Tourism Organisation Awards 2018 FINALIST Best Travel Blog – UK Blog Awards (2019) Lonely Planet Travel Blog of the Year – Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards (2018) Best Travel Blog – Travel Media Awards (2018) Lonely Planet Travel Blog of the Year – Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards (2017)

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