The London Stations Walk

Saturday 23rd March 2024

Following my walk of a month ago through the Royal Parks of London I was keen to return to London as soon as possible and eventually I bought my train ticket despite not really knowing where I was going to walk. My first idea was to do the counterpart to the walk I’d done in February, which would be the east London Sightseeing Dash from the YHA website instead of the west London walk done previously. However, there was less appeal for me in this walk as it largely passes through tedious city landscapes instead of the more natural scenery of the Royal Parks in west London, but I then realised it passes many of the mainline terminus stations in London and this gave me the idea of visiting every one, which would interest me as I am a bit of a railway nerd and since there is no such thing as an original idea, I found the route for a London Stations walk on the website for the Saturday Walkers Club. My train took me to Euston Station, but the walk starts at Kings Cross, so first I had to make my way there and soon I was standing outside the station. Inside, I saw the fantastic, high arching roof of the metal and glass train shed built by the Great Northern Railway and opened in 1852, but soon I emerged by the western entrance onto Kings Boulevard where I followed the advice of the walking club and turned right to pass over a canal and into Granary Square where the buildings used to be part of the goods yard for the station and rail tracks are still imbedded into the ground.

After a wander around I returned to Kings Boulevard and turned right into St Pancras International, originally opened in 1868 by the Midland Railway and I have fond memories of arriving there in the eighties when it was dark, dirty and underused. Now it has been transformed into the terminus for Eurostar as well as for trains from the Midlands and from Kent while the old underfloor warehouses have been transformed into the main passenger concourse. After a good wander around I eventually emerged to pass behind the British Library and return to the comparatively dull Euston Station. Opened in 1837 by the London & Birmingham Railway, it was ruined in the mid-sixties and now has low concrete ceilings in stark contrast of the high, sweeping arches of Kings Cross and St Pancras, so I quickly moved on and joined my route of the month before and was soon in Regent’s Park. I loved being back in the Royal Parks and comparing the changes in the flora since I was there in February. Daffodils had been the dominant flower then, but now it was tree blossom that caught the eye, though many daffodils were still in bloom. On the far side of the park I made my way to Marylebone Station which was opened in 1899 by the Great Central Railway and it looked quaint to me with just a small number of platforms and plenty of natural light. After years of neglect and threatened closure it is good to see this station now flourishing under Chiltern Railways.

My onward progress brought me to Paddington Station where four high arched roofs span an enormous space, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Railway and opened in 1854, and his stature stands between platforms eight and nine looking out over his work of art. This was my favourite station that I saw on the walk. Not far from Paddington I entered Kensington Gardens and reacquainted myself with this beautiful park, passing the Italian Gardens and walking beside the Long Water and Serpentine while enjoying my surroundings. It had been sunny at the start of this walk but with a cold breeze and now it was starting to cloud over, so even though the weather was poorer a month ago, it was actually warmer. When I finally came out of the royal park I passed through Belgravia on an extended stretch of road walking, but the streets were quiet and I passed by several European embassies until eventually I reached Victoria Station. At first I found this confusing with temporary barriers and narrow streams of passengers, but eventually I emerged onto a much more open area with high ceilings and natural light. Part of the reason for the difference was because this had originally been two stations, one opened in 1860 by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway and the other by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway in 1862, but also because the former part was later heavily redeveloped with offices built above the platforms.

After making my way out of the station, I passed through a shopping centre and soon found myself back at Buckingham Palace where the crowds in St James’s Park were as bad as they had been a month ago. These continued through Admiralty Arch and around Trafalgar Square until I finally got to Charing Cross, opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1864 and with a small, bright concourse but low ceilings on the platforms. Across the River Thames is Waterloo Station with, bizarrely, the tracks coming out of Charing Cross passing in front of the station. This was opened in 1848 by the London and South Western Railway and is enormous encompassing more platforms than any other station in Britain. The former Eurostar platforms were a notable see but it was difficult for me to get a good look beyond the ticket barriers elsewhere, though most of the station was good to look at with plenty of natural light through glass roofs. When I finally felt the station I made my way to the River Thames and walked along the south bank past the National Theatre to reach Blackfriars station, built on Blackfriars Bridge. Some would name this one of the London Stations, but since it is not a terminus I passed it by, though beside the southern entrance, until I reached Southwark Bridge where I crossed the Thames again to reach Cannon Street Station, which on this day was closed for engineering works. This was opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1866 and I was able to look through the barriers at the empty station before crossing the Thames again on London Bridge to reach the eponymous station.

London Bridge Station was opened in 1836 by the London and Greenwich Railway but has recently been heavily rebuilt with the result that I was unable to see the through platforms, but I was able to see the terminus platforms and they are surely what counts on this walk. The station is now similar to St Pancras in that the passenger concourse is on a lower level and the platforms are above. Back beside the River Thames I walked past the World War Two cruiser, HMS Belfast, and up to the iconic Tower Bridge, which was awesome to walk over, but the experience was severely diminished by the crowds so I was glad to get away and after walking around the Tower of London and between densely packed skyscrapers I reached Fenchurch Street Station. This tiny station was opened in 1841 by the London and Blackwell Railway and was a dark and unpleasant place, but with a striking frontage. The confusing street navigation continued till I reached Liverpool Street Station where I was told I was not allowed to take pictures of the station, which was a surprise to me, but the station supervisor later told me it was actually the security cameras I was not allowed to photo. It was surprising that no one had told me this earlier on any of the other stations I had been to, and this was actually my last one. Opened in 1874 by the Great Eastern Railway, it has escaped the ruination typical of other stations and I was able to get a good picture, clear of security cameras, overlooking the platforms.

With a couple of hours spare before my train was due I spent the time on the underground trains before finally returning to Euston, but my experience at Liverpool Street Station had rather marred the day. It was good to make a return visit to London and the Royal Parks, but the crowds have convinced me that I should not be such a hurry to return. It was interesting to explore the various stations and note that the best ones were those with natural light through glass roofs.

The Royal Parks of London

Saturday 17th February 2024

I had an idea, at least four years ago, of going for a walk through the Royal Parks of London, but Covid intervened and my plan was shelved until eventually I decided I would now do my long anticipated walk, so despite poor weather I caught a train to London. When I left the railway station I started to follow a route that I’d found on the OS Maps app and also on the YHA website described as a sightseeing dash. There are two tours and I was taking the one through West London, which was initially rather dull as I passed through enclosed streets with high buildings either side, but eventually I reached my first Royal Park: Regent’s Park, entering through the English Gardens. Even though I came to London many times as a child, I don’t remember being in Regent’s Park before as my family was focused on the usual tourist attractions and the Royal Parks were not a priority. Despite being February there were many daffodils in bloom thanks to the mild weather and there were even some snowdrops clinging on despite the mild weather. It was also noticeable how many runners there were in the park at this early hour, but I was happy to just walk as I made my way into Queen Mary’s Gardens where I turned left passing a wonderful display of daffodils and out of the gardens.

After passing Regent’s University and the boating lake I left Regent’s Park and turned right onto Marylebone Road, past Madame Tussauds waxworks museum to reach Baker Street tube station where a stature of Sherlock Holmes stands looking at the entrance. From there I turned down Baker Street for a spell of tedious road walking that brought to mind a comment I made a couple of months ago that I love walking so much I even love walking along streets and at this moment I was really testing that claim. I suppose what I found enjoyable about walking along a street in the Lake District was the trees lining the road and the lack of people, which I certainly didn’t have on Oxford Street, but fortunately I soon reached Marble Arch where I turned off the road and entered Hyde Park. The misty weather that had accompanied me so far now tried to rain, though it was never very heavy and soon stopped. Hyde Park was a maze of paths and finding the right one was often a game of trial and error until eventually I found my way to the Serpentine where I turned right to walk beside the lake past the many ducks that were quacking loudly to encourage the tourists to feed them.

Following the side of the lake I passed Serpentine Bridge to follow the lake now known as the Long Water to the northern tip and the fountains of the Italian Gardens which are part of Kensington Gardens and Budge’s Walk brought me to the Round Pond in front of Kensington Palace. After a wander around the Princess Diana Memorial Garden I set off along Mount Walk, before branching off to visit the enormously opulent Albert Memorial with the Royal Albert Hall beyond. At this point the prescribed trail headed past the concert hall into Knightsbridge where there are many large museums and then through Belgrave past Harrods, but I wanted to linger in the Royal Parks so I turned back into Hyde Park passing beds of crocuses to return to the Serpentine. I was now following the route of the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk and I realised that it had originally been my intention for the walk to follow this trail across the Royal Parks before I decided to follow the YHA walk instead. I lingered at the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and paused again beside a bed of snowdrops near the memorial to Queen Caroline for whom the Long Water and Serpentine were created.

Eventually I emerged through Hyde Park Corner to pass the military memorials beside the Wellington Arch and enter Green Park which was wonderfully decorated with daffodils and crocuses. I was now reunited with the YHA walk and followed that across Green Park to the tube station and past the Ritz before turning down St James’s Street to reach St James’s Palace. The crowds of tourists now increased significantly as I turned onto the Mall with the iconic Buckingham Palace ahead of me and it was interesting for me to note many small groups clustered around someone describing the scene in a foreign language. While walking past the gates of Buckingham Palace I realised that I hadn’t been here since I was a child, but I wasn’t enjoyed the crowds, which continued as I passed into St James’s Park and while walking beside the lake. On the far side of the park I crossed Horse Guards Parade and under the arch into Whitehall where the crowds continued as I passed by many government buildings including Downing Street and past the Cenotaph. While Big Ben struck twelve o’clock I squeezed through the crowds over Westminster Bridge and then turned left to walk beside the Thames and below the London Eye.

After crossing the Golden Jubilee Bridge I was completely fed up with the crowds and by the time I reached Trafalgar Square I had lost interest in following the trail, which was now almost complete except for a traverse of Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circle. So I abandoned the trail, if only because I had plenty of time left before my train was due, and wandered back to the Thames to visit Cleopatra’s Needle, an ancient Egyptian obelisk erected beside the river. After returning to Trafalgar Square through Victoria Embankment Gardens my mind was now more decisive about where to go next as I made my way back onto the Mall and into St James’s Park to rejoin the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk, which I followed along the southern side of the lake. Plaques set into the ground guided my route through St James’s Park, past the front of Buckingham Palace again and into Green Park. Protestors at Hyde Park Corner blocked my onward progress, but I was able to use a subway under the road to get past them and back into Hyde Park. The memorial walk took me through Hyde Park and into Kensington Gardens until finally I reached the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground.

I was now at the extreme north western corner of the circular trail having started at the eastern end while most of the rest of the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk had been covered earlier so I decided that I would now head back to the railway station. There was some appeal in taking the tube but since I still had plenty of time I decided to walk which was my purpose in coming to London. I kept inside Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park until I reached Marble Arch and then less appealingly I walked along Oxford Street until I rejoined the YHA walk for the final stretch past BBC Broadcasting House and beneath the BT Tower. This was a surprisingly strenuous walk that left me aching for several days afterwards, but despite the large crowds I really enjoyed it and was soon wondering when I would next be in London.

Churnet Valley and the Weaver Hills

Saturday 27th January 2024

For many months before this walk I had hardly done any walking, partly because the ground was so saturated after heavy rain that it wasn’t worth going for a walk, but with January being less wet I was keen to break out of my rut, drag myself out of the house and go for a walk, and I felt so much better for it. My place of choice was the Churnet Valley, a little-known area in Staffordshire that I first visited in 2021 and ever since I have been obsessed with it, loving its steep wooded valleys. I parked at the Mill Road car park in the village of Oakamoor and soon entered Cotton Dell Nature Reserve, which is a magical place in any season passing through a narrow valley where fallen trees litter the stream. The restorative effect on me of just a short walk through this wood was amazing and I was in awe of every step as I took loads of pictures and slowly made my way up the valley. When I reached a junction of paths I turned left, as I always do, to follow the right-of-way steeply up the muddy bank and out of the valley. A slender path continues up the bottom of the valley which I have often wanted to explore but that part of the valley is not open to the public so instead I have always followed the right-of-way that keeps high up the western slopes and past Cotton Bank Farm and Side Farm.

My route for this walk was taken from the OS Map app where it is called “Oakamoor/Alton circular (staffs)”, and I had already deviated from the route to visit Cotton Dell, but now I was back on course following a track north. So far I had been in familiar territory, but a right turning coming up took me into countryside that I was not familiar with and even that first turning was missed! Once I had retraced my steps I took the difficult-to-follow path across the valley and onto Cotton Lane passing the derelict buildings of Cotton College and St Wilfred’s Catholic Church. Eventually I turned left off the road to take a track up into Ramshorn Common where the path was very faint and often exceptionally boggy. At one point, after crossing a bog, I found a good path that was a pleasure to walk upon, until I realised that I was going the wrong way and I had to retrace my steps back to the bog and take a non-existence, boggy path through the wood. I suppose in better weather this would be a good walk, but not at this time of the year. Eventually I reached a farm where the Ordnance Survey map indicates that a track passes to the north of the building but in practice footpath signs took me through a narrow gap between the buildings and into a farmyard filled with cows.

Thankfully I managed to safely get away and after a short walk along Green Lane I crossed several wet, grassy fields to reach a gap between fields that the OS Map app directed me along but was clearly not a public right-of-way. Roads instead took me to Sycamore Farm where a path through grassy fields took me to the edge of Kevin Quarry. Ahead of me now was a view of the Weaver Hills and the promise of reaching these hills spurred me on through further difficulties with the path, weaving a course between various limestone quarries and battling overgrown bramble until finally I reached the foot of the hills. The prescribed route doesn’t climb the Weaver Hills, but I have wanted to climb these hills ever since I first saw them on a map while trying to find the closest hills to my home, first in 2009 and then again during lockdown. Initially I had been looking for the nearest hill more than a thousand feet high and although the Weaver Hills lost out to Alport Height, if I had been looking for the nearest hill twelve hundred feet high then this would have won and significantly the Weaver Hills are considered to be the southernmost hills of the Pennines.

Broad grassy slopes led me slowly all the way up to the windswept summit ridge where I made my way to the trig point that marks the top. The extensive views south were very hazy, while frustratingly west were the quarries that I had just passed but north the views took me into the Peak District. After lunch I headed back down the hill, rejoining the prescribed route and after passing through the village of Wootton I entered the country estate of Wootton Lodge, which is owned by the family behind the JCB manufacturing company. In places the paths were very well signposted but in others they were very sketchy, and surprisingly the public footpath passes very close to the grand seventeenth century country house of Wootton Lodge which was an impressive sight. When I reached Brookleys Lake I was reminded that I had come this way in 2022 and now I followed my steps over the hill and around the edge of Alton Towers Resort, passing the holiday cottages and hotel before dropping down the hill to reach the old railway line at the bottom of the Churnet Valley. A relaxing walk along the disused railway brought me back to Oakamoor and offered me a chance to ponder on the walk, where I had enjoyed the exercise but also where route-finding was so difficult I was frequently checking the map and still I made mistakes.

Cannock Chase Heritage Trail

Saturday 7th October 2023

Apart from my fortnight in the Lake District I did very little walking last summer, so when good weather and a window in my busy schedule coincided I forced myself to take the opportunity and grabbed my rucksack, getting off the train in Cannock. I first came to Cannock Chase in 2021 and I have been back only a couple of times subsequently, so a return visit seemed warranted and a short internet search revealed the existence of a Cannock Chase Heritage Trail, which seemed ideal as it runs between railway stations. However, it doesn’t start right next to Cannock station so first I had to make my way through Cannock until I reached the town centre and the old pumping station at Hall Green where I read up on the history of the area before setting off through the town centre and back to the railway station, but I was already finding that the Heritage Trail was not very well signposted and the map from the District Council website was also not very helpful. Therefore, I relied on an Ordnance Survey map and wandered around vaguely heading in the right direction going wherever I wanted, whether I was strictly on the trail or not. For example, after passing the railway station I entered Mill Green and Hawks Green Nature Reserve and immediately climbed up onto the embankment the runs alongside the railway line to walk through the beech wood rather on the tarmacked path that soon brings you out of the reserve and onto a busy road.

I had an enjoyable walk through the woodland making my own way through the reserve until finally I emerged at the northern end onto the busy road which I now followed to a roundabout where a cycle path took me through Anglesey Nature Reserve and into the town of Hednesford. A walk through the town centre brought me to the railway station, but just before I reached there I turned right past a superstore and entered Hednesford Park. The last traces of invasive balsam was the only flowers to linger in these parks and reserves at this time of the year and provided me with some interest as I made my way through these municipal areas, but I longed for more natural environments like the woods and moors of Cannock Chase. Eventually my wish was granted as I crossed the railway line and took a path that led me through Brindley Heath as I slowly climbed into the Cannock Chase Country Park passing through an area that I remember previously walking in 2021. I was now beginning to see signs marking the Heritage Trail, but rather than be clear, they appeared to be in the process of being removed or perhaps they were being replaced. Fortunately I was still able to follow the route with a map and since I was now in an area that I had previously walked I was able to make my way through with little difficulty.

By the time I reached the area of the visitor centre the long promised sun was beginning to break through the overcast skies that had lingered all morning, but it would stay rather hazy for the rest of the day. Eventually I left the crowds behind and descended into the Fairoak Valley to walk beside the Fairoak Ponds that I have passed on several previous occasions until on reaching the Stonybrook Ponds I turned right to climb away from the main Cannock Chase area and onto a road. Now, I followed a footpath beside Rising Brook, which was decorated with invasive balsam whose sweet smell added to the air as I slowly made my way into Hagley Park on the outskirts of the town of Rugeley. All that remained for me from there was to find a way through the town that eventually brought me to Rugeley Trent Valley railway station and the end of the Cannock Chase Heritage Trail. This was a disappointing walk since most of it passed through man-made areas that were just not interesting enough for me, while Cannock Chase itself was all familiar territory so also nothing special. However, at a time when I was struggling to find the motivation to get out for a walk this was exactly what I needed and I was prompted after this to start going out for walks in my local area as often as possible, which provided me with the recuperation and healing that I needed after a summer of stagnation.