THIS city was made for walking. Far from being an inhospitable concrete jungle, London has woodland, river meadows and heathland, not to mention countless parks. Alongside bike stations and bus lanes, Transport for London devotes a whole section of its website to walking, including, under Walk London, seven routes that encompass everything from the crisscrossing towpaths of central London to fields and forests at the furthest reaches of the Tube map. Signposts embellished with kestrels and crowns lead to hidden delights, from the sweep of Oxleas Meadows to atmospheric corners, such as the Railway Children Walk, near where Edith Nesbit lived, and the tumbled graves of Abney Park Cemetery.
King of the walks is the London Loop, a 150mile hoopla around the city’s edge, sometimes called the walkers’ M25. Launched in 2001, it is monitored by Loop Leaders, volunteers from the Inner London Ramblers, who will run the Love Your Loop festival this September. The 24 sections pass along the mysterious ‘ghost roads’ near Nonsuch Palace, parallel concrete tracks the origins of which remain unknown; over Capability Brown’s Five Arch Bridge to Foots Cray Meadows; through the ancient hornbeams of Foxburrow Wood, near where Henry VIII’s daughters played in youth; and past Upminster’s rare smock windmill.
This story is from the July 07, 2021 edition of Country Life UK.
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This story is from the July 07, 2021 edition of Country Life UK.
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