London LOOP Section 2 – Old Bexley to Petts Wood 31st January 2011
We drive to Bexley via the A2 and look for parking as near to the station as possible. Bexley is reasonably easy to get to by road and we find a small suburban road (Manor Way) suitably close and without parking restrictions. Since this is a few hundred yards from the start of this leg, we pick our way along a footpath running alongside the southern edge of the railway line, back to the A223 at Bexley. This footpath is in fact part of the route of the Loop, which we subsequently walk back along. It may perhaps seem a tad unnecessary to walk it twice, but it gets under your skin if you leave any of the LOOP out, even 400 metres!
The route from here goes WSW (a compass is sometimes very useful even in built up areas). It’s a pretty straight route, although the Loop directions cause us some confusion, since the reference to a hill (very small rise) and landfill site (no sign of it) give the feeling that we may be lost. Eventually we are comforted by the appearance of the pumping station mentioned in the directions and are confident we are back on track. One of the most notable aspects of the LOOP is how easy it is to follow the directions most of the time, especially in suburban areas, where street names and rapidly changing scenery assist in navigation. In the more open, featureless areas the directions become less reliable. Here waymarkers (assuming they have not been removed by vandalism or just the ravages of time) are much more valuable.
The directions take us down to the River Cray again. Here we encounter what can only be described as a ‘tropical moment’. We spot a number of parakeets screeching from the trees and a pair actually enlarging a woodpecker hole with their powerful beaks. I don’t know if they evicted the previous owners, but these ‘alien’ avians, with their powerful beaks, look a match for any bird of similar size to them.
The Cray here is one of the most beautiful of watercourses I have ever walked. The route takes us some 2 miles or so alongside a shallow, free flowing, pebbly stream. Walked in early spring sunshine the whole stretch is absolutely captivating, if on occasions muddy underfoot. All the while parakeet ‘screeching’ accompanies us, to a point where we start to feel sorry for the indigenous birds of the area.
Eventually we cross the Cray and come out at Rectory Lane and cross the A211 Sidcup Hill road. This is more built up and presents a stark contrast with the previous 2 miles. This contrast is an alluring aspect of the Loop, since we are never quite sure what we might encounter next. This more suburban section enables us to briefly glimpse other people’s lives before being plunged once again into more rural scenery, as the LOOP picks its way up tracks, past allotments and across parkland to Sidcup Place. Here we find a good place to stop for lunch and enjoy the views down into the valley of the River Cray. A Brewers Fayre is housed here, offering the prospect of food and drink with ordinary folk, but our preference is to save such things as a reward to be looked forward to at the end of the walk, besides sitting inside waiting for food with a mass of other diners is not a patch on the tranquillity to be found outside.
Suitably fortified with food we picked our way around the gardens and tennis courts to Chiselhurst Road and then on towards the A20 Sidcup Bypass Road. This monster of traffic is well hidden from view in a deep cutting. Just as well that this volume of traffic doesn’t pass through the leafy lanes of Sidcup and the surrounding area, being diverted like storm water down an overspill channel towards central London. Crossing of the bypass is fairly complex but not unpleasant, with the junction well provided with a network of paths, underpasses and well tended gardens to get you to the other side. In fact you would barely know you had crossed a major arterial road into London.
Once at the other side we dive into the tranquillity of the extensive grounds of Scadbury Park, a mix of mature oak woodland and open grassy meadows. The walking here is easy and the route reasonably obvious. There are one or two moments of uncertainty where once again a compass would be useful, used in conjunction with the LOOP base-map or an OS map. The one problem with over-reliance on an OS map is that it can be too easy, taking away the surprises encountered as you follow the directions provided by the LOOP’s creators. Personally I only resort to an OS map if I am really lost!
After 1.5 miles of Scadbury Park we have a brief encounter with traffic, crossing St Paul’s Cray Road. Thereafter it is more of the same, as we follow the well made tracks through Petts Wood for a further mile or so. These long stretches of woodland are in many ways less memorable than the matrix of back alleys, pocket parks, road crossings and public gardens. What they do bring is a contrasting sense of escape from the bustle of everyday life. They are still well populated on occasions, but at other times you can spend long periods and see no one. They don’t bear comparison with some of the longer upland walks of Britain for their sense of solitude, but it is the contrasts between these havens of nature and the busyness of human activity that is the essence of walking the Loop.
Soon we are climbing over a footbridge looking down on a myriad of rail lines connecting unknown areas of South London. Once again we glimpse one of London’s other worlds, before diving back into nature and a short walk through woodland. This is interspersed with the briefest of glimpses of a select area of suburbia and a further rail encounter, before the end of this section finally hove’s into view at Jubilee Country Park. From here we have a half mile walk into Petts Wood and a welcome cup of tea in a café, before taking the relatively quick and painless train journey back to Bexley Station. Finally we have yet another walk alongside the railway line back to Manor Way and our car.