London Loop section 9 page 1 LONDON LOOP Section 9 of 24 Kingston Bridge to Hatton Cross Section start: Kingston Bridge Nearest station to start: Kingston (Rail) Section finish: Hatton Cross Nearest station to finish: Hatton Cross (Piccadilly Line) Section distance 9.6 miles plus 0.4 miles of station links Total = 10.0 miles (16.0 km) Introduction This section of the Loop features easy walking with some extensive green stretches on entirely level ground, mostly on grass and rough footpaths. There is one stile which is easily by-passed through a large gap. Points of interest on this section are Bushy Park, the Diana Fountain, Waterhouse Woodland Gardens, Crane Park, the Shot Tower and Hounslow Heath. There are cafés and pubs along the route in Kingston, coffee stalls in Bushy Park and a café in Waterside Gardens. There are neighbourhood shops at the junction of Powder Mill Lane, as well as a Sainsbury’s supermarket and a Starbucks at Hampton. There are toilets near the Diana Fountain in Bushy Park, in the Waterhouse Woodland Gardens and at the Sainsbury’s in Hampton. You can shorten the route by taking a bus at Hampton Road or, a little later, a train from Fullwell station. A bus from Staines Road in Hampton takes you to Twickenham Station. This version by members of the Ramblers for Transport for London In this format: text © Ramblers 2021, maps © OpenStreetMap Downloaded from: https://innerlondonramblers.org.uk/loop Published: May 2021 London Loop section 9 page 2 Did you know? Walking directions Probably three, and If you are starting from Kingston station, on leaving the station use the possibly as many as pedestrian crossing immediately in front of you and continue ahead down eight, Saxon kings were Fife Road. Follow the road at the end as it bends left into a pedestrianised crowned on the site of All Saints Church, section. Take this to the end and turn right. Continue ahead along the left including Athelstan, the side of Clarence Street to Kingston Bridge passing All Saints Church on first King of the English, the left. in 925 CE. Did you know? Cross over Kingston Bridge, then continue on the pavement as it bears left, There is a large store passing a roundabout with the White Hart Hotel on the right. Just after the just before Kingston World War II memorial, cross Hampton Court Road via the pedestrian Bridge. When it was crossing and then turn left. (Alternatively use the light-controlled crossing built, 12th and 14th Century remains were to just beyond Church Grove and then turn right.). found. These can be seen in the building's Turn into Church Grove. Continue up the road to the Victorian St. John the undercroft through large Baptist church on the right and cross at the zebra crossing. Opposite the windows by the church is a small wrought iron gate (known as Church Grove Gate) in the riverside path. brick wall. Go through the gate to enter the impressive horse chestnut Did you know? avenue of Bushy Park. Keep ahead then go through the big gate at the end Bushy Park is the second largest of the of the track to enter a large expanse of open space. An information board Royal Parks. Henry VIII about skylarks, whose nesting field you are about to cross, is on the left. originally stocked Bushy Park with deer and it Continue a short way along the gravel path then go right to the corner of became an important the fenced-off cricket ground where there is a Loop waymark. Royal hunting ground in Tudor times. This version by members of the Ramblers for Transport for London In this format: text © Ramblers 2021, maps © OpenStreetMap Downloaded from: https://innerlondonramblers.org.uk/loop Published: May 2021 London Loop section 9 page 3 Take the right hand path of the two that go across the field used by ground Did you know? The mile-long Chestnut nesting skylarks, aiming towards a dead tree just before the right-hand Avenue was conceived edge of the Oval Plantation, passing another Loop waymark. by Sir Christopher Wren. The Diana Go over several crossing tracks and keep ahead through the bracken ferns Fountain is a bronze aiming to skirt around the right-hand edge of the plantation following the statue of the goddess on a marble and stone path as it bends left passing a waymark. Then go right over a bridge and fountain, surrounded by turn left at another waymark, keeping the watercourse (part of the Longford bronzes of boys, water River) on your left to reach Heron Pond. At the pond, pass a waymark and nymphs and shells. It walk to the right of the pond following the path. stands in a basin at the junction of Chestnut and Lime Avenues. To Keep close to the edge of the pond on your left as the path crosses a short visit the Diana Fountain, boardwalk then heads rightwards. (If this section of path is very muddy, turn left and walk along remain on the gravel path as it bears right just before the boardwalk and Chestnut Avenue. There follow it round to the left where it meets the criss-crossed bridge. Turn are toilets beyond the Fountain to the left. right immediately before the bridge to regain the route.) This version by members of the Ramblers for Transport for London In this format: text © Ramblers 2021, maps © OpenStreetMap Downloaded from: https://innerlondonramblers.org.uk/loop Published: May 2021 London Loop section 9 page 4 Ignore the small criss-crossed footbridge which shortly comes into view. Turn right and keep ahead through the bracken parallel to the small watercourse on the left. The broad grass track soon ends by white railing with fence posts where the watercourse disappears underground. Bear left at the railing and head towards a large old water pump on a plinth in the trees. Continue straight on through the trees to emerge at Chestnut Avenue, with a single row of horse chestnut and four rows of lime trees Did you know? which are from an earlier planting of 1622. The Woodland Garden was originally a To continue, cross directly over Chestnut Avenue, as waymarked across woodland walk. It was the grass, and keep on through the trees past low white marker posts to created in 1925 based on two early nineteenth reach another white railing where the watercourse reappears. Bear left. century plantations. A Continue on the gravel track and follow it right to go through an special feature of the unobtrusive wooden gate immediately beyond the first fenced-off, dead but garden are its flowering shrubs, notably: still erect tree. This takes you into the fenced Waterhouse Woodland rhododendrons, azaleas Gardens. For toilets, once through the gate turn right and cross the bridge and camellias. Note the to reach the Pheasantry Café. striking aerial roots of swamp cypress along Turn left to follow the winding path with the waterway on the right. Keep the banks as you enter the gardens. following the path past another bridge over the watercourse and past a cottage. All the paths eventually end at a fenced area where there is a gate to exit. On emerging into a clearing of trees, go straight on to meet another gate leading into the next section of the Waterhouse Woodland Gardens beside the little keeper's hut. There is a delightful display of daffodils here in Spring. Follow the path straight ahead before forking right, and then follow another Did you know? Charles I ordered the right fork to emerge at a clearing and a waymarked footbridge. Go over the construction of the footbridge, past the Birch Glade with its information board, to reach a small Longford River to bring lily pond and beyond it a cottage called River Lodge. Follow the path water from the River Colne to Bushy Park rightward around the pond and continue past River Lodge. and Hampton Court. Among other water Keep straight on, with a fence on the right, along the broad, waymarked features, this artificial track through the trees. Go through the wooden gate at the end to reach a watercourse supplies crossing path known as Cobbler's Walk. the pond round the Diana Fountain. From Hampton Court the The route goes right here but it is worth making a short diversion leftward water flows into the to see the Longford River. This is actually a canal, dug by hand over nine Thames. months in 1639 and it was an outstanding feat of engineering for its day. This version by members of the Ramblers for Transport for London In this format: text © Ramblers 2021, maps © OpenStreetMap Downloaded from: https://innerlondonramblers.org.uk/loop Published: May 2021 London Loop section 9 page 5 To continue turn right on Cobbler’s Walk and go through a gate to enter a Did you know? The large buildings vast open field. Turn left, as waymarked, to follow the small path beside the beyond the Canal fence line. Keep on this path, over a small watercourse, as it heads to the Plantation are home to bottom corner. The path turns right just beyond a footbridge with a very low the National Physical parapet to join a gravel path that passes near to Upper Lodge Laboratory. The NPL is responsible for the national standards of Turn left passing a waymark where you meet a broader track beyond measurement in the Upper Lodge. Follow the track until it makes a left turn. Bear right here, United Kingdom. keeping the waste bins and bench on the left.